Microsoft Licenses Creative’s EAX Effects for the Next DirectX

Microsoft has licensed a batch of audio effects from Creative Technology’s Environmental Audio Extensions, the API developers use to add environmental sound to 3-D games, and plans to build them into the next version of DirectX. The licensed effects cover flange, chorus, EQ, and environmental reverberation.

EAX has become a popular environmental audio standard among developers, with support in more than 50 PC games already shipping. Folding those effects into the DirectSound and DirectMusic side of DirectX means game audio written to Microsoft’s APIs can pick up the same studio-grade tricks. If the practical result is fewer games where the sound options screen is a gamble, everybody wins.