Oblivion

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The J

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TheJ

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About this mod

This plugin is a modder\'s resource adding Creative\'s Environment Audio Extensions to Oblivion, allowing you as a modder some freedom in shaping the aural landscape of your world. EAX is a set of parameters you can configure to adjust reverberations and reflections of sounds in an area. You can use these to make your world seem more realistic, mak

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Oblivion EAX v0.7 Beta 2!
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by Jesse DeGuire
"The J" on BGS forums

NOTES
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-This plugin is not backwards compatible with v0.3.
-This plugin does NOT modify any files!! EAX works at the DirectSound level. You could change every sound file in the game and this plugin will still work.
-This is meant as a modder's resource, merely adding scripting functions to set EAX parameters ingame. Simply loading the plugin will not automagically set the correct effects for you. If you are looking for functionality like that, then I suggest using lyobovnik's Soundscaper mod along with this plugin.


Intro
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Oblivion EAX is a plugin for the Oblivion Script Extender that adds functions allowing one to add EAX 2.0 effects to the game. These effects add echos and reverberations to the game to make the area sound more (or less if you want) realistic. For example, you can make a cave sound like an actual cave or you could make it sound like a really tiny room.

Most computers should have support for EAX 2.0, even those with non-Creative Labs sound cards. EAX 2.0 is an open standard that most audio chipset manufacturers have adopted. However, even if your computer does not have EAX support, you can still play mods that make use of this plugin. This plugin was designed so that its functions will simlpy do nothing if EAX will not work.


What's New
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Beta 2 of this plugin now allows modders the ability to create and store their own effects so that they do not have to constantly set various EAX properties to get the aural landscape they are looking for. A new stack system will also let modders intelligently make use of their effects by managing the order in which they are active.

A "base effect" is used for the normal room effect, while the stack is used for more temporary effects (you can use these effects to do whatever you want, but this is the more predicatable way of working with it).

For example, when you enter a cave you might set the base effect to sound like a cave. However, you are then poisoned by a trap and the poison affects your perception, giving a drugged-out sound. Put this effect on the stack to activate it. When you exit the cave, the outdoor effect can be put on the base effect, but you'll still have the drugged effect on you. Once the poison wears off, you can pull that effect of the stack to have the plugin seemlessly transisition you to the outdoor effect.

This plugin includes a good deal of functionality allowing you to effectively manage the stack and your effects, such as functions to compare two effects, make a copy of an effect, remove the first or all instances of an effect from the stack, and so on. See the included PDF for a function reference and guide.


Windows Vista Users
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Users of Windows Vista and Creative X-Fi cards can use Creative's ALchemy utility with Oblivion to get 3D sound back (this is recommended even if you are not using this plugin), which is needed to make this plugin work. It has been recently reported that the Audigy version of the ALchemy utility will soon be made free by Creative. You can get this on Creative's webiste or by searching Google for "Creative ALchemy".

Users of the Audigy who don't want to wait for the free version or users of Live! or non-Creative brands of sound cards can use a modified version of ALchemy called ALchemy Universal to get 3D sounds back. Search Google for "ALchemy Universal" to obtain it.


Requirements
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1. This plugin only works with Oblivion version 1.2.0416 (the latest one). If there is enough demand for it, a plugin for version 1.1.0511 of Oblivion can be made.

2. You can use this plugin on any version of the Oblivion Script Extender that supports plugins by default, which would be v0012 or higher. Get the latest version at obse.silverlock.org.


Installation
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Just copy OblvionEAX.dll to \Oblivion\Data\obse\plugins. You might have to create that directly yourself.

If you are using ALchemy, you can either use the included program to add Oblivion to the list of ALchemy Enabled Games. You can also go to where ALchemy is installed and copy "dsound.dll" and "dsound.ini" to the same folder the Oblivion executable is located.


A Note On 3D Sounds
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EAX only works on on 3D sound sources. What this means is that most sounds in Olivion will change, but not all. Music, the sound of your character yelling, and direct dialogue are some sounds that will always sound normal because they are not 3D sources (meaning they always play through your front stereo speakers). This is probably a good thing for the music and this somewhat makes sense for your character's screams and grunts since you are so close to him, but can be problematic for dialogue. For example, if you were to walk by a soldier, anything he says as you are walking by and not actively enagaged in conversation with him will have EAX eects applied to it. However, once you walk up to him and press the spacebar to start a conversation, the eects go away because the sound of his voice is no longer a 3D sound. Modders will have to keep that in mind when you construct dialogue scenes in your mods.


Other Notes
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--The included PDF file contains information on how to use this plugin, how to install it, and a function reference. It also contains a section with more technical info as well as known issues with the plugin.
--The maximum number of effects that can be stored is currently 4096. This can easily be increased should the need arise.
--There is a known issue with ALchemy and the DisableEAX function. The functions will not work (until EnableEAX is called) but the current EAX effect will still remain. This issue does not appear on Windows XP, so the problem seems to lie with Vista or ALchemy.