Highlights & My Comments regarding Game Developers Conference Report by David Gasior
"On top of that, we probably gave out about 1000 SDKs for A3D 2.0. I think we're going to see some really cool A3D 2.0 titles. Gosh, there are so many I wish I could just spill the beans on, but arggghh ... soon, grasshopper, soon..."
"David Sparks and two other employees of Creative Labs came to our sponsored session, but didn't ask any questions or stick around afterwards."
-NOTE: Damn spies :) Typical CREAF of recent....use others ideas/technology and hype it with expensive ad campaigns. (RE: Spies....don't take the comment to seriously....viewing ones competitors' products, etc. is legitimate and done all the time....I have no problem with it, none the less I have a great dislike for CREAF.) But alas, David Gasior also visited the CREAF presentations. Probably didn't learn much since AURL really has nothing to learn from CREAF given CREAF's inferior EAX.
From the section regarding CREAF's presentation:
"- One of the developers asked about using multiple reverbs at the same time. Apparently (according to Dave), doing more than one reverb on the 10k1 is currently too much for the chip to handle. I found this shocking considering how they love to boast about MIPS and being programmable."
-Again, not surprising. Hype, hype, hype. I'm sure most here have read that CREAF announced EAX 3.0 when they don't even have EAX 2.0 released (and probably not even finished). Typical hype in the vein of Nintendo (announce your next system to be released in 1 year knowing damn well it won't be released for 2-3 years) and Microsoft (they've been promising their Directory Services for Networks for a few years now hoping it would slow the adoption of Novell.)
"EAX 3.0 will most likely be proprietary to Creative Labs; the question was sort of skirted with a "we're not sure right now, but we think so" kind of answer."
-All the better IMHO. Aureal is already winning the battle of API's and consumer support. Game developers realize they are developing for a specific audience (game players) and that audience is overwhelmingly pro-Aureal and A3D. As such, the number of Lives! sold and marketting blitz of CREAF does not really help them get their API adopted b/c it is a focussed group which EAX and A3D are for. A3D and EAX are not about a "battle of soundcards" in general but rather a battle of soundcards for gameplayers. AURL is already ahead of the game and given CREAFs continually slow production AURL will be even further ahead.
"....directed his attention over to the Heretic II game pod [an AURL setup], and pointed out the two Creative Labs employees in full Creative outfits sitting there playing the game - huge smiles on their faces commenting on how cool it was and how great it sounded...." |
