We mentioned yesterday that VIA plans to offer advanced audio capabilities in its TidalWave solution (see this news-story) thanks to Sensaura’s technologies. Today VIA confirmed this officially and announced that it enters into technology partnership with Sensaura to license its audio technologies.

VIA will from now offer its AC’97 codecs and Envy line of audio controllers with Sensaura’s software audio technology that will offer more realism and quality to 3D-games. There are a lot of important benefits VIA and Sensaura’s solution can provide to end-users, including multi-channel audio in the latest games as well as the full range of 3D positional effects, according to VIA.

Sensaura technology is designed to enhance the industry standard Microsoft DirectSound3D API, allowing game players to experience their games with high quality audio in three dimensions, including:

• Sensaura MacroFX creates “near-field proximity effects” as experienced in real-life when objects move very close to the listener, such as bees buzzing around your head or bullets flying past your ear.
• Sensaura EnvironmentFX acoustically renders 3D audio environments. Up to 26 different pre-set environments are provided, such as underwater effects, sewer-pipe and so on. This technology fully supports Creative Labs EAX 1.0, EAX 2.0 and also I3DL2 as prescribed by IA-SIG.
• Sensaura MultiDrive integrates front and rear sound hemispheres with very high precision and realism.

VIA already offers a lot of rather powerful audio-solutions, including VIA Envy24PT chip that supports 8-channel audio, DVD-Video Dolby Digital EX and DTS ES soundtracks, as well as VT1616 codec with 6-channel audio support (see this and this news-stories to learn more about VIA Audio). With 3D audio technologies from Sensaura VIA’s products will be more attractive for end-users, who want to have something more advanced than ordinary integrated AC’97 audio-solution, but who do not want to get an add-on sound card.