Another step in the direction of true sound realism is a consideration of the surrounding environment. As an extension of EAX, EnvironmentFX takes into account not only direct sound, but also early reflections and reverberation of a sound source to provide a true-to-life reproduction of sound decay against a preset environment (wood, stone, carpet, etc.).

Several variables influence the way sound is reverberated back to a listener; EnvironmentFX uses these characteristics to create "sound environments" that are assigned to a locale. Room size, high frequency cutoff, density and diffusion are only a few of the aspects and the calculations are understandably involved, but access to EnvironmentFX is simplified since the technology is only as difficult to use as Creative Labs' EAX API (both EAX 1.0 and 2.0)