CoolGamer wrote:Creative Alchemy application does not start unless it detects a Creative Sound Blaster card (internal card or external usb card) on the system.
Not really true. The actual reason it doesn't start is because you don't have valid license files to use it. These would be usually located in C:\ProgramData\Creative\SoftwareLock and they're tied to computer hardware. ALchemy doesn't care about the sound card installed in the computer, it can work with any sound card.
The application is used to copy ALchemy's dsound.dll to game's folder to get that game to use it. It also silently adjusts some registry entries on first launch on Windows 8+ since MS made more system components being referenced by absolute path (security reasons), so ALchemy's dsound.dll is also picked in the case game tries initialize DirectSound via COM.
Anyway, the first thing that Alchemy dsound.dll does is check if valid license files are present. If they're not, it will act as a simple pass-through to system dsound.dll. If license is OK, it will try to load ct_oal.dll from system directory. This file is usually present only when you have Creative's sound card. It is hardware accelerated OpenAL implementation. If absent, the inferior implementation baked in dsound.dll itself will be used. Here's the interesting part, some Creative's software packages come with Sens_oal.dll, which is a full-blown software OpenAL implementation (It's called Host OpenAL), supporting both older EAX and newer EFX standards for environmental audio effects. Renaming the DLL to ct_oal.dll makes it usable with ALchemy. This one is also better than whatever is baked in dsound.dll. But, as with ALchemy itself, it works only if valid license files are present.
Both components tend to be bundled with drivers for various Creative sound cards, but also with Sound Blaster X-Fi MB3, which is a software only package for spicing up audio, it also comes with virtual audio device. Since I have it, I was able to verify on my computer that just preventing access to license files renders ALchemy inoperable. Whether the virtual Sound Blaster X-Fi MB3 device was present or not also didn't change anything. As long as license checks out, it should be happy with just integrated sound card with Windows' default drivers, I have VIA VT1708B.
There are some sound device name checks in Alchemy's dsound.dll, but they appear to be triggered only if you try to get ALchemy to use incompatible ct_oal.dll.
Regarding IndirectSound
I've noticed that in Drakan: Order of The Flame, sounds are funked up, like playing bad tape. Have to hear it yourself, when you start the game, hold Shift and make sure 3D sound buffers are enabled on Sound tab.
When using Windows 10 with some games the dsound.dll DLL is ignored even when it is located in the correct place and works with the same game using earlier versions of Windows.
Check for references to dsound.dll in registry under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID and HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Wow6432Node\CLSID You should find a bunch of keys containing "%SystemRoot%\System32\dsound.dll". These used to be "dsound.dll", allowing dsound.dll to be picked from game folder if game uses COM to initialize DirectSound. One way to modify those entries is launching regedit as TrustedInstaller. Process Hacker with TrustedInstaller plugin can do it.