Have you read this wiki, and the Restore legacy audio effects on newer OS part ?
https://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Glossary:Sound_card

I have, I gotta say i'm still a bit lost. Was thinking of paying the 30 bucks for Creative Labs emulation solution

You have the Following choice :

DSOAL = free wrapper that convert eax to openAL, full support of EAX 2.0, partial support for EAX 1, 3 and 4 (no support of EAX 5.0)
https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/65094

Creative alchemy :
Full EAX support (1 to 5) : Free with all Creative card,
can also be buy it with Sound Blaster X-Fi MB3 (30$) if you want to use HD-Audio codec of your MB with full creative software suite.
http://software.store.creative.com/p/software … laster-x-fi-mb3
you can also see here : http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/18249-tuto … -any-soundcard/

If you want to buy a creative card :
I would buy : Sound blaster AE5 or one in the sound blaster Z serie.

Avoid X-fi titanium card has they have an unfix bug with hardware openAl in some game.
X-fi pci do not have the bug but they are old now (14Yo), but creative continue to create drivers for them (New drivers for Windows 1903 has been released)

Choum wrote:

Avoid X-fi titanium card has they have an unfix bug with hardware openAl in some game.

Seems like my X-fi Xtreme Gamer edition also has openal bug, because it gives me constant BSOD with Quake 4 for example. This can be fixed by installing older drivers (XFI SupportPack 3.😎, but they are not working anymore with 1903 build. 😵 At least EAX game with Alchemy still working..
So my only option to play Quake 4 or Prey with EAX HD is to install Windows XP or what?

KainXVIII wrote:

Choum wrote:

Avoid X-fi titanium card has they have an unfix bug with hardware openAl in some game.

Seems like my X-fi Xtreme Gamer edition also has openal bug, because it gives me constant BSOD with Quake 4 for example. This can be fixed by installing older drivers (XFI SupportPack 3.😎, but they are not working anymore with 1903 build. 😵 At least EAX game with Alchemy still working..
So my only option to play Quake 4 or Prey with EAX HD is to install Windows XP or what?

Xtreme Gamer is PCI, if so, try this: https://www.reddit.com/r/SoundBlasterOfficial … dows_1903_beta/

Demo85 wrote:

I have, I gotta say i'm still a bit lost. Was thinking of paying the 30 bucks for Creative Labs emulation solution

i've tried X-Fi MB3/5 and personally don't recommend paying $30 for these, the software solution has unusual reverb in many games where an actual X-Fi card does not (with ALchemy). you'd be better buying a used X-Fi than these software solutions if you want to cover many games.

or you can just use DSOAL which works with onboard audio, also does have some bugs with games like reverb, and partial EAX support afaik.

if you don't care about EAX you can use OpenAL Soft for most games to get better HRTF, or use HeSuVi which simulates even CMSS-3D for virtual surround.

svfn wrote:

KainXVIII wrote:

Choum wrote:

Avoid X-fi titanium card has they have an unfix bug with hardware openAl in some game.

Seems like my X-fi Xtreme Gamer edition also has openal bug, because it gives me constant BSOD with Quake 4 for example. This can be fixed by installing older drivers (XFI SupportPack 3.😎, but they are not working anymore with 1903 build. 😵 At least EAX game with Alchemy still working..
So my only option to play Quake 4 or Prey with EAX HD is to install Windows XP or what?

Xtreme Gamer is PCI, if so, try this: https://www.reddit.com/r/SoundBlasterOfficial … dows_1903_beta/

Yes, i have BSOD with this drivers in Quake 4, shows this message "Driver IRQL not less or equal in ha20x2k.sys"

KainXVIII wrote:

Yes, i have BSOD with this drivers in Quake 4, shows this message "Driver IRQL not less or equal in ha20x2k.sys"

IRQL errors usually mean that there is something else wrong with your system. It is a common error when a system is overclocked and unstable.

cyclone3d wrote:

KainXVIII wrote:

Yes, i have BSOD with this drivers in Quake 4, shows this message "Driver IRQL not less or equal in ha20x2k.sys"

IRQL errors usually mean that there is something else wrong with your system. It is a common error when a system is overclocked and unstable.

Maybe, but with older X-fi drivers (which not working in 1903 build w10 anymore) i never had any BSODs..

sorry to resurrect the post, but it might help someone...so i was looking around in some other forums, and turns out, there are several solutions.
1. you get a creative card and install alchemy. you select the eax, exit the game, then open alchemy and allow the game. if you dont see it, you add it by directory.
2. if you dont have a creative card, you can hack the alchemy driver, gonna work with any other soundcard.
3. dsoal gonna emulate eax through good old openal

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/17jlJ- … xF6?usp=sharing

mdvhimself wrote on 2020-11-12, 18:54:

sorry to resurrect the post, but it might help someone...so i was looking around in some other forums, and turns out, there are […]
Show full quote

sorry to resurrect the post, but it might help someone...so i was looking around in some other forums, and turns out, there are several solutions.
1. you get a creative card and install alchemy. you select the eax, exit the game, then open alchemy and allow the game. if you dont see it, you add it by directory.
2. if you dont have a creative card, you can hack the alchemy driver, gonna work with any other soundcard.
3. dsoal gonna emulate eax through good old openal

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/17jlJ- … xF6?usp=sharing

Really dodgy looking archive - https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/a22c30145 … fa22725496d94a3

Would never install this unless there's a very good reason that it's getting flagged like that.

Is there no way of being able to activate EAX on Windows 10 ? I did have a dual boot to the last OS that could use EAX but it's too much hassle for me now. I'm surprised even Creative's solutions don't work. I've found their cards to be a waste of time in Windows 10. Even hacked drivers produce blue screens (and I *NEVER* get blue screens on my machine !).

The game I'm looking at at the moment is Advanced Warfighter 2 which uses EAX 4. To be honest I probably don't notice that much if I don't have EAX, but with older games its just the idea that they were supposed to be experienced with EAX. So why not have it on ?

At this point, the best option is to get a conversion pipeline that will convert EAX/A3D to function with the respective 3D audio solutions of AMD and Nvidia that are used in Windows 8 and beyond. AMD has TrueAudio/TrueAudio Next and Nvidia has VRWorks. Intel does not seem to have an equivalent or interest in 3D audio since the Windows 95/98 days, though that could change with the introduction of their gaming GPUs.

RetroGamer4Ever wrote:

At this point, the best option is to get a conversion pipeline that will convert EAX/A3D to function with the respective 3D audio solutions of AMD and Nvidia that are used in Windows 8 and beyond. AMD has TrueAudio/TrueAudio Next and Nvidia has VRWorks.

I think that's hardly possible, because both a proprietary solutions. And X-Fi MB3 is still an option, even if Creative stopped selling it. Don't want my money? Well, sucks for them.

This worked - https://www.reddit.com/r/Thief/comments/ldlcf … versal_alchemy/