alchemy never having been all that great is the answer here, as far as i'm concerned... there's a reason it has all these settings for buffers etc. - and i doubt even tweaking these can get rid off all issues. just go with XP if you want to save yourself some headaches; actually even then there's headaches, because there's broken stuff and some games might require a specific card or even 9x with period vxd drivers. you could also try the x-fi mb software if you're using a card now, or vice-versa.

either that or it's an issue with the implementation in certain games; for instance in half-life the presets are only engaged upon zone transitions and things can sometimes get a tad janky with missing effects, like with loading savegames, from what i've noticed.

also i think there's a misunderstanding regarding BF2, as that's a native openal game that should run just fine on vista and later without any need for alchemy.

auron wrote on 2021-02-21, 09:30:

alchemy never having been all that great is the answer here, as far as i'm concerned... there's a reason it has all these settings for buffers etc. - and i doubt even tweaking these can get rid off all issues. just go with XP if you want to save yourself some headaches; actually even then there's headaches, because there's broken stuff and some games might require a specific card or even 9x with period vxd drivers. you could also try the x-fi mb software if you're using a card now, or vice-versa.

either that or it's an issue with the implementation in certain games; for instance in half-life the presets are only engaged upon zone transitions and things can sometimes get a tad janky with missing effects, like with loading savegames, from what i've noticed.

also i think there's a misunderstanding regarding BF2, as that's a native openal game that should run just fine on vista and later without any need for alchemy.

Thanks for the response. For BF2, yes I am aware that it uses OpenAL not DS3D, but it is clearly mentioned in Creative ALchemy website that it is supported by ALchemy, and the EAX effects becomes effective when ALchemy is used. Before using ALchemy actually the enable EAX button didn't do anything.

For SoF II, actually EAX can be enabled without ALchemy and works just fine. With ALchemy it becomes weird with sewers environment reverb all over the place. With BF2 EAX is not possible without ALchemy.

Also, for SoF I EAX is not possible without ALchemy, and the game is supposed to work just fine with ALchemy as it is a DS3D game. I am using SoF plus by the way, so I am not sure if that can be the cause of the weird EAX effects.