So back in the days in early 00's i used to play q2 online a lot, and could be pretty sure of opponents position on map throughout a match. Ingame sound was software rendered and i was using sb live! with standart drivers in win xp... After a solid break of 10 years in gaming i found out that soundstage is a total mess when playing on win10 laptop with some realtec alc. So i started researching what was the best sound option and yet dig out my old sb live! from the attic. The best option turned out to be a hardware rendered openal 3d sound pairing with x-fi cmss3d with macro and elevation filters on on r1q2 game client. The second option was using openal sound on q2pro game client, but it was a mess when using it in a hardware, and q2pro developer claimed openal soft to be used with his product (mentioning: In OpenAL mode, Q2PRO uses linear distance sound attenuation model, whereas R1Q2 uses inverse distance AFAIK. Thus it is expected that the sound can be quite different between two). And i wonder what are this models he's talking about and whether hardware openal could be somehow properly used when gaming with q2pro client?
But even more intriguing to me is another 3d model i came across. While researching the best option, buying xfi card, setting it up etc i had to make use of my sb live! and the only option i found under win10 - were kx-project drivers. Its performance in 3d positioning was mediocre, but were i impressed by its potential in manual tuning of its DSP... tbc

here is an instance of top notch positioning with hard openal and cmss3d in r1q2 (the last frag is totally blind): https://youtu.be/OBMEIU7qnz0

...so it was obvious that kx dsp is powerful and highly customizable. And after some googling i 've come across an article that seemed like direct response to my demand: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/diy-hrtf-for- … -phones.669459/

At this point i'm entering upon the path of total frustration when i can't understand what particularly each of the plugins of kx drvs does contribute to the spatial scenery and how is it set up in general. Unfortunately all kx forums i used to know have been vanished or i'm too bad at searching.
Anyway i'm in a great need of a guidance or some hint how to build up this homebred CMSS3D. Any piece of advice is much welcome and appreciated.
Or maybe pointing at some place where kx drvs are still discussed and hand holded?
By now i have all the conceivable hardware needed: sb live! 5.1 0220, audigy 2zs 0350, xfi xtreme gamer and some onboard realtek.
So any thoughts?

This video Quake II with 3D spatial sound in Yamagi (OpenAL Soft HRTF audio) demonstrates the spatial audio enhancment using OpenAL Soft with the Yamagi Quake 2 client.

Stretch wrote on 2023-03-15, 14:32:

This video Quake II with 3D spatial sound in Yamagi (OpenAL Soft HRTF audio) demonstrates the spatial audio enhancment using OpenAL Soft with the Yamagi Quake 2 client.

Thanks bro, but i'm aiming at best 3d sound possible and just can't afford not benefiting from hardware acceleration. But i'll definitely watch it, thank you again!

One more question: as im not limited with any OS , so what is worth considering on top of the pile?
Have heard a lot about Vista ruining the sound control vastly, so Xp is a way to go among win family, right?
What about nixes? i know little about it, but eager to try, which one should i give a chance if any?