Does new OpenAL Soft work with Mass Effect 1 (Legendary edition too) properly? Do i need eaxefx patcher?

*Unreal 2: OK (UMX not tested, no reason to do)
*UT 2004: OK
*Pariah: OK
*Republic Commando: OK

EAX directly through lastest (will be the 1.22?) OpenAL Soft (direct OpenAL interface, NOT DirectSound interface)

KainXVIII wrote on 2022-02-02, 14:05:

Does new OpenAL Soft work with Mass Effect 1 (Legendary edition too) properly? Do i need eaxefx patcher?

I don't think legendary edition needs it, as a remaster it would target XAudio, why "old" OpenAL or DirectSound? But someone will test eventually.

lowenz wrote on 2022-02-02, 14:22:

KainXVIII wrote on 2022-02-02, 14:05:

Does new OpenAL Soft work with Mass Effect 1 (Legendary edition too) properly? Do i need eaxefx patcher?

I don't think legendary edition needs it, as a remaster it would target XAudio, why "old" OpenAL or DirectSound? But someone will test eventually.

Because EA are incompetent, they still using legacy port for Legendary edition (but now without surround sound support 🤣, but you can fix it with old openal soft, i wonder how new version works now, with EAX effects?)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filede … /?id=2487160511

You can just drop my - 32 bit - OpenAL32.dll in the system (of ME) folder, just remember to modify the ini (in UE3 games you must zero the "DeviceName=" name entry if present in ALA section of the configuration file).
If you use OpenAL Soft you can just uninstall the classic Creative OpenAL package (to avoid confusion).

For the speakers you must use the OpenAL Soft speaker presets (quad -the default-, 5.1, 7.1)
Center and LFE are not used.

KainXVIII wrote on 2022-02-02, 14:05:

Does new OpenAL Soft work with Mass Effect 1 (Legendary edition too) properly? Do i need eaxefx patcher?

eaxefx_app_patcher is only needed in Doom 3, Quake 4 and Prey (fixes bugs in these three games).
The new OpenAL Soft should support EAX in all OpenAL games that use EAX. For DirectSound games that use EAX, DSOAL must be used (although it has not yet been updated to use the new EAX implementation of OpenAL Soft).

Kappa971 wrote on 2022-02-02, 15:15:

KainXVIII wrote on 2022-02-02, 14:05:

Does new OpenAL Soft work with Mass Effect 1 (Legendary edition too) properly? Do i need eaxefx patcher?

eaxefx_app_patcher is only needed in Doom 3, Quake 4 and Prey (fixes bugs in these three games).
The new OpenAL Soft should support EAX in all OpenAL games that use EAX. For DirectSound games that use EAX, DSOAL must be used (although it has not yet been updated to use the new EAX implementation of OpenAL Soft).

Thanks!
Even if i have X-fi soundcard, sometimes is PITA to force it work in some games in win10, like Mass Effect LE (does not work) or Unreal 2 (no proper 5.1 surround sound), so OpenAL Soft can be a great alternative i hope!

Mass Effect 1 Legendary Edition I doubt it supports EAX so you won't notice any difference between the old and new version of OpenAL Soft. I think you should use the original Mass Effect 1 for EAX. But I could be wrong.

I also wanted to buy an old X-Fi Titanium for old EAX games but, reading about many who had stability issues with OpenAL games in Windows 10, I gave up. Now that OpenAL Soft supports EAX (waiting for DSOAL or IndirectSound to be updated), there is no more reason to buy those cards and go crazy for them to perform decently on the latest versions of Windows.

KainXVIII wrote on 2022-02-02, 15:23:

Kappa971 wrote on 2022-02-02, 15:15:

KainXVIII wrote on 2022-02-02, 14:05:

Does new OpenAL Soft work with Mass Effect 1 (Legendary edition too) properly? Do i need eaxefx patcher?

eaxefx_app_patcher is only needed in Doom 3, Quake 4 and Prey (fixes bugs in these three games).
The new OpenAL Soft should support EAX in all OpenAL games that use EAX. For DirectSound games that use EAX, DSOAL must be used (although it has not yet been updated to use the new EAX implementation of OpenAL Soft).

Thanks!
Even if i have X-fi soundcard, sometimes is PITA to force it work in some games in win10, like Mass Effect LE (does not work) or Unreal 2 (no proper 5.1 surround sound), so OpenAL Soft can be a great alternative i hope!

The only X-Fi with no OpenAL playback buffers corruption is the Titanium one. All the other ones have problems with OpenAL. The only "hardware" solution is to use an Audigy RX (or an Audigy 2 with modded RX drivers).
Unreal 2 plays "totally right" only with an Audigy 2-class card.

lowenz wrote on 2022-02-02, 15:36:

KainXVIII wrote on 2022-02-02, 15:23:

Kappa971 wrote on 2022-02-02, 15:15:

eaxefx_app_patcher is only needed in Doom 3, Quake 4 and Prey (fixes bugs in these three games).
The new OpenAL Soft should support EAX in all OpenAL games that use EAX. For DirectSound games that use EAX, DSOAL must be used (although it has not yet been updated to use the new EAX implementation of OpenAL Soft).

Thanks!
Even if i have X-fi soundcard, sometimes is PITA to force it work in some games in win10, like Mass Effect LE (does not work) or Unreal 2 (no proper 5.1 surround sound), so OpenAL Soft can be a great alternative i hope!

The only X-Fi with no OpenAL playback buffers corruption is the Titanium one. All the other ones have problems with OpenAL. The only "hardware" solution is to use an Audigy RX (or an Audigy 2 with modded RX drivers).
Unreal 2 plays "totally right" only with an Audigy 2-class card.

Interesting, i have X-fi Xtreme Gamer (with XFI SupportPack 8.0 Refresh3 drivers) hence the problems, right?

lowenz wrote on 2022-02-02, 15:36:

The only X-Fi with no OpenAL playback buffers corruption is the Titanium one. All the other ones have problems with OpenAL. The only "hardware" solution is to use an Audigy RX (or an Audigy 2 with modded RX drivers).
Unreal 2 plays "totally right" only with an Audigy 2-class card.

Maybe you mean the X-Fi Titanium HD, it's not the same. The X-Fi Titanium has problems with OpenAL games. From what I've read you need Windows 7 and an old driver (not a reasonable solution for me).

Audigy RX seems to have problems with some games (in F.E.A.R. you cannot activate EAX, I don't know which other games are affected).

The Audigy 2 I'm sure works fine but it's an old sound card, which you can't fit on modern PCs as it's a PCI card.

EDIT
I don't know if the X-fi Xtreme Gamer has the same problems as the X-Fi Titanium.

Yes, the HD of course!

UT sounds pretty bad. "Cicadas" in DM-StalwartXL: https://streamable.com/c7ownw

lowenz wrote on 2022-02-02, 16:24:

Yes, the HD of course!

Unfortunately it is difficult to find and extremely expensive 😢

Firtasik wrote on 2022-02-02, 16:30:

UT sounds pretty bad. "Cicadas" in DM-StalwartXL: https://streamable.com/c7ownw

Turn off HRTF and set the speakers to stereo in the OpenAL Soft Settings, see if that changes anything.
This is my configuration file:

[General]
frequency=48000
stereo-mode=speakers
drivers="wasapi,"
channels=stereo
sample-type=float32
resampler=bsinc24

[reverb]
boost=0

I noticed that by setting the speakers in surround (some say also with HRTF), the reverb increases and therefore must be lowered in the settings (for example "boost = -4").
If nothing changes, you can open an issue in OpenAL Soft's Github repository, but first make sure it's not a game bug (maybe it also happens with a Sound Blaster Audigy / X-Fi)

HRTF must be used only with a stereo/headphones speakers configuration and yes, it alters the sound (like CMSS3D+MacroFX+Elevation Filter by Creative).
You can live with the resampler set to "Default", no need to go up (or set 44100 in OpenAL Soft and Windows if you play old games) 😉

If you want to use multichannel output you must configure the renderer:

hexagon.ambdec
Specifies a flat-front hexagonal speaker setup for 7.1 Surround output. The
front left and right speakers are placed at +30 and -30 degrees, the side
speakers are placed at +90 and -90 degrees, and the back speakers are placed at
+150 and -150 degrees. Although this is for 7.1 output, no front-center speaker
is defined for the decoder, meaning that speaker will be silent for 3D sound
(however it may still be used with AL_SOFT_direct_channels or ALC_EXT_DEDICATED
output). A "proper" 7.1 decoder may be provided in the future, but due to the
nature of the speaker configuration will have trade-offs.

HRTF, from what I've read, seems recommended only with stereo headphones and not for stereo speakers, right?
The resampler set to "bsinc24" is useful for some old games with low quality audio like GTA San Andreas.
I set the sample rate to 48000 because Windows is set the same way, and I also play newer games as well.

Kappa971 wrote on 2022-02-02, 17:44:

HRTF, from what I've read, seems recommended only with stereo headphones and not for stereo speakers, right?
The resampler set to "bsinc24" is useful for some old games with low quality audio like GTA San Andreas.
I set the sample rate to 48000 because Windows is set the same way, and I also play newer games as well.

*Yes, of course it is intended for 180° (opposed) stereo speakers like the headphone ones. HRTF=*HEAD* related transfer function 😁
*High order resampling can alter a bit the *perceived* sample quality, of course you can test and choose what you prefer

Anyway, returning to the main theme of this topic, I wanted to report the latest developments of OpenAL Soft, hoping it will be of interest to jonpol (perhaps for IndirectSound 😁).

Kappa971 wrote on 2022-02-02, 22:55:

Anyway, returning to the main theme of this topic, I wanted to report the latest developments of OpenAL Soft, hoping it will be of interest to jonpol (perhaps for IndirectSound 😁).

Thanks for letting me know! Exciting stuff, for sure.