0.0 Disclaimer:

This guide is provided "as is" and free of charge. There is no warranty or support of any kind. By using this guide, you acknowledge and agree that you do so at your sole risk. The author is not liable for any damages and claims arising from the use of this guide.

0.1 Introduction:

This guide will help you install the optimal drivers for gaming under WinXP 32-bit (with SP3) when using a PCIe X-Fi Titanium sound card. It has been successfully tested on a retail X-Fi Titanium (SB0880) and an X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro (SB0886) sound card. However, it isn't suitable for X-Fi Titanium HD PCIe sound cards as they have no WinXP driver support. This guide is also not suitable for any PCI based X-Fi sound cards (e.g. SB0460). It is also not suitable for any X-Fi Xtreme Audio models. Do not use it with those cards. Supported features:

• EAX 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0 and 5.0 support for WinXP games
• EAX Unified support for games that require eax.dll
• OpenAL support for games that require OpenAL32.dll

Lastly, this guide and the driver pack that it uses are tailored to the US English version of Windows XP 32-bit with SP3. Installing these drivers on a non-English system may cause the volume control screen (and possibly other aspects of the OS) to appear in English. Additionally, this guide hasn't been tested with Windows XP Professional x64 Edition and compatibility with that OS is unknown.

1.Hardware and software requirements:

Before proceeding to the next section of this guide, make sure that the following hardware and software requirements are met. If they are not, the driver installation may fail.

1.1 Ensure that your X-Fi Titanium sound card is properly installed in a free PCIe slot
1.2 If your motherboard has an integrated sound card be sure to disable it in the BIOS
1.3 During the driver installation process, the X-Fi Titanium should be the only sound card in your system. Using a second sound card may cause the driver installation to fail
1.4 This guide has only been tested on Windows XP 32-bit with SP3. A clean install of Windows must be performed before attempting the driver installation procedure. Do not use any "unofficial updates" just apply the latest official Service Pack 3. Only install the drivers for your motherboard and graphics card until you complete all the steps in this guide

2. Preparation:

2.1 Download X-Fi Titanium driver version 2.17.0008 from here and extract its contents to C:\XF1
2.2 Download Creative Console Launcher (Beta) 2.61.49 from here and extract its contents to C:\XF1
2.3 Download Creative Dolby Digital Live Pack 3.00.06 from here and extract its contents to C:\XF1
2.4 Download Creative SoundFont Bank Manager 3.21.02 from here and extract its contents to C:\XF1

3. Windows Driver Installation

3.1 Run C:\XF1\XFTI_PCDRV_LB_2_17_0008.exe complete the installation procedure and restart your computer when prompted
3.2 After the restart, click Cancel on the Creative Software AutoUpdate screen, then go to Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs > Creative Software AutoUpdate > Change/Remove to uninstall it
3.3 Run C:\XF1\CSL_PCAPPBETA_LB_2_61_49.exe complete the installation procedure and restart your computer when prompted
3.4 Run C:\XF1\DDL_PCAPP_LB_3_00_06.exe complete the installation procedure and restart your computer when prompted
3.5 Run C:\XF1\SFBM_PCAPP_LB_3_21_02.exe complete the installation procedure and restart your computer when prompted

4. Configuring Creative utilities for optimal gaming performance

4.1 Go to Start > Programs > Creative > Creative Audio Control Panel > Mode and ensure that Game Mode is selected
4.2 Go to Start > Programs > Creative > Creative Audio Control Panel > Speakers and choose your speaker configuration as appropriate
4.3 Go to Start > Programs > Creative > Creative Audio Control Panel > X-Fi CMSS-3D. I suggest turning CMSS off if you are using speakers and leaving it on if you are using headphones
4.4 Go to Start > Programs > Creative > Creative Audio Control Panel > Encoder and enable Dolby Digital Live if needed (optional)
4.5 Go to Start > Programs > Creative > Creative Console Launcher > Mixer and mute any unused inputs (e.g. Line In, Digital In)
4.6 Go to Start > Programs > Creative > Creative Console Launcher > EQ and unselect Enable EQ

5. Installing EAX Unified and OpenAL

5.1 Download EAX Unified version 4.0.0.1 from here and install it
5.2 Download OpenAL Windows Installer 1.1 from here and install it
5.3 Restart your computer

6. EAX Testing

6.1 Download the Star Wars: Empire at War demo from here and install it
6.2 Run the Star Wars: Empire at War Demo and go to Options > Audio. You should see EAX 1, 2, 3 and 4 as supported and selectable
6.3 Download the Quake 4 Multiplayer demo from from here and install it
6.4 Start the Quake 4 Multiplayer demo and go to Settings > System > Advanced Audio Settings and set Sound System to OpenAL then click Close Advanced Audio
6.5 After the sound system re-initializes, press CTRL + ALT + ~ to open the console, then press Page Up four times and you should see that the game is now using EAX 5.0 via OpenAL

Assuming the tests were successful, your system should now be fully configured to run EAX and OpenAL games.

For clarity, I put this guide together because Creative's latest official drivers for PCIe X-Fi Titanium sound cards have some issues with games that use OpenAL. Specifically, those drivers would occasionally cause sounds not to play in such games. This is why I'm using an older driver version 2.17.0008 from 2010 which doesn't have that problem. As far as I can tell, this problem doesn't effect PCI X-Fi cards, so you should be able to use the latest official drivers with those without any issues.

Final note: some games (e.g. Quake 4) change the Windows speaker configuration to "Desktop Stereo Speakers" when started for the first time. If you're using surround speakers or headphones, you may need to quit the game, and repeat step 4.2 to re-set the speaker configuration to your liking.