UCyborg wrote on 2025-06-13, 20:39:

...BTW, your Audigy Rx is listed as SB Audigy 5/Rx [DFC0], mine is SB Audigy 5/Rx [EC00]. Anyone knows the meaning of these labels?

It's the starting I/O address used by your card. It's like the "220" typically used by classic Sound Blaster cards. It's not part of the card's type and can be different on different systems.

UCyborg wrote on 2025-06-13, 20:39:

BTW, your Audigy Rx is listed as SB Audigy 5/Rx [DFC0], mine is SB Audigy 5/Rx [EC00]. Anyone knows the meaning of these labels?

That's the io port the card's using, for instance, a classic sb would use port 220 (decimal) (port Dc hexadecimal)

UCyborg wrote on 2025-06-13, 20:39:

You wrote you didn't have problems, but your sound is definitely glitchy, you're not supposed to hear all that static when the game begins. Actually, I've noticed that when playing Interstate '76 through ALchemy, some sound would occasionally play distorted. But Amnesia really pronounces the problem here. You didn't go far enough to pickup any diaries, which have voice narration.

The static wasn't there while I was playing. I think that's propped up in the during the capture. I'll post another video.

Here's a much better playthrough, leading to a BSOD while attempting to load the refinery map:
https://youtu.be/M71FDFXTkH4 (with correct DPI scaling settings)
https://youtu.be/CrOob-3Hw38

[EDIT] The high DPI scaling settings are off. Parts of the HUD are cropped.

Ah, thanks for clarification about I/O range, that's it.

sharangad wrote on 2025-06-14, 00:58:

Here's a much better playthrough, leading to a BSOD while attempting to load the refinery map:
https://youtu.be/M71FDFXTkH4 (with correct DPI scaling settings)

Ha, so you do have messed up sound starting at 3:06. Interestingly, I think you can make the game use ALchemy to access hardware path in another manner, you should have dsound.dll in its folder and at very least OpenAL32.dll, ct_oal.dll and wrap_oal.dll in C:\Windows\SysWOW64, then you'll be able to select Generic Hardware device. Seems you shouldn't have Sens_oal.dll there for the test. So then it goes OpenAL->DirectSound->OpenAL...wacky!

But Sens_oal.dll implementation, which is Creative's software implementation, also seems to sound fine. Although both were tested very very quickly, could have missed potential issues down the road.

Isn't it odd that only directly using Creative's hardware OpenAL is broken? I wonder if behavior is the same on X-Fi cards.

UCyborg wrote on 2025-06-14, 06:37:

Ah, thanks for clarification about I/O range, that's it. […]
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Ah, thanks for clarification about I/O range, that's it.

sharangad wrote on 2025-06-14, 00:58:

Here's a much better playthrough, leading to a BSOD while attempting to load the refinery map:
https://youtu.be/M71FDFXTkH4 (with correct DPI scaling settings)

Ha, so you do have messed up sound starting at 3:06. Interestingly, I think you can make the game use ALchemy to access hardware path in another manner, you should have dsound.dll in its folder and at very least OpenAL32.dll, ct_oal.dll and wrap_oal.dll in C:\Windows\SysWOW64, then you'll be able to select Generic Hardware device. Seems you shouldn't have Sens_oal.dll there for the test. So then it goes OpenAL->DirectSound->OpenAL...wacky!

But Sens_oal.dll implementation, which is Creative's software implementation, also seems to sound fine. Although both were tested very very quickly, could have missed potential issues down the road.

Isn't it odd that only directly using Creative's hardware OpenAL is broken? I wonder if behavior is the same on X-Fi cards.

Maybe it's because I've set channels to 63 instead of 32? The game defaults to 32 hardware mixed voices. The X-Fi supports 128 - 1 (with the 1 reserved for Windows sounds) and the Audigy 64 - 1.

Oh the messed up first journal entry also occurs on the X-Fi as well. Someone was complaining about it online a few years back and the random BSODs during map transitions.

I left channels at default. I doubt there's a point, I don't think this game ever relies on a huge number of simultaneously played sounds.

UCyborg wrote on 2025-06-14, 07:42:

I left channels at default. I doubt there's a point, I don't think this game ever relies on a huge number of simultaneously played sounds.

The bugchecks are a bit of a showstopper though. That was actually kind of a thing for some games back in the day, though most of the ones I was into weren't all that affected.

UCyborg wrote on 2025-06-14, 07:42:

I left channels at default. I doubt there's a point, I don't think this game ever relies on a huge number of simultaneously played sounds.

Not sure about that game specifically, as I've never played it, but many EAX 5.0 titles can make good use of those 128 voices. Relevant article from Creative's website.

In games like Quake 4, Prey and Battlefield 2 you can hear more detail with 128 voices. For my experience, distant sounds can be perceived slightly clearer, and reverb will be a bit richer, especially when using headphones.