Original Bioshock:
https://youtu.be/DBB1O85BfVo

(This might be blocked in some places because of a song in the game near the Neptune Lounge map.)

sharangad wrote on 2025-07-04, 22:21:

Original Bioshock:
https://youtu.be/DBB1O85BfVo

Creative's audio guide for that game suggests that you need to manually reduce the number of hardware voices on Audigy cards for optimal effect.

Creative Labs wrote:

5. What about other audio solutions?

Audigy sound cards are not capable of mixing as many 3D sources as X-Fi, so to avoid missing sounds you should modify the "Bioshock.ini" file. Change "MaxChannels=128" to "MaxChannels=60". You might want to make a backup of the file before you change it.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-07-05, 06:38:

sharangad wrote on 2025-07-04, 22:21:

Original Bioshock:
https://youtu.be/DBB1O85BfVo

Creative's audio guide for that game suggests that you need to manually reduce the number of hardware voices on Audigy cards for optimal effect.

Creative Labs wrote:

5. What about other audio solutions?

Audigy sound cards are not capable of mixing as many 3D sources as X-Fi, so to avoid missing sounds you should modify the "Bioshock.ini" file. Change "MaxChannels=128" to "MaxChannels=60". You might want to make a backup of the file before you change it.

I generally do that for everything with alchemy.
Didn't do that for bioshock.

NFS High Stakes:
https://youtu.be/MZcw9sImIq4

Is CtHelper.exe needed for anything? It's a background processes that comes with Audigy drivers and runs under logged in user. I noticed it has constantly opened handles to \Device\CTPROXY and \Device\EMUPIA. Wondering if it has something to do with EAX dying. Or if there's any other solution when it dies other than to reboot Windows.

UCyborg wrote on 2025-07-08, 21:48:

Is CtHelper.exe needed for anything? It's a background processes that comes with Audigy drivers and runs under logged in user. I noticed it has constantly opened handles to \Device\CTPROXY and \Device\EMUPIA. Wondering if it has something to do with EAX dying. Or if there's any other solution when it dies other than to reboot Windows.

I don't know. Creative's drivers work in weird ways. I seem to recall that back in the XP days their mixer app only worked with the specific version of the audio driver it was built against. So if you updated the driver, the old mixer wouldn't work. I don't know whether that's true for all XP drivers, but I noticed it with at least one specific driver version.

UCyborg wrote on 2025-07-08, 21:48:

Is CtHelper.exe needed for anything?

Supposedly, it helps the hardware to better interface with certain games that use EAX. At least that's what I vaguely remember reading on some support forum.

If you google cthelper.exe you will find that many people had issues with it in the past. It can be disabled on startup via msconfig and such, though I'm not sure what effect that would have on games.

Alright, will see how it holds up without CtHelper.exe. EAX works without it. \Device\CTPROXY is opened in games using ct_oal.dll in any way.

How do you people feel about CMSS effects on music? With music players, it does sound bad to me, but what about in games? Maybe GTA: San Andreas is just notoriously bad example with its radio and maybe I'm biased due to the fact that I put some of my own favorite tracks on the radio that I know well. But what about in-game music in general?

For one thing, started playing through Max Payne 1 again recently, I did like the punch CMSS added to bomb explosion underground in one of the first levels. It's not something that can be normally reproduced in other ways without bumping up the volume, which make other things sound unnatural to me.

UCyborg wrote on 2025-07-09, 19:22:

Alright, will see how it holds up without CtHelper.exe. EAX works without it. \Device\CTPROXY is opened in games using ct_oal.dll in any way.

How do you people feel about CMSS effects on music? With music players, it does sound bad to me, but what about in games? Maybe GTA: San Andreas is just notoriously bad example with its radio and maybe I'm biased due to the fact that I put some of my own favorite tracks on the radio that I know well. But what about in-game music in general?

For one thing, started playing through Max Payne 1 again recently, I did like the punch CMSS added to bomb explosion underground in one of the first levels. It's not something that can be normally reproduced in other ways without bumping up the volume, which make other things sound unnatural to me.

Definitely not for music. I'm not sure but on the Audigy I think it needs to be on for headphone virtualization ( openal /ds3d).

UCyborg wrote on 2025-07-09, 19:22:

How do you people feel about CMSS effects on music? With music players, it does sound bad to me, but what about in games?

I wouldn't use it for music, unless you really want to expand stereo to surround speakers. Personally, I don't like that, but some people seem to enjoy the effect. As for gaming, most of the time I'm using a 5.1 speaker setup, so I keep CMSS turned off. For those rare instances when I switch to headphones, I do use CMSS since it can further enhance positional audio on that setup.

Lastly, note that the X-Fi has a more advanced version of CMSS-3D compared to Audigy cards. Among other things, the X-Fi version includes the Elevation Filter and MacroFX, and can map 128 individual sound sources in virtual 3D space.

If I use Titanium with Daniels drivers 8.0, I have Headphones selected, MacroFX Elevation On and windows is set to STEREO because it Sync with the Console/CP so I can't really change it. Do I choose STEREO in Game or Surround? I can't understand, because in one game for example when I select SURROUND the sound catastrophic, but with STEREO it's perfect. The game for example is The Precinct, and for Warhammer 40000 DarkTide the surround is very important there, I can't figure if I should use 5.1 or STEREO

Also, when I have Ctxfihlp.exe running it keep reset the HEADPHONES to 2.1 every windows log out/on or restart, is there any fix for that? do I must have Ctxfihlp.exe running? because the sound feels different without it

x8009 wrote on 2025-07-10, 05:32:

If I use Titanium with Daniels drivers 8.0, I have Headphones selected, MacroFX Elevation On and windows is set to STEREO because it Sync with the Console/CP so I can't really change it. Do I choose STEREO in Game or Surround?

It depends. When using headphones while playing games from the WinXP era which use DirectSound3D or OpenAL, your in-game audio settings should be set to "Stereo" or "Headphones". Additionally, you also want to set the Creative Console Launcher to "Headphones", turn on "Sync with Control Panel" and enable "CMSS-3D Headphone" mode. See screenshot below:

On the other hand, for newer games from the Vista/Win7/10/11 era which don't use OpenAL, it's recommended to select 7.1 surround in the game's audio options (if available), and to do the same in the Windows sound settings. For that specific use case, you also want to uncheck "Synchronize with Control Panel" in the Creative Console Launcher while keeping it set to "Headphones" and turning on CMSS-3D.

Also, when I have Ctxfihlp.exe running it keep reset the HEADPHONES to 2.1 every windows log out/on or restart, is there any fix for that? do I must have Ctxfihlp.exe running? because the sound feels different without it

You didn't mention which Windows version you're using. On WinXP, if you check "Synchronize with Control Panel" the Windows sound settings will be linked to whatever is set in the Creative Console Launcher. Not sure about Win10/11 though.

@sharangad
@Joseph_Joestar
I meant for headphone use in games, how it effects in-game music. It seemed painfully bad with radio in GTA: San Andreas, but I'm not sure about other games' music. Surround speaker setup is not realistic option for me.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-07-10, 05:57:

It depends. When using headphones while playing games from the WinXP era which use DirectSound3D or OpenAL, your in-game audio s […]
Show full quote

x8009 wrote on 2025-07-10, 05:32:

If I use Titanium with Daniels drivers 8.0, I have Headphones selected, MacroFX Elevation On and windows is set to STEREO because it Sync with the Console/CP so I can't really change it. Do I choose STEREO in Game or Surround?

It depends. When using headphones while playing games from the WinXP era which use DirectSound3D or OpenAL, your in-game audio settings should be set to "Stereo" or "Headphones". Additionally, you also want to set the Creative Console Launcher to "Headphones", turn on "Sync with Control Panel" and enable "CMSS-3D Headphone" mode. See screenshot below:

On the other hand, for newer games from the Vista/Win7/10/11 era which don't use OpenAL, it's recommended to select 7.1 surround in the game's audio options (if available), and to do the same in the Windows sound settings. For that specific use case, you also want to uncheck "Synchronize with Control Panel" in the Creative Console Launcher while keeping it set to "Headphones" and turning on CMSS-3D.

Also, when I have Ctxfihlp.exe running it keep reset the HEADPHONES to 2.1 every windows log out/on or restart, is there any fix for that? do I must have Ctxfihlp.exe running? because the sound feels different without it

You didn't mention which Windows version you're using. On WinXP, if you check "Synchronize with Control Panel" the Windows sound settings will be linked to whatever is set in the Creative Console Launcher. Not sure about Win10/11 though.

Windows 11 24H2

if I try to use 7.1 with headphones I usually have BSOD, with Headphones and STEREO in windows speakers it works perfect, if I put 7.1 I will have freeze and BSOD

x8009 wrote on 2025-07-10, 06:20:

Windows 11 24H2

if I try to use 7.1 with headphones I usually have BSOD, with Headphones and STEREO in windows speakers it works perfect, if I put 7.1 I will have freeze and BSOD

I never used Win11 so I can't offer any advice on that. Maybe someone else can chime in.

You may want to look at this guide from Creative. It's aimed at Vista/Win7, but the basics should also apply when playing newer games on Win11. As mentioned above, try unchecking "Synchronize with Control Panel" for that specific use case, if that option still exists on Win11.

UCyborg wrote on 2025-07-10, 06:19:

@sharangad
@Joseph_Joestar
I meant for headphone use in games, how it effects in-game music. It seemed painfully bad with radio in GTA: San Andreas, but I'm not sure about other games' music. Surround speaker setup is not realistic option for me.

Generally for music it's terrible. But for in-game music it should be OK because the game will usually use a direct stereo source using ds3d/openal. Not sure about cd music. The problem occurs when using music playback apps in Windows. Not sure how gtasa plays back music though.

If you check out my nfs videos, do you notice anything weird about the music . Ideally I should test it with and without cmss. I'll give that a go later.

It doesn't exist on the console, but only the ctxfihlp.exe does that so I guess that's what the service for, but again, every time I tried to use 7.1 I would have the sound cut off stutter and freeze the whole computer.

it seems that running ctxfihlp.exe as admin might change something, I hope it won't freeze

I was right

when using entertainment it shows a little windows security UAC when I switch to HEADPHONES like it needs permission, I think that's what screw up the system and freeze the driver, it doesn't have permission for such support, HEADPHONES doesn't actually exist in the windows, it's STEREO but it's crashing the driver

So finally running Ctxfihlp.exe as admin actually let it run properly, it does weird switching, but it doesn't sync if I put Headphones, it stays 7.1, the only issue now is ctxfihlp.exe always reset to 2.1 when I log off/on or restart or switch to entertainment

x8009 wrote on 2025-07-10, 08:13:

it seems that running ctxfihlp.exe as admin might change something, I hope it won't freeze […]
Show full quote

it seems that running ctxfihlp.exe as admin might change something, I hope it won't freeze

I was right

when using entertainment it shows a little windows security UAC when I switch to HEADPHONES like it needs permission, I think that's what screw up the system and freeze the driver, it doesn't have permission for such support, HEADPHONES doesn't actually exist in the windows, it's STEREO but it's crashing the driver

So finally running Ctxfihlp.exe as admin actually let it run properly, it does weird switching, but it doesn't sync if I put Headphones, it stays 7.1, the only issue now is ctxfihlp.exe always reset to 2.1 when I log off/on or restart or switch to entertainment

If you're in Win 11, the x-fi isn't officially supported., which is a shame.

sharangad wrote on 2025-07-10, 08:16:

If you're in Win 11, the x-fi isn't officially supported., which is a shame.

Surprisingly, my X-Fi Fatal1ty (SB0460) works very well on the Windows 11 24H2.
I installed the latest official Win10 driver (SBXF_PCDRV_L11_2_30_0012.exe) without any issues. OpenAL EAX games works as expected.

Of course, Creative X-Fi driver is incompatible with Core isolation/Memory integrity feature, but who cares about that in retro builds.