C0deHunter wrote on Yesterday, 06:05:

If I get an OEM version of the X-Fi Titanium (with 16MB X-RAM), which features would I miss compared to the Fatal1ty version?

Dolby Digital encoding might not work on some OEM X-Fi cards, if that matters to you. Otherwise, there shouldn't be much difference.

C0deHunter wrote on Yesterday, 06:05:

I am planning to play Prey, Quake 4, Doom 3, Battlefield 2, etc.

Those games make good use of X-RAM, and can store some audio files there for faster access, but that won't impact your listening experience. X-RAM was supposed to improve performance back in the day, when single-core CPUs were starting to struggle with demanding games and low-end mechanical hard drives made asset loading slow. But how much that helped is debatable. If you use a Core2 CPU or better in your WinXP rig, as well as an SSD, it likely won't matter.

AndreaColombo86 wrote on 2026-03-09, 22:46:

Would be nice to know for Mass Effect and Gears of War as well, if you have them handy 😀

I just got the original Mass Effect on the Steam spring sale. Here's the game running under Win10:

In this screenshot, it's using 127-10=117 simultaneous hardware voices. It also utilizes all of the card's X-RAM. Surround sound also works fine on my 5.1 speakers.

I did have to make some config adjustments to achieve that, as the game defaults to using only 64 voices initially. To fix that, I edited BIOEngine.ini and first changed the DeviceName from "Generic Hardware" to "SB X-Fi Audio [0001]" which is the OpenAL name of the X-Fi card on my system. After that, I set MaxChannels=128 and TotalAvailableChannels=128 (both were originally 64). Lastly, I set UseEffectsProcessing=True. Here's how the relevant section of BIOEngine.ini looks after those edits:

1[ISACTAudio.ISACTAudioDevice]
2MaxChannels=128
3TimeBetweenHWUpdates=15.000000
4MinOggVorbisDurationGame=20
5MinOggVorbisDurationEditor=4
6TotalAvailableChannels=128
7DeviceName=SB X-Fi Audio [0001]
8ReserveChannels=2
9UseEffectsProcessing=True

BTW, Mass Effect is using something called ISACT, which seems to be some sort of audio middleware. So it's not a pure OpenAL implementation as seen in Battlefield 2 or Quake 4. On an interesting note, Mass Effect enabled Hardware Audio under Win10 by default, even before I made any of the aforementioned edits to the ini file.

Lastly, here's an excerpt from page 3 of the Mass Effect manual:

Mass Effect Manual wrote:

Creative’s Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ sound card is an EAX® ADVANCED HD™- capable audio solution that guarantees the best audio experience. Not only does it deliver immersive EAX® ADVANCED HD™ effects with superior audio fidelity, it also gives you high voice counts—playing multiple sounds simultaneously—and ultra-fast 3D performance. The sound effects in Mass Effect are enhanced with EAX® ADVANCED HD™ environmental audio to give you the ultimate audio experience on supported hardware. To experience the audio of Mass Effect at its best, we recommend Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ series sound cards.

Thank you for that.

How can I find out the OpenAL name of my sound card?

AndreaColombo86 wrote on Today, 11:12:

How can I find out the OpenAL name of my sound card?

Download Creative's ALCapsViewer from here. When you run that, your card will show up under OpenAL devices, and you can use the name listed there.

For convenience, you can also click File > Save Info to generate a text file, which makes copy/pasting the device name easier. One last thing to note, you need the 32-bit version of ALCapsViewer, not the 64-bit one. So be sure the file name is ALCapsViewer32.exe.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on Today, 11:22:

Download Creative's ALCapsViewer from here. When you run that, your card will show up under OpenAL devices, and you can use the […]
Show full quote

AndreaColombo86 wrote on Today, 11:12:

How can I find out the OpenAL name of my sound card?

Download Creative's ALCapsViewer from here. When you run that, your card will show up under OpenAL devices, and you can use the name listed there.

The attachment ALCapsViewer32.png is no longer available

For convenience, you can also click File > Save Info to generate a text file, which makes copy/pasting the device name easier. One last thing to note, you need the 32-bit version of ALCapsViewer, not the 64-bit one. So be sure the file name is ALCapsViewer32.exe.

You can also copy the driver's name directly from my OpenAL test program:
download/file.php?id=237957

Falcosoft wrote on Today, 12:42:

You can also copy the driver's name directly from my OpenAL test program:

Nice! I forgot that field was interactive.

Final note, be sure to enter the device name exactly as shown by these utilities. Missing a single letter or even a space can cause problems. That's why I recommend copy/pasting the text into the BIOEngine.ini file.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on Today, 10:23:

After that, I set MaxChannels=128 and TotalAvailableChannels=128 (both were originally 64).

After playing the game a bit more, I think the developers may have intentionally limited the number of channels to 64.

When I set the channel number to 128, I experienced a few crashes during more intense firefights that occur a bit later in the first mission. Reverting to 64 channels fixed that. While Unreal Engine 3 (which the game is based on) and the X-Fi card are capable of using more than that, it's possible that Mass Effect specifically has some issues with playing so many sounds at once.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on Yesterday, 06:24:

Dolby Digital encoding might not work on some OEM X-Fi cards, if that matters to you. Otherwise, there shouldn't be much differe […]
Show full quote

C0deHunter wrote on Yesterday, 06:05:

If I get an OEM version of the X-Fi Titanium (with 16MB X-RAM), which features would I miss compared to the Fatal1ty version?

Dolby Digital encoding might not work on some OEM X-Fi cards, if that matters to you. Otherwise, there shouldn't be much difference.

C0deHunter wrote on Yesterday, 06:05:

I am planning to play Prey, Quake 4, Doom 3, Battlefield 2, etc.

Those games make good use of X-RAM, and can store some audio files there for faster access, but that won't impact your listening experience. X-RAM was supposed to improve performance back in the day, when single-core CPUs were starting to struggle with demanding games and low-end mechanical hard drives made asset loading slow. But how much that helped is debatable. If you use a Core2 CPU or better in your WinXP rig, as well as an SSD, it likely won't matter.

I am not using Dolby Digital on this rig, so it's not an issue! Yes indeed I am running my XP system on a SSD with a Core2 CPU or better!