Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-06-09, 05:44:

sharangad wrote on 2025-06-09, 05:37:

The GOG version has EAX patched out somehow, I remember someone complaining about it somewhere.

Yeah, I've seen this in a few of their releases, including Splinter Cell.

At least for that one, there's an Xdelta patch which restores it.

Actually I still have a disc based copy of Chaos Theory in storage. Might dig that up.

NFS:HP2 produces this:

1 For Speed Hot Pursuit 2 Demo\DSOUND.ini
2
3DirectSoundCreate : Failed to initialize Creative ALchemy, falling back to dsound.dll
4
5Using Native OpenAL Renderer
6DirectSound[0]::QueryInterface for unsupported interface 0-0-0-C0-0-0-0-0-0-0-46

Pah! Chaos Theory disc won't read.

shevalier wrote on 2025-06-09, 05:00:

Why use this program at all? Copy dsound.dll to the folder with the game executable file. That's it. Read the dsoundlog.txt file […]
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sharangad wrote on 2025-06-09, 02:26:

Has anyone got Alchemy working on Win11? I can't get a single game working with it.

Why use this program at all?
Copy dsound.dll to the folder with the game executable file.
That's it.
Read the dsoundlog.txt file that appears after launching the game
If there is an inscription "Using Native OpenAL Renderer" then everything worked.

ALchemy works on Win11 23H2 at least.

As for why run the ALchemy program? Unless you know what to change/add to registry, you must run ALchemy at least once, otherwise, games instantiating DirectSound through COM will still load original Microsoft's dsound.dll.

Reference: https://www.indirectsound.com/registryIssues.html

BTW, first time I'm seeing that audio console...my "audio console" looks totally different...

Edit: I realize now Audio Console was referred as "this program"...not ALchemy EXE. Still, it's good to know that copying dsound.dll is not sufficient for all games.

UCyborg wrote on 2025-06-08, 19:23:

I see, does this dialog update in real time when you're playing EAX enabled title, seeing it has Active Preset box? Or maybe that applies if you've set global EAX effect in another place?

Active presets only work in Entertainment mode as far as i know

PS - also, during win9x era i remember that Creative had custom presets for some games that don't support EAX presets natively (for something like Fallout, Die by the Sword if i'm not mistaken), i wonder where i can find them now and if they still work in win10..

I wouldn't know about those presets...did Sound Blaster PCI 128 have them? At least that's probably the most interesting card that some of today's PC emulators can emulate.

BTW, @KainXVIII and others, can you check what EXE file opens that Audio Control Panel on the screenshot in the post above?

UCyborg wrote on 2025-06-09, 09:32:

I wouldn't know about those presets...did Sound Blaster PCI 128 have them? At least that's probably the most interesting card that some of today's PC emulators can emulate.

BTW, @KainXVIII and others, can you check what EXE file opens that Audio Control Panel on the screenshot in the post above?

Creative audio console

Oh, OK, that thingy was unable to launch right away after I got everything installed, so blocked it out of the mind, assuming it's broken. It works along with EAX volume setting now. There's a bunch of configuration programs included and some settings overlap between programs.

Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast (OpenAL):
https://youtu.be/e4dPPnd-Ex0

Mass Effect 1 (OpenAL):
https://youtu.be/uVm62GmOr2w

UCyborg wrote on 2025-06-09, 09:32:

I wouldn't know about those presets...did Sound Blaster PCI 128 have them? At least that's probably the most interesting card that some of today's PC emulators can emulate.

BTW, @KainXVIII and others, can you check what EXE file opens that Audio Control Panel on the screenshot in the post above?

I don't remember, need to google this further..
Audio Control Panel = CTAudCS.exe

IIRC, the only time I saw those special presets for non-EAX games was when using a SBLive with the stock drivers from its installation disc.

I don't use SBLive cards in my retro rigs anymore, so I can't say for sure.

I found that Synchronize with Control Panel checkbox in Speaker Settings app, cleared it, made sure Headphones are set there, 7.1 in Windows, now I get the sound from all 8 channels when testing sound in Windows through headphones and at least Call of Duty: MW3 (2011 one) seems to sound OK now with CMSS with Audigy Rx.

Anyone tried playing Amnesia: The Dark Descent recently? Well, it doesn't have EAX, but it uses OpenAL for sound. It also lets user explicitly select only "Generic Software" devices for sound output, though you can set whatever you want through editing main_settings.cfg and referring to hpl.log (both in Documents\Amnesia\Main folder) for correct index of the device. I've yet to dive into it to hear how 3D sound is.

Another thing about Audigy, I feel kinda bad about using it, because, well, native EAX cards aren't plentiful. And if something happens to it for whatever reason...computer is still holding after 16 years, but regardless I get these thoughts about sudden hardware failures. Am I overthinking it?

UCyborg wrote on 2025-06-09, 21:50:

Another thing about Audigy, I feel kinda bad about using it, because, well, native EAX cards aren't plentiful. And if something happens to it for whatever reason...computer is still holding after 16 years, but regardless I get these thoughts about sudden hardware failures. Am I overthinking it?

They aren't exactly rare, as millions of SBLive/Audigy/X-Fi cards were sold back in the day. Places like eBay are still chock full of them.

By the way, the most common point of failure for these sound cards are old, worn out electrolytic capacitors. Replace them with audio grade ones, and the card should be good for another 20 years or so.

That Audigy Rx is brand new, so I guess its capacitors should be OK for a good long while. No idea about the capacitors on the motherboard, I counted over 40 of them, which is crazy! I don't trust myself with dealing with capacitors. No idea where I'll be in the next 20 years, so I'd rather not think about that kind of timespan! 😁

Is eBay more similar to buying from regular web shops, that is place the order, send payment, wait for the shipment? No dicking around with the seller, assuming he's a reputable one? I rarely get used stuff, exception being a DDR2 RAM stick I got from the local company running a web shop in my country where you can bring old computer equipment and they put it for sale and a router I got years ago from someone I knew who didn't need it anymore.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-06-09, 20:10:

IIRC, the only time I saw those special presets for non-EAX games was when using a SBLive with the stock drivers from its installation disc.

I don't use SBLive cards in my retro rigs anymore, so I can't say for sure.

Yeah, that's must be it! Probably just a simply reverb preset for every game.

KainXVIII wrote on 2025-06-10, 09:06:

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-06-09, 20:10:

IIRC, the only time I saw those special presets for non-EAX games was when using a SBLive with the stock drivers from its installation disc.

I don't use SBLive cards in my retro rigs anymore, so I can't say for sure.

Yeah, that's must be it! Probably just a simply reverb preset for every game.

The Live did indeed have presets for different non-EAX games, and you're right; they simply applied an "appropriate" amount of reverb and chorus effects to every sound played in the game. I remember trying it with Descent: Freespace after I got my Live in the summer of 1999, and I did not like how it sounded. After downloading Volition's actual EAX patch the reverb was still a bit gimmicky, but the 4-speaker positional sound worked at the very least.

I went through my old boxed games recently, looks like I have only one game with "Sounds best on Sound Blaster" logo on the box, it's Call of Duty: Deluxe Edition, so technically Call of Duty and its expansion United Offensive.

UCyborg wrote on 2025-06-11, 11:15:

I went through my old boxed games recently, looks like I have only one game with "Sounds best on Sound Blaster" logo on the box, it's Call of Duty: Deluxe Edition, so technically Call of Duty and its expansion United Offensive.

There's a CoD developer interview on Creative's old EAX website. Relevant bit:

How does EAX ADVANCED HD add to the acoustic experience of Call of Duty?

EAX ADVANCED HD brings a lot of reverberation enhancements to Call of Duty, giving the player improved spatial perception - the sense of how large a space is, or how far away a tank or enemy soldier is, tends to be much easier to figure out just by listening to the sounds. Moving indoors/outdoors results in smoother audio transitions due to morphing (interpolating between the sonic properties of two different locations as you move through them.) Locations with different reverb characteristics are positioned in 3D, giving you a better sense of which direction the enemy is firing from, as the acoustic properties of an enemy firing prone in a field or from inside a building are going to be different.

I haven't played it with EAX yet, but I probably will at some point.

Amnesia demo (OpenAL, no EAX):
https://youtu.be/fUKru5RgQpg

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.

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?

Amnesia's source code hints HPL2 engine may support using EFX for environmental effects, but it's not used. Windows build filters device list in a way that only devices with "software" (case insensitive) in the name may appear. That also filters out OpenAL Soft from being selectable through graphical interface, though I guess this one should work OK, if I'm not mistaken, Linuxes typically come with OpenAL Soft.