NamelessPlayer wrote:Never really said it was a replacement (especially for aforementioned software vs. hardware OpenAL rendering reasons), just thin […]
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mirh wrote:X-fi mb3 is not an openal replacement. It just Creative's way to say: well, after all those years bossing we lose the battle, and allow to enable EAX with common motherboards. More here (and nasty DRM is not invincible if you are worried)
Never really said it was a replacement (especially for aforementioned software vs. hardware OpenAL rendering reasons), just thinking along the lines of software OpenAL implementations at the time, and the X-Fi MB3 package they sell, as I understand it, implements all the software features of the Sound Core3D cards (because they're software to begin with) and maps it all to a virtual output device ala Razer Surround or Virtual Audio Cable. It's like having a Sound Blaster Z card (or an SB Omni) without actually having one!
That's the one thing all those modded Realtek driver packages don't do, and in theory, that should enable it to work with any output device, be it other integrated audio codecs or even a USB DAC with no gaming DSP audio features in its drivers/software whatsoever.
But $30 is still a tough sell for that sort of thing, especially if they limit the activations. They don't even offer any sort of trial period for testing, either. Creative sure knows how to NOT sell products...
Wait wait wait.
The problem with OpenAL it's not the software/hardware thing. The problem is that Generic Software provider is "problematic". It's not like it couldn't do all the effects, but of course Creative limited it to "increase performance" (yeah, sure.. multi core CPU? somebody?)
You then have "Generic Hardware" and "Native implementations" (did you see my link?)
The first translates everything to DS3D while the second is allegedly the best choice (even though I couldn't say what are the practical differences).
My Xonar DX for example as just the later though (but of course, that's a dedicated card)
Back to the software-only matter I believe OpenAL soft was created exactly to replace official drivers and remove the artificial restrictions. With some games I guess the result could be as much nice as official one (if not even better)... but of course I don't think that in, say, Bioshock EAX effects are going to sound well
Said this there is a trial for X-FI MB. My theory is that a native device is added, but I wouldn't mind somebody either confirming or denying my supposition.
If this doesn't work (iirc it did even with non-Gigabyte motherboards) check the custom drivers. And when I say it's available there, trust me I tried them. Maybe not last version, but DRM -which has been defeated- is still probably the same. Upgrading from MB1 or MB2 to latest version should be possible
j7n wrote:HighTreason wrote:These days dedicated sound cards are useless as the operating system no longer supports advanced features such as real-time pass-through of Mic/Line inputs, you can only record from one input at a time and the Stereo Mix is gone.
I am still a user of XP, and I am appalled when I hear how modern OSes is crippling the audio subsystem in Windows NT 6. No MIDI configuration? Poor reliability and performance?
Is the lack of the configuration so problematic? It's not like they removed MIDI itself. It's probably an hassle, but workarounds for those selected people that need it are available.
And for the love of god. Are you really claiming 7 is less stable than XP? The only really universally annoying thing is the lack of hardware buffers for DirectSound, which as we know can be somewhat fixed.
j7n wrote:Impossible or difficult to record the stereo out mix for applications like screen capture? The quality of audio codecs has indeed increased with the release of Azalia/HDA, but accesibility of their features is getting hidden beneath Microsoft's generously provided abstraction layers, all there to increase system stability, and root in planned obsolescence and DRM and other evil things like that.
Really? There's an API in windows itself to record audio (since Vista I mean). 8 channel raw PCM can be recorded without any particular knowledge (along with usual 3d party utilities).
And what is this planned obsolescence and DRM thing conspiracy about? I can even record Spotify musics with windows built-in Sound Recorder.
j7n wrote:All this didn't allow the drivers to receive a Windows Hardware Quality Labs approved signature. I'm not sure what happened to the E-MU subdivision of the horrible company that is Creative Labs.
Creative labs is certainly a very very very horrible company (that's why I won't ever buy something from them, not even 3D cameras) but you have wrong ideas about drivers.
WHQL is not required for drivers. You only need it to remove the "do you want to install this driver" warning.
Digital sign is another thing though, even though it's mandatory only on 64 bit systems (even if this can be fixed)
j7n wrote:The cards have no gaming-specific functions apart from basic DirectSound. And because they are low latency devices, they have trouble staying locked to sampling rates lower than 16 or so kHz (which hardly any Windows game outputs).
Oh, this is something I didn't know. What games uses less than 16KHz audio though?