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First post, by thecrankyhermit

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This is the GFWL version from 2007, not Gears of War Ultimate. Update 3 is installed. I have onboard Realtek audio, and external 5.1 speakers connected via analog jacks.

I've tried following this guide:
https://hardforum.com/threads/how-to-get-5-1- … post-1031653359

Didn't work. The "AL_RENDERER" value found was just "Software," and using that as DeviceName just disabled my sound.

I also tried IndirectSound and DSOAL by plopping the dlls inside the game binary directory, but in either case the game refused to launch, saying "You cannot run the game with modified executable code."

Also tried following stuff on this page:
Not Old But... Gears of War Trouble

ALCapsViewer shows these OpenAL Devices:
OpenAL Soft
Generic Software

Using the former as DeviceName in my GoW settings disables most of the ingame audio.

Running:
Windows 10
Core i5-6600
Geforce GTX 970
8GB RAM

Reply 2 of 9, by thecrankyhermit

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------------------
System Information
------------------
Report Time: 2020/8/17 11:17:43
BIOS: ALASKA - 1072009 BIOS Date: 03/06/17 17:42:35 Ver: 05.0000C
Processor: ~3312MHz Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-6600 CPU @ 3.30GHz
Memory: 8 GB
Default Audio Device Name: Realtek HD Audio 2nd output (Realtek High Definition Audio)
Audio Driver Filename: {0.0.0.00000000}.{433e4252-fbe0-4653-aa67-9ee1e3034960}
Audio Driver File Version:
Audio Driver Product Version:
ALCapsViewer Version: 1.0.3.0

-----------------
OpenAL Components
-----------------
Name Path Real Path Version
OpenAL32.dll C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\ C:\Windows\SysWOW64\OpenAL32.dll 6.14.357.24
soft_oal.dll C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\ C:\Windows\SysWOW64\soft_oal.dll 6.14.357.24
wrap_oal.dll C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\ C:\Windows\SysWOW64\wrap_oal.dll 2.2.0.5

--------------
OpenAL Devices
--------------
Name: OpenAL Soft
Sample Offset: Yes
Linear Distance Model: Yes
Exponent Distance Model: Yes
Capture: Yes
Enumeration: Yes
EAX 2.0: No
EAX 3.0: No
EAX 4.0: No
EAX 5.0: No
X-RAM: No
Enumerate All: Yes
EFX 1.0: Yes

Name: Generic Software
Sample Offset: Yes
Linear Distance Model: Yes
Exponent Distance Model: Yes
Capture: Yes
Enumeration: Yes
EAX 2.0: Yes
EAX 3.0: No
EAX 4.0: No
EAX 5.0: No
X-RAM: No
Enumerate All: Yes
EFX 1.0: Yes

Running:
Windows 10
Core i5-6600
Geforce GTX 970
8GB RAM

Reply 3 of 9, by Choum

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First update openal drivers, you do not have the latest one.
https://www.openal.org/downloads/
OpenAL 1.1 Windows Installer (zip)

Then tweak your warengineusersettings.ini and change these to the following:
DeviceName=OpenAL Soft

If openal Soft do not work try with
Devicename=Generic Software

as you can't use DSOAL with this game (or other sound wrapper), you will not be able to access the "Generic Hardware" which is the name of the directsound3D openal output.

Reply 4 of 9, by thecrankyhermit

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Installing OpenAL 1.1 didn't seem to make a difference. I didn't see any difference in the "save info" content, and the results are still the same. Setting DeviceName to "OpenAL Soft" mutes all of the dialogue and gunfire sounds. I'm assuming that anything positional gets disabled (you can still hear music, ambient noise, UI bleeps, and a few other sound effects).

But... I found a solution, while trying to fix another issue. The game kept losing my checkpoints and saved games. It wasn't consistent, but it seemed like each time I started GoW for the first time in any given day, my saves and user setting would just be gone. So I got this tool called "xlive emulator" and dropped it in the binaries folder, which disables the GFWL interface and stores saves in a local folder. I don't yet know if this solved my saves issue, but I tried using IndirectSound, and this time it ran! Then I set DeviceName to "Generic Hardware" and I got surround sound.

DSOAL still doesn't work though. The executable just closes without any message. I know DSOAL is supposed to be better.

Running:
Windows 10
Core i5-6600
Geforce GTX 970
8GB RAM

Reply 5 of 9, by thecrankyhermit

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Okay, this is very odd. When I have IndirectSound's eax2 enabled, positional separation seems to be "harder," for lack of a better word. But I periodically hear - and I swear I'm not joking here - the game pause sound effect from Super Mario Bros. 3. I only hear it during action, and it's quieter than the normal sound effects, but it's there, and I may hear it as often as twice in a minute.

Doing any of the following seems to disable the SMB3 sound:
* Turning off IndirectSound's eax2
* Setting DeviceName=Generic Software
* Lowering the "Sound Effects Volume" by a lot
* Audio Effects: Off

The saves aren't getting lost any more, at least.

Running:
Windows 10
Core i5-6600
Geforce GTX 970
8GB RAM

Reply 6 of 9, by Choum

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thecrankyhermit wrote on 2020-08-19, 16:04:
Okay, this is very odd. When I have IndirectSound's eax2 enabled, positional separation seems to be "harder," for lack of a bett […]
Show full quote

Okay, this is very odd. When I have IndirectSound's eax2 enabled, positional separation seems to be "harder," for lack of a better word. But I periodically hear - and I swear I'm not joking here - the game pause sound effect from Super Mario Bros. 3. I only hear it during action, and it's quieter than the normal sound effects, but it's there, and I may hear it as often as twice in a minute.

Doing any of the following seems to disable the SMB3 sound:
* Turning off IndirectSound's eax2
* Setting DeviceName=Generic Software
* Lowering the "Sound Effects Volume" by a lot
* Audio Effects: Off

The saves aren't getting lost any more, at least.

Why are you are not using the generic software, surround will work with that settings.
At that time, by default the game was using generic software (on vista).

Reply 7 of 9, by jonpol

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thecrankyhermit wrote on 2020-08-19, 16:04:
Okay, this is very odd. When I have IndirectSound's eax2 enabled, positional separation seems to be "harder," for lack of a bett […]
Show full quote

Okay, this is very odd. When I have IndirectSound's eax2 enabled, positional separation seems to be "harder," for lack of a better word. But I periodically hear - and I swear I'm not joking here - the game pause sound effect from Super Mario Bros. 3. I only hear it during action, and it's quieter than the normal sound effects, but it's there, and I may hear it as often as twice in a minute.

Doing any of the following seems to disable the SMB3 sound:
* Turning off IndirectSound's eax2
* Setting DeviceName=Generic Software
* Lowering the "Sound Effects Volume" by a lot
* Audio Effects: Off

Haha, this made me smile 😀

One of the problems with the faked EAX emulation in IndirectSound is that some games (correctly) use obstruction or occlusion which is supposed to do a low pass filter that IndirectSound doesn't do. In some cases this isn't a big deal, but if there is a lot of obstruction/occlusion then the sound should get very quiet, but in IndirectSound it will still sound loud. This is why EAX fake emulation is now disabled by default.

My guess is that's what causes the SMB3 sound to be audible (and why lowering the volume fixes it). It might also be there without EAX but just played at a lower volume.

This wouldn't help you fix anything, but if you want to satisfy your curiosity you can email indirectsound@gmail.com and we can try to capture the sound to hear it in isolation and figure out what it really is.

thecrankyhermit wrote on 2020-08-19, 16:04:

When I have IndirectSound's eax2 enabled, positional separation seems to be "harder," for lack of a better word.

IndirectSound itself doesn't do anything differently with 3D sound with eax2 enabled, but it's possible the game itself might have different settings somehow. I wouldn't recommend using either eax1 or eax2 with IndirectSound unless it's necessary (some games won't enable 3D sound without it). None of the EAX effects are actually emulated (yet), and things might actually sound worse instead of just missing (like with the obstruction/occlusion example).

Reply 8 of 9, by thecrankyhermit

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Choum wrote on 2020-08-20, 15:29:

Why are you are not using the generic software, surround will work with that settings.

It doesn't, though. With Generic Software, only my front left and right speakers produce any sound at all. I can put my ear right up next to a surround speaker and not hear a thing. Generic Hardware and IndirectSound is the only way I've found that works.

jonpol wrote on 2020-08-20, 16:04:

IndirectSound itself doesn't do anything differently with 3D sound with eax2 enabled, but it's possible the game itself might have different settings somehow. I wouldn't recommend using either eax1 or eax2 with IndirectSound unless it's necessary (some games won't enable 3D sound without it). None of the EAX effects are actually emulated (yet), and things might actually sound worse instead of just missing (like with the obstruction/occlusion example).

Is it possible/likely that with eax off, the game is applying obstruction/occlusion in software, but with eax on, it's deferring that effect to nonexistent hardware? With eax off, the sound of gunfire from behind you is quieter than the sound of gunfire from in front of you, even at the same distances. With eax2 on, they're about the same.

Running:
Windows 10
Core i5-6600
Geforce GTX 970
8GB RAM

Reply 9 of 9, by jonpol

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thecrankyhermit wrote on 2020-08-21, 17:56:
jonpol wrote on 2020-08-20, 16:04:

IndirectSound itself doesn't do anything differently with 3D sound with eax2 enabled, but it's possible the game itself might have different settings somehow. I wouldn't recommend using either eax1 or eax2 with IndirectSound unless it's necessary (some games won't enable 3D sound without it). None of the EAX effects are actually emulated (yet), and things might actually sound worse instead of just missing (like with the obstruction/occlusion example).

Is it possible/likely that with eax off, the game is applying obstruction/occlusion in software, but with eax on, it's deferring that effect to nonexistent hardware? With eax off, the sound of gunfire from behind you is quieter than the sound of gunfire from in front of you, even at the same distances. With eax2 on, they're about the same.

It's definitely possible. Any game using DirectSound probably doesn't actually implement a low pass filter, but it is easy to just make the sounds quieter by adjusting the volume or the falloff distance rather than relying on EAX obstruction or occlusion.

As to whether it's likely, that's hard to say. I wouldn't have expected Gears of War to have sophisticated EAX since it was originally developed for Xbox (it's trivial to just turn on EAX reverb, but setting up occlusion and obstruction objects takes more development time and adds complexity and it is comparatively rare even on PC games of the time), but I guess it depends on how dedicated they were when making the port. Mass Effect 1 has similar behavior with IndirectSound and EAX to what you describe, so it's definitely not without precedent.

Edit: I guess I didn't make it clear, but I actually looked into why some sounds were too loud in Mass Effect 1 and so I know that's what caused it. It's been a number of years and so I don't remember details, but they were relying on occlusion or obstruction for some sounds when EAX was enabled, but when it was disabled they were adjusting some other non-EAX property to make them quieter.