Descent: Freespace missing 3d Audio in retail version \ VOGONS

Descent: Freespace missing 3d Audio in retail version

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First post, by vrubayka

Posted on 2022-11-03, 22:55

vrubayka Offline

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I've installed the GOG version of Freespace 1 and A3d-creative.

The 3d sound worked in the GOG version however the game had an extra patch for EAX effects that isn't included in the GOG version. The GOG .exe cannot be patched because it was modified to remove DRM. Therefore I installed the retail version and patched it myself.

However in the retail version the 3d sound is completely absent. Even if I place the a3d .dlls into the game's folder. The retail game Launcher seems to pick up the dsound.dll from Creative ALchemy and correctly recognizes it, although I am not sure the EAX effects have been enabled. But there's definitely no 3d sound to speak of.

I'll settle for the GoG version for now, but has anybody been able to get both 3d Sound and EAX to work in this game on a modern machine?

Reply 1 of 3, by akula65

Posted on 2022-11-05, 15:50

akula65 Offline

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Are you absolutely, positively certain you used the correct EAX patch version? There were a number of regional patch versions for the regular and EAX patches. I don't know what happens if you use the wrong patch on a particular regional version (i.e. does it crash, does it check for the correct region and tell you if you are using the wrong patch for that region?).

Reply 2 of 3, by vrubayka

Posted on 2022-11-05, 17:15

vrubayka Offline

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If the regions don't match, then it won't get patched, the installer will say that the .exe is wrong.
After I applied all of the patches I had the

1.06 EAX

in the lower right corner of the game's main menu.

Maybe it's due to the fact that the retail version can't find the SysWoW64 path due to OS incompatibility. The GOG .exe is probably updated so that the registry paths of the new OS are accounted for, but I did set the Win98 compatibility mode on the retail version. Not sure what the problem might be.

Reply 3 of 3, by Hezus

Posted on 2022-11-06, 12:07

Hezus Offline

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I can verify that the EAX patch works on Win98SE with an Audigy 2.

It's probably an OS issue. If I recall correctly, the EAX API was discontinued with Windows Vista.

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