Understanding Audio

[revival]

I'm trying to figure out what sound card to get so i have some questions

Eax doesn't work in Vista because the way the sound is handled Correct?

EAX will work if there is some kind of wrapper for it ( ie..Alchemy) Correct?

Vista does support OpenAl

So all new games will not use EAX but OpenAL correct?

Just trying to figure out If EAX is dead and therefore if I need a Creative card.

Thanks

 

[ZippZopp]

i haven't tried alchemy...i have a x-fi xtremegamer in vista 64 with klipsch promedia 5.1 speakers ..using a modified driver package by youp-pax. i guess i just use the positional audio, i haven't really messed around with any EAX stuff...am i really missing out in my games by not using any eax stuff? should i install alchemy?

 

[Tenser]

Here is how I understand it. Hopefully someone will correct any major errors.

In Windows XP, DirectSound3D games could interact with sound cards at a low level using something called the Hardware Abstraction Layer. Vista doesn't work like that, so when your DirectSound3D game tries to find a sound card with hardware acceleration, basically it just finds Vista's sound kernel and gives it the basic DirectSound sounds. But OpenAL works on Vista, as well as on Windows XP, so games can utilize hardware acceleration including features like EAX.

OpenAL is not an alternative to EAX so much as an alternative to the old method of DS3D->HAL->sound card. Actually if you play something like Quake 4 on Vista with an X-fi or Audigy, you are getting EAX capabilities directly through OpenAL. So for the DS3D, Creative came up with ALchemy, which is just a wrapper to take DirectSound input, and send the DS3D parts through OpenAL so that they can access the sound card. The only problem is some information isn't compatible or something, so there are certain settings which must be configured in an .ini file for each game (buffers, durations, number of voices). As long as these setting are configured right, the EAX and everything else should work properly (if the ALchemy settings are wrong, you get stuttering sound or other problems).

What will happen with future games is a big question mark. Will they use EAX? Will they even use OpenAL at all? Or will 3D sound processing become a job of the game software and the CPU?

 

[Hurshai]

Or will 3D sound processing become a job of the game software and the CPU?

Isn't that already the case in Source based games?

 

[cocheese256]

I have an XFi sound card paired with Vista 64. Source games such as half life 2 series are the main games I have trouble with. I believe HL uses direct sound (please correct me if I'm wrong). I have to use Alchemy to get surround sound on these games. If I do not use Alchemy (& don't input the correct buffers and settings manually), I can only get sound out of my left and right front speakers. Alchemy lists a profile for Oblivion, but I do not use it because the surround sound works just fine in it. Newer games that I have installed work fine as far as audio goes (ie UT3, Crysis, Gears of War.) These are just some findings that I have come across. Don't know if this is any help. I just wish there was a way to get all direct audio games to work in Vista without the use of Alchemy.