The_Atomik_Punk! on 12/7/2016 at 22:10
I was curious to hear anyone's opinions on their experiences using OpenALSoft with HRTF in Thief 1. After coming across this headphone sound upgrade for System Shock2, I decided to try it out for Thief 1: (
https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=8371.0)
The modification sounds great with SS2, but with Thief 1, things sound quite different with this change. Specifically, at the start of Lord Bafford's Manor, the guards banter has a lot of echo/reverb/(flange?), as does the footsteps, to the point where I find it over-pronounced and thus distracting. Someone on systemshock.org directed me to the OALS config tool where various effects can be disabled, which did reduce the effect somewhat for me, but it's still quite prevalent. I was wondering if others have implemented this feature, and if they experienced the same thing as me. Is this to be expected, or did I bungle something in my install/configuration?
Steelwall on 13/7/2016 at 18:03
The reverb is caused by EAX in the thief in-game audio settings. Try disabling that.
The_Atomik_Punk! on 13/7/2016 at 20:02
Quote Posted by Steelwall
The reverb is caused by EAX in the thief in-game audio settings. Try disabling that.
For sure that remedies the embellished echoing, but the point is, there's something inherent with my OpenALSoft's configuration that causes it's EAX effects for me to sound way overdone, which is not present in System Shock 2. This was supposed to be compatible with the Thief games, so I figured I'd set it up. If I use OpenALSoft without EAX, problem solved, but there's also none of the actual EAX effects then, which is a bummer.
If I comment out using OpenALSoft in cam_ext.cfg (;snd_oal_device OpenAL Soft), and use "regular OpenAL" with EAX set to ON, everything sounds fine and not overblown, but I believe I then lack the HRTF effects that OpenALSoft adds. Does anyone have any experience in setting up HRTF via OpenALSoft with Thief, and did you run into what I am hearing?
Steelwall on 13/7/2016 at 23:32
Here's a (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYIc7HLpk-w) video by hira showing who it should sound like with correct configuration.
Does it sound similar to yours? If it does, then what you're hearing is intended.
If it doesn't, there's something you could try: I noticed that the guide you used had a different configuration from the (
http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/17689-improve-your-tdm-experience-by-playing-with-openal-soft-hrtf-better-3d-audio/) one I used. The guide is for the dark mod but it can also be used for thief (there's information at the bottom regarding setting it up for thief 1/2). And obviously change the "TheDarkMod.exe" to "thief.exe" from the test bat file. Make sure that openallog.txt (the log that the bat file gives you) has something similar to this somewhere in it: "UpdateDeviceParams: HRTF enabled, "default-44100.mhr"". If not, make sure that that alsoft.ini and openal is in the correct location: %appdata% = yourname/appdata/roaming (at least on win 7). Also remove the stuff you wrote into cam_ext.cfg as it isn't necessary with this guide and make sure you aren't forcing any surround sound in cam_ext.cfg, such as "snd_speaker_config 6".
The_Atomik_Punk! on 14/7/2016 at 16:57
Quote Posted by Steelwall
Here's a (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYIc7HLpk-w) video by hira showing who it should sound like with correct configuration.
Does it sound similar to yours? If it does, then what you're hearing is intended.
If it doesn't, there's something you could try: I noticed that the guide you used had a different configuration from the (
http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/17689-improve-your-tdm-experience-by-playing-with-openal-soft-hrtf-better-3d-audio/) one I used. The guide is for the dark mod but it can also be used for thief (there's information at the bottom regarding setting it up for thief 1/2). And obviously change the "TheDarkMod.exe" to "thief.exe" from the test bat file. Make sure that openallog.txt (the log that the bat file gives you) has something similar to this somewhere in it: "UpdateDeviceParams: HRTF enabled, "default-44100.mhr"". If not, make sure that that alsoft.ini and openal is in the correct location: %appdata% = yourname/appdata/roaming (at least on win 7). Also remove the stuff you wrote into cam_ext.cfg as it isn't necessary with this guide and make sure you aren't forcing any surround sound in cam_ext.cfg, such as "snd_speaker_config 6".
Yeah, you nailed it Steelwall. My game was not sounding like that video, and the guide you linked is more extensive than the one I followed. In that thread, another user complained of the echo being way overblown in Thief 2, so he mentioned a setting in the alsoft.ini that would tame it:
[reverb]
## boost: (global)
# A global amplification for reverb output, expressed in decibels. The value
# is logarithmic, so +6 will be a scale of (approximately) 2x, +12 will be a
# scale of 4x, etc. Similarly, -6 will be about half, and -12 about 1/4th. A
# value of 0 means no change.
boost = -12
By uncommenting it, and setting it to -12, the magnitude of the reverb is reduced by approximately %75, which makes it sound as intended to my ears. I'll try to post a shitty Youtube video demonstrating the before and after. Thank you very much Steelwall for the help; Thief now sounds killer!
*EDIT Here's the aformentioned shitty video I threw together demonstrating what I was experiencing, and the improvement with that .ini edit:
(
http://vid93.photobucket.com/albums/l56/3The_Atomik_Punk3/EAX%20Reverb%20Comparison_zpsnlbrqz7l.mp4)
