GlobFly on 2/10/2012 at 22:44
Thanks to the wondrous new patches that came out recently I have decided to do a full playthrough of Thief Gold through T: DS. I've gotten everything set up and working awesomely in all 3 games, except I can't get EAX support to work in Thief: DS. I have OpenAL as I can select that option with EAX in Thief Gold and Thief 2 and it works *brilliantly*. I can't however select the hardware mixing and EAX controls in the T: DS options page. I just get no sound at all.
I tried searching a bit but I can't really find anything useful. Is there some trick to get EAX via OpenAL/ALchemy?
PS: This is with the GOG version of T: DS, patched with the Sneaky Upgrade (another awesome community work :) )
Gothik on 2/10/2012 at 23:19
If you have ALchemy, it comes with a Thief DS profile. It should just be a matter of installing the profile then you will be able to chose hardware mixing, EAX Advanced and multiple environments in the setup menu. Works fine on my system, no fancy tricks involved.
I'm using and X-Fi card, what soundcard are you trying with?
Albert on 2/10/2012 at 23:21
For EAX: Go download (
https://www.google.com/search?q=creative_alchemy_universal) this. It's a google search for Alchemy Universal, which might help. You just install that and add TDS to it's settings. It will be software EAX, but if what you've said is any evidence, your card does not natively support EAX or you are not using an OS that supports EAX.
Albert on 8/10/2012 at 08:01
GlobFly: So it's been a few days now. Did you take my advice?
GlobFly on 16/10/2012 at 00:11
Quote Posted by Albert
GlobFly: So it's been a few days now. Did you take my advice?
Sorry for the late reply. You are right, I don't have a Creative card so I guess there's no way for me to enable EAX in T: DS. Thanks for your help though, it's much appreciated :)
Albert on 16/10/2012 at 00:17
Alchemy Universal doesn't need a Creative card to work though. It's simple: Google Creative Alchemy 1.00.08 online and find a download for it. It works just the same as normal Alchemy, although w/o the hardware support, as it's just doing software emulation. But that didn't hurt my older computer at all, performance wise. So I'm thinking it would work for you too...
Unless you aren't on Windows 7, though. In that case, all the other ones I've tried don't work on anything older besides Vista.
CiroConsentino on 13/2/2013 at 01:30
Has anyone tried this game with the new Sound Blaster Z ? Since it uses the Sound Core 3D chip, there is no hardware EAX/OpenAL. But the drivers have full EAX 1 to EAX 5 and OpenAL, but it's all by software. Creative Alchemy also comes installed with Z drivers. I'm thinking on buying this card, but I'm affraid that EAX/OpenAL will not be available for games, specially for T3 Deadly Shadows.
Midgard on 9/1/2014 at 04:46
Quote Posted by CiroConsentino
Has anyone tried this game with the new Sound Blaster Z ? Since it uses the Sound Core 3D chip, there is no hardware EAX/OpenAL. But the drivers have full EAX 1 to EAX 5 and OpenAL, but it's all by software. Creative Alchemy also comes installed with Z drivers. I'm thinking on buying this card, but I'm affraid that EAX/OpenAL will not be available for games, specially for T3 Deadly Shadows.
Sorry to resurrect an old topic but I just got my Sound Blaster Z today and I'm
VERY disappointed in how Thief 1/2 sounds with it using EAX in a 2.1 setup. Stereo separation is virtually non-existent for some reason, which of course leaves out any chance of any type of effective positional audio. I use it in conjunction with Alchemy and included the games in its profiles. My el cheapo Realtek onboard sound with EAX enabled under Open AL sounded FAR better than this. Anyone know what could be the problem? I've never heard such poor stereo separation in a game in all my years gaming. I haven't played any other games yet so I'm hoping I don't have a buggy card/software. Even in normal non-EAX mode, the stereo separation is barely there. Might just as well be mono. I'm playing the GOG versions of these games with the latest patches, both official & unofficial TTLG .
M.
PsymH on 9/1/2014 at 09:18
With NewDark you don't need Alchemy anymore, because you can use OpenAL natively. Just change from Software to Hardware, then to OpenAL in the options. But I'm not aware if the GOG version uses NewDark.
Daraan on 9/1/2014 at 11:33
I got a Soundblaster Z myself still playing with alchemy, dind't know OpenAL was available. I remember right after installation that there was something wrong. Like you say the thief lacked stereo. With the software there is the red Soundblaster Z menu with equalizer and stuff and the blue setup. (sorry don't know what the englisch names are) This blue setup program is very important to be exact the polarity option is the important one. In that menu you have to listen to some noise. After choosing the inverted one (and going through all the options in red+blue) everything sounded great.
Now I ahve to choose between Alchemy and OpenAL
