Procedure For Positional Audio and Eax Via Openal for Realtek Onboard? - by mikjames
mikjames on 26/9/2015 at 20:45
So i have heard mention of the ability to get positional audio and eax going with openal for onboard sound but I haven't figured out how to actually install openal.
I have tried Creative's v1.1 installer but it didn't seem to work.
If someone could detail how to actually setup positional audio, and eax, for realtek onboard, in Thief it would be greatly appreciated.
Arcatera on 27/9/2015 at 03:06
Quote Posted by mikjames
So i have heard mention of the ability to get positional audio and eax going with openal for onboard sound but I haven't figured out how to actually install openal.
I have tried Creative's v1.1 installer but it didn't seem to work.
If someone could detail how to actually setup positional audio, and eax, for realtek onboard, in Thief it would be greatly appreciated.
If you are talking about Thief: Deadly Shadows, I couldn't get it to work on Realtek.
For The Dark Project and The Metal Age, you'll need to install TFix and TafferPatcher respectively, then install this if you haven't yet:
(
http://community.pcgamingwiki.com/files/file/10-openal/)
Now launch the game and go to Options > Audio and click on Hardware Acceleration to change it to OpenAL.
Hope this solves your problem. :)
Child Of Karras on 27/9/2015 at 11:11
I know there's ALchemy Universal. ALchemy is a program originally for EAX compatible Creative cards which puts a modified dsound.dll into your game folder which redirects EAX commands to OpenAL. ALchemy Universal is supposed to work on all cards, but I can't give a proof how well EAX is supported. You just gotta try it.
mikjames on 30/9/2015 at 22:47
Quote Posted by Albert
You'll also need OpenAL's software drivers installed, if you want this to work. Although people generally refer to the old version that the official OpenAL developers provided, I would recommend manually installing (
http://kcat.strangesoft.net/openal.html#download) OpenAL Soft (download the binary files, and instructions are included with it). That is kept up to date and has the options for using HRTF, which is what you'll want to use if you want simulated surround (preferably with headphones, which HRTF is meant for).
After you've gotten OpenAL Soft working, (
https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/1fzonq/psa_for_games_using_openal_including_minecraft/cagd3lb) here's a guide for configuring HRTF.
Child Of Karras: Alchemy universal is not necessary for newdark, though for Deadly Shadows it's still useful. Just clarifying this for mikjames, seeing as he didn't state which thief game he wanted EAX emulation for.
I'm in the process of getting openal soft working, however it says I should copy the hrtf 44.1hz and 48hz files from the hrtf folder to a folder that doesn't exist on my computer, so i'm not having much luck with that.
Eax does appear to work after just installing the open al driver (not open al soft and no hrtf) but honestly it doesn't work all that well.
Maybe eax 3 and up sound much better but eax 2 that is use in Thief 2 seems to feature inaccurate reverb in many spots (noticeably doubled sounds rather than proper reverb) as well as some pretty nasty transitions.
I'm honestly more interested in cobbling together an xp rig with an Aureal soundcard at this point. The aureal demo on youtube sounds absolutely beautiful in comparison to eax: (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5E0sXdX-Bc)
It's a damn shame Aureal was bought out, we are only now starting to get a chance at good audio again with vr taking off.
It reminds of when lcds replaced crt's and it took us 10 years to even get close to the golden age we didn't know we had :erg:
Valet2 on 30/9/2015 at 22:54
There is a better option - to use the official Creative X-Fi MB3 driver. It emulates eax 1, 2 and 3 on every soundcard, even your realtek on windows 7 x64. The latest version also supports multichannel output. All you need is to add the game path in ALchemy utility. I've already had fun playing System Shock 2, Half-Life (won version), Aliens vs. Predator Classic and Thief 2 in true 5.1 with eax, just like in old days.
(
ftp://ftp.valet2.com/audigy/sound%20blaster%20x-fi%20mb3.rar)
I've compared with OpenAL - this eax sounds much better.
mikjames on 2/10/2015 at 01:27
Quote Posted by Valet2
There is a better option - to use the official Creative X-Fi MB3 driver. It emulates eax 1, 2 and 3 on every soundcard, even your realtek on windows 7 x64. The latest version also supports multichannel output. All you need is to add the game path in ALchemy utility. I've already had fun playing System Shock 2, Half-Life (won version), Aliens vs. Predator Classic and Thief 2 in true 5.1 with eax, just like in old days.
(
ftp://ftp.valet2.com/audigy/sound%20blaster%20x-fi%20mb3.rar)
I've compared with OpenAL - this eax sounds much better.
Tried it and it isn't compatible with my Realtek Alc 883 chip as far as I can tell.
I'm looking into the modded X-fi mb2 drivers though.
Actually it looks like there are modded drivers available up to Realtek Driver Version 2.78 and they may support mb3.
I look into and see what I can get going.
ticky on 2/10/2015 at 17:31
Quote Posted by Valet2
There is a better option - to use the official Creative X-Fi MB3 driver. It emulates eax 1, 2 and 3 on every soundcard, even your realtek on windows 7 x64. The latest version also supports multichannel output. All you need is to add the game path in ALchemy utility. I've already had fun playing System Shock 2, Half-Life (won version), Aliens vs. Predator Classic and Thief 2 in true 5.1 with eax, just like in old days.
(
ftp://ftp.valet2.com/audigy/sound%20blaster%20x-fi%20mb3.rar)
I've compared with OpenAL - this eax sounds much better.
Will it work with an ASUS card? I have a Xonar u7 and I use OpenAL, the EAX is quite good but when Garret speaks, it is much louder than anything else. Also, there are some other sounds that are louder than others, and it's a bit disturbing, so I'd like to try something more advanced.
svfn on 3/2/2018 at 14:59
Quote Posted by mikjames
Tried it and it isn't compatible with my Realtek Alc 883 chip as far as I can tell.
I'm looking into the modded X-fi mb2 drivers though.
Actually it looks like there are modded drivers available up to Realtek Driver Version 2.78 and they may support mb3.
I look into and see what I can get going.
didnt work with Realtek ALC1150 either. i guess you'd need modded drivers to work with that.
or buy a sound card.
svfn on 5/2/2018 at 06:58
finally got it to work with Creative X-Fi MB3 that you posted, thanks. but i had to 'unlock' it. so it works on ALC1150 with ALchemy the latest one, i did not use Universal.
have not tried Thief, but it works with the original Prey (OpenAL), STALKER, Guild Wars 1, Amnesia and Morrowind.
but still i think it's better to just buy a sound card? since hardware will sound better than Realtek, even though it's going to be emulated via ALchemy too if you are on Windows 10.