Sound Fix in DarkEngine games

DaNtAn on 24/9/2007 at 18:45

Here is the deal : If you have an on-board audio drive using (http://www.3dsoundsurge.com/features/articles/Sensaura/index.html) Sensaura as a 3D sound API (Audio3d.dll) certain sounds will sound distorted. Examples of this are : Footsteps , dialogs between NPC's (Which are in the same room as the player, but only a couple of feet away) will have sound muffled (or will have a low volume). The Audio3d.dll file is actually a disguised a3d.dll file. Many integrated sound cards from "(http://www.analog.com/en/index.html) Analog Audio", use Sensaura's API to render 3D Audio.

Sensaura has been bought by Creative a few years back, so, if you have an Audigy Sound card and you experience the same sound problems with Dark Engine games, then most probably it's the API. :erg:

Ok so in order to play System Shock II or Thief I/II with plus minus "properly working" you'll have to do the following:

1)Use any web crawler to find the file a3d.dll (File Version: 80.0.0.3; Description: a3dx5; File Size: 65,536 bytes or 64 KB), this file is translating a3d calls into directx 5 calls (A quick search of "a3d.dll a3dx5" on google gave me a few links where I could download the file or the zipped version of it).
2)Run your game and set Hardware acceleration to "OFF" and exit the game.
3)Press Start > Run and enter the following : "x:\WINDOWS\system32\dllcache\" (x stands for the drive that windows is installed on).
4)In "dllcache" directory rename the existing "a3d.dll" file to "a3d.dll_", now copy the "a3d.dll" that you downloaded.
5)Go into sytem32 directory and copy that file here too (If it exists then replace it).
6)Close that directory, run the game, set "Hardware Acceleration" to "On" and "EAX settings" to "On".
7) If EAX doesn't work, then search for this file (http://anonym.to/?http://www.megaupload.com/?d=7G4QKFFJ) "eax3.exe" download and install. It allows EAX 2.0/3.0 software emulation on any sound card with EAX 1.0 support.

If it works (and it should work) then your good to go! Otherwise something else is wrong :/ (If it doesn't then you did not follow the instructions well).

Enjoy!

PS N1: I would be happy if moderators could add this fix to Thief I/II System Shock II Technical list, or turn it into a sticky thread. Thanks!

PS N2: Initially, I have forgot to add an extra piece of information regarding the sound fix. If for any reason you can't seem to replace the a3d.dll file in your system32 and system folders, reboot into "Safe Mode" and repeat the aforementioned steps, then reboot into normal mode and check the size and the description of a3d.dll, it SHOULD (theoretically) work.

Biohazard on 26/9/2007 at 15:43

Can I get some confirmations as to whether this fix works?

DaNtAn on 28/9/2007 at 03:17

video file on some "upload" web-site (with sound)?

You can try it yourself (try renaming the a3d file that you have in your dllcache folder) and copy in the one I recommended. Tell me if you see any difference in 3d sound bias volume levels I sure did.. and I've got some sound cards lying around my house.

ESS:1938/1868
Creative: Ensonique PCI / Sound Blaster Live! 5.1
and some mobos with integrated CMedia chipsets (83xx/87xx chips).

I had the prob on those with the CMedia chipsets so I don't play Thief 2 on them anymore, but now seems like it's working. It didn't work on my last computer (the one that I use now), it has an Analgo Devices onboard chip and I had the same issue as with the CMedia one's, so I really wanted to fix it, I remembered that when my Ensonique didn't do any EAX I messed around with the a3dx5 and with the eax3.exe and it worked :). so I tried it with this one and by changing only the a3d.dll it worked.

Quote:

Travis over at Aureal A3D Central sent in some detailed info on how the A3D "patch" works. It is actually A2D, which translates A3D 2.0 sound into DirectSound 3D that the SBLive! supports. Here's more:

Just thought I would try and make the news about 3D sound working on other sound cards in Quake 3: Arena more cleaer... The so called patch is actually the Aureal A2D driers which have been available for awhile now but few people took notice of them since they were only mentioned on Aureal's WWW site recently.

The A2D drivers allow basic 3D sound through DirectSound3D on sound cards which support DirectSound3D and basic software Aureal A3D on sound cards which have no 3D sound support. But only if a game uses Aureal A3D 2.x with it resource manager, so far the only titles I know of which do this are Flatland Rover, Quake 3: Arena and Star Wars: Episode 1 Pod Racer.

If you want to find out more about this I suggest you read the Aureal A3D 2.x technical brief or read the documentation included with the Aureal A3D 2.x SDK.

Taken from (http://alive.singnet.com.sg/tech/games/) ALive!

jtr7 on 1/10/2007 at 06:38

EAX Setting isn't even an available option in my Audio configuration screens. It's listed on the screen but it's disabled. Different settings in my Audigy's control panels have no effect. A search shows a lot of similar problems but doesn't provide a solution that works for me.

DaNtAn on 1/10/2007 at 19:49

jtr7:
The "Audigy's control panel" won't help you. Have you tried the eax3.exe ? DO NOT INSTALL IT BEFORE BACKING UP YOUR original EAX.dll, the EAX.dll should be in two directories, "dllchache" and "system32" (The one that came with your Drivers).

Have you checked what is the real name of your a3d.dll file? To see it, get to the dll Properties then select the version tab there you should see if it's a3dx5 or the original a3d dll. If you have the a3dx5 dll, EAX should work on your sound card (supposedly if its a Creative card:confused: ). If it's the original a3d.dll then back it up and replace it with the a3dx5 dll.

The Audigy cards relay on OpenAL to do the EAX functions, but they have the old EAX2 dll in order to let older software make use of it.

jtr7 tell me if it worked.

Edit: Creative's "Audio Control Panel" does include some interesting features, after playing around with (Sound Blaster Live 5.1 had different "Audio Control Panel" than the one that X-Fi has), I've noticed difference in how things sound before and after, when playing games (Not Thief series games).

jtr7 on 1/10/2007 at 20:46

It didn't work, dang it.

I don't hear a difference, or see any changes.

I'm wondering what happened to my Options, though. Until I tried this, I didn't know I had lost the option to turn my Thief Gold Hardware acceleration back to On, but I can with Metal Age. The option is green and blinks when I click it, but nothing else happens. And I used to have the EAX Settings turned On but (you know) it didn't work right, so I turned them off. Now the option has somehow become disabled. It's white for both games and doesn't even blink when I click it.

Should I reinstall the soundcard and games? I'd rather not, but if it'll reset something that somehow got changed....

Morgoth on 23/12/2007 at 09:42

I downloaded the a3d.dll a3dx5 (64kbyte) and placed it into the system32 and dllcache folders....however, after a few seconds, both files get replaced with a 96kbyte a3d.dll (v2.09) again - automatically. No wonder it doesn't work. Does anyone know how to prevent this?

EvaUnit02 on 23/12/2007 at 10:08

Try placing them in the game directories of T1/2/SS2.

ataricom on 5/1/2008 at 01:40

Is this at all related to the sound bug in T2? By that I mean footsteps/doors/guards, etc. sound normal, but most smaller object hits sound really quiet.

Bjossi on 5/1/2008 at 14:00

If the downloaded a3d dll gets replaced in the Windows folder by the one that came with the audio drivers; how are we supposed to use it? Place it in the games' main folder sounds good, but it ain't gonna be used without writing some cmd parameters as far as I know. . .