Sound Fix in DarkEngine games

sNeaksieGarrett on 28/1/2009 at 16:44

Fix didn't work:erg:, but thanks.

Malleus on 30/1/2009 at 18:28

This is probably a noob question, but if I have an 5.1 speaker setup, and the game has harware acceleration off in the audio menu, it still uses all five (six) speakers, right?

baeuchlein on 31/1/2009 at 10:54

Quote Posted by Malleus

if I have an 5.1 speaker setup, and the game has harware acceleration off in the audio menu, it still uses all five (six) speakers, right?

I usually get sound only from the two stereo speakers in this case, and I have verified this with at least two different sound cards. Unless your sound card drivers are very different, you only get stereo sound from two speakers.

dimbiaenpet on 14/7/2009 at 18:29

Hello,
I have a question concerning this sound fix.
Just installed thief2 since a long time and the sounds are normal. But when, for examble, I go to my map and return to the game, the sounds are incredibly loud. Some moving around with mouse stops most of the loud noises, but I have to set the ambient noise back manually.

I have an audigy 2 ZS soundcard. Will this soundfix also fix my problem and will it have any consequences for other games/movies?

Thank you.
I'll be glad to give more info if asked for.

DaNtAn on 31/7/2009 at 21:37

Quote Posted by Guest Thief Garrett

Ok, firstly I would like to say thanks to "DaNtAn" for getting the sound to work perfectly for me (I can now hear footsteps, myself jumping/landing, voice acting, doors opening etc.)

But.....the game freezes for me now!! (and not in the same area/time either)
Sometimes, it happens directly when I move at the start of the first mission, other times I would get as far as a sewer, jump down and then it freezes, another time it froze when I got to the well area.

Anyone know how to fix this problem? I'm very close to giving up at this stage (first the videos didn't work, I fixed that. Then I got the blank screen, I fixed that problem eventually also. Then as you know, the sound wasn't working, and now, it freezes! I've never came across a more non XP-friendly game than this!)

First off, I'm glad that 3d sound works for you now :) ! I'm on Vista now and have a generic on board sound card, my in game Hardware Acceleration option is disabled (So is EAX), I will see if what I have posted works for Vista too :).

I had the same problem with the Freezing issue. But it was because of another thing. Do you by any chance have a Wide screen monitor? If so, do the following :

NOTE 01: Install the update (1.07 > 1.18).
NOTE 02: MAKE A BACKUP OF YOUR GAME'S EXE FILE ! ! ! ; Just make a copy of it.
NOTE 03: Download a "fix" (Use the Australian one, works great, don't blame me if it doesn't) and replace the game exe (Do NOTE 02 FIRST!), start following the instructions :).

01) Download DDFix ;
02) Go to where you have installed the game (t1/t2 or SS2) (leave that folder open in the background) ;
03) Press the Start button and type in the "Start Search" field, notepad (notepad should open up, if your on XP just select the "Run" command) ;
04) Drag and Drop the file CAM.CFG (from your T2 directory) into the notepad window ;
05) Change the value of the following line to any wide screen resolution (1440 900 or 1680 1050 are nice resolutions :) ) : game_screen_size 1440 900
*If you do not have the following line, than add it*
06) Extract the contents of the file ddfix to your game directory;
07) Run ddfix and press the "Expert Mode" button (a new window should come up);
08) Inside the new window (ddfix.ini) specify the same width and height that you've set in the CAM.CFG file.
09) Save the changes and close the window ;
10) Run ddfix again, but this time around press the "Apply Patch" button ;
11) Download DarkWidescreen-v6r3 and extract it to your game dir ;
12) Read the readme file of DarkWidescreen-v6r3 it's pretty straight forward ;
13) After reading it, run DarkWidescreen-v6r3 and set the same resolution that you have set in CAM.CFG and ddfix.ini ;

This where the steps that I toke to make my Thief 2 run. I hope it will help you too :)

Quote Posted by KoHaN69

I have a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz,
should't that support the A3D correctly out of the box?

I sitll don't understand what's causing the issue with the audio levels. :confused:

(http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/santacruz/)
It's not an A3D capable card. Sorry :erm:
Montego II Quadzilla is one of the few that has the 8830 chip on it :(

cyclops1101 on 11/8/2009 at 19:26

The A3D.dll fix did not work for me, Im still experiencing very quite sounds when up close to them and I can barely hear footsteps. So im thinking of getting another sound card, my current is a c-media onboard.
My question will another sound card make the ingame sounds better or will it still use the A3D.dll?

baeuchlein on 12/8/2009 at 10:18

Quote Posted by cyclops1101

Everything is possible, unfortunately. If you really want to buy another sound card, make sure that

* the problem is not present when using your onboard sound chip and playing with hardware (sound) acceleration off - if it's still present then, it's not a problem with a3d.dll, as far as I know
* the onboard sound of your motherboard can be disabled
* the sound card you buy works flawlessly for another one playing Thief

The last one is a bit difficult. Ideally, you should find someone using the same operating system which you use and already using exactly the same sound card which you want to buy. If this other player has no problems with sound when playing Thief with hardware acceleration (sound, not graphics), then this would be a solution for your problem.

The more you deviate from this line, the more uncertain your results will be - I think.

I am using a C-Media onboard sound as well, but I don't know which one it is exactly, and I have not tried much concerning hardware accelerated positioning sounds in Thief. My sound chip is connected to the VIA VT8237 south bridge on my ASRock K7VT4A Pro motherboard. What can you tell us about your C-Media onboard sound? Maybe someone else knows more about your sound chip.

(EDIT) I have identified my C-Media sound chip as a VIA3059/CMI9761 sound chip by now.(/EDIT)

cyclops1101 on 17/8/2009 at 18:11

I have no idea about my C-media or how to find out.

Quote:

the problem is not present when using your onboard sound chip and playing with hardware (sound) acceleration off - if it's still present then, it's not a problem with a3d.dll, as far as I know

It works flawlessly with Acceleration off. So I tried Thief on a computer that is using a Toshiba Sound/usb hub and Thief works perfectly with Acceleration on. So I bought one (please note this hardware is not compatable with Vista, Well not without some major tweaking!) and everything sounds like it should except closing doors are mysteriously quiet, Im sure they used to be louder. but all other sounds are spot on. :-)

DaNtAn on 1/9/2009 at 20:12

Have you tried, installing different drivers for your C-Media chip? cyclops1101 are you running a Vista setup or an older setup (XP, 2000 or Win9x)?

cyclops1101 on 1/9/2009 at 20:54

I may try different drivers in the future but for now my current setup works perfectly. I use a Win XP setup :thumb: