The Fire Eater on 23/3/2010 at 12:04
This is again something very strange that has occured regarding my sound card settings. As I stated in my other post I have a Creative X-FI Gamer card and when I first opened up the game and went into audio, I could get 24 and enable Hardware/EAX (although doing that really didn't make it sound right). I only have Sub-woofer with 2 sats although they have kindof a surround sound capabiltiy. So turning Hardware off/EAX off gave me more sound as the other sounded very muffled. Well anyway, after a bit of fooling around with trying to make my bindings work (as described in my other post regarding this, the system got ticked at me and crashed out.
After I was able to boot the machine back up again and get the game reopened, I discovered that the number of voices that only show up now is 12 and my Hardware is grayed out. I don't know why or what to do to be able to at least use the 24 again? Don't know why the EAX sounded so lousy but I can live with that although being able to turn Hardware on/off should still function properly. When I tested the card though it's console it performed as it should so the driver seems not to have been corrupted in the system. Any ideas anyone? :confused: Thank you.
bikerdude on 23/3/2010 at 16:38
Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling the latest driver..?
what version of windows are you running..?
The Fire Eater on 23/3/2010 at 19:54
Hi Biker, thanks for reply. I ddn't put all the specs in this thread because it is in my other one. ;) However, when I opened the game again a little while ago, the audio is sortof working OK again. The 24 voices are back and the Hardware funtion is OK, not greyed out but EAX looks like it's not useable (it's white) and didn't bother to check it cause I was satisfied the other two functions are working again and didn't want to push my luck! :)
Whew! But now I seem to have another more serious problem with cam.cfg file and I shall put that in a new thread.
FYI:
System Specs: XP-Sp3; ATI Radeon HD3850 1mg vid mem (drv.9.2); CPU AMD Athlon 64X2 5400+ 2.8Ghz; Creative X-Fi Gamer; Pioneer DVD combo; 630W PS; and a 23" Samsung WS VGA/DVI *using DVI hookup (1440x900 or 1920x1080 res only).
baeuchlein on 3/4/2010 at 14:03
Quote Posted by The Fire Eater
the audio is sortof working OK again. The 24 voices are back and the Hardware funtion is OK, not greyed out but EAX looks like it's not useable (it's white)
If
Hardware sound (or
Hardware accelerated sound or whatever it's called in the appropriate menu) is set to
off, then EAX cannot be used and is therefore displayed in white (and should read
off, too). This is normal.
If, however, hardware accelerated sound is set to
on in
Thief 2, you should be able to change EAX (unless you sound card does not support EAX, but since you were able to turn it on in the past, it's safe to assume that your sound card does support EAX). If this is not the case, then there's something wrong.
On the other hand, I've given up getting hardware sound and EAX up and running on my systems a long time ago. Anything other than both set to off was not satisfactory in the long run. But, of course, your mileage may vary.;)
The Fire Eater on 5/4/2010 at 20:01
Thanks for reply baeuchlein , however when I did try to use Hardware accel and eax it sounded very muffled and had better sound with them off, even just hardware accel did not have the volume that it did with it off...go figure? Since I don't have multiple speakers EAX is of no real advantage in any case. My speaker system does have somewhat of a surround sound effect, that is the sound can be switched so it comes from the back and gives a better stereo sound. When I use the tester in my control panel for my sound card, it has a pretty good 360 degree feedback, so guess I'll just be happy with that. :)
baeuchlein on 6/4/2010 at 14:48
Quote Posted by The Fire Eater
when I did try to use Hardware accel and eax it sounded very muffled
Seems to be a common problem with
Hardware Sound and
EAX set to
on in
Thief. You can read all about my not-so-satisfactory encounter with
Thief,
Hardware accelerated sound and
EAX (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=117175&p=1700111&viewfull=1#post1700111) here. The thread there contains some attempts at fixing EAX sound as well, with results ranging from "wasted time and nothing else" to "YAY! Finally!" for a variety of people. Maybe you're on the lucky end of the spectrum.;)
Quote Posted by The Fire Eater
Since I don't have multiple speakers EAX is of no real advantage in any case.
That is not entirely correct. Although EAX is commonly associated with "sound from more than just two stereo speakers" in
Thief, EAX actually is something else.
EAX alone provides you with so-called
environmental sound effects. For example, when you're in Bafford's cellar in the beginning of
Thief, you can hear an echo whenever sounds play. The conversation of the two guards you encounter there will be played with some echo as well. This is done with EAX; if you turn off EAX (or if it does not work for you for whatever reason), you won't hear that echo there. And this echo effect is present even on sound hardware which cannot support more than two speakers, but still allows one to set
EAX to
on in the game's sound menu.
However, without turning EAX on, you can't use more than two stereo speakers in
Thief, thus many people believe EAX means the same as "5.1 sound" or something similar.
Unfortunately, "your mileage may vary" (and quite a lot, I may add) is true for the EAX effects as well. Several people have already stated that they found Bafford's cellar
too "echoey" with EAX and turned it off, then. I think someone even had echoed sounds
anywhere in the game. (Could provide quite a surreal effect if Garrett thinks something to himself, and the player hears this
with echo, too.:cheeky:) For me, EAX sound effects sometimes emanated from the wrong speakers even in stereo sound setups.:nono:
Anyway... Use whatever sound option pleases you and put as much time and effort as
you prefer into turning on various sound effects. I have given up using more than non-accelerated two-speaker standard sounds for my machines by now, but only after extensive testing.
The Fire Eater on 7/4/2010 at 00:46
Thank you again for a very nice reply and I believe I had already scanned through your other thread, however I'm still left with the fact that even Hardware accel turned on did not produce as good of sound as when it is not turned on. Now if I could just figure out why it and another game (Far Cry demo) are shutting down on me after several minutes of play. I had played the demo before some time ago without issue but when I tried playing it awhile ago, it's doing the same thing as T2. I can play Risen for hours and runs beautifully. The only change has been the monitor and that should have no bearing. I did have somewhat of an overheat but was basically fixed and even though it's still running hotter than it should there was a definate reduction in the temp reading I can get via the ATI CCC panel when some changes were made. I dunno, maybe I'll try looking into a slot fan as that's about all I'll be able to do. Anyway, just had to vent a little. :)
baeuchlein on 1/5/2010 at 15:27
Quote Posted by The Fire Eater
[...] Now if I could just figure out why it and another game (Far Cry demo) are shutting down on me after several minutes of play. I had played the demo before some time ago without issue but when I tried playing it awhile ago, it's doing the same thing as T2. [...]
Although I can't help you with these problems, you might be interested in the fact that there are actually
two Far Cry demos out there. In the first one, you make your way to the top of an island in order to destroy a sattellite dish. The second one lets you infiltrate a research facility hidden in a cave on another island. You will most likely pass through a large natural arch made of rock on your way to the facility.
The second demo is available in two "flavours". There is a version which is rather a patch you have to apply to the first demo, but there's another version as well which you can install just like any other program. The latter version does not need the first demo, it's a standalone release.
So, if you only know one of these two demos, but like it, you can look up the other one in Google and gain some more hours of play.
The Fire Eater on 4/5/2010 at 18:05
Yes I am aware of the second demo and I already have the package but not opened yet as I was still playing the first one which I mentioned in my previous post. My only gripe is the saving method, I do not like only saving points rather than having open saving when i want to save. So for that reason I will never buy it, otherwise I wouldn't mind owing it. Thanks to the mix of console coding into PC codes...grrrr spoils it for me.
baeuchlein on 5/5/2010 at 07:19
Quote Posted by The Fire Eater
My only gripe is the saving method, I do not like only saving points rather than having open saving when i want to save. So for that reason I will never buy it
I hate this, too, especially when there's no reason to use this saving method. And I don't see any technical reason for this with computers and newer consoles.
I have bought the game a few days ago, but only because it was very cheap
and I liked gameplay very much. But I would not have bought it if it were still full-price. These forced and restricted saves reduce the game's value very much for me, there's no way I will buy it for standard game prices. I have had enough experience with this kind of player harrassment already.
