Mo DirectSound3d in Vista - Going back to XP

[Celeron_Phreak]

I decided to install Vista Ultimate on my system again now that SP1 is out and see if it had gotten any better. All seemed well until I attempted to load Doom 3 and Quake 4 to enable 5.1 Surround Sound.

No can do, Windows no longer comes with DirectSound3d support since everything has migrated over to OpenAL.

No biggie, as I am not really missing out on anything sticking with XP Pro.

Does anyone here think there will ever be DirectSound3d support for vista and Auzentech's older sound cards?

[MadMan007]

Creative had to come out with the ALchemy OpenAL wrapperfor their cound cards. I'm not even certain that it's a universal solution though, it only helps with new games that allow OpenAL, and yet Vista stops games that don't from using DirectSound. Someone correct if that's wrong and ALchemy is universal :) In any case that means one of the sound chip makers would likely be the source for the equivalent thing for your card. I don't know the likelihood of that happening though.

[Rattle]

alchemy works good and it basically enables eax on vista.

[Blkout]

Yep, no troubles here with X-Fi, Alchemy and Vista 64.

[Keitosha]

Does anyone here think there will ever be DirectSound3d support for vista and Auzentech's older sound cards?There will never be DirectSound3D support in Vista, since MS removed it in Vista due to security dangers.

MS also changed the audio stack in Vista compared to all the previous Win versions and IMO Vista handles sound much better than XP and all the previous Win OS's.

If you want to do EAX, you'll need ALchemy, which does a great job actually, but the future lies with OpenAL now, which is unaffected by the DirectSound3D removal.

Doom 3 and Quake 4 doesn't support EAX, but both OpenAL, so you won't need ALchemy for them.

As for the 5.1 problem? Click on the Vista Start Orb -> Control Panel -> Hardware and Sound -> Sound -> Press configure with your playback speakers and set your speakers accordingly.

I'm using Vista Ultimate 64 myself and i enjoy 5.1 sound in both Doom 3 and Quake 4.

All "Non-Creative" soundcards except for the Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1 can only support up to EAX2 (EAX3 if you're really lucky) due to Creative owning the rights to the EAX tech (can't blame them). AFAIK there are no EAX wrappers for non-Audigy and X-Fi cards. The Audigy and X-Fi (also includes the Prelude) versions of ALchemy does a great job.

[gamefan]

the SB Live5.1 (notably my SBO60 Gamer) isn't supported in Vista - had to an X-Fi, though if you did dig dig and doo doo doo they may run

[Celeron_Phreak]

Yeah. I'm back up and fulling running on XP Pro again, but I may go back to Vista if something comes out in the future. For now I'm just fine and dandy. I guess Vista was just a waste of money for me this time around.

I won't ever give up my X-Plosion for an X-Fi. No DDL or DTS encoding would kill me!

[Keitosha]

I won't ever give up my X-Plosion for an X-Fi. No DDL or DTS encoding would kill me!FYI, the Auzen X-Fi Prelude does DDL and DTS (will be added in the next driver update). ;)

[Celeron_Phreak]

I may upgrade in a year or two, but so far there's nothing wrong with what I have. Not only that but I can't afford a new soundcard every pay check like I used to. :p

[Keitosha]

I may upgrade in a year or two, but so far there's nothing wrong with what I have. Not only that but I can't afford a new soundcard every pay check like I used to. :pAs long you are enjoying your sound, it is ok. :)