Curse

psycore · Oct 13, 2008, 01:10 PM // 13:10

If the title makes any sense to you then you may already be familiar with what I am about to write.

Built a new system has vista on it, going back to xp is not an option at this stage so please do not suggest that. My XiFi card has the latest drivers and also the alchemy program that allows the use of EAX in the vista environment for legacy games.

However what isn't made clear is that if it re-enables the 3d accel and eax checkboxes in GW or just turns EAX on all the time.

It has installed the correct dsound dll's into GW's directory but i cannot notice any difference in the audio of GW and cannot enable 3d accel or EAX.

ANy suggestions?

Quaker · Oct 13, 2008, 04:35 PM // 16:35

Go back to XP

But seriously, I have no suggestions, but this link may help:
http://www.windowsvistamagazine.com/...-in-vista.html

Lord Sojar · Oct 14, 2008, 12:09 AM // 00:09

I would seriously consider dumping the Creative card in Vista. Creative all but abandoned driver compatibility with Vista. You will cause so many issues and slow down on your system using the Creative card.

Your best bet is to switch to an ASUS Sonar sound card. Their drivers are gorgeous, and the cards outperform X-Fi by substantial margins.

I cannot give you better advice than to switch sound card manufacturers. The fact is, Creative are slimy, evil people who don't care about you or anything else.

Snograt · Oct 14, 2008, 01:37 AM // 01:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rahja the Thief

I would seriously consider dumping the Creative card in Vista.

This.

I dumped my X-Fi Fatal1ty months ago and use the onboard HD sound on my 780i. Not a problem since.

manitoba1073 · Oct 14, 2008, 04:57 AM // 04:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snograt

This.

I dumped my X-Fi Fatal1ty months ago and use the onboard HD sound on my 780i. Not a problem since.

Definitly agree here also. If you have onboard sound go with that ecspecially if its onboardhd sound. If you have a SPDIF or AUDIO COAXIAL port on the back you 2 canhook yours up like mine. Mine is hooked into my see pic

the sound is awesome

psycore · Oct 14, 2008, 09:20 AM // 09:20

Well certainly not the reply i was expecting.

Might have to start looking at a new sound card. -_-;;

FoxBat · Oct 14, 2008, 09:29 AM // 09:29

Blah blah.

GW works fine under vista with Alchemy. You'll need to run the alchemy program and point it to GW, that will create some alternate sound dlls and stick them in GW folder. Once it's set up right, you'll see the "hardware sound" and "eax" checkboxes avaliable in-game. Click those and you're good to go.

Alchemy translates dx calls from programs to openal. It doesn't provide blanket EAX setting or such. (you already have the creative control panel for that.)

Snograt · Oct 14, 2008, 01:41 PM // 13:41

You're possibly right, FoxBat.

GW works fine under Vista with Alchemy ...for some people.

It's like graphics cards. Two people can have identical rigs with identical GPUs - one person has no problems, the other has graphics driver errors galore.

Creative make superb sound cards. nVidia make superb graphics cards. Neither of these two can write stable drivers to save their lives.

Creative's drivers, in particular, are a joke in the IT world. They are a classic example of bloatware. They stick to your installation like poo to a blanket. When I switches from X-Fi to onboard, I still had Creative crap left even after using CC and DriverSweeper.

But again, you could be right. He might get lucky.

Pardon the cynicism, I'm old* and weary.

*everything is relative

Quaker · Oct 14, 2008, 02:53 PM // 14:53

Not that I wish to stick up for Creative sound cards, but part of the problem with EAX (and other things) in Vista is the lack of DirectSound. Microsoft, in their infinite wisdom, decided that no-one needs hardware audio acceleration any more.

Then again, back when I was using XP and Sound Blaster cards, I could never get EAX in GW to do anything but bugger up. I'm now running Vista with on-board sound.

(I'm older and wearier, and, therefore, more cynical.

)

psycore · Oct 14, 2008, 08:58 PM // 20:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by FoxBat

Blah blah.

GW works fine under vista with Alchemy. You'll need to run the alchemy program and point it to GW, that will create some alternate sound dlls and stick them in GW folder. Once it's set up right, you'll see the "hardware sound" and "eax" checkboxes avaliable in-game. Click those and you're good to go.

Alchemy translates dx calls from programs to openal. It doesn't provide blanket EAX setting or such. (you already have the creative control panel for that.)

Actually if you read my OP it doesn't at all and that's the problem.

Snograt · Oct 14, 2008, 09:45 PM // 21:45

Sure, Microsoft killing off the DSound API certainly threw a spanner in Creative's works. I still stand by my statement regarding Creative's driver bundles though.

Heh, remember all the fun it was configuring the early Soundblasters in DOS? An autoexec.bat for every game? You'd think they would have progressed from there...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quaker's profile

Occupation: Retired

Ooh, another one older than me! More, more!

fusa · Oct 15, 2008, 03:33 PM // 15:33

Open Control Panel>Sound and make sure your XiFi sound card is selected as default. If it isn't default set it to default and open alchemy and see if GW appears on the list and enable it. If its not in Alchemy, and your XiFi is set to default, then manually add by clicking Add in alchemy, the use HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Arenanet\Guild Wars\Path for registry path or "C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\gw.exe" (or your install directory) for program path.

KZaske · Oct 15, 2008, 08:56 PM // 20:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snograt

Creative's drivers, in particular, are a joke in the IT world. They are a classic example of bloatware. They stick to your installation like poo to a blanket. When I switches from X-Fi to onboard, I still had Creative crap left even after using CC and DriverSweeper.

But again, you could be right. He might get lucky.

Pardon the cynicism, I'm old* and weary.

*everything is relative

Cynicism? What cynicism, you are just telling the truth. Creative has even been caught flashing firmware to disable features in older cards! I use to recommend Creative cards to almost everyone, not any more. I am fairly sure that the hardware is still good, but the software is a show stopper.

Shiing! · Oct 16, 2008, 10:46 AM // 10:46

OK, Enough of the Creative is crap stuff and let's get onto actually answering questions about how it works.

Here's my question:

I downloaded ALchemy for Vista x64, and it's running and I selected GW as a game in the game list on the program. It's put the dxsound DLL and the text file into the game directory with tells it how many voices, etc, and the game works fine.

For people who've used ALchemy with GW before: is it supposed to allow you to now select Enable 3D Sound and Use EAX? Because mine are still greyed out. Even if they're still greyed out, does this mean that EAX and 3D Sound are working, but the program just doesn't allow you to select it manually.. If you know what I mean.

Basically, even though they're grey, is ALchemy working with GW? Any way to tell or anything like that? Or has anyone managed to get the GW program to allow you to tick the two boxes?

Shiing

psycore · Oct 16, 2008, 11:09 AM // 11:09

I did some more digging around on the net from what i understand vista sp1 may have broken alchemy's functionality.

Snograt · Oct 16, 2008, 11:51 PM // 23:51

Have a lookie here: http://www.youp-pax.org/viewthread.p...extra=page%3D1

yuoP-Pax drivers for xp and vista 32/64. Might be worth a shot...

zamial · Oct 20, 2008, 03:52 AM // 03:52

1: install all the creative "bloat ware"(all of it), update it, use audio console, put check in the "enable" box.

Until you do this it will not work. I know I run vista64 and use the x-fi extreme gamer fatality card.

There are Alot of stupid things you need to do if this doesn't work, as there are multiple apps and folders with more apps to go through (some don't even work). If you start opening them trial and error will pay off. when you are ready to give it a go don't forget to close and reopen GW so changes take effect.

I do not know what is worse Creative's support, drivers or dirty business practices. In either case this card was designed for "extreme audiophiles". there are way to many things to fiddle with so it is virtually impossible for someone to give you directions on the settings. Best of luck.

v0od0o · Nov 12, 2008, 05:07 AM // 05:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by psycore

Well certainly not the reply i was expecting.

Might have to start looking at a new sound card. -_-;;

No need, i've just found what to do!

Go in the vista game menu
Right click Guild Wars icon
Click customize
Edit your play command 1 (should be Play (Play))
Click Compatibility Tab
Check Run this program in comp. mode for : Win Xp sp2
Voilà!

Enjoy your "not in the garbage" sound card!

edit: BTW you need ALchemy.