Sound Fix in DarkEngine games

[rustmite]

I've got a new X-Fi PCI-E fatality soundcard and experience this problem:

Certain AI sounds cause a 1-2 second freeze, while other sounds do not.

I have played with the settings and found that it get a bit better when I reduce the number of channels, but the problem never really seems to go away.

All drivers are patched to the latest and greatest. Anybody seen this, or have a solution?

[doctorfrog]

Searching for and installing the a3d.dll file worked for me, I now have directional sound in Thief G. Haven't tried yet for Thief 2, but it was never as temperamental as TG.

My issue now is that I can't bring the sfx_channels above 8, which seems pretty lame. I'd like to at least get the golden 12 channels if possible, or force it to something like 24 or 32.

I have onboard sound by RealTek, and I'm sure I should be happy as a clam that directional sound works at all.

EDIT: Never mind, I found the setting in DARK.cfg rather than CAM.cfg. The setting appears to take, simultaneous sounds now should be 32, unless an elaborate deception is going on.

[john9818a]

I'm using an X-Fi fatality PCI sound card with Thief 2 on a Vista PC. I had to install the Alchemy from Creative Labs to get the EAX to work, but it sounds great with Thief 2.

I have not even tried to install Thief 1 yet, but on an older XP PC with an Audigy 2 card, Thief 1 sounded loud and echoey. I had to turn EAX off on Thief 1 because it was giving me such a bad headache. Thief 2 sounded great on the Audigy 2 card and the SB Live 16 card from years ago. EAX worked on both cards.

[PsymH]

If Thief1 is to echoey for you, you can change the amount of the eax effects in the Creative Console Starter:

[Albert]

I have some interesting news to tell:

I stumbled upon an old dell I had (A 4500S, for all you stamp-collectors, out there .), and now, the graphics card seems to be fine (minus fog), but what surprised the most was that EAX turned on, for the first time ever. Now, I don't have speakers to confirm it, but does everyone out there with XP have EAX functioning? I'd like to hear about it.

[sNeaksieGarrett]

EAX should work fine in XP (theoretically at least), it is only Vista and up with the issues. Mine works, if you can call it working... (That is, I can turn it on, but it doesn't sound proper.)

[DaNtAn]

It seems to me that this solution isn't permanent, it works for some folks and it won't for others. I guess it all depends on how each and each of us has it's personal computer up and running (Video card drivers, sound drivers, chipset drivers, direct-x version, various changes, tweaks and etc.)

I have recently acquired a Creative X-Fi Extreme Music sound card and didn't try to run Thief on Windows 7, to see if anything has changed regarding hardware acceleration.

I dug up my old Creative Inspire T4400 and ran a few recent titles, just to see what difference it would make in "Audio Immersion". All I have to say is, WOW. DVD's (and Backups with AC3 audio tracks) sound amazing, game environments are almost real. Hardware accelerated sounds, sound completely different when run on a two speakers setup and when run on a four speakers setup, four speakers sound better.

Playing around with parameters of various 3D sound processing features in Creative's "Audio Control Panel" made things even better. I don't see my self going back to my old Sound Blaster Live 5.1. Within the next month (or so), I'll install Thief II and see how it works.

I still think the only sound card that outperform(s) anything creative will have (and has so far) is Aureal's "Vortex 2 (8830 Chipset)", at least when it comes to hardware acceleration (Especially whith a "two / two.one setup").

[DJ Riff]

Within the next month (or so), I'll install Thief II and see how it works.

…
Aureal's "Vortex 2 (8830 Chipset)"

Just as you mentioned them, here's the demo of Thief2 with this soundcard to compare.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6ng_bGozSo
Don't forget to put your headphones on.

[Albert]

Well, here's a small complaint of mine. I've got my good-for-nothing crap-top, with Windows XP installed, running Thief 2, and never has it been able to play EAX audio. Darndest thing, and I believe that the drivers are unique to my system install.

Can't use alchemy, which sucks. Someone took the time to make an audio-chip independent version of alchemy, but forgot to make a XP version of it. Really sucks...

[baeuchlein]

I've got my good-for-nothing crap-top, with Windows XP installed, running Thief 2, and never has it been able to play EAX audio.

Can't use alchemy, which sucks. Someone took the time to make an audio-chip independent version of alchemy, but forgot to make a XP version of it. Really sucks...

ALchemy itself was made by Creative Labs to get good sound from their sound cards even with Vista. So they could not care less about other manufacturers' sound cards.

Even if someone has created an ALchemy version which is chip-independent, why should this person care about all sound cards available on the market, or all operating systems? Maybe this someone does not even have the sound card or chip used in that particular slaptop.

It's not funny, but that's the way it is. I have tried to use EAX from about the year 2000, but only for two years I had a system that worked reliably with EAX and Thief 2, despite the fact that many of the sound cards used were Creative Labs' ones. I am convinced that even Thief 2 itself has some bugs concerning EAX.

Therefore, it's stereo only for almost a decade now.

[Albert]

Ah, well, I got a much more depressing problem. I've got a new laptop, which I can run the universal distro of alchemy on, but the results have been negligible, even causing my game to have no sound, lest I turn it off.

It doesn't bug me as much anymore, though, but it sure is kinda annoying to not have something so awesome as 3D sound.
Maybe I'll try that realtek 3D simulator beta. It might work... I doubt it though.

EDIT: Yeh, well this is a kinda unknown brand of sound chip: IDT.

[Albert]

Well, after some trial and error, I've gotten Thief 2 and SS2 sound to work (I'll get to TG soon), but I'm getting the infamous "well of echo" effect, with alchemy. Is there anyone who knows how to modify the A3D dlls so that the sounds are right? Or, in more laymen terms, is it possible to change the A3D settings?

[Albert]

Ah, yet again, I've solved my own problem. I now have the ideal settings on Windows 7 X64:

DDFIX 1.5.3 with tweaked settings, widescreen.

Alchemy (Universal version), along with the a3d dlls.

And a few enhancement packs, of course.

[Albert]

Ah, now I've concocted what I feel is the best solution:

A3D and Alchemy Universal. This setup works for me on a off-brand sound chip.

Just unpack a3d.dll and a3dapi.dll into your game directory, install Alchemy, and add thief 2 to it by adding game and directing it to either the games directory, or registry. Of course, make sure to enable it by selecting it and clicking >>.

Anyone with Vista/7: Could you try this out, and back me up on this? I wonder if realtek cards/chipsets will work.

[LittleFlower]

I have started playing Thief Gold again last week.
I got everything to work, except EAX.
When EAX works, then the movies will have no sound.

Setup: Windows 7 x64 with an Audigy 2 soundcard.
The A3D.dll was already in C:\Windows\System32
A3D.dll is version 80.0.0.3/a3dx5, which I think is the latest version.
System: E8500, 4GB ram, gtx260.
TG 1.37 with ddfix 1.5.5.

Normal install:
---
sound in game: yes
EAX: no
sound in movies: yes
sound hardware acceleration option: off, green, but can not change to on
eax option: off, white, can not change

Now I configure Alchemy to enable EAX in Thief.exe.
I don't install another a3d.dll yet. I don't change options yet.
---
sound in game: yes
EAX: no
sound in movies: NO
sound hardware acceleration option: off, green, but can not change to on
eax option: off, white, can not change

Now I put the A3D.dll in my Thief folder.
a3d.dll version 2.9.0.0 and a3dapi.dll version 3.3.678.0
I don't change options yet.
---
sound in game: yes
EAX: no (not yet)
sound in movies: NO
sound hardware acceleration option: off, green, CAN change to on
eax option: off, white. but when I change hardware acceleration on, it turns green, and I can change it to on.'

Now I switch on sound hardware acceleration and EAX.
---
sound in game: yes
EAX: YES
sound in movies: NO
sound hardware acceleration option: green, on, can switch
eax option: green, on, can switch

Now I disable Alchemy, but keep the Thief settings.
---
sound in game: no
EAX: no (duh)
sound in movies: YES
sound hardware acceleration option: green, on, can switch
eax option: white, off

Now I switch off hardware acceleration.
---
sound in game: yes
EAX: no
sound in movies: yes
sound hardware acceleration option: green, off, can not switch back to on anymore
eax option: white, off

Conclusion:
I can have either:
1) in-game sounds work, movie sound works, but without EAX, or
2) in-game sounds work, EAX works, but no movie sounds.
But not EAX and sound in movies at the same time.

Anyone who did get both to work at the same time under Windows 7 ?

[EvaUnit02]

I have started playing Thief Gold again last week.
I got everything to work, except EAX.

Setup: Windows 7 x64 with an Audigy 2 soundcard.
The A3D.dll was already in C:\Windows\System32
A3D.dll is version 80.0.0.3/a3dx5, which I think is the latest version.
System: E8500, 4GB ram, gtx260.
TG 1.37 with ddfix 1.5.5.

Essentially the most recent v1.4x versions of ALchemy are broken, period. You have to use a Dsound.dll from an older version like v1.30 or v1.25. The problem is being discussed here and download links to the workaround file are also available there.

Make sure that the ALchemy app is closed. Back up Dsound.dll from C:\Program Files (x86)\Creative\ALchemy and copy over one from v1.25 or 1.30. Deactivate and then reactivate all of your game profiles in ALchemy.

P.S. With Dark Engine games you should configure the "Buffers" value in the game profiles to 8.\

EDIT:- Creative have fixed the issue in the latest ALchemy beta.

[LittleFlower]

EDIT:- Creative have fixed the issue in the latest ALchemy beta.

Thanks very much, EvaUnit.
Using beta version 1.43.6 of Alchemy. And I have now both EAX and sound in movies working.

[DaNtAn]

Now that some of the source files have been recently discovered, it is only a matter of time before all of these bugs get fixed and that hopefully (with a major help from the community), sound acceleration will function properly.

[Child Of Karras]

At least a software or semi-hardware multichannel positioning like in Thief 3 would be nice, so I can play Thief 2 on my laptop with Virtual Audio Cable and live AC3 conversion. Works nice in most games, except for Thief 2.

[Albert]

Well, I've been playing Thief 2 for a while, with absolutely no real flaws up... Until I realized just then, after all this time (boy, I'm bad with putting things off), that I had no audio in videos with Alchemy on. I installed a codec pack, thinking that'd remedy it (it's done so in the past), but to no avail.
I really want to hear the audio in videos (as of now), but don't want to lose EAX. Does anyone know how to cure this problem?

[Moon Hoplite]

I have the same problem.

I don't have a realtek or creative sound card, so I use Creative Alchemy Universal.

It hasn't been updated for a very long time and has the no sound in movies bug for system shock 2/any darkengine game.

Please help.

[Child Of Karras]

I just may refer to my thread here:

Fix for Sound in Movies with ALchemy on Vista / 7

[FierceDeityIX]

Sorry to grave dig a bit but I've found a very simple fix for those with quiet EAX sounds. I'm using SoundMAX HD integrated audio with Windows XP and all I had to do to make the sounds louder was boost the Wave volume on the volume control panel. This worked to make the sounds louder but they're still very distorted compared to the non-hardware-accelerated equivalents. Hope that helps!

[Ryan Smith]

If you're using Thief Gold, try setting the Thief 1 to Windows XP compatibility. It somehow reset everything back to no hardware acceleration, but the sound is stereo again

[Albert]

I just wanna bring this thread back up for a second just for those now joining us.

Having issues with audio? Try out Thief 2 1.19, TFix or System Shock 2.4. They all have support for OpenAL now, and it's as simple as going to audio settings, and clicking hardware support as many times as it takes for the option "OpenAL *something*" to pop up. If it doesn't then install OpenAL stuff for your system. It may not be hardware unless you are lucky, but software mode OpenAL is not bad at all -- except for the oldest of systems.

And that's about it.