full eax creative support vs openal

[devon_rex_unreal]

I got a soundblaster z and i use eax with the game but i cant put my finger on what the difference is between renaming the openal.dll and leaving it.
Are there really any changes ?


Full EAX for Creative Sound Cards • Link[edit]
Rename the OpenAL DLL[2]
Navigate to the game folder.
Rename openal32.dll to openal32.dll.bak.

[`Hi~Fi.`*MMi*]

I switched to a asus from my creative sound card because the creative didn't have a headphone amp but I remember I still didn't like how EAX sounded in JK2 or JKA. The positional audio was worse IMO. I'd say try both for a bit and see which you like. It is up to personal preference because I can sound ♥♥♥♥♥ and still feel "inside" the game with basic stereo just as easily if not easier than with EAX on.

[Choum]

I can answer you devon :


By default the game use openal with the hardware directsound 3D output (openal32.dll of the gamedata folder).
Since windows vista the "hardware" directsound 3D output has been removed resulting in a stereo output and the lost of all eax effect for all DS3D game.

When you rename the openAL32.dll, the game will use the one in the windows\syswow64 folder.
This dll should be newer and the game will try to use the hardware openAL render if you card support it (which is the game of the Z one) resulting in a full surround and eax sound, if not it will use the software render of openal (no eax support).

If you had sound artefact when using the renaming method (I was having sound artefact until the ZxR drivers update of January 17 fix this problem on my pc), you can use the creative alchemy wrapper, it will translate DS3D intruction to openAL (but for that you should not rename the openAL32.dll of the game folder), so will also have a full surround and eax support.