EAX Advanced HD Audio for Thief: Deadly Shadows

Enables EAX Advanced HD Audio

What's this for?

This patch will enable old EAX 4.0 spatial and enhanced audio for Thief Deady Shadows.
Tested on my Realtek ALC295 chipset.

Yes, will work fine with game unofficial patches (Sneaky Mod etc...).

But what is EAX Audio? See YouTube videos like this (reverb is a bit exaggerated in this video IMHO but gives you an idea):

How to...

• you should have OpenAL[www.openal.org] already installed...
  
• download latest DSOAL (read below)
  
• copy dsoal-aldrv.dll, dsound.dll, alsoft.ini (you can edit settings*[raw.githubusercontent.com]) to "Thief Deadly Shadows\System\" directory where the T3Main.exe is located
  
• add these keys to the Registry (save the text as a file 'ThiefDSOAL.reg' and double click it to merge it with Registry):
  

  Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
  
  [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{47D4D946-62E8-11CF-93BC-444553540000}]
  
  [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{47D4D946-62E8-11CF-93BC-444553540000}\InprocServer32]
  @="dsound.dll"
  
  [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{3901CC3F-84B5-4FA4-BA35-AA8172B8A09B}]
  
  [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{3901CC3F-84B5-4FA4-BA35-AA8172B8A09B}\InprocServer32]
  @="dsound.dll"
  
  
  [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\WOW6432Node\CLSID\{47D4D946-62E8-11CF-93BC-444553540000}]
  
  [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\WOW6432Node\CLSID\{47D4D946-62E8-11CF-93BC-444553540000}\InprocServer32]
  @="dsound.dll"
  
  [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\WOW6432Node\CLSID\{3901CC3F-84B5-4FA4-BA35-AA8172B8A09B}]
  
  [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\WOW6432Node\CLSID\{3901CC3F-84B5-4FA4-BA35-AA8172B8A09B}\InprocServer32]
  @="dsound.dll"

• reboot (not required, but recommended)
  
• enable in-game Options > Audio Hardware Mixing. This will finally unlock EAX Advanced HD and EAX Multiple Environments
  
• if needed, go into your Windows speaker's properties and untick "Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device"
  
  

  

  
  That's it. Enjoy! 🎉
  
  
  🔥 LATEST VERSIONS OF DSOAL BUILD 🔥
  
  http://vaporeon.io/hosted/dsoal-builds/
  e.g.:
  

  dsoal-r418a.7z	2021-Feb-23 06:26:09	643.1K	application/x-7z-compressed

  Much improved stereo panning, reverb and env-echo!
  
  NOTE: if latest version crashes launching the game, or after it exits to destkop (!), try a different version under the /old directory online

* DSOAL recommended settings

These are the settings I'm using in my alsoft.ini with Realtek ALC295:

[reverb]
boost=-10

boost=<n> controls reverb amplification. You can try 0 (default), +6 (double), -6 (half)... depending on your audio chipset.

Some settings explanations here: https://github.com/kcat/openal-soft/blob/master/alsoftrc.sample

If everything fails... 🛟

👉🏻 Try first to clean up your system: UNINSTALL OpenAL and any other EAX hack like "Creative ALchemy Universal" (outdated), if previously installed.

After the uninstall of OpenAL and "Creative ALchemy Universal" be sure you don't have OpenAL32.dll in C:\Windows\System32 and SysWOW64 dirs anymore.

Remove from "Thief Deadly Shadows\System\" these files, if any:
⠀dsoal-aldrv.dll
⠀dsound.dll
⠀alsoft.ini
⠀eax.dll
⠀OpenAL32.dll

... Finally, retry this guide from the beginning. This should fix the problem for most users.

After a correct OpenAL (currently 1.1) installation you should have:
‪C:\Windows\System32\OpenAL32.dll (6.14.357.24) (~120KB, this is for x64 games and exes)
‪C:\Windows\SysWOW64\OpenAL32.dll (6.14.357.24) (~106KB, for x32 games and exes)

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⚠️IMPORTANT⚠️
NEVER run games as admin or in XP compatibility mode etc. This can also interfere with the .dll loading from game directory... In our case here, check T3.exe and T3main.exe.

Not recommended but, a few users who reported missing sound, solved their issue using old DSOAL files from https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/65094?tab=files
So give it a try if the most recent files in this guide won't work for you and you already experienced problems in other OpenAL games with your audio chipset (you can use HWiNFO to identify your HW).

[hexaae]

⚠️ ATTENTION! ⚠️

If you just upgraded from Win 11 23H2 --> 24H2 you'll have to re-apply the registry keys above (4th point).

[kazakhmain1]

[The Games Guild]

Apologies, just me being an idiot. Got it working now and the EAX mod works great.

Much appreciated for this guide

[kazakhmain1]

ThiefDSOAL.reg

double click it to merge it with Registry

reboot

[The Games Guild]

How do you "add these keys to the Registry". I've created a txt file and named it as instructed but nothing happens?

Could someone explain please?

[RevanKnight56]

If you are using the GOG version, it turns out that GOG automatically applies the Windows XP compatibility mode to the T3.exe by default. To change it, you need to right-click the T3.exe, go to properties, then go to the Compatibility tab, and then click "Change settings for all users" at the bottom. Then you can disable compatibility mode for T3.exe.

[hexaae]

Updated the guide with some recommendations in the "If everything fails" section.
Cleaned up comments There's a discussion open in the general section for users with messed up OpenAL/EAX installation, because they tried in the past other hacks like the old Creative ALchemy Universal patch... or still launched the game in XP Compatibility mode etc.

[hexaae]

You're welcome. Indeed it's working fine (Win 11 23H2). I still use it to enable old EAX also with the following games:

Crysis
Crysis Warhead
Two Worlds II
Prince Of Persia (2008)
Max Payne
Max Payne 2
Baldur's Gate II - SoA (original not the Enhanced)
Dragon's Lair 3D
Sacred Gold (original DVD retail)
Quake 4 (just rename dsoal-aldrv.dll as OpenAL.dll in the same dir of Quake4.exe)

[SPYDOR]

Hey, just wanted to express my belated gratitude for writing this excellent guide. I used it in Oct2022 to play Thief 3 and it worked great. You may want to update the 'LASTEST VERSIONS OF THE DSOAL BUILD' section to show "dsoal-r444.7z 2023-Apr-17 06:14:07 786.1K ..." as the text is a few years out of date, showing r418a from Feb2021.

In an effort to help those who have issues getting it running, the config and settings I used were as follows:
- OS: Windows 10 Pro (64-bit), release 22H2
- Sound card: Creative SoundBlaster Z
- Sound card driver: v6.0.102.75 (01/12/2020, UK format)
- Thief 3 Sneaky Upgrade v1.1.10
- DSOAL r430 from May2022 (r444 is currently available)
- alsoft.ini > [Reverb] > Boost = 0 (this was the sweet spot for my sound card)

I will also note that I recall trying Creative ALchemy at the time, as it is listed as being supported with my sound card; however, I could not get surround sound working with that method, while OpenAL worked great.

[House25]

What a shame. I tried your guide and also this one https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3009318009&searchtext=eax
but with no success. Even with WINDEDLLOVERRIDE it wont make the option available ingame