Restore EAX to any game without Creative Labs Hardware

How to install and use Creative ALchemy to restore EAX to any game on a PC without any Creative Labs hardware installed.

How to restore EAX to Condemned (or any other EAX title) on a PC with no creative hardware

Update: Just wanted to start off saying I STRONGLY suggest you set your PC's audio sample rate to 16 bit 48000Hz when playing a game with EAX and Alchemy. Otherwise you will most likely get very noticeable audio artifacts as a result of the up-sampling.

Hey guy, just wanted to share an easy guide for restoring the EAX effects the game supports, even if your PC does not have creative hardware. I feel this is one of the games that truly benefits from its optional EAX features.

So how do you restore EAX on modern Windows without a creative sound card. Just a few simple files all available from PC Gaming Wiki.

First, we will install EAX Unified 4.0.0.1. This ZIP file contains everything you need for this guide, EAX Unified 4.0.0.1, ALchemy, and the ALchemy restriction remover

https://1drv.ms/u/s!ApFFKWKFcTrxg7YXO2KhRKnS0jBcpw?e=8fnNkc

Second, we will install the latest version of Creative ALchemy (currently as of writing version 1.45.20). Just install it like normal, and reboot.

Then we will use a tool called Alchemy De Restrictor 1.0, this is what removes ALchemy's block to only work on systems with Creative cards. If you are worried about viruses, here is a virus total scan of the file

https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/04ab24ced0ed4a10e4b93015ad9c5b687f1db98bf8017e25479d0de043145864/detection

Also the full source code for the crack is included in the "src" folder (open with a text editor like notepad++).

This block by Creative is completely artificial, esp considering that ANY creative card newer than the X-Fi series uses software emulation running entirely on the CPU to process the old EAX effects. There is nothing about it that relies on a creative sound card being in your PC ALchemy simply translates the Directsound 3D API calls to OpenAL, as I said in the case of any hardware newer than X-Fi it dose all this on the CPU.

So open the "ALchemy Derestrictor 1.0" folder, and follow the simple readme instructions.

Now you have the latest version of Creative ALchemy for restoring EAX to older games that used the Windows DirectSound 3D API (this will work for more games than just Condemned).

To get Condemneds EAX options working just launch ALchemy.

Click the "Add" button

For title just put "Condemned"

Click the radio button that says "use game path"

Click the "..." to point ALchemy to the install directory of Condemned

Click Ok

If ALchemy did not automatically move Condemned to the right hand column just click on Condemned and click the ">>" button.

Then once you launch Condemned go into options>sound, and turn on "Hardware Mixing", "EAX 2.0", and "EAX HD".

I also HIGHLY suggest setting your systems audio sample rate to 16 bit 48000 Hz. This will help avoid any potential audio glitches that are the result of up sampling the audio (the audio files are only encoded in 16-bit 48000 Hz anyways) while emulating EAX. You can try it with your PC's audio setting on a higher setting first if you want. But in my experience (just tested it, 12-02-2023) running condemned with my system at its max settings (32 bit 192000 Hz) caused lots of crackling, specifically when moving (guessing something about transitioning between dif EAX "zones" maybe). Then I quit the game and set my PC to 16 bit 48000 Hz, relaunched the game, and no longer had any audio issues.

The rest of this is specific to Condemned. I also, recommend following one of the guides already on here for restoring missing sound to a few parts in the game. Most notably when you fall off the back of the train, and when you blow up a steam pipe to get past a gate. The train part is pretty much silent without the fix, and the other part is missing the explosion noise etc. These issues are unrelated to this EAX fix, the steam version is simply missing the files with the audio for those parts.

[Sean8102]

@BreckyFast Yeah it's a shame. Like I say in my guide, the limitation of requiring creative hardware is 100% artificial. All EAX processing is done on the CPU unless you are using a X-Fi or older Creative Soundcard.

If Creative was willing to get rid of that limitation/DRM on ALchemy and just let anyone install it it would be the go to solution for restoring EAX on modern Windows/hardware.

The crack makes it a little bit more of a pain but not much. And the maker included the source code (which I include in the download).

[BreckyFast]

I really hate that EAX support in games is so broken without complicated fixes for most users, I have never heard EAX audio in my life so I am eager to see how it sounds on my headphones.

[Sean8102]

@Sadge no problem, glad it did the trick for you.

[Sadge]

Thanks for the guide. Finally something that works

[Plapzzz]

@Sean8102 so is MaxSecure included in the Alchemy download link and if so how do i aavoid installing it?

[Sean8102]

Yeah I would def never install "MaxSecure" lol.

"While working this piece of software creates hidden directories in the root directory of your system drive. It stores multiple files inside which makes little sense but one of it got my attention. It is 32 bit driver called Data04.sys with internal name SDManager.sys signed with modern SHA256 certificate in 2018. This driver does nothing after load and it only purpose is to execute code at it driver entry. At first code attempts to delete file with ZwDeleteFile call and then if it was unsuccessful - overwrite this file with ZwCreateFile. The file it does not like is \SystemRoot\system32\drivers\TDSSserv.sys. Which is TDSS rootkit of version 1.0 distributed in 2008. This makes me think that the entire MaxSecure scam evolved from primitive noob solutions like this. What this ancient crap is doing in their modern software bundle is completely unknown."

[Sean8102]

@Philpzz.YT Last thing. When doing just a bit of looking into "Maxsecurity" AV software on google. Some pretty bad things about the software and company come up. This is from 2020, but I can't find anyone recommending it on newer posts etc. and saying to stay away. So put whatever amount of faith into that one AV you'd like.

https://swapcontext.blogspot.com/2020/02/maxsecure-maxvulnerabilities-or-yet.html

As for why it's "the first thing i see when i go to the link?".

It's because VirusTotal will put any of the 72 AV engines that thinks (correctly or not) it's not safe it will list those first and then the ones that didn't flag it as malware.

[Sean8102]

@Phlipzzz.YT It's a false positive from ONE of the AV providers on VirusTotal. Basically, it seems “MaxSecurity” has their AV tuned to basically play things safer when it’s unsure about a file.

Due to the way the "Alchemy restriction remover "must operate (which BTW the full source code of is included) to remove the restriction, it's not surprising it would cause a false positive. It just seems “MaxSecurity” is the only one that threw a false positive.

Due to the 1,000 char limit I can't explain further but if you want a more descriptive response here you go. https://justpaste.it/d1ezb

But, you'll have to decide for your self basically. I don't see any comments from people saying they got a virus. My system is clean and I've been using this for quite a while.

[Plapzzz]

Just curious why the virustotal link says "MaxSecure Trojan.Malware.300983.susgen Acronis (Static ML) Undetected" as the first thing i see when i go to the link? not trying to download malware

[♪CamiRock17♫]

Ty for the tutorial, it works on Prince of Persia: Sands of Time <3