Rapture!?

[TFU]

Afternoon!

I've heard that this game (Dirt 2) is supposed to automatically have Rapture installed when you download from Steam but I don't have anything at all and my sound option only lists as software only in-game.

Any ideas? I have a Creative X-Fi Xtreme Audio Card and would have thought that this wouldn't be a problem. Also I've installed new drivers.

Anyone know where I could get a download of Rapture?

Cheers

[Hi2u! Tw1TcH]

Its in your redist folder in your Dirt 2 directory.

I'm guessing your in USA?

[TFU]

Originally Posted by Hi2u! Tw1TcH

Its in your redist folder in your Dirt 2 directory.

I'm guessing your in USA?

No I'm in UK...I'll look for it anyway, cheers for the help.

Edit - Just tried and its all good now! Nice one.

Can someone enlighten me on what rapture actually does as to the software option.

[NJuice]

Originally Posted by Redox

Can someone enlighten me on what rapture actually does as to the software option.

It's basically OpenAL (it actually USES OpenAL).

[Purple44]

Does anybody know if Rapture is better to use than hardware acceleration for your Creative sound card?

[Hi2u! Tw1TcH]

Originally Posted by Purple44

Does anybody know if Rapture is better to use than hardware acceleration for your Creative sound card?

My superficial guess is that DiRt 2 works better sound-wise with Rapture, as that is packaged along with it. However, I'm sure experience may vary.

[NJuice]

Originally Posted by Purple44

Does anybody know if Rapture is better to use than hardware acceleration for your Creative sound card?

It's the same thing.
In Dirt 2, hardware acceleration is OpenAL and Rapture 3D is also OpenAL.

[yooz1e]

I have a a Creative Xtreme gamer sound card, using Win7, newest driver, 5970ati gfx card and so..

i hade FPS problem while having Rapture3D active. I deleted it and changed to Hardware sound settings, got.. _20_ more fps while in "grapich settings". And I got a game that did run alot smoother.

[Little_4nic8er]

Hardware sound distorted on me, Rapture did not. I am using Rapture on my X-Fi E-Gamer.

[Countach]

From the readme file:

There are three audio driver options. The "software" and "hardware" options are those available in the original DiRT for PC. Software uses the 'generic software' mixer from Creative Labs. This works on any DirectSound-compatible audio device, in stereo or 5.1 channel surround. It is fast but of limited fidelity; it has only limited EAX environmental effects. The "hardware" option works with X-Fi cards that support 100+ sounds, high quality reverb, mixing and sample rate conversion (e.g. X-Fi Xtreme Music, Auzentech X-Fi Prelude, Fatal1ty and the Titanium series of X-Fi cards). Results are hardware and driver-dependent, but may benefit PCs with a good sound card but limited CPU power for software audio. These are legacy options - they've been well-tested on dozens of games over more than a decade (dating back to Colin McRae Rally 4) but they are no longer the default.

DiRT 2 introduces the new Rapture3D OpenAL driver from Blue Ripple Sound. On a slow PC, this matches the quality of the old 'generic software' driver, but on a fast system (such as a modern Quad core PC) it can deliver performance equal or superior to that of the best hardware acceleration. Rapture3D tests your CPU performance and auto-configures to suit. The two 'Quality' options in the Rapture3D tab of the Rapture3D Speaker Layout application, installed with the game, allow you to give more or less CPU time for sound. The latency (delay between game action and hearing the result) can also be tailored by adjusting the Default Buffer settings. Increase these if you hear stuttering of the entire audio mix; decrease them to make the audio respond more quickly to the controls. This only has an effect when Rapture3D is selected in the game audio menu.

[MSuomi]

Originally Posted by NJuice

It's the same thing.
In Dirt 2, hardware acceleration is OpenAL and Rapture 3D is also OpenAL.

Firstly, yes. I know this is an old thread. But as I bought the game at discount just a little while ago and I really want to use good audio, I just had to comment my findings.

Using Win7 x64, X-Fi Fatal1ty PCI-model.

I tested different decoders in Rapture 3D and the hardware mode, to find the differences. Decoders can have better/worse results depending people, headphones etc. So I won't touch that area more, Green worked fine for me.

Firstly something about W7. OpenAL is the only proper way to get hardware acceleration on sound, with W7. Then there are different solutions like Creative's ALchemy (and I believe Realtek has some beta drivers also), that interprets the "old" Directsound3D to OpenAL, which results in returning the hardware sounds on Directsound3d-titles.

Rapture3D is a software OpenAL solution/driver.

Now, regarding this game (Dirt 2). I tested sounds on Morocco's Brembo Rally-stage. Mainly, because of my findings.

The stage has part, where you drive through narrow "city" streets (and a couple of mountains on the either side of the road etc.)

When driving with Rapture3D, all settings Ultra, using green HTRF-decoder and headphone compatibility mode, Windows playback speaker settings on stereo and Creative's settings on Headphones, BUT WITH CMSS-3D OBVIOUSLY disabled (you would not want add HTRF-treatment a second time, now would you?), the game sounds absolutely great. 3D-effect works fine, you drive closer to a cliff wall and there comes that different reflected sound and also, as you drive on "city" streets, you can clearly hear the sound change as you pass the houses close to your car. So, that is all fine.

Now, changing to Hardware sounds (Windows playback speaker settings to 5.1, Creative on headphones and enabling the CMSS-3D) and driving the same stage. 3D-sound is still there, all the effects of those cliff walls and houses are gone.

So, it's quite clear, that this game was made with Rapture3D and it does NOT use the effects (EAX) on X-Fi (or anything else, for that matter). It probably uses just a basic OpenAL 3D-sounds, without effects.

So, it should be very clear, what sound solution you should use with this particular game.

[stillwater78]

Thanks MSuomi. I changed my settings to Rapture (from hardware) and I noticed the improvement. Also, it seemed to fix a problem I was having where the gates stopped making a smashing noise after a minute or so on gatecrasher mode.

[m_nadal]

Sorry to be bumping such an old thread, but would the Rapture utility included with Dirt 2 only work with that game, or could I use it with my system generally? Buying it from Blueripple would cost GBP 30 and they don't have a trial version, so I don't know if it would even work at all.

Alternately, do any sound cards include Rapture 3D as a pack-in? Because it might make more sense to spend GBP 30 on a sound card, rather than an entire software suite. Would be nice to have OpenAL support including EAX 5.0. The OpenAL/EAX 2.0 support on my onboard Realtek sound chip does not satisfy.

[lgm1979]

I just noticed that after I uninstalled the horrible demo for Showdown it left behind this idiotic Rapture crap, which is not cool.

Why is Codies the only company out there that has to install a 3rd party audio program for their games? Nobody else is doing that. I'm not gonna call it malware but leaving it behind after uninstall isn't cool.