L4D and Alchemy (X-fi)

[43st]

Do Valve games still require Alchemy in Vista, for X-fi based audio? Or has this been fixed?

[derFeef]

wut.... just needed for EAX enabled games (without openal), which source games are not, and mult ichannel audio. So maybe yes, depends on what you are want to do

[doomed]

AFAIK it has been fixed.

[zuckel]

i'm wondering too. could someone clear this up?

cause right now i can't really hear where zombies are.

[43st]

I went back and dug up some info from when I was playing Insurgency.. link

If you plan on using DirectSound, then you'll need Alchemy I believe. Duration: 10 Buffer: 4

Originally Posted by thomase

For HL2, you have a few different options as well. The HL2 sound engine is software based and creates a mix of 2 (2 speaker or headphones), 4, or 5 channels. If snd_digital_surround is set to 0 (default), it uses DirectSound3D to map these 2/4/5 channels to 3D coordinates. The result is that the 2/4/5 channels go through a final DirectSound3D mixing phase. The 2 channel output DOES NOT include any special virtual spatialization processing for headphones. I don't really understand why they did it this way, but that is the story. Maybe they didn't know how to do direct multi-channel output, although that is hard to believe.

If snd_digital_surround is set to 1, instead of using DirectSound3D, the engine sends the 2/4/5 channels DIRECTLY to the associated channels. This mode was added in a patch some time after release. For some reason, doing it this way instead of through DirectSound3D fixed some problems for Soundstorm users with DD encoding to a 5.1 receiver, hence the name of the variable snd_digital_surround even though it REALLY has to do with DirectSound3D. You don't need a Soundstorm to turn on this feature and get 2/4/5 direct channels instead of going through DirectSound3D.

So, for a 5.1 setup you probably wan't to be in "Game Mode". Set both the game and Creative speaker settings to 5.1. Now you have 2 options; you can set snd_digital_surround to 0 or 1 and see which you like best. I'm guessing most people with 5.1 setups prefer setting it to 1.

For a headphone setup, I'd recommend experiementing between 3 different settings. As a common setup for all 3, first you have to untick "Synchronize with Control Panel". Then set the game to 5.1 mode and set the Creative panel to Headphones. Make sure you enable CMSS3D and set MacroFX and ElevationFilter to Auto or Off. Now for the options:

1.) Set snd_digital_surround to 0 (default). The engine will map the 5 channels to DirectSound3D hardware voices and your X-Fi will virtualize this for headphones.

2.) With the X-Fi in "Game Mode", set snd_digital_surround to 1. The engine will send 5 channels directly to the X-Fi, bypassing DirectSound3D, and these will be virtualized for headphones. The difference is that when sending to the X-Fi as raw channels, the X-Fi will use it's own pre-determined locations for the virtual speakers it is trying to simulate. When in DirectSound3D mode, the game controls these positions. They are certainly different, but I don't know exactly what the positions are in each case.

3.) With X-Fi in "Entertainment Mode", set snd_digital_surround to 1. This is similar to option 2, but the X-Fi will add a little extra processing to simulate the behavior of speakers in a virtual room (slight reflections, etc.). I find that this externalizes the sound image a bit more, but you may feel that it interferes with the game's own environmental effects.

[zuckel]

thanks for the info 43st.
problem is that l4d doesn't know snd_digital_surround.

btw, from my hearing i like it better with alchemy activated, but it may just as well be a placebo.

[Ben&Jerry]

i play with headphones and both tf 2 and l4d when i turn on alchemy it becomes muffled. just game mode and CMSS 3D lets me hear where zombies are perfectly.

[loonysaint]

Are we sure L4D even needs alchemy?

It sounds the same to me...
If i type soundinfo in game with or without alchemy i get the same info back...

Sound Device: 5 Channel Surround
Channels: 6
Samples: 49152
Bits/Sample: 16
Rate: 44100
total_channels: 64

[f@nb0y]

This is how to get surround sound with CMSS3D Headphones:

Windows control panel sounnd settings: quadraphonic or 5.1 or 7.1 (i like quad settings)

X-Fi: Gamemode, CMSS on, headphones, DO NOT SYNC with windows settings

For older than orangebox games: snd_digital_surround set to 1

NOTE: don't know if this is the case for VISTA. I refuse to touch that piece of crap

[Choum]

ALchemy

Features

Enables DirectSound3D game's audio to be processed by your Sound Blaster Audigy or Sound Blaster X-Fi to deliver EAX effects, 3D audio, sample rate conversion and hardware audio mixing on Windows Vista.

There's no need of alchemy for 5.1 sound for every game which use orange box or l4d engine(but hl2 and ep1 need it for 5.1).


You can use alchemy with l4d by using duration : 10 buffer : 5 like all other source game.
It can be usefull to activate hardware audio mixing, cmss, or/and crystalizer.

In this case you need to set the speakers options to 5.1 (for 5.1 or less, even headphone) or 7.1 (if you had 7.1 speakers)in the game and never change it in the game menu, you only need to change speakers setting(headphone, 5.1 or other)setting in thecreative audio console, never in the game itself.

Because, alchemy transmute directsound call to openal so your game need to send 5.1/7.1 DS "flux" to alchemy wich convert it to 5.1/7.1 openal.

For headphone use alchemy with 5.1 setting ingame and headphone setting in Creative audio console, it's work better with cmss-3d.

If you change speakers setting ingame with alchemy enabled, you will lost alchemy transmute(you'll need to restart the game to reactivate it), because If I remember alchemy doesn't support the directsound changespeaker command.

[Sv-z]

I am using A2 ZS, and L4D (at least now demo) still needs AL to get multi-channel sound effects under Vista. I am sure it's the same for X-Fi under Vista. I set Buffer=5 and Duration=25.

[richard.eid]

EDIT: OK, so I decided to cancel my GameStop pre-order and get it from Steam so I can play it the second it's released. I pre-loaded Left 4 Dead and am ready to rock 'n roll. It would seem that Valve didn't go with a GCF for Left 4 Dead, so I edited the configuration settings below to reflect the new paths.

-------------------------------------------------

If you want to take full advantage of any Source based game's sound in Vista(and also any and every game that uses DirectSound) using your Creative Labs sound card, you need to use ALchemy. Here's how you can configure Left 4 Dead when it's released.

For Vista 64-bit:

Game Title:  Left 4 Dead
Use Registry Path:  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Valve\Steam\InstallPath
Install into Sub Folder:  steamapps\common\left 4 dead
Buffers:  5
Duration:  10
Maximum Voice Count:  128

For Vista 32-bit and XP 32-bit:

Game Title:  Left 4 Dead
Use Registry Path:  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Valve\Steam\InstallPath
Install into Sub Folder:  steamapps\common\left 4 dead
Buffers:  5
Duration:  10
Maximum Voice Count:  128

I'm assuming that Left 4 Dead will follow the same path as all other Valve games and not install itself into the common folder once it's released in full. If it does, in fact, install like the rest of the Valve games, you can create a folder titled left 4 dead under your steamapps\username folder right now and pre-configure it so it'll be ready to go when it's released. If you don't want to do that, ALchemy will give you an error when you click OK.

These settings apply to any Source based game...and also GoldSource, for that matter.

Source Engine Games Set 1
Source Games "Orange Box"

In my opinion, it's worth the little time it takes to set up.

[43st]

Great information guys, thanks a lot.

[richard.eid]

I edited my post above. It's pretty important that you use the new configuration I outlined.

[jimmysmitty]

Thats weird. I have had my X-Fi since October with Vista and no VALVe game has ever needed Alchemy for full support.