SS2 Headphones Sound Upgrade

[6647c79b789c8Marvin]

I updated the main post with information from @GuyFawkesGaming , thanks again!

[6647c79b78cf5GuyFawkesGaming]

Honestly even I don't know everything about EAX emulation. Most stuff is strait forward like copy dsound.dll and dsoal-aldrv.dll into the game folder (or a3d.dll a3dsnd.dll and dsoal-aldrv.dll into syswow64). Some of the same issues standard openal has, such as the -12 reverb fix, also manifest with DSOAL. But some games just don't work with no real explanation. Some people have been able to solve this by installing creative alchemy alongside DSOAL, but no one's really sure why that fixes things since you don't actually need a creative card or alchemy even functional for it to work. I theorized it might have something to do with the registry since indirect sound offers the following fix:

Code: [Select]

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[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}\InprocServer32]
@="dsound.dll"

[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}\InprocServer32]
@="dsound.dll"There are also 3 A3D solutions; QSound wrapper (which A3D Alchemy appears to be based on), A3D Live and Creative's official wrapper. The best solution for this also depends on the game. I suggest also installing the A2D driver (included with A3D Alchemy).

[6647c79b78f06Hirmuolio]

I think it is worth noting that with one small change this also makes SS2 work with surround speakers (this thread is also one of the first results on google search for thtat).

In the alsoft.ini remove the headphone and hrtf lines and change the

channels=stereo

to

channels=surround51

to make the audio into 5.1 surround.

[6647c79b792d5RocketMan]

 Just to double-check, if I want 5.1 sound that's better than what's currently available in the game settings, first I do this:

    Download the OpenAL Soft Windows binaries: Download link.
    Copy the DLL from bin\Win32\ to your game's main folder.
    Download the alsoft.ini file from the end of this post and copy it to your game's main folder.
    Open cam_ext.cfg with a text editor and put the following line at its end:

        snd_oal_device OpenAL Soft

...except in the ini I change "channels" to "surround51" and that's it?

What about "stereomode = headphones" ?  Would that have to take on a different value for 5.1?

Any other optimizations to make this suited for 5.1?  Should I change my windows settings or disable crystallizer and CMSS like the tutorial video says?

Thanks.