Creative ALchemy - DirectSound 3D is now possible in Vista!
Creative has today announced ALchemy, a brand new small application that enables the surround sound features of all your older games in Vista. Whilst some say there is only support for Creative branded cards in this release it has been noted already that it does infact work with other sound systems that have OpenAL support.Here is the official word from Creative themselves:
In Windows Vista, Microsoft has decided to remove the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) for DirectSound and DirectSound3D. The HAL is the software layer that on previous Windows Operating Systems enabled an audio accelerator such as the SB X-Fi, to provide DirectSound3D applications with hardware accelerated audio. This enabled soundcards to perform tasks such as sample-rate conversion, mixing, 3D spatialization using HRTFs, filtering, and effects processing. Without the HAL, DirectSound on Windows Vista will be rendered in software with no advanced functionality such as EAX.
The audio changes in Windows Vista do not affect OpenAL however. For audio cards that feature 'native' OpenAL support, SB X-Fi series of cards, there is no need to worry! Games that enable support for OpenAL will continue to run just as they do on Windows XP - with hardware accelerated audio and effects.
Although OpenAL has arguably replaced DirectSound3D, particularly in many modern PC Games (e.g Battlefield 2142, Doom3, Quake 4, Prey, etc ...), there are hundreds of older PC games that support DirectSound3D and EAX technology --- all of these games will sound empty and lifeless on Vista. As most DS3D games only enable 3D Audio (and EAX) if a hardware accelerator is present, most of these games will be reduced to a stereo output.
The good news is that the Creative ALchemy Project allows you to run your favorite DirectSound3D games on Windows Vista as the developers intended - with full hardware accelerated 3D Audio and EAX support! This is done by translating DirectSound calls into OpenAL. In order for this to happen, a couple of files need to be installed into each game directory. This is handled automatically by the ALchemy installer - but can also be performed manually by advanced users.
The Creative ALchemy Project is still in beta, and the ALchemy installer only supports a relatively small number of PC games at the moment (HEXUS Edit: World of Warcraft, Call of Duty francise and Grand theft auto already confirmed as compatible : End HEXUS edit). However, with your help, we would like to add more titles to the list, so please download the ALchemy installer, run it, enjoy 3D Audio and EAX effects in your favorite games.
This sounds very good in all honesty, its excellent to see this sort of effort going into Vista to further improve applcation and game support from parties other than Microsoft themselves. Its a case of one-up man ship from Creative though, they have done something Microsoft couldn't, although couldn't be bothered might be nearer the mark.
With the small application sitting in your system tray the ALchemy application should do exactly what it says on the tin, we will try to get you some real examples over on HEXUS.tv in the near future, but for those of you lucky enough to have Vista already, or for those contemplating, the good news is Creative aren't letting hardware changes get in your way with Vista.
Availability
A beta version of the Creative ALchemy software is available for immediate download from here. Newer versions of the software will add support for more DS3D based games. End-users are encouraged to join the Creative ALchemy community and post their feedback and suggestions for which games should be supported in the future, on the discussion forums on the website.Updated Vista drivers for Sound Blaster X-Fi are available for download from europe.creative.com, these are required to run Creative ALchemy.
