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Creative Labs: Connect > ALchemy > ALchemy X-Fi > Update informations about Alchemy with Valve and Source Games  

ALchemy X-Fi

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Started: 11/15/2008 8:30 AM
Update informations about Alchemy with Valve and Source Games
Hi,
 
After some research and test in steam forum with Valve employee post (Jay Stelly in particular). It appears that Alchemy is not usefull for all Valve game.
 
All non source games like half-life 1, counterstrike 1.6, hl1 mod etc.. :
alchemy is need to have full surround sound support and eax effect.
 
 
Half-life2
Half-life Source
Half-life Source deathmatch
Half-life Lost coast
Dark messiah
Sin emergence
Vampire Bloodlines
need alchemy to have Full surround sound.
 
 
Half-life2 episode one
counter-strike Source
Half-life2 deathmatch
Source SDK Base (use by mod like PVK 2.2, Eternal silence 3.1 and more)
Alchemy is optionnal (or useless ?), as you can restore full surround sound by typing in the console : snd_digital_surround 1
Just add +snd_digital_surround 1 in startup options of each games and mods (which use the source sdk base).
 
 
Half-life2 episode two
Team Fortress 2
Portal
Source sdk base -orange box (use by some source mod avalaible in steam (insurgency, synergy etc...)
left 4 dead
Day of defeat Source
Alchemy is optionnal (or useless ?) Full surround sound support without doing anything.
 
 
More Informations about :
 
snd_digital_surround 1 : This setting bypasses direct sound 3d for surround for a 6-channel digital stream which is more compatible with newer audio hardware.
The latest version of the engine (The Orange Box) and left4dead has this setting as the default.
 
snd_legacy_surround : (0 by def) : this setting only appear in orange box and recent source game like l4d, if set to 1, the game will use the older direct sound 3d path ( so snd_legacy_surround 1 = snd_digital_surround 0), so leave it at 0 and never change it to 1 in vista.
 
other information :
 
Half-life2, Half-life Source, Half-life Source, deathmatch, Half-life Lost coast, Dark messiah, Sin emergence, Vampire Bloodlines :
they all have the snd_digital_surround command but It can not be use to have surround sound, as the source audio engine for this game never been updated for Vista, in fact you can never set this command to 1 (alway return to 0), so alchemy is required.
 
 
that's all for now, I hope that will help you.
 
Choum
Edited: 11/17/2008 3:46 AM
Picture: Daniel Peacock
Daniel Peacock
That's great information.  Thank-you for doing the research and posting the results here.
 
I'll think about how to merge this information into the Games List.
 
Dan
 
Posted: 1/28/2009 1:10 AM
Registry path for Vista 64bit users is different: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Valve\Steam\InstallPath This needs to be pointed out somewhere.
Posted: 2/2/2009 10:31 AM



From:
Posted: Wednesday, January 28, 2009 1:10 AM
Subject: Update informations about Alchemy with Valve and Source Games

Registry path for Vista 64bit users is different: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Valve\Steam\InstallPath This needs to be pointed out somewhere.
Hum the wow6432Node is optionnal. You can use on 64bits Windows HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Valve\Steam\InstallPath or HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\\Valve\Steam\InstallPath Both will work. (OS will find find the good path)
Posted: 9/21/2009 4:30 PM
I have added Team Fortress to ALchemy and I have used Vista (now WIN7) and in order to get 7.1 sound I have to set snd_legacy_surround to 1 in both TF2 and Left 4 Dead games. The game itself defaults to 5.1 in the audio options but I am getting discrete sound from all 7 speakers. I'm not entirely sure what's happening in the background but I'm assuming that ALchemy is handling the audio; the files are in the game directory.
Posted: 10/9/2009 10:38 AM
If it is generating a dssoundlog.txt file in the directory, then the game is attempting to use direct sound 3d.
 
If not, then the game is either using a software audio engine, the sound flag is improperly set, or the alchemy files need to be in a different directory.
 
-Andy Balthazor
Posted: 10/12/2009 2:22 PM
What are the right speaker settings (2/2.1ch, headphones, 5.1 or 7.1) in a) Vista b) In-game c) Creative audio console to get that snd_digital_surround 1 to work as it should?

Posted: 10/12/2009 3:34 PM
And I'd like to know is Alchemy more efficient way to produce surround sound because it's produced from the sound card (in my case audigy 2 zs notebook) and not from the software like the snd_surround_speakers command? Or am I completely lost?

Posted: 10/20/2009 1:24 AM
It's true for old d3d game with eax and not for source game. For example using alchemy in TF2 (which not need) = I have some looping sound in cp_granary for example)

Posted: 10/22/2009 1:55 AM
In CS:S that looping sound can be fixed by writing in the console "snd_restart". Dunno if that works with TF2 though.

Posted: 1/20/2010 8:55 AM
i cannot get surround sound on dark messiah (HL2 works well). If i set alchemy-entries, the game only detects headphone setup. dsoundlog.txt: Loaded c:\games\steam\steamapps\g0dl1k3@gmx.net\dark messiah might and magic single player\DSOUND.ini Using Native OpenAL Renderer Native Device not default Native Device not default Native Device not default Native Device not default Native Device not default Native Device not default Native Device not default Native Device not default