I need to replace Creative and I need to do it now!

[Malo]

Yeah LOTRO uses native OpenAL so make sure after you have everything installed right, LOTRO settings should give you options between things ike Generic modes and Native modes. As long as you don't have a cheapass X-Fi or Audigy then you should be able to use native.

 

[John Reynolds]

You need to install OpenAL (install link). Yeah, Vista Audio can sometimes be a real PITA. Sometimes installing the Creative drivers install OpenAL, and other times it doesn't.

Thanks for the link. I could've sworn I already installed OpenAL (doesn't the 3DMark06 installer include it?), but I'll give that .exe a try tonight after work.

 

[Malo]

Thanks for the link. I could've sworn I already installed OpenAL (doesn't the 3DMark06 installer include it?), but I'll give that .exe a try tonight after work.

That's a pretty old version though isn't it?

 

[John Reynolds]

That's a pretty old version though isn't it?

Sure, but 3DMark06 still should've worked nonetheless.

 

[swaaye]

Err, my divx and mpg files do show thumbnails. Maybe you need to update your codecs or give windows time to index the files?

No it had to do with Vista x64 and some sort of connection to WMP 64-bit. After some searching, found out that I needed "Vista Codec Pack" and "Vista Codec x64 Controls" from http://www.jtow.net/users/triess/. That made everything thumbnail except flash video files.

 

[swaaye]

Think about what you said there. Could your Vista play Divx files out of the box? Didn't think so. So Microsoft is suppose to add the function to a format they have no control over? Awesome, I'll call them up because one of my Divx files isn't working in Windows Media Player.... oh wait. You know why Windows tries to do everything? Because it has too. OSX includes many applications that are not a core part of the OS. Hell one of Apple's favorite marketing slogans goes something like "Does what you want out of the box" or some bullshit. Linux comes loaded out its ass with useless applications for 80% of distros and certainly all the popular ones are like that. But damn it! If Microsoft includes MS Paint in one more OS I'm going to rebel! Damn them for trying to make a half decent image viewer. Screw them for trying to do some basic multimedia tasks without me having to purchase or download a third parties application!

Here is a clue, hardly anyone innovates. Shocking, I know. Nearly every product you've bought was not purchased from its inventor. Therefore you won't find me shocked when neither is the OS I purchased. Welcome to life, brought to you by humans.

Excuse me while a shed a tear. Or not.

Yeah, it's a good idea to excuse Vista from being semi-broken in various ways and derivative because "it's ok to be risk averse and only copy others". Especially when the company has nearly unlimited funds to do things. Yah. Better idea; why defend any product? They don't give a shit about you anyway. They just want your money and will try to get it however they can, usually within the law.

As for the thumbs, I of course had Divx installed. Also tried out FFDSHOW for kicks. The problem is that x64 apparently ties explorer into WMP 64-bit. Then the 32-bit codecs don't work for thumbs. So I had to get Vista Codec Package and Vista Codec 64-bit controls, as in above post.

 

[Skrying]

Excuse me while a shed a tear. Or not.

Yeah, it's a good idea to excuse Vista from being semi-broken in various ways and derivative because "it's ok to be risk averse and only copy others". Especially when the company has nearly unlimited funds to do things. Yah. Better idea; why defend any product? They don't give a shit about you anyway. They just want your money and will try to get it however they can, usually within the law.

As for the thumbs, I of course had Divx installed. Also tried out FFDSHOW for kicks. The problem is that x64 apparently ties explorer into WMP 64-bit. Then the 32-bit codecs don't work for thumbs. So I had to get Vista Codec Package and Vista Codec 64-bit controls, as in above post.

I just find it funny when people make ridiculous statements and try to blame the other guy. Microsoft might have a ton of money but supporting products outside of their own is not their job. Its down right insane to think otherwise. It is their product and they can do with it what they wish. If you don't like it, don't buy it. That's the way this market works, good or bad that's how it is.

 

[willardjuice]

No it had to do with Vista x64 and some sort of connection to WMP 64-bit. After some searching, found out that I needed "Vista Codec Pack" and "Vista Codec x64 Controls" from http://www.jtow.net/users/triess/. That made everything thumbnail except flash video files.

If you associate a particular filetype to open with WMP while the system default is set to use the 64bit player, that filetype will always open the 64bit player when doubleclicked

The default WMP in Vista x64 is the 32-bit flavor. So you must have changed the system default prior to associating the file types. It's as much as your fault as it's Microsoft.

 

[Blazkowicz]

microsofts stance on audio in vista has me totally baffled
my only theory is they are trying to make the pc as proprietry as they possibly can

er, aren't they in this case dropping support for the proprietary EAX shit while supporting the open alternative?

 

[Davros]

but they are also dropping support for eax2 which is open
and what about ds3d whats so bad about it being done in hardware

Davros beats blazkowicz over the head with a copy of hl (eax rocks when done right)

 

[willardjuice]

er, aren't they in this case dropping support for the proprietary EAX shit while supporting the open alternative?

Just because XAudio2 is completely software based doesn't mean it's more "open" than DirectSound, at least IMO.

 

[Davros]

and what exactly is the point of not making it and ds3d able to be hardware acclerated ?
ps: are there any published specs for xaudio2 ? as in what it supports. reverb, enviroment modelling, dopler, pitch shift ect ?

 

[willardjuice]

and what exactly is the point of not making it and ds3d able to be hardware acclerated ?

Microsoft says to lower the amount of BSOD.

 

[BRiT]

Microsoft says to lower the amount of BSOD.

If MS provided for some hook-points they would have allowed for hardware acceleration. The audio stack could still run within user-space. That would eliminate BSODs and provide for existing audio features. Instead MS royally fucked things up while provide no benefits to the users.

 

[Davros]

im not aware of there being any outstanding problems with audio hardware causing bsod's
hell gfx drivers cause a hell of a lot more problems than audio ever has

i think my position that ms want to stanardize the pc (make them all the same) hold some water
theyve managed to do it with dx10 cards there are no caps bits now every dx10 card has the same features
but the only way to do it with sound cards was to bugger up creatives proprietery api (gfx cards dont use propritry api's so not a problem)
of course creative sort of spoiled that by inventing the alchemy wrapper

 

[willardjuice]

im not aware of there being any outstanding problems with audio hardware causing bsod's

I believe Microsoft said it's the leading cause of BSOD on XP. I'd believe it too because most of my BSOD are caused from audio related problems.

 

[Davros]

out of interest what card have you got ive never had a sound card related bsod

 

[willardjuice]

out of interest what card have you got ive never had a sound card related bsod

Audigy2ZS/X-Mystique/X-Fi all gave me BSOD in warcraft 3 after long hours of play time. Granted since it was an isolated incident, it was probably Blizzard's fault, but it's the only time I really got a BSOD on XP.

Ironically I also got BSOD in Vista from DirectSound applications wrapped with ALchemy (ALchemy had a bug when it first came out, Creative has since fixed the issue). I always laughed at that one; Microsoft makes this huge change to their audio stack to increase stability only for Creative to make a small hack to ruin it all.

 

[John Reynolds]

Installed and patched NWN2 last night and was only getting software sound options (Miles 2D FTW!). Why didn't you people tell me I had to manually add games in Alchemy's little front-end? Wasted five minutes of my life figuring this out, so someone owes me.

 

[Neb]

you can thats the whole point of creatives alchemy eax will be converted to openal - just like a glide wrapper converts glide to opengl or d3d, creative are the only company so far to provide this ability

iirc alchemy is available free for x-fi's but will later be ported to audigy's but it wont be free for tham unless creative change their minds

ps: i beleive the emu uses a different processor to the x-fi + different drivers

pps: looks like microsofts grand vision is to move all audio processing onto the cpu

That is ridiculous if that really is their vision. Dedicated sound hardware is always better, is not software only but the actual hardware 'filters' to give good SNR rate etc.