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Old 02-06-21, 19:09   #91
ATombRaiderFan
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Originally Posted by LateRaider View Post
ah right, next text cleanup can be released now. i've been developing it alongside rescued b/c it's gonna be in rescued itself. thanks for the reminder

https://www.tombraiderforums.com/sho...d.php?t=208015

i just posted in the thread, yolo
Thank you for the update! It took me several attempts to get a screenshot as my loading times are a bit quick. I got to say I'm loving the level title change already

(Oh sorry for going off topic here. I should’ve put this reply in the other thread.)
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Old 02-06-21, 21:32   #92
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Originally Posted by ATombRaiderFan View Post
Thank you for the update! It took me several attempts to get a screenshot as my loading times are a bit quick. I got to say I'm loving the level title change already
Yeah, it's great to see it in-game! That was such a good vanilla-friendly tweak. I feel like that's what Core would've named it if not under pressure.
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Old 02-06-21, 23:39   #93
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Yeah, it's great to see it in-game! That was such a good vanilla-friendly tweak. I feel like that's what Core would've named it if not under pressure.
Ooohh that title with that image looks very atmospheric and mysterious. Very Nice!
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Old 28-07-23, 14:12   #94
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Thumbs up Works for Sands of Time too

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UPDATE: An all-in-one download has been provided below for those just coming across this fix.

Hi everyone! After lurking here for many, many years and only just creating an account last year, I'm pleased to announce that I have something worthwhile to contribute back to the TR community, specifically us AOD fans.

As everyone's probably aware, enabling EAX in AOD has not been feasible for a long time. After Windows Vista was released, the DirectSound3D interface that was required by EAX to work its magic was removed, meaning that EAX effects and options in older games were rendered entirely broken on newer hardware and Windows versions. While it has been possible to enable it again through Creative's own ALchemy application, the results were honestly... not great. EAX effects are emulated through OpenAL, but the method that ALchemy uses is very exaggerated. It makes the game very echoey and unrealistically loud. Because of this, most have gone without EAX for many years - since there was no viable alternative short of playing on very old hardware with a Creative card that would allow EAX to work natively. I doubt many of us still have tech that old! So, it seemed like it was always going to be a relic of the past...

...Until now!

After extensive testing on my end, I've finally found an implementation that both works, and sounds much better than the ALchemy method that has been used for years. Instead of using ALchemy, the implementation is all done through DSOAL.

You might've heard of it before if you've played other games. DSOAL is a dll wrapper used (often with Bethesda games, but it works with many others as well) to re-enable true surround sound that was broken after Windows Vista in many games. But that's not all it does. The documentation also mentions that DSOAL is able to emulate the environment for EAX effects to be enabled, all the way up to V4 (AOD is EAX3 for reference).

After wondering if it could potentially be used to work with AOD recently, I'm pleased to say it does! Not only does it re-enable the options themselves, but it also works out of the box! No manual tweaking required! And trust me when I say it sounds much, much better. Sound is portrayed much more accurately than through ALchemy. Some notable examples I've come across during my initial test run:

-Areas in general with wide open spaces now have a nice reverb effect, without sounding too loud or overbearing compared to ALchemy. Lara's pitch properly adjusts when she's indoors as well.

-Derelict Apartment Block - The door banging in the initial part of the level should now grow quieter the further away you are from it.

-Industrial Rooftops - The helicopter now has far more accurate positional sound and effects.

-Vault of Trophies - The underwater sound effects are restored with EAX enabled! (When doing the puzzle with the statues)

Unfortunately, it seems as though (in my game at least) that the audio is not synced up to the effects properly. EAX enables it, but the audio will lag slightly behind the effects themselves.

-Many, many others I'm sure will become apparent at some point.



So, how do we do all of that, you ask? What do I need to download to get it working? I'll provide a step by step guide, it's all very simple.

Please use either the full archive below, or follow the instructions beneath if you'd rather download everything individually.

All-In-One Archive: https://www.mediafire.com/file/mz6h6...L_EAX.zip/file

or

- 1. If you still have ALchemy installed, remove it. You can keep it if you're using it for other games, but if it's only been installed to use for AOD at any point, then there's no reason to keep unneeded software around for a single game.
Edit: After looking around online, it's apparently recommended not to have ALchemy installed alongside DSOAL since ALchemy will try to override it to take control of dsound.dll. If you don't absolutely need to keep ALchemy around for any reason, I definitely recommend uninstalling it if you haven't.


- 2. Install EAXUnified. Still a requirement, as that's how the game detects what version of EAX is being used. It can be installed through standard game installation if still using a disc install, or through a link to the driver online (I used the one from PCGamingWiki - so completely safe to use).
https://community.pcgamingwiki.com/f...7-eax-unified/


- 3. Install OpenAL, if not installed already on your system. This is used to direct the "calls" made to the sound systems to use DSOAL instead. It does this by making the game think that it's running under a Creative-enabled environment, such as with a dedicated sound card. This, however, will work with any combination of hardware so it's critical to have this installed, or DSOAL may refuse to work at all. Install the second archive only, the one that says "Windows Installer".
https://openal.org/downloads/


- 4. Download DSOAL. Download "dsoal-latest.7z" from the link provided below, this is all that's needed. I must stress that it must be one of the latest builds or higher, which is why I recommend downloading it from the location I mentioned. Older releases from other locations online, in my testing, made the game crash on startup.
Edit: Since Caesum asked about the specific files I used, I'll link them directly so there's no confusion. I promise that the link is safe, even though it's just a standard http link.
Here it is: http://vaporeon.io/hosted/dsoal-builds/


- 5. Place the DSOAL files in your AOD install directory, wherever that may be. It needs to be in the same location as your exe files in the Bin folder, so wherever TRAOD.exe, P3, P4, etc are. Place alsoft.ini, dsound.dll, and dsoal-aldrv.dll there. I'm not entirely sure if alsoft.ini is needed, but it didn't harm my game being there. The other two though are absolutely needed.
Edit: Apparently alsoft.ini is in fact needed, so do install it alongside the other two previously mentioned files.

For me, it would be C:/Games/Eidos Interactive/TRAOD/Bin


Addendum: There's an additional potential requirement I forgot to mention. If anyone is having trouble getting the game to recognize the dsound.dll, this may help.


"So, for reference, the dsound.dll is not referenced on Windows 8 and later. What this means is that Windows doesn't know what to do with it by default, it's more or less disabled. Getting around this involved adding a couple of entries to the registry.

I know that sounds scary and not as simple as my initial post made it seem, but I promise it's not so bad. I believe this needs to be done before Windows can recognize the dsound.dll, where the bulk of the code is going to be. You should only need to add these once, and they will allow dsound.dll to work for any game that makes use of it
"

Here's a link to the guide provided by the author of IndirectSound, similar to DSOAL:
https://www.indirectsound.com/registryIssues.html

If the first method doesn't work for you, try the second method. Despite the author of IndirectSound not recommending it, it works perfectly fine. It's only not recommended because Windows may undo the changes you made compared to the first method, and is a bit more difficult to actually edit due to permissions. If this method makes it work for you, just keep an eye out and make sure the settings stick after updates (i.e. EAX doesn't suddenly show up greyed-out in options again), and you should be fine.

Specifically, these steps are what you need to do if the first doesn't work. Thanks to Caesum for posting this solution!

"You need to:
1. Ctrl+Alt+Delete and enter Task Manager
2. Click File / Run New Task. Then write regedit and check the 'Create this task with administrative privileges' field. Click Ok.
3. Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{3901CC3 F-84B5-4FA4-BA35-AA8172B8A09B}\InprocServer32 then right click the key and click on Permissions.
4. Click Advanced. Next to Owner click Change. Type your username or account type (eg. Administrators) and click Check Names. If done properly it should find it. Click Okay.
5. Return to main Permissions window and select your username/account type (eg. Administrators). Check "Allow" field next to Full Control.
6. Change (Default) value to dsound.dll
7. Repeat same steps for:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{47D4D94 6-62E8-11cf-93BC-444553540000}\InprocServer32
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\WOW6432Node\CL SID\{3901CC3F-84B5-4FA4-BA35-AA8172B8A09B}\InprocServer32
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\WOW6432Node\CL SID\{47D4D946-62E8-11cf-93BC-444553540000}\InprocServer32
"



Afterward, you should be good to go! If all went well, you should now be able to go to the Sound tab in options and see that the EAX options are no longer greyed-out and are able to be selected again. In-game, you should have a noticeable difference in audio quality as well. The sound should be indistinguishable from native EAX. If not, check that everything is installed correctly and in the correct location and try again.


To highlight the differences, as some of them can be quite subtle - plus people may want to know how this method sounds compared to ALchemy, I'm going to link Nakamichi's thread here that showcases the video he made highlighting the differences. Please watch it so you can be aware of what to look out for in-game if you're unsure about whether you'll like the effect or not. Note that the portions shown in the video as "EAX" are functionally the same as what you'll be hearing in-game with DSOAL, Nakamichi was just using the actual hardware for his video. Thanks to Maverin for the link posted in his best settings thread.

https://www.tombraiderforums.com/sho...d.php?t=212300



I hope that everyone enjoys this find! I was so happy to discover this myself. Any small way to make this game better is a plus in my book.

If anyone would like to add this as part of their tweaks guides, you are more than welcome to. I hold no ownership over any of this of course. This was just my humble way of helping out us fans of AOD.
You beautiful monster, thank you for sharing this treasure.
Can confirm that this worked beautifully for Prince of Persia: Sands of Time.
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Old 31-01-24, 03:59   #95
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i did the changes in the registry a few times, always with success. but now, i can not get it work with tomb raider. it worked before, but after a long time, i had to modifie the registry again, but now it dont work. i did a fresh install from the game etc, but i can not enable eax anymore. it stays grey, no matter what i try. i am on win11. do somebode have the same problem?
i tried it with the newest dsoal files and also with the older ones, but it dont work.

Update:
After deinstalling EAX4Unified and oalinst, restarting windows and the reinstalling EAX4Unified and oalinst, now it works again

Last edited by gabberhead; 01-02-24 at 04:55.
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