EAX and Rail Simulator 2012

[Bassno9]

Will the EAX, Alchemy problems be sorted out? Question for Devs

[Darpor]

Surely email support for an answer? This isn't an official channel for them to post although you may well get one, don't be annoyed if they don't answer.

[crumplezone]

Will the EAX, Alchemy problems be sorted out? Question for Devs

I gave a answer to this in another thread, but EAX is part of directsound which is now consider obsolete by Microsoft and inferior so actual problems with Alchemy is due down to compatibility issues which are very unlikely to be looked into or changed as this would require creative and Microsoft to work together on a new set, creative is somewhat deadset on still using Directsound so Microsoft are unlikely to change their stance on it.

There isn't much else RS.com can do to fix it other than removing it as a option to be used and then using a new sound code to give the same 3D sound, to be honest that would be the better option and less compatibility issues aswell as less cutoffs on sounds which is directly in part to the older Directsound and associated legacy software. There is quite a few games which can give what EAX used to do without the need or reliance on it.

[smarty2]

Well hopefully the sound is getting a make over in RW2012 so lets hope they adopt open Al?

[PaulH2]

creative is somewhat deadset on still using Directsound

Not true at all, in fact Creative have been largely responsible for the development of OpenAL for many years since they took it over about 10 years ago when the initial open-souce development project closed. http://connect.creativelabs.com/openal/default.aspx

As for EAX, that was initially a Creative proprietary sound extension format. It has been supersceded by EFX in OpenAL (which I believe maintains all the same functionalty), so conversion to Open AL wouldn't involve any loss of functionality (far from it).

For whatever reason, Rail Simulator was originally intended to use OpenAL http://www.creative.com/soundblaster/pr ... egoryID=13 but switched at the last minute to the already obsolete DirectSound. The sound system we currently have in RailWorks is basically the same (if not identical) to that in Rail Simulator and is probably therefore the result of a last minute change when the OpenAL system was dropped and is unlikely to be fixed in itself as it is based on the obsolete DirectSound which is no longer supported by anybody. Neither Creative nor Microsoft will (or should be expected to) do anything about a dead interface.

To date, the sound system hasn't received any love even though (in my opinion at least) it has been in need of an overhaul for longer and more urgently than almost any other aspect. I am hopeful that, as Train Simulator 2012 does look like being by far the most major update we have seen to the Rail Simulator platform to date, that the sound interface will finally be rennovated (apart from anything else, it would help performance on anything other than XP as on Vista and Windows 7, the CPU is doing all the sound processing for the legacy DirectSound emulation). I have my doubts though, as I'd have thought there would have been some mention by now if much effort were going in on the sound, but the details of the update do remain a mystery so there is still hope...

Paul