TS2013 and EFX Audio Issues

[scefhwil]

Haven't used TS2013 much for a few months. Have started it up over Christmas though, going "online" so Steam could update it to the latest version.

Got a pair of headphones for Christmas and also bought the DT40 and AP's Pro 40 sounds in their respective sales. Don't normally use TS2013 with headphones but as we had family staying it seemed sensible to try my new ones with my new addons. What a shock! The positional sound was totally pants! When you looked straight at the loco the sound was quiet and as you turned your head to the side the sound volume increased to a max when perpendicular then back to silence when exactly 180 degrees away. Distance attenuation still worked OK though!

So I went back to my usual 2.1 speakers and things were very different, but not quite as I recalled them from some months back. Attenuation OK and 3D positional sound was, almost, back to normal, except that when turned at 90 degrees to a loco the sound in the far "ear" would drop to total silence.

So I have spent an hour or so experimenting today. Tried various openal32.dll's, including the 1.15.1 mention above, as well as the ones in my system32 and systemWOW folders. Each gives a different result with speakers and headphone socket (ie selecting different default play back devices in Windows 7), but none are perfect, although speakers are always less messed up than headphones.

Eventually I found one setup that worked perfectly. I renamed the openal32.dll in the Railworks folder so that it wouldn't be used and Windows would do it's own thing (presumably use the one in systemWOW as I have Win7 64). I then ran TS2013 with the -ShowSoundDeviceSelector switch used. This gives four options - speakers, headphones, optical out (all SB X-fi devices) and Generic Software. Selecting speakers the sound system runs pefectly. Sound moves from speaker to speaker just as expected, attenuation is there, as is reverb and doppler. In fact doppler seems better than ever and is even noticable when in free roam camera and running towards/ away from sounds at speed. Finally I'm sure the sim is running smoother (possibly the sound is now hardware accelarated as I'm using the soundcards openAL32.dll?), but appreciate this is somewhat subjective. Tried a fair few routes (inc Woodhead) and no crashes/ SBHH etc. All seems stable so far.

For the record I have Win7 64 and an X-Fi PCIe Audio card.

Stuart

[smartie38]

Eventually I found one setup that worked perfectly. I renamed the openal32.dll in the Railworks folder so that it wouldn't be used and Windows would do it's own thing (presumably use the one in systemWOW as I have Win7 64). I then ran TS2013 with the -ShowSoundDeviceSelector switch used. This gives four options - speakers, headphones, optical out (all SB X-fi devices) and Generic Software. Selecting speakers the sound system runs pefectly.
For the record I have Win7 64 and an X-Fi PCIe Audio card.

Stuart

Now that's interesting, we're both running the same os & I've also got the PCIe version of the X-Fi yet if I delete the openal32.dll from the game folder and let windows do it's thing I end up with the game not crashing out with SBHH during playing it but upon exiting any scenario I get a BSOD instead! It's almost like windows is choosing to use the 64-bit version of the openal soft dll instead of the 32bit which I believe is why i'm getting the BSOD.

[gptech]

if I delete the openal32.dll from the game folder and let windows do it's thing................It's almost like windows is choosing to use the 64-bit version of the openal soft dll instead of the 32bit

Which makes sense if you've deleted the in-game version. Windows will use the version native to itself, and as you're using 64bit Windows.....

[smartie38]

(possibly the sound is now hardware accelarated as I'm using the soundcards openAL32.dll?)

Quite possibly as you have no openal soft listed so you don't appear to have it installed, when using the audio device selector switch, I have 3 options, x-fi, openal soft & generic audio.

[scefhwil]

Been away from my PC for a few days, but have played around some further tonight and I'm happy that I have now got things sorted.

In Railworks/Content/PlayerProfiles.bin there is a "SoftwareMixing" setting that is a legacy from RS days - one of the sound settings that never really seemed to do anything! Well if I edit the file value to 0 then RW will select the default Windows device (be it speakers, or headphones, or Optical out, in my case). If I set any other value than 0 then it selects Generic Software (these choices being verified by the Info window of the Sound Debug Dialog, accessed via the -EnableSoundDebugDialogs switch). So I can now get perfect 3D effects without having to use the -ShowSoundDeviceSelector switch each time. That said, speakers is the only device I can select that works (sounds) how it should - Generic Software and Headphones devices all have some glaring glitch in the 3D positioning.

So for the record, I now have correct 3D effects without any SBHH, or other crashes, under Win7 64 with a PCIe X-Fi Audio card by doing the following:-

- renamed openal32.dll in the Railworks folder so that it doesn't get used.
- edited PlayerProfiles.bin to ensure "SoftwareMixing" is set to 0.
- set Speakers as my default Windows sound device (Windows Control Panel).

Limitations are that 3D sound is only correct via the speakers, so I can't use my nice new Bluetooth headphones

Stuart

[smartie38]

Might just have sorted my problems as well, the bsod issues in game weren't down to 32/64 bit versions of the dll which I thought might have been the cause, in my case disabling the xram on my x-fi titanium sound card has cured the bsod issue, by digging around a bit on google it appears this is the fix for openal+bsod issues for many games out there for users with x-fi soundcards which have xram on board, not all cards have the ram installed.

[smusso]

Has anyone managed to get the 3 dimensional sound sorted out for railworks 2013 because since the last sound update i only get monaural sounds from the game,i get no directional sound whatever.
I've tried everything suggested in this thread but still no joy.

[markpullinger]

Hi, what sound card are you using? I got monaural if I didn't have the openal file in railworks and the latest Creative openal files installed - this is for onboard sound, - with the XFi, I had previously (wouldn't fit new motherboard - no slots!) I had to rename the openal.dll file in the railworks folder for it to work ok.

[smusso]

Hi mark i have the creative audigy se card,i know its a pretty old card but i was getting pretty good directional sound up until the last sound update that fixed the gaps in the sound,since then as i say my sounds have gone non directional.

[scefhwil]

I've tried everything suggested in this thread but still no joy.

You get exactly the same mono sound reagrdless of which device you choose via the -ShowSoundDeviceSelector switch? If so, then what device options do you get in the drop down list. If it is only Generic Software then my guess is that you don't have your Creative OpenAL drivers installed propertly.

[smusso]

I've tried everything suggested in this thread but still no joy.

You get exactly the same mono sound reagrdless of which device you choose via the -ShowSoundDeviceSelector switch? If so, then what device options do you get in the drop down list. If it is only Generic Software then my guess is that you don't have your Creative OpenAL drivers installed propertly.

I get openal soft in the drop down list.

[scefhwil]

Then it sounds to me that you must have the default OpenAL Soft .dll in your Railworks folder. What happens when you rename it so that it isn't found by the game?

[smusso]

Then it sounds to me that you must have the default OpenAL Soft .dll in your Railworks folder. What happens when you rename it so that it isn't found by the game?

Thanks for your help scefhwil i seem to have done it its working ok now,i don't know what i did other than start again with the openal32.dll's and edit the player profiles.bin.

[scefhwil]

Glad to hear your've got it sorted