TS2013 and EFX Audio Issues

[OrpheusRocker]

I was getting "phasing" of sound and unidirectionality. Using the advice in this thread, I got an almost perfect solution. I'll explain 'almost' later.
Because I'm using WindowsXP 32 bit with a Creative Labs X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Fatal1ty Pro card, I had the "sponge your speaker cones off of the back wall" pink noise feature which RSC solved for me by cranking back the H/W acceleration to Basic.
Having read this thread, I renamed 'OpenAL32.dll' to 'OpenAL32.dll.original' and switched on the EAX effects in the Game mode of the Creative Console. Now I get full 5.1 3D sound stage with minimal (that is barely audible) phasing. Back to the 'almost'...
Using the Class 158 with AP Sound Pack on the Bristol to Exeter route, I can't hear either horn from inside the cab. I can live with that

Edit: I've turned the H/W acceleration back up to full and I now get AP's sound pack in all its glory complete with jointed rail effects and horns available anywhere.
Therefore the original solution to my sound issues should have been: Back up and delete or rename the OpenAL32.dll file in the root directory of TS 2013.

[smarty2]

No ta fella, that loooverly OpenAl is working wonders for my Xonar D2X!

[tads1970]

No ta fella, that loooverly OpenAl is working wonders for my Xonar D2X!

Same here Martin,my Xonar really likes this latest version of RW.Everything works and sounds waaaaaaay better.It was a really nice surprise because I thought RSC would never
improve the sound engine.

Daz

[smarty2]

No ta fella, that loooverly OpenAl is working wonders for my Xonar D2X!

Same here Martin,my Xonar really likes this latest version of RW.Everything works and sounds waaaaaaay better.It was a really nice surprise because I thought RSC would never
improve the sound engine.

Daz

Yes I even tinkered with my old creative card but that was a waste of time in W7, in fact it was just a waste of time in any OS! I was very surprised too Daz, pity RSC and others (Aerosoft) do not add over and under bridge sounds, the S& C is one Cologne Dusseldorf and Brighton has a weird tunnel sound like it only starts when a third the way through the tunnel? Sounds are damn important to the immersion factor imo and they should be added to their routes, its just laziness!

[tads1970]

Yeah its all about the sound,one bit of the program i always thought was overlooked,until now.

This is what iv'e observed with the default green 37,looking sidways outside.
Front bogie left speaker (perfect joint count)back bogie right speaker (perfect joint count)
Same loco,Bath,coasting into tunnel,thrash with very realistic echo,good cab occlusion.

It really does give a realistic sense of immersion than previous attempts.
Maybe the other routes just need some kind of update,but have no idea about the weird effects
you mention as i don't own them.

All of the effect's work as they should on the default routes,could you compare data?

Daz

[Trev123]

The only thing I find strange about the sound is on the Cajun Pass driving a ES44AC and you go under a bridge or through a rock sided cutting I'm pretty certain the reverb sound sounds like a SD40. I'm using Realtek onboard sound.

[smartie38]

I believe the reason this openal is working fine on your D2X cards is due to the fact that those cards only emulate eax/efx, they can't do it through hardware like the x-fi cards, still with the track record creative have for updating their drivers (if indeed it turned out to be an issue with the creative drivers instead of with ts2013) then I'd probably be better off ditching my x-fi and getting one of those Xonar cards instead

[smarty2]

Well I couldn't recommend the D2X highly enough, wonderful 3D placement and the sound is crystal, much better than my old creative fatal1ty extreme gamer pro card!
Oh and the wonderful Unified drivers are a marvel too.

[phat2003uk]

After recently paying out on a Creative X-Fi Platinum HD sound card, it's rather galling to be experiencing no 3D sound and intermittent crackles.

[JustRight]

After recently paying out on a Creative X-Fi Platinum HD sound card, it's rather galling to be experiencing no 3D sound and intermittent crackles.

So even you have been affected by this Richard?

It's even more disappointing when having paid for all of your Sound Packs that they sound like Monophonic recordings with no sound staging whatever!
I wonder what RSC's rationale for this will be?

Lets hope a fix might be forthcoming

[JustRight]

I was getting "phasing" of sound and unidirectionality. Using the advice in this thread, I got an almost perfect solution. I'll explain 'almost' later.
Because I'm using WindowsXP 32 bit with a Creative Labs X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Fatal1ty Pro card, I had the "sponge your speaker cones off of the back wall" pink noise feature which RSC solved for me by cranking back the H/W acceleration to Basic.
Having read this thread, I renamed 'OpenAL32.dll' to 'OpenAL32.dll.original' and switched on the EAX effects in the Game mode of the Creative Console. Now I get full 5.1 3D sound stage with minimal (that is barely audible) phasing. Back to the 'almost'...
Using the Class 158 with AP Sound Pack on the Bristol to Exeter route, I can't hear either horn from inside the cab. I can live with that

Edit: I've turned the H/W acceleration back up to full and I now get AP's sound pack in all its glory complete with jointed rail effects and horns available anywhere.
Therefore the original solution to my sound issues should have been: Back up and delete or rename the OpenAL32.dll file in the root directory of TS 2013.

Hi Mate,

The reason this renaming or removing of OpenAL32.dll in your game directory works is because you will have Creative's OpenAL installed somewhere else. Most likely in X:\Windows\System32 or X:\Windows\SysWOW64 for those of you are using Win7 64bit. In this case the railworks.exe program just loads the 'System' version of the OpenAL dll, which is a genuine Creative version, and so it works.

If you had no OpenAL on your system at all, railworks.exe will actually issue an error during startup. I know because I have tried this.

Cheers.

[JustRight]

OK, in an attempt to get to the bottom of my sound problems, I went out yesterday and grabbed an Asus XONAR DX sound card. I uninstalled everything related to my X-Fi, including Creative's OpenAL, and then installed the XONAR DX.

Seems to be a nice sound card. However, on my system and my installation of TS2013 (with ALL of Richard Armstrong's Sound Packs) there is NO DIFFERENCE in the behaviour of the sound stage in the game. There is no positional audio at all when using the 'default' OpenAL Soft driver provided by TS2013. I even downloaded the most recent OpenAL Soft driver myself, which is version 1.14, and replaced that for the TS2013 version, with no improvement.

However, if I install the freely available OpenAL installer from Creative, and disable the OpenAL Soft in TS2013, then wonder of wonders the positonal audio support comes back. Although in this configuration I have no Occlusion or Reverb sound effects, but at least the 3D positional audio seems to work well.

So both the Creative X-Fi Titanium and Asus XONAR DX seem to suffer from the same problems on my Windows 7 64bit System.

This is really frustrating to say the least!

PS: Here is the link to Creatives OpenAL installers:
http://connect.creativelabs.com/openal/ ... Items.aspx

[tads1970]

Justright-

The drivers that come with the DX/DG are really old,you have to get the latest drivers from Asus,make sure they are for the 64 bit OS.
Open you DG/DX audio Centre,this is how mine is set up

Audio channels is set to 8
Sample rate is set to 96 khz
Anologue out is set to 2 speakers
HF + DX set to on (important)
I did have problems with old drivers,but after downloading latest version,works a treat.


Daz

[smarty2]

Also try the unified drivers which are modded, I have no issues with these drivers or sound placement/occlusion etc.
Just google xonar unified drivers.

[tads1970]

Also try the unified drivers which are modded, I have no issues with these drivers or sound placement/occlusion etc.
Just google xonar unified drivers.

I might just give these a try,did you notice any difference using the unified drivers as to the stock ones Marty?

Daz