TS2013 and EFX Audio Issues

[smartie38]

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.

Weird but I have tried removing the openal32.dll from the game directory and it wont even load as fas as the main menu screen, it just crashes out with a sbhh error and I do have openal32 installed in the system folders, I know because I even tried copying the wrap_aol.dll into the game folder and renaming it to openal32.dll to try and fix the mono sound issues before I initially came across this thread.

[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.

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

Daz

Yes, every time I enabled GX TS wouldn't start it just crashed but with the unified drivers it got fixed also there are elements in the uni drivers in its setup you can add or disable for the soundcard, very nicely done and they install to any OS.
Also, I tried the creative open Al and did a comparison between the TS one and the creative one and there is absolutely no difference to 3D placement between them both, I just had a static class 70 and did a 360 and the directionality was spot on.

[markpullinger]

Hi, copying the openal32.dll from windows/system32 into Railworks main directory & overwriting got sounds working properly for me. Using creative PCI XFi extreme gamer card with Win7 64 bit. much better sound

[JustRight]

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

Thanks for the tips mate. I had already installed the most recent drivers from ASUS for the DX. However using the default OpenAL32.dll as provided by TS2013 only gives me some Occlusion and Reverb. No 3D positional sounds at all. If on the other hand I use a Creative version of OpenAL32.dll, say from the old TS2012 install, or from the freely available OpenAL installation that Creative provide, then I get great 3D positional sounds, but no Occlusion or Reverb.

It's all very strange.

[JustRight]

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.

Thanks mate, I found the 1.62 version of the Unified drivers and installed them. All works OK, except for TS2013, where I get Occlusion and Reverb when using the default OpenAL32.dll as supplied by TS2013, but NO 3D positional sounds. Or, I get 3D positional sounds when using a Creative version of OpenAL32.dll, but NO Occlusion or Reverb.

Why is this so damned inconsistent.

[smarty2]

How strange? working perfectly for me in all aspects?

[smartie38]

How strange? working perfectly for me in all aspects?

You think that's strange, it appears I can't use any other OpenAl32.dll except the one that came with ts2012 or ts2013, if I try to use a new version of openal32 I'm met with a blue screen of death everytime I exit the game, without fail, I've even tried the beta drivers for the x-fi as one of the fixes listed is a cure for bsod issues related to openal but I had no luck with them either.

[mole446]

You are not alone Smartie, I have exactly the same issue. If I use anything other than the railworks supplied version of OpenAl32.dll placed in the railworks folder I get bsod as soon as I end a scenario or try to go into the editor.

Strangely enough it does work up until that point and did actually sound better.

I have a Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Titanium running Windows 7 64-bit.

[smartie38]

You are not alone Smartie, I have exactly the same issue. If I use anything other than the railworks supplied version of OpenAl32.dll placed in the railworks folder I get bsod as soon as I end a scenario or try to go into the editor.

Strangely enough it does work up until that point and did actually sound better.

I have a Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Titanium running Windows 7 64-bit.

Ah I got the exact same card mate running the same os, I spent hours today uninstalling, making sure every trace of any creative drivers/software was gone and then re-installed everything but that didn't help, so I uninstalled the latest openal and installed an older version of that and still had no luck! It's weird how some on here are having success replacing the openal32.dll in the game folder and others like us are getting bsod issues.

[x5pgr]

I have been watching this topic closely but still major sound frustrations here. In view of earlier comments and in anticipation of a new system build before too long I have gone for an Asus Xonar D2X all now installed in replacement for on board sound - latest drivers off the Asus web site 6.12.8.1794. I am running Vista 32 bit.

From what I have seen (or rather heard) so far this looks to be a very high quality card but as far as TS2013 is concerned and testing on the GWML ‘Rush Hour Run’ scenario I am still experiencing sound glitches/dropouts about every 30 to 45 seconds.

I have tried various combinations with the OpenAL32.dll both in Windows/system32 and the Railworks folder. Deleting either of these makes no difference whatsoever and neither does swapping the dll in the railworks folder with the one from windows/system32. Deleting both as may be expected prevents RW from loading at all.

Immediately running the same scenario from my back up copy of TS2012 and there are no glitches or dropouts at all.

I do not know what is going on here but there is clearly a RW software issue which needs addressing. It is irritating in the extreme and very much spoiling the TS2013 experience as far as I am concerned.

It is to be hoped that a solution either official or unofficial can be found soon. I shall report my findings to RSC when I get a minute.

Regards

Peter

[JustRight]

I do not know what is going on here but there is clearly a RW software issue which needs addressing. It is irritating in the extreme and very much spoiling the TS2013 experience as far as I am concerned.

Absolutely correct my friend. The most frustrating thing is how inconsistent the Audio system is on differing sound hardware. I thought for a very short time that I had it working, 3D positional sounds, occlusion and reverb. But once I had finished installing all of my AP Sound Packs, then the whole thing had gone pear shaped, again!

Not impressed. The minor performance improvements etc have not made up for the mess that the sound subsystem seems to be, or the fact that the internal core engine of TS2013 seems unchanged from its predecessors, in that it still struggles with resource allocation and SBHH errors at every turn.

[JustRight]

You are not alone Smartie, I have exactly the same issue. If I use anything other than the railworks supplied version of OpenAl32.dll placed in the railworks folder I get bsod as soon as I end a scenario or try to go into the editor.

Strangely enough it does work up until that point and did actually sound better.

I have a Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Titanium running Windows 7 64-bit.

For those of you getting BSOD's, this is almost certainly a 64bit vs 32bit issue. I could also get a BSOD when using my X-Fi Titanium if I allowed the system to use the OpenAL32.dll in the C:\Windows\System32 directory. Instead, copy the version from the C:\Windows\SysWOW64 directory, this is a true 32bit version of OpenAL32.dll and may serve you better. Copy the file to your railworks directory so there is no chance the system will locate another somewhere else.

Cheers.

[peterfhayes]

Just Right
I have been having sound issues in that when TS2013 opens for the first time after a boot - I get sound.
Change any parameter in TS2013 that requires a restart or close down both Steam and TS2013 and then restart - no sound.
In other words any re-start after the initial opening of TS2013 - no sound
So I copied the openal32.dll file as you suggested and sound is now contant ie it is there every time I open TS2013.
Thanks
pH

[mole446]

Thanks for the tip JustRight, will give that one a try. Must be the only thing I have not tried so far.

[smartie38]

Nice tip but I had already tried copying openal32.dll from the syswow64 folder, with the same crash but what I hadn't tried was to copy the `wrap_oal.dll` file over to the railworks folder and rename it to openal32.dll (railworks actually uses the wrapper file, rsc just renamed it to OpenAL32.dll) & it worked, loaded up a scenario and exited without any bsod