6 channel audio fails (2.4.2, Vista 64, Realtek ALC 889A)

[Sxen]

Hi,

I'm unable to get 6 channel audio to work.

OS is Vista Ultimate 64 SP1, Nexuiz 2.4.2, the sound chip is a Realtek ALC 889A with dts connect on a Gigabyte GA-X48-DQ6 board.

Both nexuiz.exe and nexuiz-sdl.exe fail to allocate 6 channel audio and fall back to 2 channel audio, which works fine.

I've tried this with the default audio device being the Realtek Digital Output and the Realtek Analog Output (both in analog 5.1 and in dts connect mode), with similiar results.

I'm not very clear on whether 5.1 audio is supposed to work at all in Nexuiz on Vista or whether it's a specific issue with the realtek chipset. Any advise is welcome.

Log excerpt from the normal client:

Code: Select all

S_Startup: initializing sound output format: 48000Hz, 16 bit, 6 channels...
SndSys_Init: using the Win32 module
Set primary sound buffer format: no
DS:CreateSoundBuffer Failed (-2147024809): channels=6, width=2, speed=48000
DirectSound failed to init
waveOutOpen failed
Wave sound failed to init
S_Startup: sound output initialization FAILED
S_Startup: initializing sound output format: 48000Hz, 16 bit, 2 channels...
SndSys_Init: using the Win32 module
Set primary sound buffer format: yes
Using secondary sound buffer
   2 channel(s)
   16 bits/sample
   48000 samples/sec
DirectSound initialized
Sound format: 48000Hz, 2 channels, 16 bits per sample
S_Startup: extra sound time = 1064960

Log excerpt from the SDL version:

Code: Select all

S_Startup: initializing sound output format: 48000Hz, 16 bit, 6 channels...
SndSys_Init: using the Win32 module
Set primary sound buffer format: no
DS:CreateSoundBuffer Failed (-2147024809): channels=6, width=2, speed=48000
DirectSound failed to init
waveOutOpen failed
Wave sound failed to init
S_Startup: sound output initialization FAILED
S_Startup: initializing sound output format: 48000Hz, 16 bit, 2 channels...
SndSys_Init: using the Win32 module
Set primary sound buffer format: yes
Using secondary sound buffer
   2 channel(s)
   16 bits/sample
   48000 samples/sec
DirectSound initialized
Sound format: 48000Hz, 2 channels, 16 bits per sample
S_Startup: extra sound time = 491520

Thanks,
Olli

[dp]

First, make sure you have the latest drivers for that onboard audio chipset.
Second, maek sure you have the latest version of DirectX.
Third... try setting snd_speed 44100 or 32000 or 24000. Then try those iterations with snd_channels 4 instead of 6. If you find that one of those does work, chalk it up to a limitation in the chipset or Vista's drivers and seriously consider getting another soundcard.

Have you managed to get that chipset to do six channels in another game using Direct Sound?

[Barfly]

Whats Vista ?

Vista \Vis"ta\, n.; pl. {Vistas}. [It., sight, view, fr. vedere,
p. p. visto, veduto, to see, fr. L. videre, visum. See
{View}, {Vision}.]
A view; especially, a view through or between intervening
objects, as trees; a view or prospect through an avenue, or
the like; hence, the trees or other objects that form the
avenue.

No wonder ya cant get it to work

On a sad note

Richard Wright, a founder member of Pink Floyd, has died at the age of 65 after battling cancer, his spokesman said.
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM ... rXqJB3BnmA

[Sxen]

It turns out that lack of more than 2 channel audio via DirectSound is a general Vista limitation, since DirectSound is just emulated on Vista's new audio architecture stack.

However, Realtek offers a solution for this, called "3DSoundBack", which is in fact a custom dsound.dll which talks direcctly to the Realtek Audiochip driver. For reference, the package is available here. Note that the setup utility just copies the kludged dsound.dll and rtl_oak.dll into the game directoy.

This works fine with the SDL version of Nexuiz, but not with the WGL version (but then, the built-in DirectSound driver of Darkplaces doesn't work in surround mode on XP either).

Now I'm hitting the next problem: The SDL version of Nexuiz has some serious audio lag. This is also present when running on XP with an AD audio device, so it seems not to be related to my current setup.