DirectSound in Vista

[hwtan]

According to Creative, Microsoft removed the DirectSound API in VIsta, and that causes all the troubles in the Audigy series of soundcard. Is there any good guy here who are will to pick up this project, which is like the kernel Update Project for Win98, and add the required API for Vista? That would be a great blessing to all Audigy users.

[nightthief]

Direct-Sound is far more than merely an API. In addition to having a programming interface for applications, Direct Sound requires the ability to take exclusive control of the sound hardware and pass that control to the application in question. When in use, no operating system components sits between the the application and the device itself. It is this ability for an application to directly control sound hardware which was removed from Vista - which is why the Direct SOund API is now worthless.

The best that can be done is to convert Direct Sound calls through an emulation library. With such a system, the application will believe it has direct sound control, even though it does not in reality. This requires that the emulation library be able to duplicate every function of a specifc sound card in software, and then take action through the interfaces Vista actually has to recreate the desired sound on whatever hardwae the computer has.

Fortunately, there is such a project being developed, known as ALchemy. This is an open-source, public project, sposored by Creative Labs) which is building an emulation library which will translate from Direct-Sound to the Open Audio Layer (Open AL) which Vista fully supports. The initial version of this library is designed specifcly for Creative Labs' X-Fi series of sound cards. Furter revisions are planned to expand the support to cover all cards made and sold by Creative in the past few years.

While no mention is made of this project being intended for non-Creative cards, I am currently using it on my own system with a Realtek AC'97 sound system. The library is not perfect and still needs a considerable amount of work, but it does improve the compatability of older game titles. (As an example of this is the game Max Payne. Without ALchemy, the sound is very basic and all ambient sound comes through as garbled and very annoying noise. With ALchemy, all background sound is working properly, all regular sound effects have the environmental sounds I expect, but the digital voice-over during the game is completely silent.)

You can get more information at http://preview.creativelabs.com/alchemy/default.aspx