New ALchemy settings for some major games for Win7 (64-bit)...

Question

[color="#ff0000"]Update 2/0/0 - Added Sid Meier's Civilization V: Ok this game is so hard to find in the registry because it uses a completely radically new type of installer that basically is a hybrid installer based on pulling the steam client game updates for Civ V and the data from the actual Civ V install DVD. The definiti've install location is similar to other steam apps are installed @ location C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\sid meier's civilization v. (The blue part is common for the majority of all steam installed games locations. Finding this for Civ V was not so easy, however.
Here is the actual entry you should add to your ALchemy.ini file and is the ONLY location that points to the aforementioned correct install path in the entire HKLM tree that is valid. This is truly a very very unique and bizarre and radically new way to find and detect correct install path strings without resorting to using the GAMEUX path (which is different on everyones computer). This path is indentical for all Civ V installs and therefore the most valid. The ALchemy team needs to address these new radical ways that game companies are injecting the install string into the registry in the future or ALchemy will start to break big time. Notice its the Uninstall path that actually functions as the only correct static install path for the game. Its a dual use path. Very clever!
[Sid Meier's Civilization V]
RegPath=HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Mi crosoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Steam App 8930\InstallLocation
SubDir=
Duration=5
Preset=
GamePath=
RootDirInstallOption=FALSE
Buffers=4
MaxVoiceCount=28
DisableDirectMusic=FALSE
[color="#ff0000"]Update 2/0/0 - Added Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Game: A nice game if you have SWG that uses gorgeous sound while playing. Here is the ALchemy.ini addition.
[Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Game]
RegPath=HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Wind ows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\SWGTCGGame.exe\Path
Preset=
GamePath=
SubDir=
RootDirInstallOption=FALSE
Buffers=4
Duration=25
MaxVoiceCount=28
DisableDirectMusic=FALSE
[color="#ff0000"]Update 2/0/0 - Added Star Trek Online: The only correct and static install path for this wonderful game.
[Star Trek Online]
RegPath=HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Cryptic\Star Trek Online\InstallLocation
Preset=
GamePath=
SubDir=
RootDirInstallOption=FALSE
Buffers=4
Duration=25
MaxVoiceCount=28
DisableDirectMusic=FALSE
[color="#ff0000"]Update 2/0/0 - Added A few oldies but goodies: Some older games I have managed to get to work with ALchemy. The sound in these older games is UNREAL in how good they sound now!
[Fallout Tactics]
RegPath=HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\4 Degrees East\Fallout Tactics\ProgramFolder
Preset=
GamePath=
SubDir=
RootDirInstallOption=FALSE
Buffers=4
Duration=25
MaxVoiceCount=28
DisableDirectMusic=FALSE
[UFO Afterlight]
RegPath=HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\AL TAR\UFO Afterlight\Path
Preset=
GamePath=
SubDir=
RootDirInstallOption=FALSE
Buffers=4
Duration=25
MaxVoiceCount=28
DisableDirectMusic=FALSE
[UFO Extraterrestrials]
RegPath=HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Tr i Synergy\UFO Extraterrestrials\installed to
Preset=
GamePath=
SubDir=
RootDirInstallOption=FALSE
Buffers=4
Duration=25
MaxVoiceCount=28
DisableDirectMusic=FALSE
The original post:
I was playing around with the D:\Program Files (x86)\Creative\ALchemy\ALchemy.ini file to force ALchemy to run with all the games on my computer. After I changed the reg paths in this .ini file all the games I had on my computer started working with ALchemy running in Windows 7 64-bit. Windows 7 registry paths for some major game titles I play are NOT in the standard location that the ALchemy.ini file has them as which is why they never get registered. I run a 64-bit version of Windows 7 so the path is slightly different then the default ones in the .ini file. Here is what I added/changed and all these games now register with ALchemy and work! Game heading bolds are my addition in this post and not how they look like in the .ini file to help see the game titles better.
I tend to shy away from any GAMEUX registry strings (for example: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\GameUX\S--5-2-837354825-494596859-745999896-00\{AFF227C-B0BB-49A5-8DFF-E87FDB864D}\ConfigApplicationPath) as they may be different for one computer to the next as they look identical to a SID string which changes radically as it is created when the game is installed. The strings should be static so they would appear identical on my computer as they would on yours. Having a string in the install path that looks like above just gives me the creeps that it is not valid. Since I only have my computer to compare this against I am not positi've of this. Just to be sure stay away from GameUX strings that are alphanumeric in nature as they can change from computer to computer or reinstall to reinstall making ALchemy fail. More on this at the bottom of this post.
[Cabal]
RegPath=HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Mi crosoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\CABAL Online_is\InstallLocation
Preset=
[Dragon Age Origins]
RegPath=HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Bi oWare\Dragon Age\Path
Preset=
[Dungeons & Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited]
RegPath=HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Tu rbine\DDO\InstallLocation
Preset=
[Sid Meier's Civilization IV]
RegPath=HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Fi raxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\INSTALLDIR
Duration=5
Preset=
[Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword]
RegPath=HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Fi raxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4 - Beyond the Sword\INSTALLDIR
Duration=5
Preset=
[Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Warlords]
RegPath=HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Fi raxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4 - Warlords\INSTALLDIR
Duration=5
Preset=
[Sid Meier's Pirates!]
RegPath=HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\At ari\Sid Meier's Pirates!\INSTALL_PATH
Preset=
[Star Wars Galaxies]
RegPath=HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Wind ows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\SwgClient_r.exe\Path
Preset=
[Wizard0]
RegPath=HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Ki ngsIsle Entertainment, Inc.\Wizard0\InstallPath
Preset=
[World of Warcraft]
RegPath=HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Bl izzard Entertainment\World of Warcraft\InstallPath
Duration=0
Preset=
I left the Preset= in all of them to have default settings. You can change or add the additional options to your pleasure but I find the defaults to work just fine. Here are all the settings for the options from the top of the .ini file.
;Creative ALchemy titles
;Format/Options:
;? [TITLE]
;? RegPath <-- registry path containing string to executable or executable's directory (use this when available; alternati've is GamePath)
;? GamePath <-- Directory to look for app (use if RegPath can't be used)
;? Buffers <-- #buffers to use (default is 4)
;? Duration <-- buffer duration (default is 25)
;? DisableDirectMusic <-- disable DirectMusic support (default is False)
;? MaxVoiceCount <-- maximum number of voices to support (default is 28)
;? SubDir <-- subdirectory offset off of path pointed to by RegPath for library support (default is empty string)
;? RootDirInstallOption <-- option to install translator support in both RegPath and SubDir directories (default is False)
Notice if you do a clean reinstall of your games in Windows 7 the game paths are in actuality in the reg path of \Wow6432Node and not just the raw HKLM\Software location due to the way the 64-bit architecture restructures its registry keys to work with 32-bit games (as many of these still are in fact).
The duration and such you can play with but I just left the settings as they were and changed the executable path location that ALchemy needs to find and work with the game is all. If you reinstall Star Wars Galaxies the new Station Launcher will put the game folder under its location and therefore it may be different in your registry. SWG (and Cabal to some extent) is the only game in this list that specifically points to an abnormal location in the registry for the install path due to the way it is launched from a voicechat type of application (The Station Launcher). But at least it works this way, so I don't care too much. I even got my classic game Sid Meier's Pirates! to work with ALchemy, yay! For Cabal I used the uninstall location for the true install path. I assume as long as the path is valid, it will work and it shows up in the ALchemy window, yay!
[color="#ff0000"]Please verify these paths in your registry do in fact have these valid regitry entries using regedit or regedt32 and not just modify the .ini file as I have shown above.
GameUX strings
There is one game I can not find any verifiable path for in the registry and that's Sid Meier's Colonization =(? If anyone has a clue where this path is stored or how to edit the .ini file to reflect the correct location and work with ALchemy please let me know! I have tried this location:
[Sid Meier's Colonization]
RegPath=HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Wind ows\CurrentVersion\GameUX\S--5-2-837354825-494596859-745999896-00\{AFF227C-B0BB-49A5-8DFF-E87FDB864D}\ConfigApplicationPath
Preset=
...but it does not seem to like the GameUX registry path at all and won't detect it. Probably because its a specialized SID (in other words, the SID will be different on my computer then it is on yours) and ALchemy does not know how to transpose SID registry entries for it to work. GameUX is basically the registry location for all your Games as they are stored under the Start > Game location of your desktop. So if anyone can figure out how to include Direct3D games that are older but do not have a valid installation registry entry please let us know! Of course I could just use the full true path in this .ini file but I am not sure how that would look like and I don't want to break ALchemy for the games it does work with. So I stuck with just valid registry entries.
I own an X-Fi XtremeGamer sound card with version .4.02 of ALchemy running on Windows 7 64-bit as of this post.

Answer 1

?pmc64 wrote:
Why are you adding new games to alchemy No new games use eax and surround sound should work properly without it. The alchemy team doesnt need to do anything for the future of the program because it's for legacy games. You really don't? need to add wow6432node because it should read it anyways on 64 bit systems. At least it does with the 6 games i have installed. That steam regpath will work on any steam game. you just need to change the app number. About the only games that I have that need it are the old gold source games and far cry because for some reason the original reg path isnt on there. You really should update your alchemy version to 43.06 because the previous versions have problems with windows 7 and some games wont work right unless you change a .dll file to a older one.
A few things about your post.
) Alchemy does not automatically detect the registry path settings as you have been misled for a lot of games you have to manually tell it where it goes. Hence this post.
2) You are completely missing the point of ALchemy, which is to add the depth of audio in games (yes even new ones) which is lacking without them using just EAX.
3) ALchemy is for new games not just legacy ones. hence why I have added the keys for both.
4) I have had numerous ppl tell thank me for posting this thread and their games now are read by ALchemy. If you choose to not follow this thread its you choice. No worries =)
5) My updater does not show any version besides 4.02 and I dont look for something even newer in some obscure forum post or whatnot. Official beta drivers from Creative tend to be less then stellar in performace (if any indicitation is by how their li've drivers are its even worse in their beta flavors). When I do the auto update it returns:
Status: No updates are necessary for your Creative product.
Your system already has the latest versions installed.