Vista 64 + Half Life 2 + Audigy 2 ZS - Surround Sound Succe

I recently updated my system and installed HL2 : Episode 2 to test it out with, but I noticed that I wasn't getting any surround sound. Sound was either only coming out of the centre speaker or I could only set the audio options to 2 speakers.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, I tried a lot of things out and, thanks to the posts on this forum and others, finally came up with a working solution. Now I'm just posting it on here in case anyone else has the same issues.
1) Install the modded Audigy 2 driver based on the new X-Fi release, available here:
http://forums.creative.com/creativel...essage.id=2700
As this is a modded driver, released because there was no corresponding driver for Audigy 2 cards, do check that an official one hasn't been released since this post.
2) Install the Creative ALchemy Uni'versal .00.04 application (based on the "free" X-Fi version of ALchemy) available here:
http://forums.creative.com/creativel...essage.id=8972
Note that, as far as I can ascertain, at the present time versions beyond .00.04 are no different to .00.04, they just have wider compatibility. Again, do check that a new version hasn't come out since this post.
3) As Half Life 2 isn't detected as a supported game in ALchemy, you'll have to add it manually. The path will be something like C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\[user-name]\half-life 2.
THIS IS IMPORTANT : You also have to change the Buffers and Duration from the default settings, otherwise the sound will be crackly, at least it was for me. The numbers I found on the web (here : http://connect.creativelabs.com/alch...orm.aspx ID=76) are Buffers=5, Duration=0, and they work just fine.
4) Ensure you have the correct speaker setup selected in the Creative Audio Console - I have a 6. setup so I chose 7. - and also you might want to turn off CMSS3D here too - I read that it was making the game sound weird and tinny.
You might also want to just check that Vista's own speaker configuration is correct too - disable any optional speakers not connected and set the speaker size for each set.
5) Run up Half Life and select at least 5. speakers in the audio options. For me, it wouldn't accept 7., just kept reverting back to 5., but that's good enough if it works!
You should be done! I hope this helps someone and saves them the time that it took me to get where I am.
Cheers, N.
In case it makes a difference, my system specs are:
Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz
4GB Corsair PC6400-CL4 RAM
Asus P5N32-E Plus Motherboard
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS
BFG 8800GT OC 52MB Graphics Card
edit: added [user-name] into HL path that got taken out

ProjectBorn wrote:
Thanks for the info, question though, does dsound.dll need to be added to the HL2 folder?
Yes... but ALchemy will add this file into the folder for you when you add Half Life 2 to its ALchemy-enabled list.
Cheers,
N.

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Audigy 2 ZS Surround Sound Problem - Please He

Hi, I have been using The Audigy 2 ZS sound card for over a year now, I have all the latest drivers installed and everything is updated.
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Like I said, the surround sound was working fine two days ago, and without changing any speaker settings or unplugging any cables, the surround sound stopped working.
I have looked through other threads trying to find a similar problem, but I did not turn up any good results. If you find any other threads that have a solution to this problem just link them and I will take a look at them (and sorry for the repeated thread).
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Edit: Anyone help? Message Edited by Cofer on 09-20-2006 09:07 PM

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Hi,
I've got a creative sound blaster Audigy 2Zs Platinum sound card and creative inspire 7. T7900 speakers. I can't seem to get 5. or 7. sound in Half Life 2 or Doom 3. I do get sound but its only out of the 2 front speakers.
Other games like all the medal of honors, Raven Shield, call of duty and unreal tournament 2004 sound great and are in surround.
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hi
same problem with 6. by the way.
you have to edit/replace a file, i did it and it worked great, sorry, i dont remember exactly which one, search with google, there were a lot of people that already had the same problem when doom was released earlier this year. It has nothing to do with your settings !!!! Dont screw them up , its not worth it, you can on the other side change to 5., might help, but it didnt for me because Doom recognized the higher speaker config...dont ask me why they programmed it so LAME
the fix is out there, go get it ;-)
regards
oli'ver

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"I have Bootcamp on My MacBook"
You should probably post your question in the Boot Camp discussions or a Half Life forum:
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1165
http://www.halflife2.net/forums/

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{quote}
UDP 1200 (Friends Network)
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UDP 27020
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See this page for more information: http://planethalflife.gamespy.com/View.php?view=HL2Guides.Detail&id=4&game=3

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Hi there,
I upgraded my machine to Windows Vista x64 yesterday. And there is someting that really peeves me. The sound in Battlefield 2 is horrible.....
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Tested BF2 Sound Settings
Software / High
Hardware / High
SystemSpecs:
MSI P35 Neo2 FR
2x2048MB DDR840RAM
Windows Vista x64
[email protected]
Nvidia 7600GT
Soundblaster Audigy (latest official driver)

Hi,
I installed this one:
http://forums.creative.com/creativel...scending&page=
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I gonna try the driver you posted later this day. Thank you very much.

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getting back into the original halflife too, its great fun online.
Im sure the thing that makes it run ok is that i have 2gb ram, so the graphics are prob using 128mb.

HL-2 is pretty graphics hungry so i'm impressed your Macbook can take it That 2Gb of RAM can't hurt, i guess.
When i installed it on my PC is blew up after the first two levels, though, so i won't tempt fate too much.
I wonder if ES:IV Oblivion wil run on it... (ironic laugh)

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Just a heads up to a fix for anyone with a Radeon who is suffering from VPU crashes in Half Life 2. From what I can gather, I think that this can occur with a number of different boards and some Nvidia users have also suffered from this... Although they just get a lock-up or a BSOD...
SYMPTOM: Half Life 2 (and CS:S) will lock up anywhere from 1 second to 30 minutes in to a game. The sound will loop continuously and, if you have VPU Recover enabled, you can ALT-TAB to Windows whereupon you will see a dialogue from VPU Recover asking whether you want to send a bug report to ATI.
Other games will run fine.
After searching around a bit, updating drivers, checking temps, running Memtest etc, etc, I have found that the following workaround will address this issue:
1) Set AGP to 4x in BIOS,
2) Disable Fast Writes.
Hope this helps any one else suffering from this issue. This was occuring with Catalyst Drivers 4.12 & 5.1...
Regards,
fM

hi Jazza!
the best explanation for this that i've seen is that there can be power drain problems in USB 2.0. drop below 500 mA running through the port and everything goes to pot. this may well explain why switching back to USB 1.1 sometimes works like a charm, and also explains why it's important to have the ipod plugged into a high powered USB port rather than a low power port.
i've seen a confirmed case of a USB connection going west after a scanner got plugged into the beast in question ... periodically i see other reports along these lines, too.
Roger Whiteley, "USB Device Not Recognized" #16, 04:18am Aug 3, 2005 CDT
love, b

Vista 64 + Half Life 2 + Audigy 2 ZS - Surround Sound Succe

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