Aureal A3D
Oct 26, 2013 at 9:14 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 13

XenatR

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hi guys,
 
just wondering if there was a way i could get an A3D 2.0 enabled card to work on windows 7 (64bit??)
 
i remember when i used to play cs on my Sound Blaster Live! card (A3D 1.0 support??), the game sounded far better for positioning enemies than a X-Meridian or Titanium HD card...
i really would like to experience positioning sound like this again
 
what would be the best way to do it? if i had to go back to previous versions of windows i might be willing to revert to XP but im not sure how it would fair with Battlefield 3 or 4
 
ive heard it might be compatible with linux?
 
also, as im from uk, ive no idea where ill be able to find an A3D 2.0 card??
 
sorry about the vague topic.. i really dont know much about the drivers needed or compatible cards, i just want the best positional experience possible (without the ridiculous reverb or modern cards)
 
kind regards
 
Oct 27, 2013 at 6:11 AM Post #2 of 13
I hate to break it to you, but the only way you're effectively going to get A3D 2.0/3.0 is to find yourself an old sound card with the Vortex2 AU8830 chipset (Aureal SQ2500, Turtle Beach Montego II, Diamond Monster Sound MX300, etc.) and build yourself an old Windows 98 SE-era rig to put it in. Good luck finding CS1.5-and-prior multiplayer servers these days, though.
 
Believe me, I've tried to find alternatives! What doesn't help matters is that Aureal only survived long enough to code some Windows 2000 beta drivers, and those seem to have broken A3D/EAX. You can forget about it on Vista onward.
 
On top of this, Creative seems to pretend that A3D 2.0 and 3.0 never existed, as ALchemy does not support them. It's especially insulting when they basically started the lawsuit war with Aureal and bankrupted 'em with legal fees in the process so they could buy 'em out and bury their tech.
 
Oh, yeah, and on one more note, I'm also pissed off at Valve for completely removing A3D and EAX from GoldSRC games on Steam in an effort to make them run on Linux. Other Linux versions of games that debuted on Windows didn't necessarily have that kind of emasculation; some of 'em even switched to OpenAL. (I bet the value of old retail copies with no Steam integration and intact A3D just went up...)
 
Oct 27, 2013 at 1:22 PM Post #3 of 13
  I hate to break it to you, but the only way you're effectively going to get A3D 2.0/3.0 is to find yourself an old sound card with the Vortex2 AU8830 chipset (Aureal SQ2500, Turtle Beach Montego II, Diamond Monster Sound MX300, etc.) and build yourself an old Windows 98 SE-era rig to put it in. Good luck finding CS1.5-and-prior multiplayer servers these days, though.
 
Believe me, I've tried to find alternatives! What doesn't help matters is that Aureal only survived long enough to code some Windows 2000 beta drivers, and those seem to have broken A3D/EAX. You can forget about it on Vista onward.
 
On top of this, Creative seems to pretend that A3D 2.0 and 3.0 never existed, as ALchemy does not support them. It's especially insulting when they basically started the lawsuit war with Aureal and bankrupted 'em with legal fees in the process so they could buy 'em out and bury their tech.
 
Oh, yeah, and on one more note, I'm also pissed off at Valve for completely removing A3D and EAX from GoldSRC games on Steam in an effort to make them run on Linux. Other Linux versions of games that debuted on Windows didn't necessarily have that kind of emasculation; some of 'em even switched to OpenAL. (I bet the value of old retail copies with no Steam integration and intact A3D just went up...)

 
 
thank you for your reply! yea i might have to build a dedicated box!! even with an old CRT for progaming-quality CS :wink: is steam 1.6 counter strike not A3D supported???
 
i didnt understand your GoldSRC steam games comment.. which games did Valve stop A3D support for?
 
Oct 27, 2013 at 3:27 PM Post #4 of 13
Alchemy supports A3D something but I'm not sure what version and if it has all the stuff. Sound positioning is really accurate in C&C Renegade with it though.
 
Oct 28, 2013 at 12:46 AM Post #5 of 13
thank you for your reply! yea i might have to build a dedicated box!! even with an old CRT for progaming-quality CS :wink: is steam 1.6 counter strike not A3D supported???  
i didnt understand your GoldSRC steam games comment.. which games did Valve stop A3D support for?

 
GoldSRC = Valve's fork of the Quake engine used in Half-Life 1 and everything else based on that game, Counter-Strike included.
 
In other words, you can't play CS 1.6 with 3D audio now.
 
Alchemy supports A3D something but I'm not sure what version and if it has all the stuff. Sound positioning is really accurate in C&C Renegade with it though.

 
A3D 1.0 might work, since that's practically part of DirectSound3D along with EAX 1.0/2.0.
 
However, in my experiences with games that have an A3D option, attempting to use ALchemy with A3D enabled leaves error messages in a log file and generally provides incorrect sound.
 
Do note that C&C: Renegade is a DS3D title, to my recollection. Miles Sound System, IIRC.
 
Oct 28, 2013 at 11:56 AM Post #7 of 13
Retail/non-Steam CS is unaffected. They haven't bothered to mess with that version in years.

I don't know if people still play it, though. WON's been down for almost a decade, so the in-game Internet server browser won't work. You'll have to use LAN tunnelling with something like Tunngle or Hamachi.
 
Oct 28, 2013 at 12:39 PM Post #8 of 13
I remember back in the day, playing Quake 3 before and after installing a Terratec DMX 6-Fire that supported A3D. I was completely stunned by the positional audio! I could fire a rocket into a doorway and hit someone dead on at the exact moment they came into sight because I knew exactly where they were. 
 
I have some comments going on page 133 of this thread. To summarize, I have an X-Fi powered Auzentech card and have been trying to get the DSP effects working through digital out. Apparently, Creative didn't even want non Creative branded cards with their chip to have that functionality. Go figure. However, using a work around, I got CMSS-3D working, and decided it was much worse than no DSP at all. The basic positional performance I was getting already was not bad, I just assumed there should be more. I was wrong. All CMSS does is had so much junk reverb and brightness so that I can hardly hear what's going on around me. Like everyone is fighting inside a giant trash can...
 
It's pretty gross that Creative would essentially buy out any worthwhile competition for the sole purpose of burying their technology without even using it. Is that really cheaper than doing any of their own R&D? I would have never given up that Terratec card if it had driver support for newer versions of windows...
 
Dec 25, 2013 at 10:42 AM Post #9 of 13
ladies and gentlemen, i'm pleased to announce i got A3D 1,2 and even 3 working on my windows 7 (64 bit, yes!).
i have tested flawlessly fallout tactics(proof that works) and some Aureal3D demos (dated from 1997 to 1999!) which i found on the net
 
basically you need to install this
and then half of the games will work
 
with the other half, your game could hang at startup (which happened to me with fallout tactics, for example)
in this case just use alchemy too (or also Asus's DS3D GX)
 
report back and spread the word! thank you
i lost nearly 2 days to figure this
biggrin.gif
 
 
Dec 27, 2013 at 5:32 AM Post #10 of 13
ladies and gentlemen, i'm pleased to announce i got A3D 1,2 and even 3 working on my windows 7 (64 bit, yes!).
i have tested flawlessly fallout tactics(proof that works) and some Aureal3D demos (dated from 1997 to 1999!) which i found on the net
 
basically you need to install this
and then half of the games will work
 
with the other half, your game could hang at startup (which happened to me with fallout tactics, for example)
in this case just use alchemy too (or also Asus's DS3D GX)
 
report back and spread the word! thank you
i lost nearly 2 days to figure this
biggrin.gif
 

 
A Russian site...no wonder I hadn't seen this little A3D utility before. This oughtta be fun to play with whenever I've got some time to kill.
 
As for the Fallout Tactics screenshot, that's clearly the typical Miles Sound System device list. I've seen it in so many games, with that exact list of options, that I can't help but notice it.
 
Meanwhile, the site run through Google Translate suggests that it's an A3D to DirectSound3D wrapper, so I don't see it actually working without further wrapping those calls into OpenAL under Vista/Win7. "Yo dawg, I heard you like API wrappers..." Maybe someone can cut DS3D out of the chain and just straight-up wrap A3D to OAL.
 
Dec 27, 2013 at 6:00 AM Post #11 of 13
Well, they only updated the original a2d wrapper from Aureal, with the addition of 3.0 support (which wasn't present in the original version if i'm not mistaken)
I was able to run the 1999 aureal demo with the russian wrapper w/o directsound3d restoration (the 1998 demo and fallout tactics required it though) *does not make much sense actually, but it did* (could be something related to 3.0 version, but i haven't other games to test it atm)
 
And btw, this was the same game menu in fallout tactics before installing the 2 wrappers
When you did so, you can select aureal without problems and the next time you start the game it will stick. And I don't think this usually happened
 
Jun 25, 2014 at 12:03 AM Post #12 of 13
I was digging through a ton of my old gear and came across an A3D card and started reminiscing.  I then thought to myself that there has got to be someone out there that could figure out how to get A3D working again for semi-modern games, so I began to google away and came across this thread...
Well, it saddens me as to how it all fell apart.  Those cards were some serious gear to have back in the day, and I can't believe that over a decade later, nothing comes close to it.  I used to play Half-Life: Opposing Forces, and also Adrenaline Gamer Mod, and all of the elite folks used A3D cards (me being one of them).  Man, I miss that tech!!! I guess I should toss this card into the trash, unless someone wanted to play CS 1.6 with himself on an old Win98 box. :)
 

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