I recently acquired a Creative Soundblaster external sound card. Creative labs have developed a little programme for their cards, called "ALchemy". This allows one to restore hardware-accelerated sound to older games. Certainly in my case, it works for European Air War. The transformation in my headphone audio environment is nothing short of astonishing. I am hearing sounds in exquisite detail that I never noticed before. One can obtain quite cheap Soundblaster external cards on Amazon. Some come with ALchemy, but at any rate the programme can be downloaded for free from the Creative website.

Postscript: In researching this, I discovered a freeware programme called 'IndirectSound' which claims to work with any soundcard to provide hardware acceleration to many old games.

I think they are talking about using more speakers , like a game originally intended.
However, EAW uses two speakers for 3D Sound, it didn't support more speakers.
I'm not sure about the HW Acceleration part, perhaps modern are software accelerated now, like onboard sound is. IDK for sure.

Anyhow thats great that sound has improved for you in EAW with your Creative Card.

I would like to know more if you find anything out.

I don't know very much, but as far as I can see Microsoft dropped support for hardware acceleration from Vista onwards, as you say they replaced it with software acceleration.

If you get the opportunity, you could download IndirectSound and see for yourself-apparently it does the same as ALchemy, but not just for SoundBlaster cards and also will provide hardware acceleration. If it works, it is free and would be a boon for anyone interested in boosting their sound.

I may download it.
But It does say its for more than 2 speakers which EAW doesn't support itself. Perhaps theres an option to simulate just the HW Acceleration....

I have Realtek on board sound, like many people have. Its sorta a partial Hardware audio and cpu powered (software) sound system.
Atleast thats how I understood it.

Yes, it does say it's for the stimulation of 3d sound. I downloaded IndirectSound in order to convert my own Realtek on-board sound. I don't have 5.1 or 7.1 surround, but I do have a subwoofer. I had a listen and, indeed, there is a great sound coming out of it. Perhaps that is what is making the difference, although I do think I have an improvement in overall detail. It's such a subjective thing that one needs to try for oneself.

With Win 7, one has only to extract the dsound.dll from the IndirectSound and place it in EAW's main directory, but there are a few more steps with Win 8 and 10, instructions being provided on the website.

Hmm, I remember a program for Realtek , called '3D Soundback' .... It suppose to do the same thing, but I never did download it from their site.
Either cause it wasn't for my sound codec/hardware or it was too old to use on win10.

I'll have to research that more.

I don't have a fancy speaker system, but a very cheap subwoofer/two main-speaker combination. However, having the subwoofer kick in adds a fantastic dimension to the sound of the game. In addition, the same effect seems to be transmitted through headphones, using these programmes. It seems to be winner all the way, particularly if it's freeware.

IndirectSound will work for you on Win 10, but there are a few outlined steps. If it proves to be the case, it would be useful information for your website, an invaluable resource for anyone late, or returning, for our venerable game. Having got my visuals to a state I never thought could be achieved for this relatively ancient sim, it's a pleasant surprise to take the sound to a matching level. I've recently decided to disable internal padlock with TrackIR, meaning I'm relying on my own look-around to keep up with targets and it's working amazingly well. The upshot is a sim experience so realistic, in my opinion, that I think it very hard to beat.

I have a 5.1 speaker system, but use headphones to keep the noise down.
But Like you said the HW Acceleration must be improving the sound, even on headphones.

I just havn't had time to try the IndirectSound wrapper, yet. But I may if I can't find the 3D SoundBack tool from Realtek, or if its not compatible with my integrated sound.

If I found it really improves the sound, I add steps onto my EAW Help Site for sure. Not that I doubt your getting decent sound, or improved sound now.


EDIT:
Well some research determined that Win10 has HW Acceleration turned on all the time. WinVista,7,8 I believe still has a slider for it. for 4 settings including off.
However I'm finding that sound sampling maybe software driven for older games in all Windows.( I think DX5 was the last to use 3DDirectSound.)
EAW may still be using DX5 for sound and DX6 for other things.

Still remember EAW uses a 3d positional sound code using just 2 speakers (there is no code for anything else), I never identified what though for sure what it uses as code. Its said that Miles sound system and Dolby Sound. But no one has confirmed it.

Still too early to tell from my point of view what your experiencing.

I tried 3D Sound Back on Win10. I'm not 100% sure it was working but, at the time I heard pops in the sound a little. Probably wouldn't notice them unless looking for them.
But I couldn't determine if I was getting any better sound out of my Headphones.

I installed and ran in in Vista SP2 compat mode, BTW. It would install without the compat mode, but I think incorrectly, so I did it again with the compat.
When you setup EAW to use it, it writes/copies 3 files into the games main folder, including a dll, maybe similar to inderectsound wrapper does.
I'm unsure if it writes anything to the registry at the time you enable the 3dsoundback for EAW. Considering its win10 I would think it should, but IDK.

I'll try listening again and try a few more tests, but if I notice nothing with my 2 speaker headphones, then no reason to write it up.
I don't think I will write up indirectsound either as it is considerable what you have to do to the registry to get it to work on Win10. (not user friendly for these guys).

But then again who knows, if the tech improves I may one day write something up.


EDIT:
I added 3D Sound Back to the EAW Troubleshoot Help Document.
https://eaw.neocities.org/troubleshoot.html

It's just a start of info!

I've found that IndirectSound and other directsound dll's are hooking/working with EAW even without touching the registry in Win10.

I drop the dll and ini file into the games folder and it launches and uses which ever dll i throw in there. (I found a very old direct sound wrapper too that works)

The only benefit I can tell is the speaker arangement might be able to spread from stero postional sound to 5.1 or so.
There other settings in Indirectsound that are useable too, but no sound difference is heard in my headphones. Maxing out buffers, it slowed EAW a little.
This one translates or up converts sound to the XAudio2 api rather than OpenAL.
There maybe some advantage as far as more emulation can be used , like EAX emulation.

The log file said it was being used anyhow.

Alright I'll add these two wrappers to the help doc, but I dont know any settings to recommend. Its primarly for testing sound out I guess. Although you said you hear improvement in bass.

Is your BASS/Subwoofer fake or independent connection to the tower?
Meaning the two front stereo speakers and the subwoofer is connected threw them?
Or is it a true 2.1 speaker system where each speaker is connected to its own port?



EDIT:
DirectSound Control
https://www.bockholdt.com/dsc/index2.html

IndirectSound
https://www.indirectsound.com/

3D Sound Back
https://www.realtek.com/en/componen...cs-high-definition-audio-codecs-software

Mark, my subwoofer is connected in series with the two speakers and there is only one common connection to my tower. The subwoofer is independently-powered rather than receiving its power from the PC. That would make my system somewhat 'fake', but it did only cost something in the region of €40. To my ears, it provides a reasonable effect for a hobby that I intend to keep at budget levels. That external soundcard I bought for my headphones only cost €35, including postage. I am fairly confident I notice an improvement in my sounds, both externally and internally (engine and gunfire sounds seem more detailed and I'm hearing external engines and gunfire I didn't notice previously) and I think it is no harm to keep people informed of the freeware and other alternatives available that have a possibility of improving the sound in their game. It is quite subjective and difficult to quantify.

Okay you have the fake setup. I had Logitech speakers like that for a good many years. My PC didn't have 5.1 or whatever, it only had Speaker Output, so I plugged it into that and it gave me great sound. The Speaker system did the work rather than a better sound card would have been doing.
When it was time to upgrade I went 5.1, I think I can go 7.1, not sure.

Anyhow thank you for telling me about your speaker setup. It helps. I'm glad your hearing those sounds now!

Me, no change in sound quality yet on headphones (not the 3speakers in each ear things, but one in each ear) A Single port it plugs into (not USB).
But I will tinker with the ini setting for sound. Theres Buffer, 2D /3D and Delays in the in that might egzaterate the engines and guns coming from sides and aft. (I honest already hear them though, always have)

What version or type of eaw.exe you using?
For your information: some have doppler effects increased etc within the exe itself vs 1.2. Like 1.2a and v1.26 does and the FXEXE has other sound engine enhancements.

I'm using version 1.60. Maybe this version has less sound enhancements than the others you mention.

My headphones are very basic, €10 they cost! They also used to be plugged into a dedicated speaker port on my tower, but are now plugged into the external soundcard which is itself plugged into a USB port on the pc.

There's so much variety and so many options that perhaps everyone will have to try it on their own system for themselves in order to see what, if any, improvements can be made.

No , v1.60 should have what 1.28 had, unless Jel changed the sound around. The effects where increased as far as I recall, without re reading the changes made. More so than 1.26 was.

The variety can be nailed down though.(I read something about the external USB type of soundcards, forgot which Sound Wrapper mentioned them, hmm)

Anyway, Right now on my help doc I'm afraid I don't have too much to say that I see (or hear) beneficial, at least on Win10.
However I yet to see if my sound can use its own "fill all speakers" to use all my speakers, (more than 2) with EAW, or if I turn that off and use IndirectSound to convert 2 speaker output to 5.1.
Test and Tests.

I want more people to try, hence why I did at your suggestion to add info on my site for them. regardless of my findings at this point.

I contacted the IndirectSound guy, he sent me a debugging version of his software. I sent a game log to them and they said EAW doesn't use EAX (which we knew) nor does it use 3D Hardware sound buffers.

He said the game will sound exactly the same as before and that its best not to use the wrapper for ease of use.


My guess is, its your external sound card and your speaker/combo thats improving the sound.

I'll be removing most of the information on these Sound Wrappers from my site soon. And leave a note on there in effectiveness with the game.
Good show!

Maybe it was all just a placebo effect. Certainly with my speakers/subwoofer. The external soundcard, being an actual hardware upgrade, in combination with headphones almost assuredly does provide a real improvement, directing me to what I needed to listen out for when examining my speakers/subwoofer and enabling me to 'hear' an improvement that wasn't actually there.Still, it's good to know what is and isn't achievable. Thanks for all your research.

Still researching, not sure it will lend any positives to sound quality or performance. But we might know more about the EAW sound engine in the end.

Well I think research is over. Nothing new to report.
Thanks for reading.


EDIT:
Researched continued.....

Dolby Surround is the official term used on the BOX and CD Label, but not in the EAW Manual.

So possible 4.1 can be used as MicroProse through research it is found out they had a licenses to use the Dolby Logo in 1998.
However the Dolby site in 1998 and beyound never did list the game EAW as a PC Game that has it.

VBH indicates that dolby sound is part of EAW.....he even produced encoded sounds as he says, I have no reason not to believe him.

You know my findings....posted up above.

Its just still not clear what this Dolby Surround is, if its truly 4.1 Left, Center, Right...but what else?
I have hardware for 5.1 but its not clear if i need special Dolby decoding equipment or sound card.(which i don't have)
What i do have is fill full speakers or virtual spatial sound.

Isn't there anyone way smarter than my research ability to tell us what sound engine is in EAW and if there is indeed Dolby surround at play?
Is it 2 speaker virtual sound or what, or 4.1?

Its a half mystery.

Mark, apparently Dolby 4.1 is Front Left, Front Right, Rear Left, Rear Right plus a subwoofer. Therefore it is 5.1 surround without the centre speaker. From my subjective experience, I wouldn't rule it out.