Sunday, April 6th 2008

Modder Unlocks Vista Driver Features on Creative Sound Cards

Creative has received much criticism for charging owners of Audigy sound cards for its ALchemy software, which offers improved audio support for certain games under Windows Vista. However, a modder by the name of Daniel Kawakami has managed to build hybrid drivers using a combination of XP and Vista files as well bypassing certain driver checks to enable several features including:
  • Dolby/DTS decoding
  • CMSS, CMSS2 and Stereo Surround (originally only CMSS was available, but this setting also affects ALchemy/OpenAL and Kawakami notes that it's thus particularly useful)
  • Advanced EQ and Special FX presets
  • DVD Audio
  • Hardware MIDI synthesizer (Kawakami says he wrote a small utility that automatically detects and changes the default Vista MIDI Synth during driver install or can change it later using its GUI. Some media players let you choose the MIDI synthesizer)
  • Equalizer
  • WaveRT
You can read some more complete details of his work at Custom PC and download the files from here. The modded driver was originally uploaded to Creative's forums, although the company responded in a somewhat heavy handed manner, as you can see in this thread.
Source: Custom PC
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103 Comments on Modder Unlocks Vista Driver Features on Creative Sound Cards

#76
AsphyxiA
holy shit!!!!!1:eek: its like night and day with these drivers! and 5.1 surround actually works! thanks solaris
Posted on Reply
#77
pagalms
BTW if anyone is interested in that Alchemy Universal thing, just drop me a PM and i'll give link (it's on torrent page). Or tell me where i can upload it without registration (3,6MB). :)
Posted on Reply
#78
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
pagalmsBTW if anyone is interested in that Alchemy Universal thing, just drop me a PM and i'll give link (it's on torrent page). Or tell me where i can upload it without registration (3,6MB). :)
feel free to PM me, just dont post any links here or you may get in trouble.
Posted on Reply
#79
Solaris17
Super Dainty Moderator
AsphyxiAholy shit!!!!!1:eek: its like night and day with these drivers! and 5.1 surround actually works! thanks solaris
your quite welcome.
Posted on Reply
#80
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
ah man... i just realised what alchemy universal is. Its not enabling alchemy for the sound cards creative ditched... its for ALL soundcards, from any brand.

So anyone who wants EAX in vista... message pagalms for the link.
Posted on Reply
#81
mullered07
xmountainxlionxall i get is a error saying I do not have the hardware required for the drivers. I guess this dosent support vista 64 and xfi extreme gamer?
same here only i have the xtreme audio which should be supported, is cause im on x64?
Posted on Reply
#82
Syborfical
TheGuruStudYou wouldn't happen to have his P17 to x-fi audio mod, would you?

I can't seem to find them, since he deleted them.



oh, and the obligatory, kiss my ass creative :D
I bought my sound card but the drives SUCK undervista

Since i bought the hardware why can't I RUN anysoftware i want

Creatve are run by retards... they could hire one guy to do there work or sue him :S ...
Posted on Reply
#83
GSG-9
theres a whole thread on how they proboly had to disable the features they did..and why this guy was breaching the eula..
Posted on Reply
#84
tkpenalty
GSG-9theres a whole thread on how they proboly had to disable the features they did..and why this guy was breaching the eula..
Ever heard of Creative will release a new soundcard that is the same as the old ones except uses unlocked software?
Posted on Reply
#85
GSG-9
tkpenaltyEver heard of Creative will release a new soundcard that is the same as the old ones except uses unlocked software?
Its no more the same card than a Athlon XP was a Athlon 64/Opteron. Im not going to say its as functional as it should be, but ruminating over the same shit over and over is not going to make your cards get features from creative they legally cant deliver. Hopefully there offical drivers will get better, I personally dont really care. Your asking for software support modern on cards that were already released. If you take away the insentive for the consumer to buy new products by giving the old ones new features you will go out of buessness. You dont see Nvidia rerighting drivers to force older cards to run inn high dx levels. Im sure it can be done by adding another virtual layer to the card, and it probobly would not even peform that bad.
Posted on Reply
#86
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
GSG-9Its no more the same card than a Athlon XP was a Athlon 64/Opteron. Im not going to say its as functional as it should be, but ruminating over the same shit over and over is not going to make your cards get features from creative they legally cant deliver. Hopefully there offical drivers will get better, I personally dont really care. Your asking for software support modern on cards that were already released. If you take away the insentive for the consumer to buy new products by giving the old ones new features you will go out of buessness. You dont see Nvidia rerighting drivers to force older cards to run inn high dx levels. Im sure it can be done by adding another virtual layer to the card, and it probobly would not even peform that bad.
you dont se Nv re-writing drivers to force newer DX levels... true. We also dont see Nv dropping DX9 support from cards in vista, because 'oh you dont have a DX10 card, so you cant have DX9 either'

Its like dropping SSE from the athlon XP, because the A64 could run SSE2. it makes no sense, yet thats what creative did (ditched EAX from all cards not X-fi, even tho its proven they work just fine)

Your comment about a 'virtual layer' and video cards is wrong - they truly were hardware before unified shaders, so therse no way to re-write them. Case in point, the GF FX series which could only do 16 and 32 bit shaders... and when 24 was chosen as teh norm, the cards got raped really hard. If it was possible to fix that, Nv would have.
Posted on Reply
#87
Scrizz
F*** Creative!
thx for the heads up
Posted on Reply
#88
GSG-9
Musselsyou dont se Nv re-writing drivers to force newer DX levels... true. We also dont see Nv dropping DX9 support from cards in vista, because 'oh you dont have a DX10 card, so you cant have DX9 either'

Its like dropping SSE from the athlon XP, because the A64 could run SSE2. it makes no sense, yet thats what creative did (ditched EAX from all cards not X-fi, even tho its proven they work just fine)

Your comment about a 'virtual layer' and video cards is wrong - they truly were hardware before unified shaders, so therse no way to re-write them. Case in point, the GF FX series which could only do 16 and 32 bit shaders... and when 24 was chosen as teh norm, the cards got raped really hard. If it was possible to fix that, Nv would have.
You can get eax back by downloading alchamy. I will give you I would not want to pay for it.

Thats wrong a virtual layer could be made to emulate. I wont comment on the performance but it can be done, it was done for a long time (90s? before direct x and open gl, wolfenstin 3d?)
Posted on Reply
#89
FarEast
anyone have the p17 to xtreme audio mod please send it to me..really need it..:banghead::banghead:
Posted on Reply
#90
pagalms
Hmm, i have modded drivers, which turns Audigy Se into "X-Fi" Extreme Audio, but they didn't worked for me. Maybe i have curve_hands.dll installed :confused:
Posted on Reply
#91
Scrizz
w00t I have my SB Live!/5.1/7.1/Value/Digital working perfectly in vista thx to Brazilman
Posted on Reply
#92
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
I think one of the Xfi drivers is missing - the one that sparked this all, with the dolby encoding
Posted on Reply
#93
Scrizz
you should be able to find it after some searching ;)
Posted on Reply
#94
Unregistered
the setup doesn't run for me, any ideas ? i'm using vista 64-bit, have x-fi xtreme music .
Posted on Edit | Reply
#95
Kursah
You have the same setup as I do then...works great for me!

:toast:
Posted on Reply
#96
darisimo
Hello i have a CT4760 card, but when i installed it to my pc, after 2 or 3 minutes i have a blue screen error. What should i do? Please help.
Posted on Reply
#97
sinister_steve
Daniel Kawakami (AKA "Daniel_K

Damn should contact this guy to get some drivers from him...I read he has good drivers for 8800 series on another site for intel mobo,s..steve
Posted on Reply
#98
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
darisimoHello i have a CT4760 card, but when i installed it to my pc, after 2 or 3 minutes i have a blue screen error. What should i do? Please help.
you should read the forum rules and ask that in its own thread.
Posted on Reply
#99
selway89
Anyone got the X-Fi drivers for Vista x64? Wouldnt mind giving them a spin and see what improvements are available. Iv searched the web but can only find the audidgy and live driver packs he created.
Posted on Reply
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