Creative isn't making much noise on Vista.

[NamesDontMatter]

Throughout the beta testing of Vista creative has had well beta drivers. For some they work fine, but for others they cause large issues. The problem with Vista we are now begining to see is not actually Vista, but we see the problems with key drivers that are essential to the use and functionality of a machine. This also leaves us to question Vista itself, Why are so many companies slow to produce Vista drivers? Back to Creative, Creative still lacks a non-beta Vista driver, while this dosen't leave anyone in the dark it does leave them with handicapped functionality.


"It should be noted that Creative's newest devices seemingly have Vista support - both the new X-Fi external Xmod has embedded native support, and the X-Fi Xtreme Audio has final non-beta 32-bit drivers (though without any working audio console application, and no 64-bit availbility). Interestingly the rest of the new top-of-the-range X-Fi series drivers are still in beta."

Most drivers are listed as being available in Q1 2007, which is specifically marked as "the end of March." So for all you folks who are "Waiting" to get Vista. Wait till mid-March or April.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[EastCoasthandle]

And some believe Vista is a success without 3rd party driver support. Well surprise, surprise!!! Well, well, well...I guess complaining that 3rd party driver support isn't the answer after all, is it? Maybe if MS held off on the release until they got the proper driver support this would not be an issue.

 

[TXcharger]

well i thought that vista didnt have compatability with 3rd party soundcards? i had read somewhere on this site that vista had its own sound thingy built in and that x-fi ppl would not be able to use their stuff

 

[niko084]

Wow if Microsoft doesn't get it together this is going to start to become the begging of their end.

They have been slowly losing market share for the last what almost 5 years now... They really can't be affording to keep screwing up. I was in circuit city and best buy yesterday picking up some random things, and I was hearing random computer customers saying things like "I wont touch vista", "I don't use windows", "I hate microsoft", "have a machine with XP?"

Around where I live this stuff isn't too heard of..... Really had me laughing the way home.

 

[HaZe303]

This is on both MS and CL´s hands. The beta drivers work ok for my X-FI xtreme Music. But for an example, if i have CMSS3d enabled the audioDG.exe process which handles DRM and sound for Vista can use up to 100% of core 1 on my dual core while watching a movie or gaming!? So the whole system gets slow and laggy. If i disable CMSS3d in audio console, audiodg goes down to 1-3% cpu usage. But this also removes 3d sound in my headphones while gaming, which isnt that good in 3d shooters where you need that information!? So, MS and specially CL, fix this now and give us some decent drivers. Nvidia Drivers arent great, but atleast they release new drivers almost weekly now!? I dont care if its beta, only they release often enough to give us more bug fixes and more of the extra functionality!?

 

[EastCoasthandle]

Being told you can't use EAX is very hard to swallow indeed. Special when someone expresses his delights on vista!
Example 1
Example 2
Example 3

But they will try to convince you that EAX is no longer used in games
From what I read, DRM is the cause why there is no hardware audio (properly functioning Hardware Audio).

 

[niko084]

Being told you can't use EAX is very hard to swallow indeed. Special when someone expresses his delights on vista!
Example 1
Example 2
Example 3

But they will try to convince you that EAX is no longer used in games
From what I read, DRM is the cause why there is no hardware audio (properly functioning Hardware Audio).

hahahahahahahahaha!

That is 1 solid reason in its own I WILL NOT install vista. Almost ALL my games use EAX.

Besides the fact after my Server 2k3 install last night and seeing how its running..
*on an 800mhz notebook* Thing runs fast and smooth, uses no ram. I'm done with simplistic poorly written standard os's.

 

[EastCoasthandle]

hahahahahahahahaha!

That is 1 solid reason in its own I WILL NOT install vista. Almost ALL my games use EAX.

Besides the fact after my Server 2k3 install last night and seeing how its running..
*on an 800mhz notebook* Thing runs fast and smooth, uses no ram. I'm done with simplistic poorly written standard os's.

But Vista has eye candy!! You are willing to give up eye candy for seasoned os that offers simplicity and stability

What is this world coming to?

 

[niko084]

But Vista has eye candy!! You are willing to give up eye candy for seasoned os that offers simplicity and stability

What is this world coming to?

I know... I have been turned.. *I miss windows ME....*

 

[WarEagleAU]

Thats what Ive been saying. Im sure Vista WILL BE a great OS, in time. Just not right now. I plan on waiting a year or so...or, until I HAVE TO HAVE IT.

 

[Judas]

Vista works great now ..would never go back to xp

 

[Jimmy 2004]

My drivers seem to work ok... annoying that they still only do beta versions, but in all fairness you can't blame Creative for what M$ is changing.

 

[wazzledoozle]

My Audigy 2 works fine in 5:1 under vista. No EAX support, but thats Creative's problem. EAX supposedly works with a work-around for Xfi cards, but Creative isnt releasing that for Audigy X cards yet.

Microsoft has no blame in this, Creative was/is being too slow to write new drivers (As usual). Vista has a new implementation of processing audio that isnt compatible with older driver models, but creates higher quality sound for onboard sound. I dont know exactly how it works, but it something like the OS processes the sound at a higher level and hands it off to the hardware last; which is a problem for EAX because it processes all sounds. Again, there is a temporary workaround for X-Fi cards...

 

[EastCoasthandle]

Vista's implementation of the HAL prevents accelerated audio. How is that creative's fault?

In Windows Vista, Microsoft has decided to remove the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) for DirectSound and DirectSound3D. The HAL is the software layer that on previous Windows Operating Systems enabled an audio accelerator such as the SB X-Fi, to provide DirectSound3D applications with hardware accelerated audio. This enabled soundcards to perform tasks such as sample-rate conversion, mixing, 3D spatialization using HRTFs, filtering, and effects processing. Without the HAL, DirectSound on Windows Vista will be rendered in software with no advanced functionality such as EAX.

link

I just don't understand why people are blaming CL when CL has to figure out a way to circumvent a key element in Vista's HAL (still not convinced that it's possible at this point). I am not sure if it's misinformation, transfer of hatred from Nvidia or just pure hatred for CL in general. But from this alone, it's not the fault of CL.

 

[wazzledoozle]

Yeah, and there is a workaround that routes the sound through openal rather than the software. The new directsound is meant to provide better onboard sound, which 99% of pc's have.

 

[EastCoasthandle]

But it must be said that the accelerated audio not functioning properly is not the fault of CL. It's been disabled (sort of speak) through Vista's Hardware Abstraction Layer. There has been no indication that all of the software developers are going to start using openal instead of EAX. And, there is no indication that people are going to stop using their seasoned motherboard's sound or older sound cards either.