Vastly improved sound (Windows Vista+)

[Arduras]

Hi. As many of you may know, M$ removed DirectSound and Audio Hardware accel. in Windows Vista and above.
I found a guide on the internet and made it work for myself (it's rather outdated and perhaps a little convoluted.)

There are various gimmicks out there such as Realtek 3D Soundback, Creative ALchemy, and others but so far this
seems to sound the best (by far.) This puts true surround sound support and fixes the audio in BF2/PR. Since I've
used this, I've been able to hear an insane amount of sound and it's positioned with pinpoint accuracy.

Without further ado:

Make sure BF2 audio setting is set to Hardware (High/EAX is your discretion, seems most people prefer it.)
If BF2 isn't set to Hardware it'll say incompatible with current settings.
For all of this we're using the win32 OpenAL regardless of whether your running 64 bit.
If you're running 64 bit C/Windows/SysWOW64 is the system folder you need.
If you're running 32 bit C/Windows/system32 is fine.

1. Index of /creative-installers -- Grab oalinst.zip
and run the installer. It just copies OpenAL32.dll and wrap_oal.dll to your system dir.
2. rename wrap_oal.dll to something else (*.bak is what I used, it's in the system dir.)
3. Copy the OpenAL32.dll from your system dir to your BF2 install dir. (For me that's */steamapps/common/battlefield2)
4. Rename BF2OpenAL.dll to something else rename OpenAL32.dll to BF2OpenAL.dll
5. OpenAL Soft - Software 3D Audio -- Download *-bin.zip
6. Extract and copy the soft_oal.dll from the bin/win32 folder to both your BF2 install dir and your system dir.
Enjoy being able to hear all the things!

With this I went from being confused and having to turn rapidly to discern the source of a sound
(which was limited to gunshots, and close call-outs/footsteps/vehicles, even using Realtek 3D soundback)
to being able to drive a troop truck and hear the logi behind me and the chopper ~600m to my east.
First person sounds are really crisp now too (reloads/prone/etc sound awesome and positioned properly.)
It's an incredible difference.

TLDR Download two files, rename 2 files, copy/paste 2 files, enjoy.
I've only had one issue with this and it seems every once in a while the medic bag
sound loops long after the medic is gone (in vBF2.) Chopper sound bugs are still there
in PR when they happen.

Original: http://www.battlefieldsingleplayer.com/ ... opic=16768


EDIT ::::::::
Forgot to include the HRTF set up for the positional audio.

In the openal-soft folder copy the desired sound format from the hrtf folder to somewhere it won't be
deleted (ie: program files / OpenAL / default-48000.mrh)

Run the alsoft-config, make sure "Force" is checked and then click add. Find the file you just moved (I used default-48000.mrh) and once that's done click apply. You can delete anything you've downloaded that you don't want to keep.
HRTF is most of the reason this sound is so good. The positional precision is just awesome.

[Mats391]

Tried this one and got it to work. Well at least something did change. On some vehicles the firing sound keeps playing after i am done firing. Try the Tunguska or Type95 (chinese AA), had that issue with those. Will see if the improvements outweigh the bugs.

[Arduras]

Sorry I forgot to include my HRTF stuff. You just copy whichever default from the hrtf folder and
add it as an HRTF in the alsoft-config program, making sure to check "Force" or it won't work.
With this it's like a whole new game, positional everything.

If there's a demand for it I'll simplify this with a video.

[Mats391]

Another thing: Sound while inside vehicle are very silent. Might be only me

[Arduras]

Must be just you. It's certainly quieter but not quiet considering your inside the vehicle.
They sound about right - a good volume that isn't too quiet but not overpowering everything else / deafening.
Have you tried the HRTF stuff? I'll post a video on it tonight when I find some kind of free screencap.

[Mats391]

Yea i have that HRTF stuff installed. The quieter sounds in vehicles are not that bad tbh, finally easy to hear others

[DonDOOM]

I just tried it out, and I can't hear any noticeable difference.

[Arduras]

Are you using XP and/or a Creative sound card DonDOOM?

[DonDOOM]

Win 7 + Creative Xfi Xtremegamer.

[Arduras]

Okay, Creative X-Fi could be why you don't notice much difference.
run the open-al32.exe (from a cmd window) make sure there are now Hrtf errors.
When loading the 48k mhr file place it at %AppData%\openal\hrtf
make an openal.ini at %AppData%\openal
When using the alsoft-config be sure to select Stereo (2CH), 48k Sample Rate
and make sure your speakers / sound card are set to 48k.
Also, to make transitions smoother, up Period Count from 4 to 8.

[selemeister]

Hi.

I have an ASUS Xonar DX soundcard, should this work for me ? 'Cause when I did your following steps I got a message saying it was incompatible sound setting. I'm running Win 8.1, noticed you wrote Vista and above but in the original it says Vista/Win 7.
Really been looking for a solution for better audio, that's why I bought better soundcard/headphones but still isn't really that crisp sound in PR.

[DC_K]

Hi.

I have an ASUS Xonar DX soundcard, should this work for me ? 'Cause when I did your following steps I got a message saying it was incompatible sound setting. I'm running Win 8.1, noticed you wrote Vista and above but in the original it says Vista/Win 7.
Really been looking for a solution for better audio, that's why I bought better soundcard/headphones but still isn't really that crisp sound in PR.

I've got a Xonar DX as well with Windows 7, and it works fine for me.. I'm not sure if I can tell a difference in sound, but that's a different discussion.

[ComedyInK]

Would it be the same steps of make it work for CSGO?

[Mats391]

After playing a bit more with it, i do really like the improved directional audio. However i have issues judging distances now. Stuff sounds like it is next to me when it is couple hundred meters out. Had quite some situation where i looked for apc that i thought was right infront of me just to find out it was 300m away behind a hill.
Maybe i just need to get used to the new levels tho. Also i can hear choppers from 1500m away, bit annoying on jabal/muttrah to hear all the hueys on carrier all the time

[Arduras]

I'm going to make a video guide. This should help anyone running Windows (TSDKaos running XP said it
even helped him)

At any rate, reset to default settings (Audio) and restart BF2. Make sure it's set to Hardware/High/EAX
once you've restarted it and hopefully it'll work.

[Arduras]

So.. somewhere between reinstalling Windows and reinstalling OpenAL my audio is messed up.
Everything sounds like it's in front of me or behind me, but not left/right. Listening to audio tests of
various forms they sound fine. It's just BF2/PR that seems screwed up and I don't really know why :/


EDIT:

So, after re-installing Windows, and the realtek HD audio drivers, etc.. I couldn't for the life of me get my sound
to fix itself. For some reason re-installing the latest realtek driver (from their site, not HP) AFTER installing OpenAL
fixed my sound. HRTF then made the positional audio a bit more precise. I can hear a chopper warming up on the
Carrier while sitting at north rock in Op Barracuda. It's insane.