OpenAL on modern Windows

[Dr.Flay™]

I meant to post some info a while ago (sorry), after a night of testing with Smirftsch and scratching my head, and changing of switches, and us both getting very confused, I realised I was not going to get it working properly 

I didn't give up, and went looking for answers.
These quotes from the Guru3D site should clarify things;

The removal of the audio hardware abstraction layer from Windows Vista will compromise audio in legacy game titles that use EAX or DirectSound3D (DS3D), usually resulting in stereo output without any effects. Creative ALchemy is a simple download which will detect the presence of a number of top PC games and convert their DS3D and EAX calls into OpenAL calls, allowing users to continue enjoying their legacy titles the way they were meant to be enjoyed - in full, multi-channel sound with hardware effects. This download is an application for Creative Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ series of audio devices. It restores 3D audio and EAX® effects for certain DirectSound®3D games in Microsoft® Windows Vista™.

Realtek 3D SoundBack restores audio effects, including surround sound, reverberation, and spatial effects, for legacy game titles when running on Windows Vista. This software is basically Realtek's version of Alchemy, it'll enable the use of EAX1/2 (we guess A3D, assuming the realtek chips support the decoding) in Vista for games that should support EAX1/2.

So anyone having issues with the OpenAL in Windows Vista and newer, may find that because idiots also make important decisions, they have dropped the legacy EAX/EFX support in some drivers.
You may have to use "ALchemy" for Creative
http://www.guru3d.com/files_tags/alchemy.html
or "3D Sound Back" for Realtek (in Win7 and above, run as Vista SP1)
http://www.guru3d.com/files_details/realtek_3d_soundback_beta_1.html

To be honest though I find the SwFmod renderer is a better option on my Win7 box.

I had a quick look for any signs of other companies with the same issue, but didn't see anything.
This may be the answer if your log file shows OpenAL is not working properly, or the Creative labs tool "OpenAL Caps Viewer" cannot see any EAX hardware,
Get it here http://wayback.archive.org/web/20130729040534/http://connect.creativelabs.com/openal/default.aspx

Creative Labs statement about Windows Vista support
http://wayback.archive.org/web/20130606032320/http://connect.creativelabs.com/openal/OpenAL%20Wiki/OpenAL®%20and%20Windows%20Vista™.aspx

[Smirftsch]

although I had luck so far with my test systems, since it usually runs when OpenAL is installed, I took the opportunity that I had to reinstall my laptop with Windoze8.1 and it refused to run. I switched now to OpenALSoft for the Windows build (using this in Linux for ages already) and it seems to do fine. Drop me a message if you want to have a try.

[lowenz]

OpenAL EAX support is indipendent from DirectSound EAX!
So there's no problem at all!

The real problem: OpenAL development from Creative seems to be stuck.

[Smirftsch]

no no, don't worry. OpenALSoft is the successor of OpenAL if you wish and is still developed and improved, just not directly by Creative (although obviously supported to some degree by them). The "disadvantage" of it is, that it doesn't initialize the hardware directly but is using this by software (hence the OpenALSoft I suppose). The advantage of it is, that it works independent from hardware and OS and is also fully supporting the EFX effects used in ALAudio, ruling out the issues experienced by Dr.Flay.

[Hellkeeper]

I'm using OpenAl (I don't know which implementation) and it seems to work as intended for most of my games.

IIRC, the idiots who take important decisions to do so after looking at the data and noticing that abysmal audio systems were responsible for like 60% of BSODs on Windows XP and previous, and decided to get rid of all that stuff to have a correct system directly in windows. That's a decision that can be supported.