[SOLVED] Why won't my SoundBlaster Audigy Rx/5 play EAX 4? (it is supposed to support it).

[kaishlothon]

I'm trying to play Rome I Total War and Medieval 2 Total War and neither will let me use my Sound Blaster Audigy Rx/5's EAX features it says "The sound provider could not be contacted, this could be due to a lack of hardware support." However, I know for a fact my current Audigy at least supports EAX 4 (not sure if Rome 1 had that I think it just had EAX 1 - 3 but why doesn't EAX 4 work?) I have the latest driver and have tried uninstalling and reinstalling the games and the driver several times. Does anyone have any ideas?

 

[Lutfij]

This might be the reason. Just for the sake of relevance, might I ask where you sourced the game from? What OS and version(not edition) are you on for your platform?

 

[kaishlothon]

This might be the reason. Just for the sake of relevance, might I ask where you sourced the game from? What OS and version(not edition) are you on for your platform?

I got both games from STEAM, my OS is Windows 10 Home 64-bit Build 19041.vb_release.191206-1406. Is that all the information you were seeking?

 

[hotaru.hino]

EAX relied on DirectSound which was removed in Vista. You have to use something called ALchemy to restore EAX functionality.

 

[kaishlothon]

EAX relied on DirectSound which was removed in Vista. You have to use something called ALchemy to restore EAX functionality.

Now that you mention it you're right I remember ALchemy .... (I'm in the middle of downloading it and then will probably have to restart I'll make a post on the results) But can you give me a clue as to Why the support for ALchemy wasn't bundled with the regular driver? Seems kinda strange.

 

[kaishlothon]

EAX relied on DirectSound which was removed in Vista. You have to use something called ALchemy to restore EAX functionality.

I have a Sound Blaster Audigy Rx/5 but neither ALchemy nor EAX4 will work, (which I was told by a Creative/Sound Blaster support technician was supported on my model of card). I have two games that are specifically to work with Creative Labs EAX 2 & 3 (Rome: Total War 1), and the second game is (Medieval II: Total War which supports Creative Labs EAX 2, 3, and 4 but even the EAX 4 that the Creative Labs own support tech told me worked on my model of card says "Unable to activate sound provider, this could be due to a lack of hardware support."

I went to the link you sent me to download Creative ALchemy, File Name: ALMY_PCW8APP_LB_1_45_01.exe, However, when I try to install it all it does is flash a message that says "Starting InstallShield Wizard.." for 2 seconds before the install shield wizard crashes to desktop with no explanation. Can you please help me!

 

[hotaru.hino]

I have a Sound Blaster Audigy Rx/5 but neither ALchemy nor EAX4 will work, (which I was told by a Creative/Sound Blaster support technician was supported on my model of card). I have two games that are specifically to work with Creative Labs EAX 2 & 3 (Rome: Total War 1), and the second game is (Medieval II: Total War which supports Creative Labs EAX 2, 3, and 4 but even the EAX 4 that the Creative Labs own support tech told me worked on my model of card says "Unable to activate sound provider, this could be due to a lack of hardware support."

I went to the link you sent me to download Creative ALchemy, File Name: ALMY_PCW8APP_LB_1_45_01.exe, However, when I try to install it all it does is flash a message that says "Starting InstallShield Wizard.." for 2 seconds before the install shield wizard crashes to desktop with no explanation. Can you please help me!

You may have to update InstallShield: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...messages-4733b216-537e-8fdd-9fdd-071448600521

Otherwise, someone found a workaround by installing it on an older version of Windows and transferring it over: https://www.tenforums.com/software-...rying-install-creative-alchemy-universal.html

 

[gamerk316]

Yeah, you need to get Alchemy installed to restore EAX effects.

Since Directsound was re-worked to only be a software stereo driver as of Vista, EAX had to be implemented via OpenAL; Alchemly is the program that remaps the directsound calls into something the audio driver can understand and process. Without that, no EAX effects.