Enabling EAX on vista 64 w/ creative labs X-fi extreme gamer

This is for the creative laboratories X-FI extreme gamer sound card.


I want to first start off by saying creative laboratory's drivers and corporate policies leave much to be desired.

When I installed the creative drivers on my vista 64, I had only installed the minimum, which also, if I remember correctly gives you the greatest performance.

I was having many driver issues which were resulting in blue screens of death. I have uninstalled and reinstalled many of my drivers. In the process of doing so, I had stumbled upon a way to enable EAX in windows vista 64.

I'd do not guarantee that this will work for you, it is working for me. I will step you through the process, that should enable it for you. I am running windows vista ultimate 64 bit.

Boot the machine to safe mode by pressing F8 as the computer is booting. Uninstall the creative laboratories drivers. Next insert the CD that came with the card and load all options for the drivers. In other words the full install. Reboot your machine.

After doing this your microphone settings will need to be a reconfigured, and some of the creative gui's will no longer function. Now you should have a creative folder in your start menu. Next open the creative alchemy (x-fi edition) add guild wars, then open audio console launcher. There should be a tab labeled EAX. At this point simply enable it. You'll also see many other features have been separated into their own programs.The THX console has the base boost.

Now when you open guild wars and select options > sound you should be able to add the checkmark to the EAX box and the 3D audio effects box. It may take some time to go through all the individual programs without the aid of the GUI to make the appropriate adjustments. If you have any questions feel free to post them here.The reason I posted this is because I had struggled with this and have been asked in messages for this information.

Not so much Creative's fault - more Vista's for removing the DSound api. Although, admittedly, Creative's drivers ARE shite - especially all the bloatware that comes with them.

OpenAL is what enables all the X-Fi goodness - and it is dependant on individual program support. The Alchemy stuff seems to be a bit rough and ready at the moment - I hope Creative smarten it up and make it far more functional in the future.

Incidentally, did you hear about the guy who got fed up with Creative Labs and wrote his own drivers? Creative were so happy that they issued him with a cease-and-desist

Have fun with that... Creative is a TERRIBLE company.

The next time you buy a soundcard, if you actually feel the need to do so, get an ASUS Sonar sound card. Great drivers, better card, better performance. Creative is soon to take the plunge into chapter 11 or fold up shop. Watch as they wither away by 2010-2011.

And yes, Creative not only issued a cease and desist (I get 2+ a day, they are no biggy), but they actually sent a corporate lawyer to his home, and issued him a legal threat to sue for corporate theft. Right.... your drivers don't work, and someone wants to make them work for the community, and they are the criminal... I think not. Creative deserves to burn in the fires of bankruptcy. Evil bastards, they lack any community spirit or developer fire.

Do you know, you're absolutely right. I've been using Soundblasters since the year dot - historically they were always leaps and bounds above the competition. In recent years, it's like Creative have become arrogant and have no interest in after sales support whatsoever.

Yes, the Sonar is a great bit of kit, but are sound cards necessary at all now? On-board sound seems to me to be in a totally different league to, say, on-board graphics. Is there any need for gamers to get a Sonar? Is there any advantage? Or, if my suspicions are correct, are sound cards now for musicians only?

Like I said No, in most setups they are not needed. If you want to squeeze out 3-6FPS on Crysis on High to Very high on a BLEEDING EDGE setup, then get one, but typically you won't have room for one anyways. Onboard sound is very advanced. It is about to get more advanced with the 2009 Q1 designs.

Great. Let the buggers concentrate on their reasonable-but-without-a-hope-in-hell-of-competing-with-iPod mp3 players.

Hmm, if I rip out my X-Fi, wonder what I could put in its place? Give my 2 8800GTXs a bit more airflow, for sure!

Use ALchemy to unitize EAX in Vista via OpenAL.
Since you're using an X-Fi card, ALchemy is free.

ASUS Xonar is a good card, but it's only EAX 2.0
Razer AC-1 is also a good card.

When I had 2 GTX'es the bottom card literally smashed on my X-Fi.

For anyone interested in the shade corp that creative is, google "Dan K. and creative" you can not miss it