Since DirectSound was eliminated in vista

[BoDEAN]

What is the preferred output for our soundcards / audio? Wav? or something else

[HeartsOfWar]

DirectSound was not eliminated in Vista! DirectSound hardware abstraction layer was removed...

What this means is that in Windows XP, if you had a true hardware sound card (ex. Creative Audigy), The DirectSound API would offload the processing to the sound card in order to benefit from any digital processing the sound card could provide (EAX, etc.)

In Vista, the DirectSound API no longer offloads the processing (CPU processes the data) and you lose the digital processing benefits such as EAX, etc.

Microsoft claim they made this decision because they found in a study that most computers use on-board audio which is incapable of processing the data on its own and uses the CPU either way.

[freak_power]

DirectSound was not eliminated in Vista! DirectSound hardware abstraction layer was removed...

What this means is that in Windows XP, if you had a true hardware sound card (ex. Creative Audigy), The DirectSound API would offload the processing to the sound card in order to benefit from any digital processing the sound card could provide (EAX, etc.)

In Vista, the DirectSound API no longer offloads the processing (CPU processes the data) and you lose the digital processing benefits such as EAX, etc.

Microsoft claim they made this decision because they found in a study that most computers use on-board audio which is incapable of processing the data on its own and uses the CPU either way.

Microsoft ususally does retarded study. Actually they have some idiots working for them. The bottom line Vista goes step back with sound support compared to XP. I can tell you it sounds ****ing horrible compared to XP platform. I just wish there is DX10.0 support under XP, i would go back to XP before i blink.

[unL33T]

From what I can tell Vista uses the CPU for DirectDraw rendering as well. At least on my PC... It makes it so I can't even use Streets and Trips. Retarded.

I could be horribly wrong but any programs that use DirectDraw in Vista use 90-100% CPU now whereas in XP they used less than 20%.

[ev0|]

guys.. there is NO DIFFERENCE in sound quality. It's just that it uses more CPU is all. EAX is a horrible and cheap DSP trick and if you think things sound better with EAX you have no ear.

[MrCobra]

guys.. there is NO DIFFERENCE in sound quality. It's just that it uses more CPU is all. EAX is a horrible and cheap DSP trick and if you think things sound better with EAX you have no ear.

Uhm, there is a HUGE difference in the quality of sound in games from XP to Vista. If you have Vista and a Creative card then play a game with and without ALchemy and then come back and say there's no difference.

[theresiststance2003]

guys.. there is NO DIFFERENCE in sound quality. It's just that it uses more CPU is all. EAX is a horrible and cheap DSP trick and if you think things sound better with EAX you have no ear.

The sound in XP most certainly sounds better. My guess is that you just don't have a decent sound card to notice the advantages of hardware-based acceleration.

Onboard sound ftl.

[Brandon Live Veteran]

DirectSound wasn't removed. Creative waited til the last minute to start working on their Vista drivers and has totally dropped the ball.

Yes, some hardware acceleration is lost for legacy applications, though for the most part you won't be able to tell the difference. New applications have the same functionality available as before and more. The preferred accelerated sound API has simply changed to OpenAL.

[eilegz]

my laptop have a hi definition audio and it sounds the same with vista or xp i dont know why people are complaining about this, in fact if you want to blame someone blame creative to charge for vista drivers.