ViRGE
Elite Member, Moderator Emeritus
First off, this is pretty much Operating Systems material, but considering the hardware aspect, posting it there wouldn't be doing it justice, so just work with me here.😛
That said, Creative has posted a rather long explanation of Windows Vista's audio system, and why their drivers for it have been in such poor shape. There's a lot of good details in there, so I won't make myself redundant, but if Creative is being honest here and not spinning things, it's a pretty massive change.
Basically, Microsoft is doing a two-in-one job of moving most audio systems from kernel code to user-land code, and restructuring the system so that a lot of traditional hardware functions are now part of the operating system. In short, anything that uses DirectSound or other Windows interfaces is now being run through a software audio renderer that reduces the audio hardware to a DAC and little else. The main implication of this is that all hardware acceleration goes out the window, along with EAX effects or post-mixing processes such as HRTFs for positional audio; according to Creative the new system doesn't allow games using DirectSound to connect to the hardware to do this any more. This would be for both new and old games.
Instead, OpenAL appears to be the solution. Games using OpenAL do not have to go through the Vista audio system, and can still directly connect to the hardware. Of course, OpenAL has more or less been a joke for years, the only time it's brought out is when the Doom 3 engine is used where they use Open*L languages. Of course, since Creative is about the only party supporting OpenAL on the Windows side, this isn't hurting their position either.
At any rate, I'm surprised this hasn't come to light sooner. If what Creative says is true(and at this point I don't see anything glaringly wrong to contradict them), then Vista's native audio system is useless for serious gaming because it doesn't allow hardware a place in rendering audio. All of a sudden, Vista isn't looking like a good upgrade.
That said, Creative has posted a rather long explanation of Windows Vista's audio system, and why their drivers for it have been in such poor shape. There's a lot of good details in there, so I won't make myself redundant, but if Creative is being honest here and not spinning things, it's a pretty massive change.
Basically, Microsoft is doing a two-in-one job of moving most audio systems from kernel code to user-land code, and restructuring the system so that a lot of traditional hardware functions are now part of the operating system. In short, anything that uses DirectSound or other Windows interfaces is now being run through a software audio renderer that reduces the audio hardware to a DAC and little else. The main implication of this is that all hardware acceleration goes out the window, along with EAX effects or post-mixing processes such as HRTFs for positional audio; according to Creative the new system doesn't allow games using DirectSound to connect to the hardware to do this any more. This would be for both new and old games.
Instead, OpenAL appears to be the solution. Games using OpenAL do not have to go through the Vista audio system, and can still directly connect to the hardware. Of course, OpenAL has more or less been a joke for years, the only time it's brought out is when the Doom 3 engine is used where they use Open*L languages. Of course, since Creative is about the only party supporting OpenAL on the Windows side, this isn't hurting their position either.
At any rate, I'm surprised this hasn't come to light sooner. If what Creative says is true(and at this point I don't see anything glaringly wrong to contradict them), then Vista's native audio system is useless for serious gaming because it doesn't allow hardware a place in rendering audio. All of a sudden, Vista isn't looking like a good upgrade.
