Wait, am I the only one left with the OpenAL crash?

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Anisotonic

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Jan 21, 2008
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Ah, I see.

XP, not sure yet if I'll skip Vista or not (and since the next windows is out in approximately 18 months, I might as well)
 

Fuzz

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Jan 19, 2008
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It's a safe bet to say that once Microsoft move on to the next operative system they are finished with the previous one. Vista will be complete by then, that is when you should get it. (Said with a nice blend of truth, irony and humor.)

No, honestly I might switch to Windows 7 if it's proven to be the best OS on the planet. Vista is like having a monster of a computer castrated.

I also have X-Fi, but I haven't even tried Open AL. I really should, but now you say it won't work? Have I already been screwed over by Fatal1ty?
 

Fuzz

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I have tried it and it worked for a while until I modified slomo to 1.5 then it crashed almost instantly. Turned it off again and I had to reboot my computer to make UT3 load levels properly again. There is something seriously wrong with that driver and it's from 2007. They really should update it and make it work in common games like UT3.
 

Anisotonic

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Jan 21, 2008
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Haha, I don't think Fatality has a lot to do with it... he seems like an honest guy...

People have said that it could be caused by the X-Ram, but i'm pretty sure I've seen people have this problem with non-Xram X-Fi's.

If your card is the PCI Xfi Fatality, the newest driver is from july 08 and they also made a new console launcher that isn't as fubar as the previous one, where the main knob used to kill 5.1 and stuff. Still doesn't work with UT3 openAL though.

In any case they really are taking their sweet time fixing this.
 

Grobut

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Oct 27, 2004
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There is something seriously wrong with that driver and it's from 2007. They really should update it and make it work in common games like UT3.

I really think the problem is on UT3's side, i have the XFi-Elite Pro, and i use EAX in all games that have it (no point letting a card like that go to waste), and thease days, that means allmost all of them are running OpenAL, this even includes other UE3 engine games, and they are all running just fine, UT3 is the only game where i must disable OpenAL or it will crash, hell OpenAL even works in Unreal and UT thanks to the OldUnreal patches.

Now i'm no expert on the matter, but when everything else works just fine except this one game, im inclined to make the logical conclution that the problem is with that one game, and not the drivers that works for everyone else, it seems to make alot more sense.


But perhabs there really is some problem with the drivers, drivers never are perfect afterall, but still, that just tells me that everyone else has found a workaround for it except the team behind UT3.

Regardless, whoever is at fault, the issue should have been resoled ASAP, but here we are 9 (or is it 10..) months later and it doesen't look like it ever will be.
 

Fuzz

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Watching a series, but I'll get right back to this afterward. If I remember correctly, you just uncheck the box at the top of the audio settings.

Don't confuse OpenAL with OpenGL. Some people might.
 

elmuerte

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Watching a series, but I'll get right back to this afterward. If I remember correctly, you just uncheck the box at the top of the audio settings.

Don't confuse OpenAL with OpenGL. Some people might.

You mean this:

[SCREENSHOT]http://forums.beyondunreal.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=96846&stc=1&d=1223915513[/SCREENSHOT]

Yes, that's hardware acceleration. Even when unchecked you are still using OpenAL. Just not the hardware accelerated part of it (which is made possible by the driver of the soundcard).
 

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Grobut

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Oct 27, 2004
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How on earth do you disable OpenAL? Don't you mean hardware acceleration?

Yup, apparently what's crashing UT3 is the EAX stuff, because if i uncheck that box it works, if i dont, the game crashes and burns, and takes my whole system down with it.

But yes, the game is still using OpenAL even if you uncheck that box, just not its more advanced features that require hardware acceleration, i'd say that just adds more fuel to what i was saying above.
 

T2A`

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Jan 10, 2004
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I use Vista at work. It's not terrible like everyone claims.

However, I certainly wouldn't put it on a gaming rig. :)

Though I'm getting a Macbook soon so it's a moot point! :D
 

Anisotonic

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Jan 21, 2008
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Grobut said:
im inclined to make the logical conclution that the problem is with that one game, and not the drivers that works for everyone else, it seems to make alot more sense.

That's also what I think. If I remember correctly, Creative released a driver update (not the most recent one but the one just before that) which said basically that "If you have OpenAL crashes as of now, it's not our fault anymore". Seeing as UT3 is a console game and was released as an unfinished RC, I say we can blame Epic's sheer incompetence and failure to care. I'm just pissed that they will get away with it.
 

Fuzz

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Too bad. I wonder what happens if I turn off the hardware acceleration in the Control Panel and then run UT3 with OpenAL enabled?
 

Grobut

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Too bad. I wonder what happens if I turn off the hardware acceleration in the Control Panel and then run UT3 with OpenAL enabled?

Its worth a try, but ofcourse, it will also affect all other games where you use hardware accelerated sound, so unless UT3 is the only game you play with any regularity, you will probably be better off just running UT3 is software mode.
 

Anisotonic

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Someone on the Epic forum's OpenAL Crash thread suggested a way to disable the X-Ram using the registry. The tweak does indeed turn off the x-ram successfully. I'm not getting too excited until I'll have played a few more sessions but I did have OpenAL on for the last 3 hours and not a crash. This just might be it.
 

Grobut

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Someone on the Epic forum's OpenAL Crash thread suggested a way to disable the X-Ram using the registry. The tweak does indeed turn off the x-ram successfully. I'm not getting too excited until I'll have played a few more sessions but I did have OpenAL on for the last 3 hours and not a crash. This just might be it.

This, however, will negatively affect all other games you play, the cards have RAM on them for a reason.. personally i'd not do that just for one solitary game, then i'd rather play that one game with hardware sound disabled.
 

UndeadD3vi1

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Dec 29, 2008
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The OpenAL Library in the UT3 folder is dated 2006!
I've just renamed that file so UT3 falls back to the Newer OpenAL32.dll in %WINDIR%\System32 (BioShock uses the one in System32 by default, hence why it doesn't crash)

I can't be sure yet but I've had 2 games in CTF-FacingWorlds without a crash so far (For me that map always crashed the game)
 

JohnDoe641

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Oh, from the preview title I thought you were going to ask if you were the only one left playing UT3. I would have said "probably" to that one. :p