Is Vista tone deaf?

Darius Chang | Jan 23, 2007

According to a report by the Creative ALchemy Project, the upcoming Windows Vista lacks support for surround sound or EAX audio on many PC games.

The reason bring that Microsoft has removed the hardware abstraction layer (HAL)--which is responsible for allowing software to interact directly with the audio device--in Vista. Applications like movie playback using DirectSound3D will be unable to produce surround sound or use advanced hardware audio features. In its place, Vista will be using a new audio protocol, OpenAL, which is present only in applications written specifically for the next-generation DirectX 10 hardware.

So where does this leave us? If you really must watch DVDs immersed in soundtracks, you might have to shell out for Dolby-enabled versions of playback applications. For gamers who swear by the current crop of Direct X 9 titles, they will have to purchase Creative's high-end X-Fi sound card, which uses Creative's proprietary ALchemy software to speak in OpenAL code.