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Gamer Guides & Tips > A3D Sound For Half-Life
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A3D for Windows XP
Written By: -Silver-
A3D For Soundblaster Cards
Tired of going to every server around and getting "A3D whored" around
the block? Have a soundblaster card in your Windows XP computer and want better
3D sound than EAX can provide you? Then my friend you want to emulate A3D, and
in this simple guide I will tell you how. **Note: Does not work on ALL
soundblaster cards, so use at your own risk**
Step 1 - Install A3D drivers v3.12
Download and run
a3d_312.exe,
if asked to overwrite any newer files select "Yes".
Step 2 - Win98 compatibility mode
For a3d to function properly in windows XP you will have to run half-life as
though you were using windows 98. To do this simply go into your
sierra\half-life\ folder and right-click your mouse on hl.exe, then select
properties. Near the top of the window select the compatibility tab and check
the box marked "Run this program in compatibility mode for:" then
from the drop down menu just under that check box pick "Windows 98 /
Windows Me". Now click apply and close the properties window.
Changing to compatibility Mode
Step 3 - Getting the drivers in order
Windows XP will automatically send the new file called a3dapi.dll to
your windows\system32\ folder. The problem with that is when you use
compatibility mode(step 2) we cause windows to use the drivers in
windows\system\ rather than windows\system32\ . To correct this
you want to go into windows\system32\ and copy a3dapi.dll then
paste it into the windows\system\ folder.
Step 4 - Removing conflicting drivers
Now that you have completed steps 1 to 3 what you have done is created a driver
conflict between the old a3dapi.ddl and the newer a3dapi.dll. To remove the
unwanted a3dapi.dll files do as follows: click on your start menu then select
"Search". In the search results window pick "All files and
folders". Now under "All or part of file name:" put
"a3dapi.dll", Look in "local Hard Drives" and hit the
search button. The search will turn up a few results depending on your machine.
Right click on the a3dapi.dll in your half-life folder and select rename,
calling it "a3dapi.dlx", do the same for the a3dapi.dll found in the
system32 folder. Now close the search window, you have solved the conflict (Not
so hard was it?
 ).
Renaming old drivers
Step 5 - Configuration files
Now you must go through all the ".cfg" files in any game directory
under half-life that you plan to use A3D in (e.g. valve, aghl, cstrike). Make
sure that none of the files have s_eax set to "1" and if they do
change it to "0"(half-life will crash if s_eax "1" is
executed while it is running). Now that you have disabled eax in your favoriate
mods you need an a3d config. Many people have tweaked settings for a3d but i'll
provide you with a basic a3d config to
use for now. Put s_a3d.cfg in the folder
of the mod you are going to play (valve folder for deathmatch, cstrike folder
for counter-strike, etc).
Step 6 - Enable A3D
Run half-life and go into a server, bring down your console and type "exec
s_a3d.cfg" or simply add the lines in that file to your autoexec(for more
advanced users) and your a3d should be running.
Troubleshooting
If your a3d isn't working or is sounding funny it may be one of the following
things.
1. Make sure your speaker output is set to the speaker setup you are
using (5.1 speakers, 2 speakers, headphones) if this is not set correctly it
will cause your sound to work improperly.
2. Make sure you have s_eax 0 in all configs, this includes config.cfg
and autoexec.cfg. You DO NOT WANT S_EAX 1 IN ANY CFG FILE.
3. If it still isnt working repeat steps 1-6 again.
4. If it still doesnt work your soundblaster card does not support A3D
emulation, switch back to EAX
*** IMPORTANT NOTE: When using compatibility mode for hl.exe half-life
does not close properly. so EVERY TIMEyou exit the game you have to
press ctrl+alt+del then go to the processes tab, find hl.exe then right click
it and end process. If you dont do this it will make all video applications or
ur pc run horrible and do very strange things. You also wont be able to run
half-life again untill you close the old one ***
Downloads used in this process:
Crystal Clear A3D
Written By: Raiden
Ever Had Choppy or Horrible sounding A3D on your Soundblaster Live? Been
annoying you for years and you have tried many many scripts to get rid of it,
well thanks to Kill Joy for mysteriously stumbling upon this I'm publishing how
you too can have crystal clear A3D sound without the clicks and whistles that
many people encounter with A3D on SoundBlaster live cards.
What to do?
All you have to do is turn the vertical sync option in your GFX menu to
"ON" or if you have an NVIDIA card to "always
on" For some reason this fixes the A3D's "choppyness" and
makes it crystal clear for people experiencing problems. I played for many
years with terrible A3D and it really affected my game, this has only been
tested on 3 machines and each have reported success (All different machines
with different GFX cards)
(If your not sure about changing vsync yourself just reset your opengl settings
to default on NVIDIA cards which automatically turns VSYNC on)
Enjoy your A3D
Related Links
A3D Sound in Half-Life
EAX Sound in Half-Life under Windows XP
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