Frictional Games Forum (read-only)

I have 5.1 surround, I can't think of anything that could enhance the game more than that, my problem is that when I go into the sound menu, and turn on 'hardware', it then tells me that I need to restart the game, I'll do that, but when I return to the sound menu, hardware is switched back to 'off'. I've looked around everywhere, even this help forum and can't find a solution.

I'm running Visa 64 bit, and I don't know what kind of integrated hd sound my computer has, but the surround works well with other games. Is it that my hardware can't support this? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi major_tom. I'm afraid you can't get surround sound in Vista at the moment, unless you use a Creative Audigy or X-Fi series card.
This is a known issue with Vista and OpenAL (the lib we are using for sound in the game). Microsoft removed DirectSound3D in Vista, which is what OpenAL uses when it wants to open the sound hardware and a non Creative card is found. There's lot of info about this here
So in conclusion, I am afraid if you want surround sound and don't have a Creative card, you would have to switch to Windows XP. This might change in the future though.

Thanks for the reply.

I had a feeling it was something to do with Vista, I pulled up my stats, and yeah, I have a 'realtek' soundcard, so no dice for me:p Thanks for the help.