User talk:Tomas.

Hi. I write to you in case of your edit on GTA IV wiki.

You deleted my information about Alchemy support. Did you check that it doesn't work for you before you delete the information?

If yes, what kind of issues did you have?

The game doesn't seem to use DirectSound3D, neither is it on Alchemy's support list.

Trusted source obviously tells something different: http://satsun.org/audio/ And I had other at least one more source saying confirming that.

I came across two other people till I found it was you responsible for that edit.

For future, please don't delete any unchecked information before adding proper "citation needed" tag, if it lacks the source.

I think we clarified the situation, and the edit can be restored with relevant sources.

Regards

There is a difference between DirectSound and DirectSound3D, and I'm pretty sure there's nothing for IV to benefit from Alchemy because it won't improve anything, otherwise give an example of what it does improve.

I had similar situation in Max Payne 3 which is based on the same engine. Whole sound mixing becomes better. Separation - e.g. when you activate bullet time, and shoot - it sounds different. Additionally, you can check out in Process Explorer, that game recalls to dsound.dll, and additionally hooks the library - by minimizing the game, and attempting to delete Alchemy dsound.dll which you placed. When it is protected from delete, it is being used. The situation when Alchemy won't introduce really noticeable changes, is when the game uses other confirmed sound API, but still recalls to sound.dll and makes it write-protected. In example - Splinter Cell Conviction. But GTA IV and Max Payne 3 don't use any other confirmed sound API, only GTA V - XAudio2.

'Whole sound mixing' could be anything to be honest, it's usually surround sound or broken sounds which is Alchemy's job to restore. GTA4 doesn't use hardware DirectSound3D, even the satsun webpage would mention if Alchemy really did fix something in it.

I think the only way to verify it clearly would be trying to inject DSOAL to achieve HRTF, but as dearest from all my friends - I Drink Lava reports, DSOAL doesn't work at all with both of them. Still, maybe some other versions of DSOAL will, like in Spearhead. Didn't check.

Anyway, for now, if you don't possess good enough equipment to assess changes in sound, you can record game sound twice with, and without Alchemy, and compare sound in Spek to distinguish the difference.

Of course, there is still a chance to set up an old config on Windows XP, and try to look whether 3D sound appears on XP. I don't only know whether VirtualBox or Oracle have DirectSound 3D.

Honestly, I'd say that sound stage could be also better with Alchemy in Max Payne 3. If you don't have Creative sound card, you can read thedarkmod thread about alchemy for all, or use IndirectSound, but it sounds worse than Alchemy imho.

Very similar thing like with Max Payne 3, is with Battlefield 3. It cooperates with IndirectSound only. It is described as being RWAudioCore, but the same name of API was in Carbon, which greatly benefits from Alchemy. It turns out, that dsound wrapper also influences the sound of BF3 too (larger soundstage).

I try to say that, it seems like there are different levels of implementing DirectSound possible, and probably those newer games have more partial implementation of dsound, and usually in such cases, dsoal goes crazy, which somehow keeps these two stories together.