BioShock from 2K Games features support for the advanced 3D audio features of Creative's Sound Blaster X-Fi sound card range. This guide shows you how to configure your system to ensure your audio experience is exactly as BioShock's creators intended.

1. X-Fi Drivers

As with any hardware device, you need the latest driver package to get the best from your X-Fi sound card. Go to your local Creative website downloads page here and pull down the latest drivers for your sound card and OS. We'll be using Windows Vista in this guide.

2. OpenAL Run-time

The next thing to do is to install the latest OpenAL run-time libraries. OpenAL is the interface layer that lets the game to talk directly to your sound card. All of the OpenAL files come with the X-Fi driver package. But there were some important updates to one of the libraries, which were released after the most recent X-Fi driver release. So it's important that you install the latest OpenAL run-time files AFTER you've updated your X-Fi drivers.

Pick up the latest OpenAL run-time here.

Run oalinst.exe and it will update the run-time libraries in your Windows System folder. This could also benefit any other OpenAL games that you have installed.

At time of writing (September 2007) the OpenAL32.dll is on version 6.14.0357.22. The wrap_oal.dll is on version 2.1.8.1.

3. Set up your X-Fi sound card

You have to set up your sound card properly if you want all the sounds coming out of the correct speakers!

We are going to be using the Creative Audio Console in this guide, because it's small, quick and easy to use, and its part of the basic Creative driver installation on all versions of Windows. Run it from the Creative program group in the start menu.

3.1 Audio Mode

You need to make sure your X-Fi is in Game Mode. This means that the X-Fi audio processor is optimized for gaming, so you get more simultaneous sounds, better 3D positioning, etc...

Note that the Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio edition does not feature the Game Mode. Also, the X-Fi Xtreme Audio OpenAL drivers are currently being optimized to work better with BioShock. If you have an X-Fi Xtreme Audio card, use Entertainment mode, but turn the "Use Creative EAX Audio" option to "OFF" in the game. You will see more about this option later.

3.2 Speaker configuration

It is vital that you set the Audio Console to the speaker configuration you are using. Sound cards generally ignore the in-game speaker setting and only refer to the setting in the Audio Console and other device-specific configuration applications.

If you only have two speakers or headphones connected,but you have a 5.1 configuration selected in this menu, then guess what's going to happen? Audio meant for the centre or rear speakers will be lost. When you select headphones or 2/2.1 speaker mode, the sound card will do a great job of 3D positioning for your sound system.

3.3 EAX Settings

This is where the names could get a little confusing. "EAX Effects" in this context just means Reverb. The tick-box switches reverb on and off, and the slider lets you turn it up or down. Leave it at 0.0 dB to hear reverb at the volume intended by the designers.

The "Use Creative EAX Audio" setting in BioShock means something quite different, as you'll see later.

3.4 X-Fi CMSS-3D

The X-Fi CMSS-3D button does slightly different things depending on whether you are in two speaker mode, or 5.1/7.1 mode. But the basic advice is to make sure it's set to ON, particularly in a stereo mode (either 2/2.1 or Headphones).

Without X-Fi CMSS-3D, you will not get that great 3D audio experience on your headphones or stereo speakers.

In 5.1/7.1 mode, you'll still get 3D panning of game sounds with CMSS-3D turned off. But the music track will not be upmixed to come out of the center and rear speakers.

3.5 X-Fi Crystalizer

The X-Fi Crystalizer adds extra impact to sounds with sharp attack (sudden or abrupt sounds). Games and music generally sound better with X-Fi Crystalizer, so it's best to leave it on!

4. In-game settings

So, if you made it this far, you have installed the latest sound card drivers followed by the OpenAL run-time. And your X-Fi sound card settings are all correct. Time to boot up the game and make some noise!

When you have your X-Fi sound card set up correctly as detailed above, then having these two options set to "ON" should result in a smooth, sweet sounding 3D soundtrack with beautiful environmental audio effects such as reverb and filtering.

If your sound card is a Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio, the advice for now is to play with "Use Creative EAX Audio" set to "OFF". This means OpenAL is disabled, so Xtreme Audio owners do need to make sure that "Audio Mode" corresponds with their speaker setting.

5. What about other audio solutions?

Most X-Fi and Audigy series sound cards support OpenAL, and if these devices are set up correctly then there should be no problems.

Audigy
Audigy sound cards are not capable of mixing as many 3D sources as X-Fi, so to avoid missing sounds you should modify the "Bioshock.ini" file. Change "MaxChannels=128" to "MaxChannels=60". You might want to make a backup of the file before you change it.

Non-OpenAL audio solutions
If you don't have an OpenAL compatible card installed, or your sound card drivers or OpenAL run-time are obsolete, then you might encounter problems with BioShock's sound when the "Use Creative EAX Audio" is set to "ON". Some people have reported stuttering or crackling sound.

In this situation, OpenAL is still trying to process 3D audio for you, but it can't find a working OpenAL hardware device. On a Windows XP system, it will instead look for a DirectSound3D sound card on your PC. OpenAL can pass the game's audio instructions onto DirectSound3D. The quality of 3D audio you will hear might not be great - 3D positioning and reverb quality may be compromised, and at worst the sound may be distorted.

If there is no DirectSound3D device, or you are running Windows Vista which doesn't support DirectSound3D hardware sound, then OpenAL's software mixer will take over. The OpenAL software mixer currently has not been optimized for BioShock.

So, if you don't have a fully OpenAL compatible hardware solution, usually the best solution is to try the game with "Use Creative EAX Audio" set "ON" and then "OFF" and see which sounds better! When the setting is "OFF", you'll hear the default audio mixer which ships with BioShock. Without a proper OpenAL sound card, this might be your best bet. It doesn't have hardware grade sample-rate conversion, state-of-the-art HRTF algorithms for headphone and 2-speaker 3D, or hardware accelerated reverb. But it does support features like reverb and 3D panning on 5.1 and 7.1 systems

6. Further information

Thanks for reading, and we hope you enjoy your experience with BioShock and X-Fi.

If you spotted a mistake, or you think there's something important missing from the guide, just drop us a mail at:-
eurodev@cle.creative.com.

All the best

Creative Developer Relations team