DirectSound Control Installation

Installation :

Follow these steps to install and run DirectSound Control :

Read and understand the included documentation. Understand the WARNING below !!!!
Copy the included “dsound.dll” and "dsoundctrl.ini" files to the application directory.
Change the config file (see below) and run the application.

Warning:

DON’T COPY THIS FILE TO THE WINDOWS SYSTEM DIRECTORY. THIS IS NOT A REPLACEMENT FOR THE ORIGINAL DIRECTX DIRECTSOUND DLL !!!!! THIS IS A WRAPPER DLL !!!!

The configuration is saved in the "dsoundctrl.ini" INI File. This MUST be in the same directory as the "dsound.dll". The default configuration is transparent to the application and does NOT change anything.

Here are some pre-configured DSOUNDCTRL.INI files. Extract all files from the DSC.ZIP to the games directory and extract the ZIP file below to the same directory, overwriting the exising file :

If you want to edit the configuration file, here is the description of the options :

Num2DBuffers=0...XX

Default : 0 (=hardware default)
Maximum number of hardware mixed 2d buffers reported to the application. MUST be lower or equal than the hardware default.

Num3DBuffers=0...XX

Default : 0 (=hardware default)
Maximum number of hardware mixed 3d buffers. MUST be lower or equal than the hardware default.

ForceCertification=0/1

Default : 0 (=driver default, disabled)
Enables/Disables WHQL certification report

ForceVoiceManagement=0/1

Default : 0 (=application default, disabled)
Enables/Disables forcing of voice management. This can't be used together with "ForceSoftwareMixing" and "ForceHardwareMixing". This is the first option you should change to 1 if you have problems with a game. This options enables the DirectX build-in voice managements and overrides the developers placement of the sound buffers. This options will enable 3D positional audio for many games that have this feature disabled for whatever reason. You should always set ForceNonStaticBuffers to 1.

ForceSoftwareMixing=0/1

Default : 0 (=application default, disabled)
Enables/Disables forcing creation of software mixed buffers

ForceHardwareMixing=0/1

Default : 0 (=application default, disabled)
Enables/Disables forcing creation of hardware mixed buffers (caution !!). Set this to 1 if you have problems with games like DEUS EX : Invisible War ! Before you set this to 1 try to enable the Voice Management to see if this works. Enabling Voice Management is much safer than this option.

ForceNonStaticBuffers=0/1

Default : 0 (=application default)
Enables/Disables forcing of using non-static buffers. Static buffers are obsolete with PCI-cards. This should always be enabled when "ForceVoiceManagement" is set to 1.

PreventSpeakerSetup=0/1

Default : 0 (=application default, disabled)
Enables/Disables prevention changing the speaker setup configuration. Set this to 1 if you have problems with games like MAFIA etc.

ForceExclusiveMode=0/1

Default : 0 (=application default)
Enables/Disables forcing of exclusive cooperation level.

ForceHQ3DSoftMixing=0/1

Default : 0 (=application default)
Enables/Disables forcing of usage of the high quality HRTF algorithm (software mixing only). Set this to 1 to get better 3D sound quality for applications that uses software mixing.

Default : 0 (=application default)
Enables/Disables forcing of a specified primary buffer format. Set this to 1 to get better sound quality for applications that don't set this parameters and soundcards that defaults to 8 Bit primary buffer.
If this option is set to one you can specify the output format with the following settings .

PrimaryBufferBits=x

Default : 16
Number of bits per sample. 16 is default, some soundcards are capable of using 24 or 32 bits per sample.

PrimaryBufferSamples=xxxxx

Default : 44100
Number of samples per second. 44100 is default, some soundcards are capable of using 48000, 96000 or 192000 samples per second.

PrimaryBufferChannels=x

Default : 2
Number of channels. 2 (=Stereo) is default.

ForceSpeakerConfig=0/1

Default : 0 (=system default)

Enables/Disables forcing of a the report to the app of a certain speaker configuration. Some applications needs certain speaker configurations to enable 3D sound (e.g. Doom 3).

SpeakerConfig=x

Default : 6 (=5.1)
Speaker configuration that will be returned with IDirectSound::GetSpeakerConfig() function when ForceSpeakerConfig == 1

The following values are defined :

Headphone	1
Mono	2
Quad	3
Stereo	4
Surround	5
5.1	6
7.1	7

EnableStoppedDriverWorkaround=0/1

Default : 0 (=no workaround)
Enables/Disables the workaround for the stopping sound problem with Doom3 and e.g. Creative Audigy soundcard. If you play Doom3 and the sound stops after a while, set this value to 1 to workaround the problem.