Possible FPS tweak

[SFP1Ace 33]

First - my specs are C2Q 9650 @ 4.4 GHz, SB XFI Titanium, Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit. While playing SF2E (modded with NF4+ and Stary's terrain repaint) I noticed (by alt-tabbing to the task manager during gameplay) that SF2E.exe is using 25% of my cpu ( which is exactly an equivalent of 1 out of 4 Cores of my quad) while the audiodg.exe process was consuming about 11% of the CPU cycles. Now that makes sense since TK mentioned before that currently SF2 series is already somewhat multithreaded and that audio is running in a separate thread. Now straight to the point - I enabled SF2 in Creative ALchemy and voila! Now, during the gameplay, the audiodg.exe uses no more than 2% of CPu cycles! 2% sounds much better that 11%, won't you agree? ;) To be sure I enabled and disabled ALchemy 5 times over and I was able to repeat the results EVERY time! Funny thing is that it had ZERO effect on my performance - I guess it's because of me running this on quad core CPU. However I think this might benefit those who are still running single core or slow/non-overclocked dual core CPUs.

 

How to enable SF2 series in ALchemy:

 

1. Install and run Creative ALchemy ( u must have SB Audigy/XFi soundcard AND Windows Vista or 7!!!!);

2. Click the "Add" button on the ALchemy interface;

3. Type whatever name u want in the "Game Title" field," Strike Fighters 2" or "SF2" makes sense;

4. Select "Use Game Path" and then type the patch to the folder where you've installed your SF2 game (C:\Program Files\ThirdWire\Strike Fighters 2 in my case), then click "OK" button;

5. Now your SF2 game should've appeared in "Installed Games" section. Select it and click the ">>" button to enable ALchemy!

6. Done! Your SF2 game should now appear in the "Alchemy-enabled Games" section.

 

Why does ALchemy decreases CPu usage? Well SF2 series uses DirectSound for audio and in Vista/7 DirectSound is NOT hardware accelerated - it's done entirely in "software" on the CPU. ALchemy translates the DirectSound calls so that they can be processed by the Audigy/XFi souncard in hardware - hence lower CPU usage. But i'm not sure I got it right ;). Anyways , please let me know if this tweak made any difference to your performance! Good luck!

Edited November 1, 2010 by SFP1Ace

[SFP1Ace 33]

OK, let me post some screenshots to better illustrate what I'm on about.

 

First one is with ALchemy disabled, notice the CPU usage by the audio processs:

 

 

Second one is with ALchemy enabled. Lower CPU usage might help ppl with single core or slow dual core processors:

 

Edited November 1, 2010 by SFP1Ace

[Fubar512 1,350]

Good find, though I should add that EAX must be enabled in the creative control panel in order to take full advantage of Alchemy. With EAX enabled, you'll also have enhanced doppler effects.

[SFP1Ace 33]

Good find, though I should add that EAX must be enabled in the creative control panel in order to take full advantage of Alchemy. With EAX enabled, you'll also have enhanced doppler effects.

 

I'm not sure if ALchemy can enable EAX for games that never supported it in the first place (like SF series), however I'm pretty convinced that a side effect of enabling ALchemy with SF2 is hardware sound through OpenAL rather than software via DirectSound. I'm curious how does it work for others though. Meself, I'm too busy dodging SAMs to notice whether EAX is being deployed

Edited November 1, 2010 by SFP1Ace

[Fubar512 1,350]

I'm not sure if ALchemy can enable EAX for games that never supported it in the first place (like SF series), however I'm pretty convinced that a side effect of enabling ALchemy with SF2 is hardware sound through OpenAL rather than software via DirectSound. I'm curious how does it work for others though. Meself, I'm too busy dodging SAMs to notice whether EAX is being deployed

 

Oh, EAX is rather obvious when it's enabled

[Fubar512 1,350]

An example of EAX effects in SF2 EAX-fx.wmv

[+SkateZilla 49]

You can enable generic EAX for all game int he Audio control panel.

[SFP1Ace 33]

An example of EAX effects in SF2 EAX-fx.wmv

 

I admit, i'm little undereducated in gaming audio department, that was EAX Doppler, right?

[xclusiv8 35]

Warning, this might be a stupid question!

 

Do i have to have a separte soundcard or does this work with the motherboards builtin card?

[SFP1Ace 33]

No stupid questions, only stupid answers ;)

 

ALchemy for X-Fi

1. Supported Sound Blaster X-Fi audio device
   • Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro
   • Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty
   • Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum Fatal1ty Champion Series
   • Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum
   • Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro Series
   • Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer
   • Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic
   • Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio
   • Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio Notebook

ALchemy for Audigy

 

1. Supported Sound Blaster Audigy audio device
   • Sound Blaster Audigy 4
   • Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro
   • Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum
   • Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook
   • Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS
   • Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Video Editor
   • Sound Blaster Audigy 2 SE
   • Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum EX
   • Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum
   • Sound Blaster Audigy 2
   • Sound Blaster Audigy 2 NX
   • Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Value
   • Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum EX
   • Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum
   • Sound Blaster Audigy
   • Sound Blaster Audigy LS

However this list is lil' outdated since I have X-fi Titanium (not on the list) and it supports Alchemy very well.

 

P.S. The thing is, that this whole "discovery" of mine might be only an anomaly related to my PC. That's why I'm curious if anybody else played with this and have noticed any differences in CPU usage?

Edited November 2, 2010 by SFP1Ace

[Fubar512 1,350]

P.S. The thing is, that this whole "discovery" of mine might be only an anomaly related to my PC. That's why I'm curious if anybody else played with this and have noticed any differences in CPU usage?

 

CPU usage for me also dropped quite a bit, since SF2 hands off sound processing to another core.

[SFP1Ace 33]

Good to know!