EAX refuses to work in Oblivion with EAX OBSE plugin and Side's EAX Control plugin even though EAX works in other games

[natranr]

So to start off, I am using the Razer Kraken 7.1 classic. I installed Creative ALchemy 1.45.03 and ran the MST restriction remover. This allowed EAX effects to work in games like Diablo 2 and Neverwinter Nights.

 

Now with Oblivion, I installed the EAX OBSE plugin and Side's EAX control esp and no EAX effects or anything in Oblivion.

 

Here is the dsoundlog.txt:

 

Logging Time : 2/7/2018 at 23:21:31

Loaded C:\Steam\steamapps\common\Oblivion\DSOUND.ini


Using Creative Software 3D Library

I also installed OpenAL and OpenAL soft dlls into system32 and SysWoW64 as stated on another site to enable OpenAL in some games. I know others on here were able to get EAX to work with OpenAL, but they have a certain sound card where setting it from entertainment to game mode fixed it. I have no such settings with my Kraken 7.1.

 

I also made sure Hardware sound is on and software sound is off in the Oblivion.ini and still nothing.

 

I also tried renaming the OpenAL32.dll to dsound.dll and still nothing.

 

Anyone got any idea on getting EAX to work with what I've got? Or am I out of luck until I can get a Creative Soundblaster z card and a headset or speakers to go with that?

 

Update: I think I installed OpenAL Soft incorectly by renaming those DLLs to OpenAL32.dll. I am now following the instructions in the readme included with OpenAL Soft. I dropped the 64bit soft dll into /system32 and the 32bit dll into /SysWOW64 as it says in the instructions.

 

Here is what I got from running the info exe through Powershell (Windows key + X to get power menu):

 

Available playback devices:
OpenAL Soft on Headset Earphone (Razer Kraken 7.1 Blue)
OpenAL Soft on Realtek Digital Output (Realtek High Definition Audio)
Generic Software on Headset Earphone (Razer Kraken 7.1 Blue)
Generic Software on Realtek Digital Output (Realtek High Definition Audio)
Available capture devices:
OpenAL Soft on Headset Microphone (Razer Kraken 7.1 Blue)
Headset Microphone (Razer Krake
Default playback device: OpenAL Soft on Headset Earphone (Razer Kraken 7.1 Blue)
Default capture device: Headset Microphone (Razer Krake
ALC version: 268451662.16780848

** Info for device "Generic Software on Headset Earphone (Razer Kraken 7.1 Blue)" **
ALC version: 1.1
ALC extensions:
ALC_ENUMERATE_ALL_EXT, ALC_ENUMERATION_EXT, ALC_EXT_CAPTURE, ALC_EXT_EFX
HRTF extension not available
OpenAL vendor string: Creative Labs Inc.
OpenAL renderer string: Software
OpenAL version string: 1.1
OpenAL extensions:
EAX, EAX2.0, EAX3.0, EAX4.0, EAX5.0, EAX3.0EMULATED, EAX4.0EMULATED,
AL_EXT_OFFSET, AL_EXT_LINEAR_DISTANCE, AL_EXT_EXPONENT_DISTANCE
Resampler info not available
EFX version: 1.0
Max auxiliary sends: 1
Supported filters:
!!! none !!!
Supported effects:
!!! none !!!

 

And from running the 64bit info exe:

 

Available playback devices:
OpenAL Soft on Headset Earphone (Razer Kraken 7.1 Blue)
OpenAL Soft on Realtek Digital Output (Realtek High Definition Audio)
Generic Software on Headset Earphone (Razer Kraken 7.1 Blue)
Generic Software on Realtek Digital Output (Realtek High Definition Audio)
Available capture devices:
OpenAL Soft on Headset Microphone (Razer Kraken 7.1 Blue)
Headset Microphone (Razer Krake
Default playback device: OpenAL Soft on Headset Earphone (Razer Kraken 7.1 Blue)
Default capture device: Headset Microphone (Razer Krake
ALC version: 268463946.0

** Info for device "Generic Software on Headset Earphone (Razer Kraken 7.1 Blue)" **
ALC version: 1.1
ALC extensions:
ALC_ENUMERATE_ALL_EXT, ALC_ENUMERATION_EXT, ALC_EXT_CAPTURE, ALC_EXT_EFX
HRTF extension not available
OpenAL vendor string: Creative Labs Inc.
OpenAL renderer string: Software
OpenAL version string: 1.1
OpenAL extensions:
EAX, EAX2.0, EAX3.0, EAX4.0, EAX5.0, EAX3.0EMULATED, EAX4.0EMULATED,
AL_EXT_OFFSET, AL_EXT_LINEAR_DISTANCE, AL_EXT_EXPONENT_DISTANCE
Resampler info not available
EFX version: 1.0
Max auxiliary sends: 1
Supported filters:
!!! none !!!
Supported effects:
!!! none !!!

 

Both are the same and seem to indicate that the default is OpenAL Soft on my Razer Kraken 7.1 Blue Classic.

 

Then, I ran the config for the %AppData%\alsoft.ini which has this output to the ini:

[General]
hrtf=true
channels=surround71
frequency=48000
stereo-mode=headphones
default-hrtf=Built-In 44100hz

[decoder]
hq-mode=true

 

And the last thing in the Readme is to copy the data sets for HRTF for the frequency (48khz) to the %AppData%\openal\hrtf

 

Now that I finished installing OpenAL and OpenAL Soft, I will go test it in game now. Going to test in Diablo 2, Neverwinter Nights and Oblivion.

 

I'll post an updated dsoundlog.txt file. It should say OpenAL is the renderer.

[natranr]

Even after all that work, EAX still refuses to work in Oblivion but works just fine in other EAX enabled games like Diablo 2.

 

Here is the dsoundlog:

 

Logging Time : 3/7/2018 at 2:19:35

Loaded C:\Steam\steamapps\common\Oblivion\DSOUND.ini


Using Creative Software 3D Library

 

I made sure to set the HardwareAcceleration to 1 and Software to 0 under [Audio]