Windows 7 Alchemy crashes Fallout 3 on Win 7

Lexandro

New Member
As the title suggests any attempt to use Alchemy with Fallout 3 in Windows 7 results in a crash aproximately 1 minute in to play. The crash is in the form of the game simply locking up. I am able to alt-tab and close the game via task manager. Without Alchemy the game runs fine but the audio is broken as it uses direct sound.

Any help available?

Also please do not suggest the mad filter, that to does not work.
 
Hi Lexandro,
what about right-clicking on ALchemy and changing the compatibility settings? I'm not saying it will work but it might be worth a try?
 
Ok I got this one in the bag...

Ok first DONT use ALchemy for it, install the lastest build of FFDSHOW & AC3 filter you can find, once installed both run AC3 config system tab to run on WAVE OUT driver not DXsound (since Vista/Win7 doesnt have it) and the run FFDSHOW and make sure theres a tick in Directshow control - "dont use ffdshow in: "and you'll see lists lost of know games exes that dont work there if ya click edit, one of which is Fallout3.

I had to use the method to fix the annoying RADIO music glitches and seems to be the only working method.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/ffdshow/
http://ac3filter.net/
 
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Ok I got this one in the bag...

Ok first DONT use ALchemy for it, install the lastest build of FFDSHOW & AC3 filter you can find, once installed both run AC3 config system tab to run on WAVE OUT driver not DXsound (since Vista/Win7 doesnt have it) and the run FFDSHOW and make sure theres a tick in Directshow control - \"dont use ffdshow in: \"and you'll see lists lost of know games exes that dont work there if ya click edit, one of which is Fallout3.

I had to use the method to fix the annoying RADIO music glitches and seems to be the only working method.

ffdshow | Get ffdshow at SourceForge.net
AC3Filter

Tried both of these and either they dont work in Windows 7 or there are missing options in Windows 7. AC3 filter is installed (full version) and configured to "WAVE OUT BY DEFAULT" for default audio render. The package works with video files I have but It will not pick up fallout 3. When fallout 3 is run there is no taskbar icon for AC3 filter showing that it has started.

With FFDSHOW, on windows 7 there is no exceptions list option. It does not start and also does not have any taskbar icons showing it has started with Fallout 3.

Neither of these has worked. Fallout 3 still runs with broken audio. It does not stutter, the audio is disjointed and not virtualised. In other words in fallout when people talk it either comes out the left side speaker, or the right side speaker never both speakers at the same time as it is supposed to. Also when engaged in any conversation with an NPC it is silent, almost certainly due to the fact they are directly infront of the character.
 
What about trying the Fallout 3 forums? Maybe someone has had a similar issue?

This is the irst link I came to when googling:

Link Removed - Invalid URL
 
Ive already been on the official Bethseda games forums, posting this very issue. However all that happens is that someone repeats the same advice as Highwayman which simply does not work in Windows 7 64bit. Surely someone must know a way to sort this short of waiting on ALchemy getting patched.
 
However all that happens is that someone repeats the same advice as Highwayman which simply does not work in Windows 7 64bit


I only ever run x64...so must be something else...that fix worked perfectly on mine...although i've not come across the "missing channel sound" issue you described...merely jumpy music, ALChemy never made any difference to normal speech or sound fx on mine whether it was on or off, although the fix requires Alchemy to be off to cure stuttering radio music. (Simply test I alt-tabbed out and radio plays fine, tab back to game and stuttered instantly......fix i posted seem to cure the audio priority or something.

That Said I dont run 5.1 or 7.1 speakers...merely 2.1, maybe try set your config to that?
 
With FFDSHOW, on windows 7 there is no exceptions list option. It does not start and also does not have any taskbar icons showing it has started with Fallout 3.

Hmm funny heres a screen grab showing the very menu you cant seem to find...lol, as for icons, it doesnt show them same with ac3 i noticed...no biggie.

fdd.jpg
 
Highwayman, its not that I cant find the option for FFDshow, its simply NOT THERE. There is no direct show control menu of any kind, either in audio config nor in video config. I used the FFDshow fix for when I played on Vista32, so I already knew what I was looking for. Because of this I was sure it was an issue with Win 7 specifically.

As for AC3filter, my options are identical to your settings. It still does not work.
 
Well just as a bit of an update, Creative released a new driver for my sound card in windows 7 this weekend. Im assuming that since this is a proper Windows 7 audio driver that ALchemy and Fallout 3 in theory should be fine now. I havent tested yet as I have been a bit busy but I will later tonight and let you know. (EDIT) Its looking good with this new driver. Audio without ALchemy ingame now has frontal virtualisation (ie its coming from both speakers at the same time), Now I can actually hear people talking to me. Only slight downside is that there is some small issues, and I havent tested ALchemy yet. But at least the game is playable now. Im not sure if it was the driver alone or a combo of the driver and the AC3 tweak but at least its got me somewhere. Thanks for the advice though highwayman. Its appreciated.
 
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Ok first DONT use ALchemy for it, install the lastest build of FFDSHOW & AC3 filter you can find, once installed both run AC3 config system tab to run on WAVE OUT driver not DXsound (since Vista/Win7 doesnt have it) and the run FFDSHOW and make sure theres a tick in Directshow control - "dont use ffdshow in: "and you'll see lists lost of know games exes that dont work there if ya click edit, one of which is Fallout3.
Can you elaborate on this a bit? Installing ffdshow and then telling ffdshow not to be used in fallout3.exe should have the exact same result as not installing ffdshow. The end result, either way, is Fallout 3 not using ffdshow to render video and audio. Since Fallout3 isn't sending AC3-encoded audio, installing AC3 Filter should also have absolutely no bearing on Fallout 3, either.

What am I missing? How does your solution solve anything?

I'm almost wondering if the best solution is to rip the X-Fi Platinum out of my computer and enable the motherboard's onboard audio instead.
 
Well just as a bit of an update, Creative released a new driver for my sound card in windows 7 this weekend.
At least for the X-Fi series, Creative's most recent driver set is from June, and the most recent beta driver is even older, from April (oddly, it has exactly the same version number but a different file size, and some people have reported that the beta works better for them than the release driver). Where's a November released driver from Creative, and what sound card series is it for?

Incidentally, some have reported that the latest nVidia _beta_ video driver greatly reduces the instances of crashing in FO3. I installed it, and have only had one crash since, though it doesn't solve the audio glitches (no surprise there).

Incidentally, when you installed FO3 in Win7, did it install any Start menu shortcuts? Or any shortcuts for that matter? It didn't for me, though it did when I had installed it in WinXP.
 
The driver is dated October 2009 and specifically for Win 7, so its a new release and its whql. The card I have is an Audigy 2 SE 24bit, which is a pretty old card but one that was heavily off-loaded at extreme discount. Mines was only £10 brand new at time of purchase. I would suspect that X-fi cards may already have a driver released by now, but I dont know for sure.

As for FO3, it wont make any shortcuts and it is not intergrated in to games explorer in either Vista or win7. You can create a shortcut to desktop yourself and then drag & drop it to games explorer to make it easier to find and play.
 
The driver is dated October 2009 and specifically for Win 7, so its a new release and its whql. The card I have is an Audigy 2 SE 24bit, which is a pretty old card but one that was heavily off-loaded at extreme discount.
Oh, I didn't know they added ALchemy support for the older sound cards. I know that initially, they didn't, and there was a bit of an uproar.
As for FO3, it wont make any shortcuts and it is not intergrated in to games explorer in either Vista or win7. You can create a shortcut to desktop yourself and then drag & drop it to games explorer to make it easier to find and play.
That shouldn't matter. The normal Start menu still exists, and since Fallout 3 added a shortcut folder to the Start menu in XP, it should also do so in Vista and Win7, even if it doesn't put anything to the Games Explorer. I created a shortcut to Fallout3.exe (so I don't need to keep the disc in the drive all the time; only the launcher checks for it), so it's not a problem, just a strange bug that I haven't seen any other program exhibit in Win7 yet.
 
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