TES4: Oblivion (Should I get the KX Drivers?)

ARom · Apr 30, 2008, 02:22 PM

Hey,

I'm having some sound problems in Oblivion, I bought an Audigy 2 ZS thinking it would eliminate those problems, and it did to some extent as the game stutters less with the hardware acceleration.

My problem is that my Operating system (Windows XP Media Centre Edition) can only use the 2003 drivers it came with... That is because, Creative! doesn't have a 2006 driver update for Media Centre Edition PC's as it does for normal XP users.

This is causing some sound problems in the game like some sounds starting and cutting out half way through...

I tried the XP 2006 drivers but that did not work, I had to spend 1/2 hour re-installing the 2003 drivers & software again from the CD's.

I was reading the Creative Forums & some person was looking for an update like in my situation, and someone recommended the KX drivers.

Do they work well in Oblivion? Is it a good update for me? Thanks.

Intel® Pentium® D CPU 3.40GHz (2 CPUs)
ATI Radeon X1950 GT, 3 GB RAM
Audigy 2 ZS
Windows Media Centre Edition 2002

I'll also point out that I have 5.1 capable speakers, but I'm only using the left, center, right, and sub-woofer on 'Stereo'... Does KX support 3.1 surround sound?

Would I have to uninstall my Creative 2003 drivers & software?

Thanks again.

Russ · May 2, 2008, 07:40 AM

I am not sure how well kX works with Oblivion, so I cannot comment about that (you would have to try it yourself and see).

Note that kX does not support EAX.

kX install is not difficult, but using kX can be a little complicated (until you understand the kX concept), so you will have to decide whether you want to try kX. See the docs from the following thread: http://www.driverheaven.net/general-...mentation.html

You should not have to remove the Creative Labs software before installing kX, but things like AudioHQ (driver related stuff) will not work with kX (some of the Creative apps (non-driver related stuff) do work with kX (WaveStudio, etc)). If you just want to try kX, then I would leave the Creative stuff, and then if you decide to remove kX, you *should* be able to go back to the Creative driver by just using the update driver option in Device Manager.

kX does not have any built-in presets for 3.1 audio, but it is possible with kX using a custom DSP config.

ARom · May 2, 2008, 08:47 AM

I guess I'm going to try it because on the Bethesda forum they tell me that the 2003 drivers just won't cut it with that game. So I'm guessing they are suggesting the kx drivers are like an update...

ARom · May 3, 2008, 06:35 PM

What I feared has happened unfortunately. I'm getting some very weird sounds in Oblivion (sometimes lack thereof...), and switching it to wave 4/5 doesn't help like in another thread I've read. My sounds are cutting in and out, with some lagg also...

What should I do?

Russ · May 3, 2008, 09:26 PM

Sorry I do not know. Searching the internet shows that a lot of people are having similar problems with that game (and no real solutions).

ARom · May 4, 2008, 05:49 AM

Well I'm trying to get support in the Creative forums, they're saying I 'should' be able to use the 2006 drivers that didn't work before. Thanks anyways.

dacoobob · May 19, 2008, 10:36 PM

Hope this isn't thread necromancy (it's only been a few weeks...), but I initially had stuttering sound problems with Oblivion, until I replaced the video drivers (yes VIDEO) for my laptop's Geforce Go 7600 with the latest Omega drivers (based on Forceware 169.25). Oddly enough, this cured by sound problems, even though I didn't touch my audio drivers or settings. Worth a shot.

Russ · May 19, 2008, 10:52 PM

I believe it, I had a problem ages ago (with my old GeForce 4 video card), where using the OEM supplied video drivers caused audio problems and BSOD's (claiming a problem with the Creative audio driver) with a certain game, and using the NVidia detonator drivers instead of the OEM one fixed the problem.