Post that to r/gaming (or I will ;)

Hi, you have the GOG version installed? Is there an OpenAL option for the sound renderer in Contracts?

Thanks for the screenshot. Do you have OpenAL installed on your system? The manual (downloaded at Steam manual_uk.pdf p. 8) says you can choose between DirectSound and OpenAL, but it could have been patched out of Contracts. I was doing a search and found a convo where they were referring to Hitman 2 and it(OpenAL) being disabled.

If you really want to get EAX working you should just get a Creative sound card and install Alchemy. An X-Fi Go isn't *that* expensive these days, 30 bucks should be okay if you're serious about audio and retro gaming.
Odd, that's the first time I heard about Hitman 2 or Contracts supporting OpenAL, even Blood Money still exclusively used EAX.

I do have a Creative sound card, several of them, actually, and can use Alchemy. I have the hardware/software and knowledge, thanks. I'm just asking if the OpenAL option is available on a system with OpenAL installed. :)
You mean exclusively used DirectSound? OpenAL can make use of EAX too.

Here's the old thread about Hitman 2 that I came across:
http://www.hitmanforum.com/index.php/topic/693-eax-advanced-hd/

I have a Creative Sound Card with "Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio" and "NVIDIA Extreme Audio" drivers installed. I am certain that I have drivers installed for OpenAL as I have seen that title before when rummaging through my system files, and still my sound configuration page in Contracts looks the same as fronzelneekburm's image.
In fact GOG is selling the last updated version of Contracts which I bought on disk about 4-5 years ago.

Okay. But now I know even less why you'd even care about OpenAL support. And as for the OpenAL support in the Hitman games - I can imagine that much like the OpenGL support in Hitman 2 the OpenAL support for Hitman 2 and Contracts was intended at some point but scrapped before release. Like in case of the OpenGL support in Hitman 2 you may be able to find hints at the OpenAL implementation in the game's manual or configuration files (you actually can activate OpenGL manually through the configuration files in Hitman 2 but it's gonna be glitchy - I never checked but it may be similar for OpenAL).

Admittedly that's new to me. I was positive that EAX normally only works with DirectSound and the only way of getting it to work with OpenAL was through Alchemy.

Thanks. They must of patched out the OpenAL rendering option. I'm using an X-Fi Titanium using Alchemy with the demo, and it's using DirectSound (Hardware). No OpenAL option there either.

What OS you using, are you using Alchemy? I think that an Xtreme Audio is a software only card, no hardware DSP. That might be why it says DirectSound (SW) software if you're using Alchemy. I would think it would still trick the game into thinking that it's using hardware with the card actually doing it in software with Alchemy. Maybe not though.

Can you get surround sound, or just stereo? That card uses CMSS-3D afaik. I know of a little tool that you can use to get surround sound if you can't with Alchemy on that card. It's called IndirectSound. It translates the DirectSound calls into Xaudio2. With headphone or surround sound speakers, you should be able to set your Windows speaker config to 5.1/7.1 using IndirectSound, and CMSS 3D (make sure the speakers match what setup you actually have in the creative console) will handle the spatialization and virtual surround (if using headphones or 2 speaker). Just drop the dll and ini files in the game folder and choose your settings in the ini file.
http://www.indirectsound.com/

I'm just asking the question, not looking for guidance or help. :)
There's plenty of native OpenAL games that use EAX. Just look at the Stalker or UT games for example.

OpenAL was around long before Alchemy came along. Creative developed it because MS re-wrote the audio stack starting with Vista. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_features_new_to_Windows_Vista#Audio_stack_architecture

Which means no 3D sound or EAX with legacy titles unless you use something like Alchemy to translate the calls to OpenAL, if the game is using DirectSound. If the game uses an OpenAL renderer, then Alchemy is not necessary for EAX or 3D sound.

Or if you don't have a hardware accelerated sound card from Creative, you could use something like IndirectSound to translate the DirectSound calls to Xaudio2 in software, to get surround sound.
http://www.indirectsound.com/

Excellent release! Here's hoping that someday Hitman: Blood Money and Hitman: Absolution also will arrive here.

Wait wait wait. How come I didn't see this earlier?

Oh, right. Horrible Slovak-Hungarian rail service, I forgot. Except not really, I doubt I'll ever forget this last trip.

Anyway, great to see this game here.

Now these are the kinds of bugs I can get behind! :)

Talk about a coincidence. I got the first two hitman games from Gog September last year and just finished the first one last night. After finishing the game, I come to Gog.com and WHAM!!! .......new hitman game available for sale.

Thing is, I just got my backlog down to 23 games and I've been going easy on purchases this year so far (only 3 plus the Dungeon Keeper freebie) and I really want this one but ........I don't want to increase my backlog anymore. I've never had a gaming backlog higher than 5 games prior to joining Gog.

What do I do people? :(

Join the rest of us and be buried by your backlog. ;) Seriously though, it's nothing worth stressing about. It's nice having a variety of games to pick and chose from to play.

Plus, at this point if I ever found myself tight on money I know I could very well go without buying a game and still have plenty left to entertain me for a couple of years or so (if not longer). :)