Hi all - my first post here, and it looks like a great resource for a great game!

The problem

I recently upgraded to Windows Vista Ultimate and I have been getting sound stutter in both RTW and M2TW, so I looked into the problem. Seems Microsoft have removed hardware audio support in the DirectSound layer and that is the reason. Why they have done this? Dunno, but anyway read on...

The solution

Download and install OpenAL (http://www.openal.org/) and the Creative ALchemy installer (http://preview.creativelabs.com/alchemy) and then run the installer - it will put some DLL files in your game directories that mimic the DirectX sound layer and call OpenAL - which does have hardware audio support. Then simply select one of the EAX sound providers in the Total War games and you're away (actually the Miles Sound System works as well I think - I guess it will use the best system APIs it can find).

The caveat

Currently there is only support for Creative Xi-Fi chipsets in the ALchemy installer - I hope this changes so that many other people can take advantage of the hardware they own...

Enjoy,
Andy