Questions about installation of openal soft

[willow3100]

Good morning,
thank you for this very good software.

I have some questions about installation:
I have installed openal binary from creative labs and I have win 11 64 bits OS.

1. if I want to install openal soft no system wide but for one only app.

• A. Must I copy only soft_oal.dll in app folder (icewind dale EE for example) ?
• B. Must I copy soft_oal.dll from win 64 folder or soft_oal.dll from win 32 folder if app is 32 bits ?
• C. Must I rename soft_oal.dll in openal32.dll or not ?

I didn't have found any information in readme.txt in openal-soft-1.24.1-bin.zip.

2. If I want to install openal soft system wide, I must copy soft_oal.dll from win32 folder in SysWOW64 folder and soft_oal.dll from win64 folder in system32 folder, doesn'it ? Can I keep openal32.dll still installed in windows folder (system32 and SysWOW64) or must I copy openall32.dll from router folder in system32 (openall32.dll in win64 folder) and SysWOW64 (openall32.dll in win32 folder) ?

3. on pcgamingwiki ( https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Glossary:Sound_card#Universal ) , there are written:

A. Download OpenAL Soft.

B. Unzip the archive and rename the inner openal-soft-x.xx.x-bin folder as OpenAL.

C. Move this OpenAL directory to %APPDATA%.

D. Copy bin\Win32\soft_oal.dll to %WINDIR%\SysWOW64. (64 bit users can also copy bin\Win64\soft_oal.dll to %WINDIR%\System32)

E. Use alsoft-config.exe to configure any desired setting (ambisonics, HRTF, channels, buffer properties). Notes Certain games may need for %WINDIR%\SysWOW64\openal32.dll to be replaced with soft_oal.dll to work.[8]

C step is it usefull or useless ? I didn't have found any information about that in openal soft readme.txt

Thank you very much by advance.

[kcat]

Good morning, thank you for this very good software.

I have some questions about installation: I have installed openal binary from creative labs and I have win 11 64 bits OS.

1. if I want to install openal soft no system wide but for one only app.

• A. Must I copy only soft_oal.dll in app folder (icewind dale EE for example) ?
• B. Must I copy soft_oal.dll from win 64 folder or soft_oal.dll from win 32 folder if app is 32 bits ?
• C. Must I rename soft_oal.dll in openal32.dll or not ?

A. You only need to copy soft_oal.dll into the app's folder, yes.

B. If the app is 32-bit, you need to use the DLL in the Win32 folder.

C. You only need to rename it if you want to force the app to use OpenAL Soft, or if you don't have openal32.dll installed already.

2. If I want to install openal soft system wide, I must copy soft_oal.dll from win32 folder in SysWOW64 folder and soft_oal.dll from win64 folder in system32 folder, doesn'it ? Can I keep openal32.dll still installed in windows folder (system32 and SysWOW64) or must I copy openall32.dll from router folder in system32 (openall32.dll in win64 folder) and SysWOW64 (openall32.dll in win32 folder) ?

You can keep the openal32.dll that you have installed already, and don't need to copy the ones from the router folder. You can copy the ones from the router folder if you want, it's an alternative router implementation, but it's not necessary if you have one installed already.

3. on pcgamingwiki ( https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Glossary:Sound_card#Universal ) , there are written:

[...]

C step is it usefull or useless ? I didn't have found any information about that in openal soft readme.txt

It's not necessary to move the extracted folder there, no. As long as the files are accessible to copy them as needed, it's fine wherever you put it.

[willow3100]

Thanks.

[mirh]

This should cover every other doubt you may have.
https://web.archive.org/web/20080609025748/http://www.openal.org/windows_enumeration.html