Independent OpenAL volume control

[Prevc Urban]

Hello,

Battlefiled 2 is an OpenAL video game that enables selection of "Creative X-Fi" as a sound option. When it is selected OpenAL drivers bypass all the windows drivers and talk directly to the sound card. My problem with that is that I can't set Battlefield 2 volume independently form other applications/ master volume. I've been searching and searching for independent OpenAL volume control but I can't seem to find it.


However I have come across 'OpenAL Mixer' which seems to promise some of the things I'd like, but I have no idea how to use it (instructions/ explanation wanted). Link to OpenAL Mixer project:
http://openalmixer.sourceforge.net/


I also came across OpenAL Output for Foobar2000 (media player). Foobar2000 acts a lot like BF2, when set to OpenAL Output it doesn't respond to Volume Mixer in Windows 7. However newer versions of it feature "added OpenAL volume control through foobar2000 volume control." Unfortunately this only enables volume control for Foobar2000 with OpenAL and not all OpenAL applications. Still, this tells me that independent volume control is possible.
Link and changelog:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/foobar-openal/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/foobar-openal/files/foo_dsp_openal/binary/v0.06/


In the end what I'm looking for is setting up hot-keys that would control the volume of Battlefield 2 (or all OpenAL applications) without interfering with other applications (most importantly TeamSpeak and Mumble). The only way I can do that now is to press escape and use the slider in audio options which is very impractical and I can't figure out how to set up hot keys for it.


If anybody has any idea on how to achieve this or has any feedback at all please respond.


Thank you for your time and take care,
Urban Prevc

[Chris Robinson]

Post by Prevc Urban
Hello,
Battlefiled 2 is an OpenAL video game that enables selection of
"Creative X-Fi" as a sound option. When it is selected OpenAL drivers
bypass all the windows drivers and talk directly to the sound card.
My problem with that is that I can't set Battlefield 2 volume
independently form other applications/ master volume. I've been
searching and searching for independent OpenAL volume control but I
can't seem to find it.

Most games would typically have their own volume controls. Since the
"Creative X-Fi" driver has hardware-accelerated OpenAL, it bypasses the
Windows Vista/7(/8?) audio service. Since the audio service doesn't see
the app, it can't handle the volume controls for it.

Without the driver providing global volume controls, it needs to be
handled individually by each app.

Post by Prevc Urban
In the end what I'm looking for is setting up hot-keys that would
control the volume of Battlefield 2 (or all OpenAL applications)
without interfering with other applications (most importantly
TeamSpeak and Mumble). The only way I can do that now is to press
escape and use the slider in audio options which is very impractical
and I can't figure out how to set up hot keys for it.

Is it possible the game provides keybinds to raise and lower its Master
Volume control? That would be a game-specific thing, but I'm not sure
how else it can be done while using hardware-accelerated OpenAL.