Jeff,
The more I've looked into wrapping the Microsoft APO, the more
difficult I find it. Sure, Microsoft gives you examples on how to do
it, but the manner in which it's supported is extremely limiting for the
IHVs. I'm not sure about the multiple FX key issue from the APO
standpoint, but from the GUI standpoint, you'd have to figure out some
way to incorporate the Microsoft GUI and your own so they both show up
in the Sound control panel property pages. My gut feeling is that this
is impossible. On the subject of Microsoft requiring IHVs to support
all the Microsoft APO functionality, this is taken from page 16 of the
newer Vista_SysFX document:
"Independent hardware vendors (IHVs) who are developing their own
drivers for HD Audio and USB audio must implement all the audio system
effects functionality that is provided by the in-box sAPOs."
That would be great if Microsoft allowed the IHVs to not only reuse
parts of the Microsoft APO, but parts of the corresponding GUI as well.
For example, the Room Correction feature has a very complicated wizard
GUI, and has no documentation on how to reuse it. From page 23 of the
Vista_SysFX document:
"Room correction uses a profile that the Room Calibration Wizard
generated. This profile is stored as a binary blob. The format of the
blob is not currently published."
This means that it's impossible to wrap the Microsoft APO using your own
GUI if you want to reuse the Room Correction feature, and if Microsoft
is going to require IHVs to provide this feature, they either have to
reuse the entirety of Microsoft's property page GUI, or implement their
own room correction functionality in their APO. I find this totally
unacceptable. According to Microsoft, it should be possible. From page
17 of the Vista_SysFx document:
"Strategy A
...
o Seamlessly integrate their custom effects with the Windows Vista effects.
o Implement their own UI to control their effects and the effects
implemented by the Windows Vista sAPOs."
On a related note, the same goes for Microsoft's speaker configuration
GUI. If an IHV wants to implement Bass Management and Speaker
Phantoming in their own APO, how can you replace the Microsoft GUI for
speaker configuration? There is currently no way to do it. Even if you
implemented your own separate GUI, there's no way to get rid of
Microsoft's GUI. So you either have to do it Microsoft's way, or have
something that's extremely confusing for the user because there are two
GUIs - one of which isn't hooked up to anything.
Mike
Hi everyone,
In the APO documentation "Custom Audio Effects in Windows Vista", there is a discussion about how to install multiple APOs for a particular endpoint. This is done by adding additional FX keys, under FX\1, FX\2, and so on. (This is on page 10 in the doc.)
However, in the later document "Reusing Windows Vista Audio System Effects", it implies that an sAPO must implement the original MS APO audio effects (Virtual Surround, Speaker fill, etc.). The suggested method for this is to wrap the original MS APO into your own APO, passing the audio to it as appropriate.
This seems to be at odds with the original document. Instead of wrapping the APO, why can't a second APO just be added in the FX\1 registry key? In that case, you can just leave the MS APO at FX\0 and still fulfill the requirements that the original APO functionality is provided.
Is this an acceptable solution? Or are multiple APOs no longer allowed to be installed for a particular endpoint?
Thanks for any info, Jeff ******************
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-- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | Mike Preston | Home/Office: (360)756-1655 | | E-mail: mike@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx | Cell: (360)303-9331 | |~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| | The man who follows the crowd will usually get no | | further than the crowd. The man who walks alone is | | likely to find himself in places no one has ever been. | | -- Alan Ashley-Pitt | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ******************
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