This has been a problem since the retail release of Descent 3, even the last patch never fixed it.

Basically what happens is, when playing under Windows (I've heard the Linux port does not have this problem), all the looping ambient sounds will chop and skip horribly if the audio quality is set to "High" in the sound options of the main menu. There is no ill-effect of performance, no controller issues no framerate inconsistencies no sluggish of the system and oneshot sound effects are NOT affected by this problem, only looping or otherwise ambient sound effects are choppy.

Keeping it set to low quality will not result in the choppiness of the looping sound effects but everything will have a hiss as it mixes them in 8-bit rather than 16-bit streams, and also limits their sampling rate to 11025 Hz.

Has there ever been a solution to this? Note I'm using ALchemy on this system but I've confirmed this problem happening even on a genuine SB Live! on a windows 98 machine as well as a SB Audigy 2 ZS on a Windows XP machine.

Are you using DirectSound or Software in he D3 launcher setup?

Could also be a driver issue.

I stated in my post I'm using ALchemy so according to Descent 3's audio setup I am using "DirectSound 3D with EAX", but this happens even on normal DirectSound.

This isn't a driver issue as I've tried a plethora of different drivers, this was tested on multiple systems as well. This problem has been around since the day Descent 3 was first released and the final patch never fixed this problem.

It honestly sounds like a sound buffer issue but Descent 3 does not offer any such settings to configure in regards to sound buffers.

I'm puzzled as to why the Linux port is not affected by this issue since it uses OpenAL... (albeit it's the "original" OpenAL as in Loki Software's OpenAL which forked off to OpenALSoft)

you are correct ~ Direct Sound and EAX never worked in D3. had to use the standard wav out driver thing.

This is really unfortunate because playing Descent 3 with CMSS 3D on headphones really helps me keep my bearings as the HRTF works very well with this game. I can live with keeping the sound quality on low but it's still amazing how this went unchecked for the lifespan of this game.

Another reason I use OpenAL with old games via ALchemy is to avoid audio hitches and audiodg CPU usage.
(note this is ACTUALLY working for Descent 3, it's just this ancient bug that's affected real hardware for years and years sitll exists, oneshot sound effects are not distorted or choppy neither is the music)

If anyone ultimately finds some way of getting the choppiness to stop, please share this information!

Go and download IndirectSound (www.indirectsound.com). It happens to restore the DirectSound 3D option in the Setup > Audio of the D3 launcher.

Just put the files on the games folder and the option is now selectable along with DirectSound.

But I found out some interesting side effects to this fix: It doesn't only restores positional audio for Descent 3 using DirectSound 3D, it removes the annoying choppy audio, even on normal DirectSound.

Hope I could help you all who wants to play D3... And by the way, I tested it using a Lenovo Ideapad Y500 notebook with Windows 8.1 (mouse lag fix and all). I'm daring to say that this works with this one as well as the retail version of the game (with v1.4 patch).

Thanks in advance.