Awesome

Features

• Audio latency reduction on the default playback device
• Automatic updates
• Starting minimised

Requirements

• Windows 10 64-bit
• Microsoft Visual C++ 2017 Redistributable (x64)

Setup

1. Install Windows' in-box HDAudio driver (optional, might improve latency):
   1. Start Device Manager.
   2. Under Sound, video and game controllers, double click on the device that corresponds to your speakers.
   3. In the next window, go to the Driver tab.
   4. Select Update driver -> Browse my computer for driver software -> Let me pick from a list of available drivers on my computer.
   5. Select High Definition Audio Device and click Next.
   6. If a window titled "Update Driver warning" appears, click Yes.
   7. Select Close.
   8. If asked to reboot the system, select Yes to reboot.

   Be careful: the new driver might reset your volume to uncomfortably high levels.

2. Download the latest version of REAL.
3. Launch REAL.exe. The latency reduction is in effect as long as the application is kept running.

Command-Line Options

• --tray Launches the application minimised to the system tray

Building

1. Make sure Microsoft Visual Studio 2017 is installed and updated.
2. Install CMake 3.12 or later and configure your PATH environment variable to find cmake if necessary.
3. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/miniant-git/REAL.git miniant-real
   cd miniant-real
   

4. Configure Visual Studio project with CMake:

   cd real-app
   ./run-cmake.bat
   

5. Open the generated solution:

   start build/miniant-real.sln
   

6. Right-click on the real-app project in the Solution Explorer and select Build.
   • The resulting executable will be placed inside real-app/build/Debug/ folder.

FAQ

How does this work?

As described in Mirosoft's Low Latency Audio FAQ section, by default, all applications in Windows 10 use 10ms buffers to render audio. However, if one application requests the usage of small buffers, then the Audio Engine will start transferring audio using that particular buffer size. In that case, all applications that use the same endpoint (device) and mode (either exclusive or shared) will automatically switch to that small buffer size. We make use of this Audio Engine property by starting a rendering stream which requests the minimal buffer size that is supported by the audio driver.

What are the downsides?

Since the application reduces audio sample buffer size, the buffer runs out faster and needs to be refilled more frequently. This increases the odds of audible audio cracks appearing when the CPU is busy and unable to keep up.