OpenAL Soft 1.10.622 is released!

[Chris Robinson-5]

May we forget about 1.9...

http://kcat.strangesoft.net/openal.html

Hopefully, finally, for real, fixed the PulseAudio backend this time. Also
fixed the OSS and Solaris backends. 7.1 output should work properly again, and
fixed a problem/potential crash when setting an AL_EFFECT_NULL effect on an
auxiliary slot.

In terms of features, there's only a few. Backend libraries are only loaded
when they're needed now, so unused backends won't hold their shared libs in
memory, and devices provided by them are automatically added and removed as
the libs are installed and uninstalled. Additionally, multiple contexts per
device are now supported.

Given multiple contexts, it's now possible to change certain device parameters
on the fly. Creating a new context with certain attributes (eg. ALC_FREQUENCY,
and perhaps ALC_REFRESH in the future) will change the device parameters, and
consequently affects all contexts on the device.


Now I'll try to get back to taking care of those proposed extensions. It may
be possible to see alcSuspendContext/alcProcessContext properly supported, as
well.
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[Mike Dickson-5]

Great release!

The pulseaudio support for output is working great for the apps I've
tried.  Much better performance overall than using the ALSA emulation.
I do still have problems with pulseaudio capture, specifically with
Vivox/secondlife.  I'd like to help with that if possible but I'm new to
the OpenAL sources so I hope an occasional question to the list is fine.

Mike

On Sun, 2009-11-08 at 23:46 -0800, Chris Robinson wrote:
> May we forget about 1.9...
>
> http://kcat.strangesoft.net/openal.html
>
> Hopefully, finally, for real, fixed the PulseAudio backend this time. Also
> fixed the OSS and Solaris backends. 7.1 output should work properly again, and
> fixed a problem/potential crash when setting an AL_EFFECT_NULL effect on an
> auxiliary slot.


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[Chris Robinson-5]

On Monday 09 November 2009 5:01:46 am Mike Dickson wrote:
> Great release!
>
> The pulseaudio support for output is working great for the apps I've
> tried.  Much better performance overall than using the ALSA emulation.
> I do still have problems with pulseaudio capture, specifically with
> Vivox/secondlife.  I'd like to help with that if possible but I'm new to
> the OpenAL sources so I hope an occasional question to the list is fine.

There shouldn't be any issue about asking here. Thanks for wanting to look
into it. :)

What's the problem you're seeing with pulseaudio capture? I'm not sure if I
have any working microphones laying around to test it myself.. need to look
around more.
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[Mike Dickson-5]

It's the vivox client I'm using with SecondLife at least to start.
Behavior is similar to the pulse output stuff before the large patchset.
It looks like it gets connected but no data. I've only just started to
mess with it, hopefully can dig deeper tonite.  I'll follow up with
findings then.

Mike

On Mon, 2009-11-09 at 15:33 -0800, Chris Robinson wrote:

> On Monday 09 November 2009 5:01:46 am Mike Dickson wrote:
> > Great release!
> >
> > The pulseaudio support for output is working great for the apps I've
> > tried.  Much better performance overall than using the ALSA emulation.
> > I do still have problems with pulseaudio capture, specifically with
> > Vivox/secondlife.  I'd like to help with that if possible but I'm new to
> > the OpenAL sources so I hope an occasional question to the list is fine.
>
> There shouldn't be any issue about asking here. Thanks for wanting to look
> into it. :)
>
> What's the problem you're seeing with pulseaudio capture? I'm not sure if I
> have any working microphones laying around to test it myself.. need to look
> around more.
> _______________________________________________
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> Openal-devel@...
> http://opensource.creative.com/mailman/listinfo/openal-devel

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[Jason Daly]

Chris Robinson wrote:

On Monday 09 November 2009 5:01:46 am Mike Dickson wrote:
  

Great release!

The pulseaudio support for output is working great for the apps I've
tried.  Much better performance overall than using the ALSA emulation.
I do still have problems with pulseaudio capture, specifically with
Vivox/secondlife.  I'd like to help with that if possible but I'm new to
the OpenAL sources so I hope an occasional question to the list is fine.
    

There shouldn't be any issue about asking here. Thanks for wanting to look 
into it. :)
  

No problem at all.  That's one reason why the openal-devel list exists  :-)

--"J"



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[Mike Dickson-5]

Can someone point me to a simple capture client w/source that uses
OpenAL-Soft for the capture?  Starting with Vivox SLVoice directly is
going to be a pain since it's binary only..

Mike

On Mon, 2009-11-09 at 19:57 -0500, Jason Daly wrote:

> Chris Robinson wrote:
> > On Monday 09 November 2009 5:01:46 am Mike Dickson wrote:
> >  
> > > Great release!
> > >
> > > The pulseaudio support for output is working great for the apps I've
> > > tried.  Much better performance overall than using the ALSA emulation.
> > > I do still have problems with pulseaudio capture, specifically with
> > > Vivox/secondlife.  I'd like to help with that if possible but I'm new to
> > > the OpenAL sources so I hope an occasional question to the list is fine.
> > >    
> >
> > There shouldn't be any issue about asking here. Thanks for wanting to look
> > into it. :)
> >  
>
> No problem at all.  That's one reason why the openal-devel list
> exists  :-)
>
> --"J"
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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> Openal-devel@...
> http://opensource.creative.com/mailman/listinfo/openal-devel

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[Jason Daly]

Mike Dickson wrote:
> Can someone point me to a simple capture client w/source that uses
> OpenAL-Soft for the capture?  Starting with Vivox SLVoice directly is
> going to be a pain since it's binary only..
>  

Here's a really simple test app that I wrote.  It captures audio for
three seconds, pauses, then captures three more seconds.  At the end it
plays back what was captured.

A lot of the values are hard-coded, so you may need to tweak it to get
what you're looking for.

--"J"



#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <AL/al.h>
#include <AL/alc.h>
#include <sys/time.h>

int main(void)
{
   const ALCchar *   devices;
   ALCchar *         ptr;
   ALCdevice *       mainDev;
   ALCcontext *      mainContext;
   ALCdevice *       captureDev;
   ALubyte           captureBuffer[655360];
   ALubyte           *captureBufPtr;
   ALint             samplesAvailable;
   ALint             samplesCaptured;
   time_t            currentTime;
   time_t            lastTime;
   ALuint            buffer;
   ALuint            source;
   ALint             playState;
   int               i;

   // Print the list of capture devices
   printf("Available playback devices:\n");
   devices = alcGetString(NULL, ALC_DEVICE_SPECIFIER);
   ptr = devices;
   while (ptr[0] != NULL)
   {
       printf("   %s\n", ptr);
       ptr += strlen(ptr) + 1;
   }

   // Open a playback device and create a context first
   printf("Opening playback device:\n");
   mainDev = alcOpenDevice(NULL);
   if (mainDev == NULL)
   {
      printf("Unable to open playback device!\n");
      exit(1);
   }
   devices = alcGetString(mainDev, ALC_DEVICE_SPECIFIER);
   printf("   opened device '%s'\n", devices);
   mainContext = alcCreateContext(mainDev, NULL);
   if (mainContext == NULL)
   {
      printf("Unable to create playback context!\n");
      exit(1);
   }
   printf("   created playback context\n");

   // Make the playback context current
   alcMakeContextCurrent(mainContext);
   alcProcessContext(mainContext);

   // Print the list of capture devices
   printf("Available capture devices:\n");
   devices = alcGetString(NULL, ALC_CAPTURE_DEVICE_SPECIFIER);
   ptr = devices;
   while (ptr[0] != NULL)
   {
       printf("   %s\n", ptr);
       ptr += strlen(ptr) + 1;
   }

   // Open the default device
   printf("Opening capture device:\n");
   captureDev = alcCaptureOpenDevice(NULL, 8000, AL_FORMAT_MONO16, 800);
   if (captureDev == NULL)
   {
      printf("   Unable to open device!\n");
      exit(1);
   }
   devices = alcGetString(captureDev, ALC_CAPTURE_DEVICE_SPECIFIER);
   printf("   opened device %s\n", devices);

   // Wait for three seconds to prompt the user
   for (i = 3; i > 0; i--)
   {
      printf("Starting capture in %d...\r", i);
      fflush(stdout);
      lastTime = time(NULL);
      currentTime = lastTime;
      while (currentTime == lastTime)
      {
         currentTime = time(NULL);
         usleep(100000);
      }
   }

   printf("Starting capture NOW!\n");
   fflush(stdout);
   lastTime = currentTime;

   // Capture (roughly) five seconds of audio
   alcCaptureStart(captureDev);
   samplesCaptured = 0;
   captureBufPtr = captureBuffer;
   while (currentTime < (lastTime + 5))
   {
      // Get the number of samples available
      alcGetIntegerv(captureDev, ALC_CAPTURE_SAMPLES, 1, &samplesAvailable);

      // Copy the samples to our capture buffer
      if (samplesAvailable > 0)
      {
         alcCaptureSamples(captureDev, captureBufPtr, samplesAvailable);
         samplesCaptured += samplesAvailable;
         printf("Captured %d samples (adding %d)\r", samplesCaptured,
            samplesAvailable);
         fflush(stdout);

         // Advance the buffer (two bytes per sample * number of samples)
         captureBufPtr += samplesAvailable * 2;
      }

      // Wait for a bit
      usleep(10000);

      // Update the clock
      currentTime = time(NULL);
   }
   printf("\nPausing capture.\n");
   alcCaptureStop(captureDev);

   // Wait for three seconds to prompt the user
   for (i = 3; i > 0; i--)
   {
      printf("Resuming capture in %d...\r", i);
      fflush(stdout);
      lastTime = time(NULL);
      currentTime = lastTime;
      while (currentTime == lastTime)
      {
         currentTime = time(NULL);
         usleep(100000);
      }
   }

   printf("Resuming capture NOW!\n");
   fflush(stdout);
   lastTime = currentTime;

   // Capture (roughly) five seconds of audio
   alcCaptureStart(captureDev);
   while (currentTime < (lastTime + 5))
   {
      // Get the number of samples available
      alcGetIntegerv(captureDev, ALC_CAPTURE_SAMPLES, 1, &samplesAvailable);

      // Copy the samples to our capture buffer
      if (samplesAvailable > 0)
      {
         alcCaptureSamples(captureDev, captureBufPtr, samplesAvailable);
         samplesCaptured += samplesAvailable;
         printf("Captured %d samples (adding %d)\r", samplesCaptured,
            samplesAvailable);
         fflush(stdout);

         // Advance the buffer (two bytes per sample * number of samples)
         captureBufPtr += samplesAvailable * 2;
      }

      // Wait for a bit
      usleep(10000);

      // Update the clock
      currentTime = time(NULL);
   }

   printf("\nDone capturing.\n");
   alcCaptureStop(captureDev);

   // Play back the captured data
   printf("Starting playback...\n");
   fflush(stdout);
 
   // Generate an OpenAL buffer for the captured data
   alGenBuffers(1, &buffer);
   alGenSources(1, &source);
   alBufferData(buffer, AL_FORMAT_MONO16, captureBuffer,
      samplesCaptured*2, 22050);
   alSourcei(source, AL_BUFFER, buffer);
   alSourcePlay(source);

   // Wait for the source to stop playing
   playState = AL_PLAYING;
   while (playState == AL_PLAYING)
   {
      printf("  source %d is playing...\r", source);
      fflush(stdout);
      alGetSourcei(source, AL_SOURCE_STATE, &playState);
      usleep(100000);
   }
   printf("\nDone with playback.\n");
   fflush(stdout);

   // Shut down OpenAL
   alDeleteSources(1, &source);
   alDeleteBuffers(1, &buffer);
   alcMakeContextCurrent(NULL);
   alcCloseDevice(mainDev);
   alcCaptureCloseDevice(captureDev);
}

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[Mike Dickson-5]

Thanks so much!  This should get me pointed in the right direction.

Mike

On Tue, 2009-11-10 at 11:08 -0500, Jason Daly wrote:

> Mike Dickson wrote:
> > Can someone point me to a simple capture client w/source that uses
> > OpenAL-Soft for the capture?  Starting with Vivox SLVoice directly is
> > going to be a pain since it's binary only..
> >  
>
> Here's a really simple test app that I wrote.  It captures audio for
> three seconds, pauses, then captures three more seconds.  At the end it
> plays back what was captured.
>
> A lot of the values are hard-coded, so you may need to tweak it to get
> what you're looking for.
>
> --"J"
>

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[Mike Dickson-5]

Ok, at least with a quick run I've verified that pulse capture isn't
working.  If I use the ALSA driver (which will use the ALSA/pulse
adapter) capture works (albeit time compressed, I sound like Mickey
Mouse).  With native pulse capture no playback and it loops trying to
play back endlessly.

I'll start with this and then move on to the Vivox client.  Thanks for
this, it will be a big help.

Mike

On Tue, 2009-11-10 at 11:08 -0500, Jason Daly wrote:

> Mike Dickson wrote:
> > Can someone point me to a simple capture client w/source that uses
> > OpenAL-Soft for the capture?  Starting with Vivox SLVoice directly is
> > going to be a pain since it's binary only..
> >  
>
> Here's a really simple test app that I wrote.  It captures audio for
> three seconds, pauses, then captures three more seconds.  At the end it
> plays back what was captured.
>
> A lot of the values are hard-coded, so you may need to tweak it to get
> what you're looking for.
>
> --"J"
>

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[Mike Dickson-5]

Using the test capture client source I've tracked this down to a hang in
opening the capture device.  The client opens the output device find and
then opens the capture device. It hangs in pulse_open at line 391 at the
call to ppa_threaded_mainloop_wait:


    while((state=ppa_context_get_state(data->context)) != PA_CONTEXT_READY)
    {
        if(!PA_CONTEXT_IS_GOOD(state))
        {
            AL_PRINT("Context did not get ready: %s\n",
                     ppa_strerror(ppa_context_errno(data->context)));

            ppa_context_unref(data->context);
            data->context = NULL;

            ppa_threaded_mainloop_unlock(data->loop);
            goto out;
        }

        ppa_threaded_mainloop_wait(data->loop);
        ppa_threaded_mainloop_accept(data->loop);
    }
    ppa_context_set_state_callback(data->context, context_state_callback2, device);


I'm a little confused by one thing..  Doesn't the call to set the
state_callback need to go before the polling loop?  I'm hesitant to
start tinkering in here since this code is shared with the code that
opens the output device and that *is* working fine..

Thoughts?

Mike

On Mon, 2009-11-09 at 19:57 -0500, Jason Daly wrote:

> Chris Robinson wrote:
> > On Monday 09 November 2009 5:01:46 am Mike Dickson wrote:
> >  
> > > Great release!
> > >
> > > The pulseaudio support for output is working great for the apps I've
> > > tried.  Much better performance overall than using the ALSA emulation.
> > > I do still have problems with pulseaudio capture, specifically with
> > > Vivox/secondlife.  I'd like to help with that if possible but I'm new to
> > > the OpenAL sources so I hope an occasional question to the list is fine.
> > >    
> >
> > There shouldn't be any issue about asking here. Thanks for wanting to look
> > into it. :)
> >  
>
> No problem at all.  That's one reason why the openal-devel list
> exists  :-)
>
> --"J"
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Openal-devel mailing list
> Openal-devel@...
> http://opensource.creative.com/mailman/listinfo/openal-devel

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[Chris Robinson-5]

On Tuesday 10 November 2009 12:49:33 pm Mike Dickson wrote:
> Using the test capture client source I've tracked this down to a hang in
> opening the capture device.  The client opens the output device find and
> then opens the capture device. It hangs in pulse_open at line 391 at the
> call to ppa_threaded_mainloop_wait:
>
...
>
> I'm a little confused by one thing..  Doesn't the call to set the
> state_callback need to go before the polling loop?  I'm hesitant to
> start tinkering in here since this code is shared with the code that
> opens the output device and that *is* working fine..

There's a call to ppa_context_set_state_callback before it attempts a
connection. The one that happens afterward is to set a different callback
which watches for context failures (eg. from the server being killed).

If it hangs on ppa_threaded_mainloop_wait, that likely means the context isn't
fully connecting or failing, for some reason. Does pulseaudio recording work
with other apps?
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[Mike Dickson-5]

Looking for one.  I'll check that next. I think gstreamer has a pulse
src module.

So taking a seperate tack, is it possible to use the config file to use
alsa for capture and pulseaudio for playback?  How would that be set up?
The pulseaudio alsa capture module does seem to work...

Mike

On Tue, 2009-11-10 at 16:05 -0800, Chris Robinson wrote:

> On Tuesday 10 November 2009 12:49:33 pm Mike Dickson wrote:
> > Using the test capture client source I've tracked this down to a hang in
> > opening the capture device.  The client opens the output device find and
> > then opens the capture device. It hangs in pulse_open at line 391 at the
> > call to ppa_threaded_mainloop_wait:
> >
> ...
> >
> > I'm a little confused by one thing..  Doesn't the call to set the
> > state_callback need to go before the polling loop?  I'm hesitant to
> > start tinkering in here since this code is shared with the code that
> > opens the output device and that *is* working fine..
>
> There's a call to ppa_context_set_state_callback before it attempts a
> connection. The one that happens afterward is to set a different callback
> which watches for context failures (eg. from the server being killed).
>
> If it hangs on ppa_threaded_mainloop_wait, that likely means the context isn't
> fully connecting or failing, for some reason. Does pulseaudio recording work
> with other apps?
> _______________________________________________
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> Openal-devel@...
> http://opensource.creative.com/mailman/listinfo/openal-devel

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[Chris Robinson-5]

On Tuesday 10 November 2009 4:16:45 pm Mike Dickson wrote:
> Looking for one.  I'll check that next. I think gstreamer has a pulse
> src module.
>
> So taking a seperate tack, is it possible to use the config file to use
> alsa for capture and pulseaudio for playback?  How would that be set up?
> The pulseaudio alsa capture module does seem to work...

There isn't a way to default to alsa for capture and pulseaudio for playback.
But you can configure alsa to use any capture device you want, by setting:
[alsa]
capture = <devicename>
in ~/.alsoftrc. You can then configure the app to use "ALSA Capture on
default".
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[Mike Dickson-5]

The gstreamer pulseaudio src "plugin" captures audio fine.  So there
must be some setup nuance required.  I'll have a look at the pulsesrc
gstreamer piece and see how it does it.

Mike

On Tue, 2009-11-10 at 18:16 -0600, Mike Dickson wrote:

> Looking for one.  I'll check that next. I think gstreamer has a pulse
> src module.
>
> So taking a seperate tack, is it possible to use the config file to use
> alsa for capture and pulseaudio for playback?  How would that be set up?
> The pulseaudio alsa capture module does seem to work...
>
> Mike
>
> On Tue, 2009-11-10 at 16:05 -0800, Chris Robinson wrote:
> > On Tuesday 10 November 2009 12:49:33 pm Mike Dickson wrote:
> > > Using the test capture client source I've tracked this down to a hang in
> > > opening the capture device.  The client opens the output device find and
> > > then opens the capture device. It hangs in pulse_open at line 391 at the
> > > call to ppa_threaded_mainloop_wait:
> > >
> > ...
> > >
> > > I'm a little confused by one thing..  Doesn't the call to set the
> > > state_callback need to go before the polling loop?  I'm hesitant to
> > > start tinkering in here since this code is shared with the code that
> > > opens the output device and that *is* working fine..
> >
> > There's a call to ppa_context_set_state_callback before it attempts a
> > connection. The one that happens afterward is to set a different callback
> > which watches for context failures (eg. from the server being killed).
> >
> > If it hangs on ppa_threaded_mainloop_wait, that likely means the context isn't
> > fully connecting or failing, for some reason. Does pulseaudio recording work
> > with other apps?
> > _______________________________________________
> > Openal-devel mailing list
> > Openal-devel@...
> > http://opensource.creative.com/mailman/listinfo/openal-devel
>
>
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[Chris Robinson-5]

On Wednesday 02 December 2009 7:05:03 am Tom Porter wrote:
> I have recently upgraded (fresh install) of Fedora 12.  I believe it
> is using PulseAudio 0.9.21.  I have not been able to get OpenAL
> 1.10.622 to work with SecondLife (i.e. SLVoice).  Regular, non-OpenAL
> playback and capture work just fine for say, Skype.  So it appears as
> though PulseAudio is functioning correctly. I read below where Mike
> Dickson seemed to indicate playback worked but capture did not.  I
> have been unsuccessful in getting either to work.

PulseAudio 0.9.21 seemed to break OpenAL Soft 1.10. I haven't been able to
determine the exact cause, but a possible scenario was discovered that could
potentially cause PulseAudio's client lib to lock up when OpenAL is
initializing.

Whether or not it is actually the problem will remain to be seen, but I've
reported the potential bug to PulseAudio's developers, and they've said they
will be fixing it (for reference, <http://www.pulseaudio.org/ticket/738>). If
that is indeed the cause, then the next update of Pulse should work again with
1.10.

In the mean time, OpenAL Soft's Git version has a work around which makes it
work with PulseAudio 0.9.21.
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