Openal Driver Issue on windows xp

[slytron]

Please help,
I cannot seem to get openal 3d effect to work.
When I enumerate the devices using "ALC_ENUMERATION_EXT" and  ALC_DEVICE_SPECIFIER etc only
2 devices are listed .. Generic Hardware and Generic Software.
I have a gigabit motherboard with the Realtek audio driver.
The sounds play but with no position or distance effect.
Even with listen position 0,0,0 and orientation 0,1,0,0,0,1 and source postion 100,0,0 or 0,0,100 and AL_REFERENCE_DISTANCE 1.0 and AL_MAX_DISTANCE 2.0 and AL_ROLLOFF_FACTOR 1.0
there is no attenuation of sound.
Thinking that it might be some kind of driver issue I bought a Sound Blaster X-FiXtreme Audio Card
I removed the realtek drivers and disabled the on board audio then install the sound blaster card
and drivers. still same result. I downloaded the Aug 2008 directx SDK and installed it with same result
I played with the 3d sound example app in the directx SDK and it seams to work fine.

Please help .. here is the code
RCODE SelectSndDevice( VxIrrBase * poMgr )
{
       
        char deviceName[256] = {0};
        char *defaultDevice=NULL;
        char *deviceList=NULL;
        if( alcIsExtensionPresent(NULL, (ALCchar*)"AL_EXT_MP3") == AL_TRUE )
        {
                log_msg( 0, "SelectSndDevice: openal MP3 extention available\n" );
        }
        else
        {
                log_msg( 0, "SelectSndDevice: openal MP3 extention is NOT available\n" );
        }
        char * devList[50];
        int iDeviceCnt = 0;
        int iDefaultDeviceIdx = 0;
        if( alcIsExtensionPresent(NULL, (ALCchar*)"ALC_ENUMERATION_EXT") == AL_TRUE )
        { // try out enumeration extension

                ALCchar * deviceList = (char *)alcGetString(NULL, ALC_DEVICE_SPECIFIER);
                //devList.numDevices = 0;
                if( strlen(deviceList) )
                {
                        //devList.numDevices=1;
                        defaultDevice = (char *)alcGetString(NULL, ALC_DEFAULT_DEVICE_SPECIFIER);
                        //devList.numDefaultDevice = 0;
                        for( U16 numDevices = 0; numDevices < 16; numDevices++ )
                        {
                                devList[numDevices] = deviceList;
                                log_msg( 0, "SelectSndDevice: device found %s ", deviceList );
                                if (defaultDevice && strcmp(devList[numDevices], defaultDevice) == 0)
                                {
                                        iDefaultDeviceIdx = numDevices;
                                }
                                deviceList += strlen(deviceList);
                                if (deviceList[0] == 0)
                                {
                                        if (deviceList[1] == 0)
                                        {
                                                break;
                                        }
                                        else
                                        {
                                                iDeviceCnt++;
                                                deviceList++;
                                        }
                                }
                        }
                }
        }
        return 0;
}

//---------------------------------------------------------------------------
//! initialize sound manager
RCODE VxSoundMgr::StartupSoundMgr( VxIrrBase * poMgr )
{
        //RegisterWithSquirrelScripting();
        m_poGameMgr = poMgr;

        //=== setup audiere ===//
        //m_poAudiereDevice = audiere::OpenDevice();
        //if( ! m_poAudiereDevice )
        //{
        // log_msg( 0, "Could not open Audiere sound device" );
        // vx_assert( false );
        //}

        //=== setup openal ===//
        SelectSndDevice( m_poGameMgr );
        m_poSndDevice = alcOpenDevice((ALchar*)"DirectSound3D");
        if( m_poSndDevice == NULL )
        {
                log_msg( 0, "VxSoundMgr::StartupSoundMgr: Could not create DirectSound3D Device\n" );
                vx_assert( FALSE );
        }
        CheckForSndErrors();
        int result[2];
        //alcGetIntegerv( m_poSndDevice, ALC_MAJOR_VERSION, 4, &result[0]);
        //alcGetIntegerv( m_poSndDevice, ALC_MINOR_VERSION, 4, &result[1]);
        //log_msg( 0, "VxSoundMgr::StartupSoundMgr: OpenAl Version Major %d Minor %d\n", result[0], result[1] );


        //Create context(s)
        m_poSndContext = alcCreateContext( m_poSndDevice, NULL );
        if( m_poSndContext == NULL )
        {
                log_msg( 0, "VxSoundMgr::StartupSoundMgr: Could not create DirectSound3D Context\n" );
                vx_assert( FALSE );
        }
        CheckForSndErrors();
        //Set active context
        alcMakeContextCurrent( m_poSndContext );
        CheckForSndErrors();

        //alListenerfv( AL_ORIENTATION, (ALfloat*)&m_oSndListenOri);
        CheckForSndErrors();

        irr::core::vector3df v3fSrcPos( 0.0f, 0.0f, 100.0f );
        irr::core::vector3df v3fListenPos( 0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f );

        ALfloat ori[6];

        ori[0] = 0.0f;
        ori[1] = 1.0f;
        ori[2] = 0.0f;
        ori[3] = 0.0f;
        ori[4] = 0.0f;
        ori[5] = 1.0f;


        PlayTestSound( v3fSrcPos, v3fListenPos, ori, "media/soundsnap/animal/Lion_growl_low_soft_01_SFXBible_ss00230.wav" );
        // Clear Error Code
        alGetError();
        return 0;
}
//---------------------------------------------------------------------------
//! play test sound
void VxSoundMgr::PlayTestSound( irr::core::vector3df v3fSrcPos,
                                                                irr::core::vector3df v3fListenPos,
                                                                float * pf32Ori,
                                                                char * pFileName )
{
        alListenerfv(AL_POSITION,    (ALfloat*)&v3fListenPos);
        alListenerfv(AL_ORIENTATION, (ALfloat*)pf32Ori);
        VxSndSource oSndSrc;
        oSndSrc.m_poMgr = m_poGameMgr;
        oSndSrc.m_bAlLoop = true;
        ALboolean loop;
        loop = oSndSrc.m_bAlLoop;
        alutLoadWAVFile( (ALbyte *)pFileName,
                                                &oSndSrc.m_eAlFormatBuffer,
                                                (void **) &oSndSrc.m_pAlBuffer,
                                                (unsigned int *)&oSndSrc.m_iAlBufferLen,
                                                &oSndSrc.m_iAlFreqBuffer,
                                                &loop );

        alGenSources(1, &oSndSrc.m_uiAlSource);
        alGenBuffers(1, &oSndSrc.m_uiAlSampleSet);
        alBufferData( oSndSrc.m_uiAlSampleSet,
                                        oSndSrc.m_eAlFormatBuffer,
                                        oSndSrc.m_pAlBuffer,
                                        oSndSrc.m_iAlBufferLen,
                                        oSndSrc.m_iAlFreqBuffer );
        alSourcei(oSndSrc.m_uiAlSource, AL_BUFFER, oSndSrc.m_uiAlSampleSet);

        alutUnloadWAV( oSndSrc.m_eAlFormatBuffer,
                                        oSndSrc.m_pAlBuffer,
                                        oSndSrc.m_iAlBufferLen,
                                        oSndSrc.m_iAlFreqBuffer);

        //oSndSrc.SetPosition( v3fSrcPos );
        alSource3f(oSndSrc.m_uiAlSource, AL_POSITION, v3fSrcPos.X, v3fSrcPos.Y, v3fSrcPos.Z );
        // set the pitch
        alSourcef( oSndSrc.m_uiAlSource,AL_PITCH,1.0f);
        // set the gain
        alSourcef( oSndSrc.m_uiAlSource,AL_GAIN,1.0f);


        // AL_REFERENCE_DISTANCE f, fv, i, iv the distance under which the volume
        // for the source would normally drop by half (before being influenced
        // by rolloff factor or AL_MAX_DISTANCE)
        alSourcei( oSndSrc.m_uiAlSource, AL_SOURCE_RELATIVE, AL_FALSE );

        alSourcef( oSndSrc.m_uiAlSource, AL_REFERENCE_DISTANCE, 1.0f );
        alSourcef( oSndSrc.m_uiAlSource, AL_MAX_DISTANCE, 2.0f );
        alSourcef( oSndSrc.m_uiAlSource, AL_ROLLOFF_FACTOR, 1.0f );
        //oSndSrc.Enable3DEffect( TRUE );

        // set looping
        alSourcei( oSndSrc.m_uiAlSource, AL_LOOPING, AL_TRUE );
        // play sound
        alSourcePlay( oSndSrc.m_uiAlSource );

}

[Chris Robinson-5]

On Monday 10 November 2008 04:28:17 am slytron wrote:
> The sounds play but with no position or distance effect.
> Even with listen position 0,0,0 and orientation 0,1,0,0,0,1 and source
> postion 100,0,0 or 0,0,100 and AL_REFERENCE_DISTANCE 1.0 and
> AL_MAX_DISTANCE 2.0 and AL_ROLLOFF_FACTOR 1.0
> there is no attenuation of sound.

Is the sound mono or stereo? Stereo sounds won't position or get attenuated.
Also, with the max distance set to 2, any source-listener distance beyond 2
units won't attenuate farther.

A couple unrelated comments on the code, though..

> if( alcIsExtensionPresent(NULL, (ALCchar*)"AL_EXT_MP3") == AL_TRUE )

I wouldn't rely on this extension. AFAIK, the Windows version doesn't support
it, and the new Linux version doesn't either. You're better off using an
external lib to decode it and load/stream it with OpenAL (it may also be
beneficial to use Vorbis instead of MP3, as its free-er and compresses
better).

> m_poSndDevice = alcOpenDevice((ALchar*)"DirectSound3D");

And try not to hardcode device names like this. It may not always be
available.
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[Chris Robinson-5]

On Monday 10 November 2008 05:40:37 am you wrote:
> Thanks Chris.. Yes, they were stereo sounds, I didn't know they had to
> be mono.. will be converting. I now hear some attenuation effect which
> is very encouraging. I thought AL_MAX_DISTANCE was max distance a sound
> could be heard. Thanks for the correction.

AL_MAX_DISTANCE is where sounds will stop attenuating. OpenAL's default
attenuation model is logorithmic (it reduces by half when the distance
doubles). The value of max distance doesn't affect how fast the rolloff
occurs, just where it stops. So if you put max distance out at infinity,
it'll attenuate no matter how far away it goes).

You can change the distance model to AL_LINEAR_DISTANCE_CLAMPED which will
cause the rolloff to be calculated on a linear slope, from normal gain at
reference distance, to 0 at max distance. This won't produce a very
realistic-sounding rolloff, however.
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