Sound Hardware Compatibility

[Jim B.-4]

[ We have OpenAL in beta test for the open source game, Alien Arena
(homepage: http://icculus.org/alienarena/rpa/
svn browse: http://svn.icculus.org/alienarena/ ).
It uses the crx engine, derived from the Quake 2 engine and runs
in Windows and Unix/Linux. So far, the testing is going well.
I have several questions, posted today under 3 separate
subjects. ]

Alien Arena currently is runnable on a wide-range hardware by allowing the
user to turn off higher performance features.  In our beta test we have
already discovered that it is best to disable Doppler by default, since some
older hardware did not handle Doppler that well.

Currently, we support 2 different Unix/Linux builds; one using OSS sound and
the other using SDL sound.  So, one question is: is it worthwhile to keep the
SDL version?  Is it likely that there would be systems that could not run
OpenAL-Soft 1.7.411 that would be able to run with SDL sound.

We are planning on releasing the Windows version with OpenAL only.

So the general question is: What do we need to be watching out for? In looking
around the Web, it looks like there is a lot of "noise" about sound hardware
and software problems. But, is this just a matter of getting drivers installed
correctly or are there real problems?  I am trying to decide if we need to
have non-OpenAL versions available to fallback to?

Jim Bower



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[Jason Daly]

Hi, Jim,


Jim B. wrote:
> [ We have OpenAL in beta test for the open source game, Alien Arena
> (homepage: http://icculus.org/alienarena/rpa/
> svn browse: http://svn.icculus.org/alienarena/ ).
> It uses the crx engine, derived from the Quake 2 engine and runs
> in Windows and Unix/Linux. So far, the testing is going well.
> I have several questions, posted today under 3 separate
> subjects. ]
>  

Sounds like a cool project!


> Alien Arena currently is runnable on a wide-range hardware by allowing the
> user to turn off higher performance features.  In our beta test we have
> already discovered that it is best to disable Doppler by default, since some
> older hardware did not handle Doppler that well.
>  

Probably not a bad idea, although I think the Doppler issues of the past
are fading quickly.


> Currently, we support 2 different Unix/Linux builds; one using OSS sound and
> the other using SDL sound.  So, one question is: is it worthwhile to keep the
> SDL version?  Is it likely that there would be systems that could not run
> OpenAL-Soft 1.7.411 that would be able to run with SDL sound.
>  

I'll let Chris answer this one, as I'm not sure what the current state is.


> We are planning on releasing the Windows version with OpenAL only.
>
> So the general question is: What do we need to be watching out for? In looking
> around the Web, it looks like there is a lot of "noise" about sound hardware
> and software problems. But, is this just a matter of getting drivers installed
> correctly or are there real problems?  I am trying to decide if we need to
> have non-OpenAL versions available to fallback to?
>  

I've installed a couple of different OpenAL apps on Windows, and I
haven't had any issues with them for a while now.  The only think I'd
advise is that you should make running oalinst.exe automatic, if
possible.  I don't know what you're using to create your installer
package, but it's typically fairly easy to run oalinst as part of the
install process.  This avoids 90% of the problems you might run into.

On Linux, you have to count on the users a bit more, but usually this
isn't a big problem.

I can't think of any reason you'd need a non-OpenAL fallback, as even
the simplest graphics hardware should support the waveOut system, which
is one of the back-ends that the Windows implementation can use.

--"J"

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[Chris Robinson-5]

On Tuesday 19 May 2009 2:55:39 pm Jason Daly wrote:
> Jim B. wrote:
> > Currently, we support 2 different Unix/Linux builds; one using OSS sound
> > and the other using SDL sound.  So, one question is: is it worthwhile to
> > keep the SDL version?  Is it likely that there would be systems that
> > could not run OpenAL-Soft 1.7.411 that would be able to run with SDL
> > sound.
>
> I'll let Chris answer this one, as I'm not sure what the current state is.

I'm not aware of many systems that can use SDL and not OpenAL Soft, at least
for systems where OpenAL Soft is the normal OpenAL lib. Not to say there
aren't any, but OpenAL Soft should run on a wide range of systems.
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[Daniel PEACOCK]

Hi Jim,

I definitely agree with Jason and Garin ... if possible try to ship the
OpenAL run-time installer ( oalinst.exe ) with your application and run it
as part of the installation process.   See Garin's email for details about
running the installer in silent mode.

The "Generic Software" device runs on just about every soundcard as it does
everything in software and outputs the final mix to DirectSound or MMSYSTEM
if DirectSound is not available or is only available in emulation mode.
There can be some issues with the "Generic Hardware" device on some
soundcards - mostly due to faulty DirectSound3D drivers or false claims of
EAX support.   The "Generic Hardware" device is only available on Windows
XP and older O/S as it requires hardware acceleration.  The <native> OpenAL
devices are always shipped with soundcard drivers, so a general comment
advising a user to have up-to-date drivers installed is a good idea.

Ideally we recommend that a game use the device enumeration extension, and
allow the user to select an OpenAL device from a list of available devices.
You can default to "Generic Software" in this situation to have the
broadest compatibility, and rely on the user to select a better device if
they have one.

Dan
Creative Labs (UK) Ltd.

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                                                                   Subject
                                       Re: [Openal] Sound Hardware        
             05/19/2009 10:55          Compatibility                      
             PM                                                            
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           





Hi, Jim,


Jim B. wrote:
> [ We have OpenAL in beta test for the open source game, Alien Arena
> (homepage: http://icculus.org/alienarena/rpa/
> svn browse: http://svn.icculus.org/alienarena/ ).
> It uses the crx engine, derived from the Quake 2 engine and runs
> in Windows and Unix/Linux. So far, the testing is going well.
> I have several questions, posted today under 3 separate
> subjects. ]
>

Sounds like a cool project!


> Alien Arena currently is runnable on a wide-range hardware by allowing
the
> user to turn off higher performance features.  In our beta test we have
> already discovered that it is best to disable Doppler by default, since
some
> older hardware did not handle Doppler that well.
>

Probably not a bad idea, although I think the Doppler issues of the past
are fading quickly.


> Currently, we support 2 different Unix/Linux builds; one using OSS sound
and
> the other using SDL sound.  So, one question is: is it worthwhile to keep
the
> SDL version?  Is it likely that there would be systems that could not run
> OpenAL-Soft 1.7.411 that would be able to run with SDL sound.
>

I'll let Chris answer this one, as I'm not sure what the current state is.


> We are planning on releasing the Windows version with OpenAL only.
>
> So the general question is: What do we need to be watching out for? In
looking
> around the Web, it looks like there is a lot of "noise" about sound
hardware
> and software problems. But, is this just a matter of getting drivers
installed
> correctly or are there real problems?  I am trying to decide if we need
to
> have non-OpenAL versions available to fallback to?
>

I've installed a couple of different OpenAL apps on Windows, and I
haven't had any issues with them for a while now.  The only think I'd
advise is that you should make running oalinst.exe automatic, if
possible.  I don't know what you're using to create your installer
package, but it's typically fairly easy to run oalinst as part of the
install process.  This avoids 90% of the problems you might run into.

On Linux, you have to count on the users a bit more, but usually this
isn't a big problem.

I can't think of any reason you'd need a non-OpenAL fallback, as even
the simplest graphics hardware should support the waveOut system, which
is one of the back-ends that the Windows implementation can use.

--"J"

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