Hi Philip, Philip wrote:
How does OpenAl handle 3d simulation with normal headphones? I found that to be the main issue with the 3d rendering in DirectSound. It gave a very poor experience for those who did not actually have a 5.1 setup which I do not, and I believe most people will be using stereo either through headphones or speakers. My reply: Well, unfortunately not very well I'm afraid. That's the problem with FMOD, OpenAL, DirectSound, etc. In order to get high quality 3d virtual audio you have to have the hardware to do it. Either a set of 5.1 headphones such as I have, or go out and buy yourself a set of 5.1 surround sound speakers. The proper hardware is really a requirement if you plan to get true 3d virtualization using OpenAL, XAudio2, FMOD, whatever. Which is really the source of the problem for us as game developers. The ggaming technologies are litterally growing by leaps and bounds and weather you are using Linux, Mac OS, or Windows there are decent APIs that render pretty realistic 5.1 surround sound. The problem is that computers don't ship with a set of Creative Labs 5.1 pro gaming speakers etc so in order to get the kind of speakers you need that is another $75 to $99 investment which most gamers won't bother paying for unless they have a need for it which creates a kind of chicken and egg situation. Gamers won't buy 5.1 surround sound speakers or headphones because at present there aren't that many games that really need it. On the other hand developers such as you and I hesitate to include 5.1 surround sound in our games because if they don't have the hardware to begin with there is no reason to bother with it. they won't hear it, and if anything it won't sound that good on a ordinary set of stereo speakers or headphones. I don't really know what to do about that myself, because it seams like a case of darned if you do and darned if you don't. Philip wrote: I did look at OpenAl a few years ago before I decided to have Streemway developed, but got discouraged by the fact that it could not be bundled in with the game as far as I could gather at the time. My reply: Hmmm..I don't know about that. As far as I know there is no restriction of bundling OpenAL with your product as long as you provide a copy of the end user license agreement for it. Plus there are now two different branches of OpenAL now. there is a copy of OpenAL, the original version hosted and maintained by Creative Labs, and another one called OpenAL Soft. OpenAL Soft is the version run on Linux and Mac OS as their version his being regularly updated, and is the version I would use for development since it appears to be better maintained/updated. As far as redistribution goes I'm not sure what you read to give you that impression that it can't be bundled with a product. I know with Linux apps there is a very good reason why they would be seperate packages/installers because it has to do with how the operating system is maintained. If you were to install a game using apt-get it would detect missing components and install them as necessary. For example, doing apt-get install mota-1.0-i386.deb would first initiate a dependency check and if OpenAL-Soft wasn't installed it would prompt you to install. If you Answer yes it would go to the Ubuntu or Debian application repository, fetch the necessary package, install it and then install the game. This is actually one of the strengths of the Linux deb and rpm package managers because it takes all the guess work out of figuring out if this or that component is missing or not. If it is missing it will just install it for you.This may or may not be what you are talking about. HTH --- Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to [email protected].
