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OpenArena Contributions => Development => Topic started by: fromhell on June 22, 2009, 03:38:30 AM



Title: openal
Post by: fromhell on June 22, 2009, 03:38:30 AM
please don't follow ioq3 and remove it
thanks

Positional audio & 44khz+ audio is important to me over someone crying that they can't achieve as many frames as without sound. Its not even a huge framerate loss with it anyway, OA with OpenAL could handled fine on Pentium II systems.

Hearing enemies and projectiles behind me... i prefer over a gain in framerate from 700fps to 701fps at maximum detail.


Title: Re: openal
Post by: feidi on June 22, 2009, 05:26:06 AM
Does anyone else have problems with OpenAL on OS X 10.5.7? (Basically the sounds start cracking and the game becomes unplayable)


Title: Re: openal
Post by: sago007 on June 22, 2009, 09:29:13 AM
please don't follow ioq3 and remove it
Where did you hear that they will drop support for openAL?


Title: Re: openal
Post by: Falkland on June 22, 2009, 11:38:06 AM
Promode has (temporary ? ) dropped OpenAL support from CNQ3 engine since ver 1.43

Here's a detailed explanation of arQon himself : http://www.promode.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=4221


Title: Re: openal
Post by: PopeJo on June 22, 2009, 11:48:21 AM
thx falkland, that was actually enlightening and very interesting to read :)


Title: Re: openal
Post by: andrewj on June 22, 2009, 11:23:32 PM
My reasons for not using OpenAL are different:

Number 1: you can mention all over the place that the user needs to install OpenAL to get sound, even bundle the freaking AL installer with your app, and you still get people showing up asking why sound doesn't work (no, they didn't run the installer).  Plus you cannot simply bundle some DLLs with your app, people have to run that installer.  Too much grief for a hobby project.

Number 2: OpenAL may work great on WINDOWS with CREATIVE cards, but for everything else (especially under Linux) is it really shit.  Linux is my main platform, so I care most for that case.  Creative created OpenAL and only work on the parts where the money (or should I say: vendor-lock-in) is, and that's supporting their own cards under Windows.


Title: Re: openal
Post by: fromhell on June 23, 2009, 12:49:04 AM
Number 2: OpenAL may work great on WINDOWS with CREATIVE cards, but for everything else (especially under Linux) is it really none sense. 
I'm not using a Creative card. It isn't nonsense.


Title: Re: openal
Post by: andrewj on June 23, 2009, 03:33:50 AM
hey don't spoil a good rant with facts!


Title: Re: openal
Post by: Falkland on June 23, 2009, 06:35:50 AM
Number 2: OpenAL may work great on WINDOWS with CREATIVE cards, but for everything else (especially under Linux) is it really none sense.  Linux is my main platform, so I care most for that case.  Creative created OpenAL and only work on the parts where the money (or should I say: vendor-lock-in) is, and that's supporting their own cards under Windows.

Under Linux you are not using ( with high probability - depending of which distribution you are using ) the original Creative implementation :

http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libopenal1
http://kcat.strangesoft.net/openal.html

Anyway there are some optimization u can do on linux to have openal running better ... ( eg ... I think that the version included in the distribution , due to standard compilation flags , does NOT use SSE or SSE2 instructions )

U can't do miracles , but u can reach a bit higher acceptable compromise .


Title: Re: openal
Post by: Falkland on June 23, 2009, 08:40:14 AM
Quote : http://opensource.creative.com/pipermail/openal-devel/2009-June/005459.html

Quote
...
1.7 (the version from Debian) uses up to 20% CPU at up to 36 sources, then each
additional source adds a significant amount, at 41 sources it's at 80%, above
that at 95% (but I think just because Linux doesn't give it the full 100%).
Current git does 36 sources at 10%, and scales linearly with 128 sources at 30%
and the maximum of 256 sources at 60%.

Nice work so far. I hope you can release this soon, since we currently get
quite a few complaints about Warzone's CPU usage due to people using OpenAL
Soft 1.7, and we have to tell them to downgrade to fix this. More performance
optimizations would of course be welcome ( ... ), but the
current git will at least not overload (fast) CPUs anymore.
...

Quote : http://opensource.creative.com/pipermail/openal-devel/2009-June/005461.html

Quote
...
I tested 1.3 (the version that used the least CPU in my earlier tests), and while
it does 42 sources at 13% CPU, it also chokes somewhere below 64 sources. So
current git is the best OpenAL Soft so far, and if it is released as it is and
replaces 1.7 everywhere I'm quite happy with that.
...