Which sound API is used by ArmA?

[bluesteel 0]

Which sound API is used by Armed Assault? I am asking because in Windows Vista every sound engine using DirectSound in some form cannot be hardware accelerated.

This is a limitation of the operating system, basically DirectSound is handled by a software emulator and the soundcard receives a pre-mixed PCM stream.

Because of this, dedicated sound cards cannot work and extra functionality like EAX (environmental effects), HRTF (3D positional sound, especially on headphones) or even simple hardware-acceleration of audio streams will not work. Games will sound worse than under WinXP, and they will run slower. (Software-emulation of 128 audio streams? Bad idea...)

The only solution to access the audio hardware directly on Windows Vista is by using a proprietary API like OpenAL.

Now the big question is: Which sound API is used by ArmA?

Armed Assault is a game which will be around for quite some time, and at some point some of us will be forced to upgrade to Vista. (DX10-only features in games and the like)

So it would be really bad if that upgrade would cost us (those of us who bought a decent soundcard at least) all the audio fidelity we are used to. I don't think I could live without perfectly distinctive 3D sound over headphones anymore...nothing worse than having to guess where a shot came from, when you could hear it with a precision of about 2° on a 360° radius before.

Sources: OpenAL and Windows Vista

Audio on Windows Vista - Official statement by Creative Labs

[Goeth 0]

As far as i know it´s OpenAL.

[guerilla -MCY- 0]

all i heard in some news was: "The sound engine has been redone. Soundwaves can get blocked by obstacles, such as hills etc. Sound speed is still modelled of course."

[DarkErazor 0]

@ Nov. 02 2006,23:00)]As far as i know it´s OpenAL.

Hi Goeth,

do you have some source for this?

Thanks

[Dwarden 1124]

i raised this question multiple times and i really hope it's OpenAl too ...

[Placebo 28]

It is OpenAL that is used in ArmA

[sirex 0]

thats good :-)

btw, i thought openAL was LGPL licence?

edit, nm.

Macintosh OS 8/9 Open Source (LGPL)

Macintosh OS X Open Source (LGPL)

Linux Open Source (LGPL)

Linux Open Source (LGPL)

BSD Open Source (LGPL)

Solaris Open Source (LGPL)

IRIX Open Source (LGPL)

Windows Open Source (LGPL)

DirectSound Open Source (LGPL)

DirectSound3D Open Source (LGPL)

NVIDIA nForce Open Source (LGPL)

Creative Audigy Creative Labs Inc.

Creative Audigy 2 Creative Labs Inc.

Creative Audigy 4 Creative Labs Inc.

Creative X-Fi Creative Labs Inc.

Microsoft Xbox Creative Labs Inc.

Microsoft Xbox 360 Creative Labs Inc.

prolly a good thing, makes it one little baby step closer to working on linux. :-)

[bluesteel 0]

Thanks a lot Placebo, that's what I wanted to hear

Now I'll sleep a lot better.

[Placebo 28]

Now I'll sleep a lot better.

Good, it's very important to us that our community sleeps well

[Eidron 0]

Personally I would sleep better if there was a linux version . I long for the day when I can leave windows behind me...but I love my games too damn much.

[CameronMcDonald 146]

Placebo seems to be in an almost amicable mood tonight. Interesting. How about knocking my warning level down one, seeing as its been at least a month?

[simulacra 0]

We've heard that the sound engine has been redone and that some features like obstruction is added, BUT will there still be problems of sound samples not being played due to heavy load like we heard in ofp?

Ie, when there's alot going on you might not hear your own gun firing etc, and will proper reverberation be modelled so it doesn't sound like your in some warehouse when you're running around in the desert?

And of course, we will hear samples being cutoff when shooting full auto?

[bluesteel 0]

We've heard that the sound engine has been redone and that some features like obstruction is added, BUT will there still be problems of  sound samples not being played due to heavy load like we heard in ofp?

simulacra, most of those problems are related to the maximum number of concurrent audio streams or voices.

A hardware accelerated sound engine can use up to 128 hardware 3D voices (Soundblaster X-Fi) and an aditional number of software voices if required. So a lot has to be going on at the same time until all those channels are used up simultaneously and sounds get cut off. Because this is hardware-accelerated, the performance drop is not very significant.

If you have to use software based mixing, performance is going to drop with each additional voice. I have no concrete numbers, but I think most non-hardware accelerated sound engines use around 24-32 voices. That should also be true for onboard (AC'97) audio, which is basically being emulated in software.

I don't know which limit OFP used, but it was probably in the 32 voices range too, since that was more or less the limit in those times. Theoretically it would be no problem upping that to 128 voices for ArmA, depending on the installed soundcard of course.

[dmitri 0]

Great news. I'd assume the majority of OFP audio bugs are now gone.

[Pierrot 0]

A hardware accelerated sound engine can use up to 128 hardware 3D voices (Soundblaster X-Fi) and an aditional number of software voices if required.

One of the complaint that I have is fullauto sounds. Let's think about firing AK47 in a fullauto mode. Even though you keep firing AK47, the number of firing sounds which are played is always 1. Always 1. As soon as you fire next round, the previous firing sound is immediately halted and new firing sound is played so that the number of sounds which are played simultaneously is always 1. I know this is because BIS hard-coded to save a consumption of limited sound resources (at most 32 simultaneous sounds at that time).

And much time has passed since OFP is released. At that time, we had at most 32 hardware sounds which can be played simultaneously. But today, we have up to 128 hardware sounds and much more would be able in the by-and-by. Now It's time to discuss useful usage of these sounds. I suggest that two or three sounds be allocated to each fullauto firing. A sound of the first round would be continued untile the next round or the next round but one. This would bring dramatic reality to ArmA.

Placebo, what do you think about it?

[KaiserPanda 0]

Wouldn't mater if they used directsound. DX10 is DX9 backward compatable.

[dm 9]

Wouldn't mater if they used directsound. DX10 is DX9 backward compatable.

Yes, but the point is that this backwards compatibility is provided by software emulation, therefore making any dedicated soundcard useless.

But since it uses the OpenAL library, this isnt an issue.

[Scrub 0]

Quote[/b] ] =Pierrot,Nov. 03 2006,11:25

Now It's time to discuss useful usage of these sounds.

I believe it's actually a bit LATE for that, isn't it?

[chipper 0]

yeah 2 weeks till release is a bit late to be talking about adding stuff to the game now. Go to the Game 2 forums.

[Pierrot 0]

Patch will do.

[Pierrot 0]

And much time has passed since OFP is released. At that time, we had at most 32 hardware sounds which can be played simultaneously. But today, we have up to 128 hardware sounds and much more would be able in the by-and-by. Now It's time to discuss useful usage of these sounds. I suggest that two or three sounds be allocated to each fullauto firing. A sound of the first round would be continued untile the next round or the next round but one. This would bring dramatic reality to ArmA.

Placebo, what do you think about it?

I found a video in which .50cal of a boat is firing.

http://battlenest.de/~ernie/armaschnellbootmassaker.wmv

Amazingly it seems to have more than one firing sound at the same time and overlap with each other. Apparently it has more realistic fullauto sounds than those of OFP. Does really ArmA supports realitic fullauto sounds finally?

On the other hand, I also see a movie in which various rifles (AK47, M4, M249) are firing in fullauto mode. But in this case, only one sound is allocated in each rifle and firing sounds don't overlap with each other. So I get quite confused. Is there any difference between rifles and static guns?

[Shashman 0]

Placebo seems to be in an almost amicable mood tonight. Interesting. How about knocking my warning level down one, seeing as its been at least a month?  

Don't get me started on warning levels, Kamasutra

So will ArmA have 3D sound?

[aus_twisted 0]

Placebo seems to be in an almost amicable mood tonight. Interesting. How about knocking my warning level down one, seeing as its been at least a month?  

Don't get me started on warning levels, Kamasutra  

So will ArmA have 3D sound?

No mono only, BIS ran out of time

[Shashman 0]

( To be honest, I added that poorly tought-out question to the end of my post to keep it on topic )