How to play many sounds at once in OpenAL

Posted by Krom on Game Development See other posts from Game Development or by Krom
Published on 2010-12-27T10:13:18Z Indexed on 2010/12/28 1:02 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 341

Filed under:

design-patterns

|

openal

Hello,

I'm developing an RTS game and I would like to add sounds to it. My choice has landed on OpenAL. I have plenty of units which from time to time make sounds: fSound.Play(sfx_shoot, location). Sounds often repeat, e.g. when squad of archers shoots arrows, but they are not synced with each other.

My questions are:

What is the common design pattern to play multiple sounds in OpenAL, when some of them are duplicate?
What are the hardware limitations on sounds count and tricks to overcome them?

© Game Development or respective owner

Related posts about design-patterns

Should universities put more emphasis on teaching their students about design patterns?

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
While I've heard about design patterns being mentioned in a few courses at uni, I know of only a single course which actually teaches design patterns. In almost all other areas (algorithms, parallelism, architecture, dynamic languages, paradigms, etc), there are several, often a basic course and an… >>> More
Podcasts on GoF design patterns

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Anyone know of a good podcast on design patterns? >>> More
How often are design patterns used in the workplace using PHP

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hey everyone, I read a book awhile back called PHP Design Patterns and Practice, and ever since then I have been using design patterns whenever I think they are needed. However it just occurred to me that maybe most companies do not use design patterns very often for PHP, or at all. What I was wondering… >>> More
Who benefits from the use of Design Patterns?

as seen on DotNetBlocks - Search for 'DotNetBlocks'
Who benefits from the use of design patterns is like asking who benefits from clean air or a good education. All of the stakeholders of a project benefit from the use of design patterns. Project Sponsor Project sponsors benefit from the use of design patterns because they promote reduced development… >>> More
Architect: "Collaborating on Design Patterns"

as seen on Oracle Technology Network - Search for 'Oracle Technology Network'
It takes an architect community to raise a collection of SOA design patterns. >>> More

Related posts about openal

OpenAL tone generation on iPhone

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
So I have been looking around for some time now on a way to produce a variable tone on the iPhone using OpenAL, the issue being the Apple has deprecated the ALUT part of OpenAL that has the alutCreateBufferWaveform that would be perfect for this. I was wondering if anyone had any idea how to make… >>> More
Where can i get the openal sdk for c++?

as seen on Game Development - Search for 'Game Development'
The OpenAL site I'm looking at is a crappy outdated and broken sharepoint portal and the SDK in the downloads section give me a 500 html code when i request it. http://connect.creativelabs.com/openal/Downloads/OpenAL11CoreSDK.zip I found an OpenAL SDK on a softpedia and it has headers but not alu… >>> More
Loop OpenAL source with offset

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
The OpenAL API states that an setting an offset still causes the sound to loop back to zero for looping sources. But is there a way to loop and still have an offset somehow? I have an mp3, and since it contains headers with information at the start of the file, there's a small, but noticable, delay… >>> More
Voice transforming using OpenAL on iPhone

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hi there, I've played a little bit with OpenAL, and I must say that it's pretty fast, even on the iPhone. However, I still got one problem. My app is recording the user voice, and repeats what he said using OpenAL. I've modified the AL_PITCH value, but it's currently also changing the speed, which… >>> More
Getting notified when a sound is done playing in OpenAL

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I'm using OpenAL on iPhone to play multiple audio samples simultaneously. Can I get OpenAL to notify me when a single sample is done playing? I'd like to avoid hardcoding the sample length and setting a timer. >>> More