OpenAL 1.2 kills Trajectory Zone (Torque based game in dev)
by Davis Ray Sickmon, Jr · in Torque Game Engine · 04/23/2004 (10:26 pm) · 11 replies
In Beta 3, I finally released the Mac port of TZ. Things aren't too bad, but I found something 'odd'. I am (er, was) using OpenAL 1.0.5 - everything worked pretty good. One of the beta testers was using OpenAL 1.2, but got no sound. After some poking around, I upgraded to OpenAL 1.2 also... and now have no sound. Well, replicated that problem successfuly ;-)
Now the issue is... why? Since I'm not the most Mac savvy guy in the world, I'm not sure I understand why that would kill a Torque app. I'm assuming I'm missing something bloody obvious here, or is this a new problem?
Now the issue is... why? Since I'm not the most Mac savvy guy in the world, I'm not sure I understand why that would kill a Torque app. I'm assuming I'm missing something bloody obvious here, or is this a new problem?
#2
04/24/2004 (4:34 pm)
Hm - looks like this isn't a TZ specific item. The Torque demo on Mac will do it to. 
#4
04/24/2004 (5:11 pm)
Head's up - the latest CVS version from openAL.org requires CoreAudioSDK1.3.1. Additionally, XCode 1.2 was released a couple days ago. (I missed it.) 
#5
I will try to look into this next week. I'm far from the most Mac-savvy guy either, but I'm trying to help out with Mac stuff now. I'll take a look, and get Mark or someone who knows Macs better to help if necessary. Or, if anyone out here in the forums knows a solution off-hand, please feel free to speak up.
Quick q's: what sound-cards do you and the above beta tester have? What speaker systems? (Apparently there are different probs with analog and digital systems...).
04/24/2004 (5:24 pm)
Thanks Davis. Yeah, it seems like there's some weirdness with the new Creative OpenAL stuff and Torque on the Mac right now. Actually, it may be new OpenAL drivers on the Mac in general, UT2K4 is having some probs too, apparently. I think that there was some funky audio stuff going on with the Mac build of Zap (TNL's example game) too.I will try to look into this next week. I'm far from the most Mac-savvy guy either, but I'm trying to help out with Mac stuff now. I'll take a look, and get Mark or someone who knows Macs better to help if necessary. Or, if anyone out here in the forums knows a solution off-hand, please feel free to speak up.
Quick q's: what sound-cards do you and the above beta tester have? What speaker systems? (Apparently there are different probs with analog and digital systems...).
#6
04/24/2004 (5:31 pm)
The one I tested on is a powerbook 867 - nothing special, and using the internal speakers. Matthew will have to answer which one(s) he was testing on.
#7
04/24/2004 (5:32 pm)
Cameron: It's a brand new issue. The new OpenAL version was released April 21th - not even enough time for people to start having problems ;-)
#8
I was using the on-board sound, analog speakers. (I've still got my Mac SBLive card that's useless since Creative screwed us over, but it's not installed...)
Incidentally, an older version can be found at
ftp://opensource.creative.com/pub/sdk/OpenAL_Installer_10_1.bin
(It's actually listed as ver 1.0.5 in-game)
04/28/2004 (1:01 pm)
Sorry for the long reply - wasn't subscribed to this for some reason...I was using the on-board sound, analog speakers. (I've still got my Mac SBLive card that's useless since Creative screwed us over, but it's not installed...)
Incidentally, an older version can be found at
ftp://opensource.creative.com/pub/sdk/OpenAL_Installer_10_1.bin
(It's actually listed as ver 1.0.5 in-game)
#9
I'm not sure what to say on this just yet, other than that OpenAL 1.2 on Mac seems to have problems with a few games.
Off-topic a bit, I have also been wrestling with the new Ogg/Vorbis code on Mac over the past couple days. Their Framework setup is difficult to work with... I couldn't get it to embed properly (without refering at all to absolute directories), and it needs to be embedded unless OS X Frameworks offer version guarantees a la COM (I don't think they do, but I could be wrong).
Anyway, I don't have a lot of time to devote to Mac stuff, but I will try to look into what's going on with OAL1.2 stuff.
In the mean time, thanks for the link to the old OpenAL drivers.
04/29/2004 (6:28 pm)
Thanks Matthew.I'm not sure what to say on this just yet, other than that OpenAL 1.2 on Mac seems to have problems with a few games.
Off-topic a bit, I have also been wrestling with the new Ogg/Vorbis code on Mac over the past couple days. Their Framework setup is difficult to work with... I couldn't get it to embed properly (without refering at all to absolute directories), and it needs to be embedded unless OS X Frameworks offer version guarantees a la COM (I don't think they do, but I could be wrong).
Anyway, I don't have a lot of time to devote to Mac stuff, but I will try to look into what's going on with OAL1.2 stuff.
In the mean time, thanks for the link to the old OpenAL drivers.
#10
BTW, who's codebase for OpenAL are you using? I don't know if you're aware of it, but Ryan Gordan(?) w/ Epic have their own version that's got a lot of performance enhancements. (But it's not a complete implimentation.) Anyway, go check out www.icculus.org - I've met Ryan once and I wouldn't be surprised if he'd be happy to answer questions. (FWIW, the Unreal Engine games use a .dylib version of OpenAL that's easily replaced/updated in the app bundle...)
04/29/2004 (6:50 pm)
I'm still trying to grok a lot about modern programming and compiling, so I don't very well understand what static vs. dynamic, linking, and symbols are, but the docs that address backward compatibility w/ frameworks/bundles is at http://developer.apple.com/documentation/MacOSX/Conceptual/SystemOverview/Frameworks/chapter_46_section_1.htmlBTW, who's codebase for OpenAL are you using? I don't know if you're aware of it, but Ryan Gordan(?) w/ Epic have their own version that's got a lot of performance enhancements. (But it's not a complete implimentation.) Anyway, go check out www.icculus.org - I've met Ryan once and I wouldn't be surprised if he'd be happy to answer questions. (FWIW, the Unreal Engine games use a .dylib version of OpenAL that's easily replaced/updated in the app bundle...)
#11
04/30/2004 (8:49 am)
Matthew, that version is deprecated, and normally, its enhancements rolled back in the Apple sanctioned OpenAL implementation which can now be found in the OpenAL CVS (there was an announcement about this on the mac gaming dev lists a few weeks back)Quote: Apple is now officially backing OpenAL. A new, faster, implementation has been checked into the source repository (openal/macosx), and will become the preferred implementation very soon and make it into the installer. The existing codebase (openal/mac) will become the OS 8/9 codebase
Torque Owner Davis Ray Sickmon, Jr
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