Need a good sound API

Hanan888

I'm developing a game application, with multiple windows, in C++ on Win32. My sound needs is to play a few short sounds when some events happen, plus some background music in the main menu.

CPallini

DiretcX Audio [^] doesn't fit your needs, does it? :)

If the Lord God Almighty had consulted me before embarking upon the Creation, I would have recommended something simpler. -- Alfonso the Wise, 13th Century King of Castile.
This is going on my arrogant assumptions. You may have a superb reason why I'm completely wrong. -- Iain Clarke

Hanan888

Thanks. I had a taste of DirectSound. My problem with it, takes me too long to figure out if I should explicitly stop a playing sound when switching focus to another window in my application or if it's done automatically somehow. According to XAudio2 Overview [^] : "For Windows game developers, XAudio2 is the long-awaited replacement for DirectSound". I would glad to read any recommendations / cons.

Hamid Taebi

Or you can use of MCI_PLAY[^] with an example[^].

Nibu babu thomas

Hanan888 wrote:

My sound needs is to play a few short sounds

Use sndPlaySound for playing short wav files.

Hanan888 wrote:

plus some background music

Use SND_ASYNC | SND_LOOP to asynchronously play in the background without stopping. e.g.

// Keeps playing in the background
sndPlaySound(_T( "C:\WIndows\Media\notify.wav", SND_ASYNC | SND_LOOP );

Another option is PlaySound. These API's are pretty limited but quite handy!

Nibu babu thomas Microsoft MVP for VC++ Code must be written to be read, not by the compiler, but by another human being. Programming Blog: http://nibuthomas.wordpress.com

modified on Thursday, June 19, 2008 9:39 AM

Saurabh Garg

Have you tried SDL[^]? Saurabh-

Hamid Taebi · modified on Thursday, June 19, 2008 9:39 AM

I wanted to tell him sndPlaySound but I forgot its name :laugh: .

Nibu babu thomas

:)

Nibu babu thomas Microsoft MVP for VC++ Code must be written to be read, not by the compiler, but by another human being. Programming Blog: http://nibuthomas.wordpress.com

Mark Salsbery

Hanan888 wrote:

My problem with it, takes me too long to figure out if I should explicitly stop a playing sound when switching focus to another window

Huh? You'll have the same problem (whatever the problem is) with any of the audio APIs. DirectSound handles all the mixing for you so it should be the simplest to use. It's used in a LOT of games. XAudio2 is great/new but for XP SP2+ only if that's an issue.

Mark Salsbery Microsoft MVP - Visual C++ :java:

jkvato

You could also use a 3rd party audio library. I've tinkered with the following two: http://www.fmod.org/[^] http://www.un4seen.com/[^] They are overkill, perhaps, but they'll do what you need them to do. They are free for non-commercial use. They also have shareware licenses and full commercial licenses. Good luck!

Hanan888

Thanks.

Mark Salsbery wrote:

XAudio2 is great/new but for XP SP2+ only if that's an issue

Can you please be specific about that ?

Hanan888

Thanks. Cool example, haven't still figured out if MCI is good for me. Have you had any experience using it ?

Hanan888

Thanks. I once looked at SDL documentation and I thought, using SDL is something that I might use to build the entire application, not to add functionality. Am I wrong ?

Saurabh Garg

I am not sure what you mean by "building an entire application" vs "adding functionality". SDL can be used to play sound. This is from the documentation. 1. Set audio playback of 8-bit and 16-bit audio, mono or stereo, with optional conversion if the format is not supported by the hardware. 2. Audio runs independently in a separate thread, filled via a user callback mechanism. 3. Designed for custom software audio mixers, but the example archive contains a complete audio/music output library. -Saurabh

Mark Salsbery

Hanan888 wrote:

Can you please be specific about that ?

It's not supported on unsupported operating systems, which means all OSs before XP. Mark

Mark Salsbery Microsoft MVP - Visual C++ :java:

Hamid Taebi

Yeah,you can use of MCI for play mp3,wav,mpeg1,mpeg2,avi files.