[openal] Final testing for OpenAL Soft 1.17

Chris Robinson chris.kcat at gmail.com
Tue Nov 3 20:43:02 EST 2015


On 11/03/2015 08:21 AM, Michael Taboada wrote:
> Hi,
> I haven't looked at the latest HRTF extension, but does it include the
> ability to switch HRTF definitions while the program is running, or even
> choose which to use at all? This could be useful for apps that have some
> HRTF definitions for different types of people/heads, etc.
> Thanks,
> -Michael.

It does. The new alcResetDeviceSOFT function allows you to reset the 
device using a new attribute list, without any lasting interruption to 
any existing contexts (obviously there may be a short break in playback 
to reconfigure the output, but it starts right back up again ASAP).

Individual HRTF definitions can be selected by first enumerating them:

ALCint num_hrtfs;
alcGetIntegerv(device, ALC_NUM_HRTF_SPECIFIERS_SOFT, 1, &num_hrtfs);

Note that the device needs to be a valid, open device, not NULL, because 
individual devices may support different HRTFs. Then you can get 
human-readable strings (UTF-8 encoded) for each of the HRTFs using the 
new alcGetStringiSOFT function:

alcGetStringi(device, ALC_HRTF_SPECIFIER_SOFT, i);

where 0 <= i < num_hrtfs. Then an HRTF can be selected by passing it by ID:

ALCint attr[] = {
     ALC_HRTF_SOFT, ALC_TRUE,  /* Enable HRTF */
     ALC_HRTF_ID_SOFT, i, /* Select HRTF at index 'i' */
     0 /* end of list */
};

These attributes can then be passed to alcCreateContext or 
alcResetDeviceSOFT (in both cases the device's output is being 
(re)configured, the former just giving you a new context as well). 
Afterward, you can test if HRTF is in use by calling:

ALCint hrtf_enabled;
alcGetIntegerv(device, ALC_HRTF_SOFT, 1, &hrtf_enabled);

and you can get the name of the HRTF in use:

alcGetString(device, ALC_HRTF_SPECIFIER_SOFT);

There's an alhrtf example that shows it all in action.

Currently, OpenAL Soft names the HRTFs given it's filename, e.g. 
"default-44100.mhr" or "default-48000.mhr". Eventually, the lib and 
makehrtf utility will be able to use actual titles for them, something 
along the lines of "MIT KEMAR, 44.1khz" or "MIT KEMAR, 48khz".


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