[openal] Final testing for OpenAL Soft 1.17

[Chris Robinson]

On 11/03/2015 08:29 AM, Victorious wrote:
> Hm, I remember having some difficulty in trying to get 3d sound
> working properly; there was 1) the issue of the panning changing
> abruptly if you're close to the source, and also 2) "faking" 3d
> objects. Could you implement functions that would fix 1 and make 2
> easier? Vaguely remember you mentioning the possibility of
> implementing some extensions for these.

I'm not sure what you mean by 2) "faking" 3d objects. In regards to 1, 
there's a couple points on that.

Firstly, the general behavior of avoiding abrupt transitions when a 
sound passes through the listener will be doable using the 
AL_EXT_SOURCE_RADIUS extension, which I intend to implement right after 
AL_SOFT_buffer_samples and AL_SOFT_buffer_sub_data are dropped/replaced. 
So that option's coming.

Secondly, the source radius might not be the optimal option, for some 
cases. The function of the source radius is to make sounds have less 
distinct origin points. A larger radius means you'd have a harder time 
localizing where the sound comes from, so the bigger and closer it is, 
the more all-encompassing it seems. If you prefer to maintain locality 
as it passes through, a better option may be to keep the source some 
distance away from the listener, and move it around in an arc as it 
passes through. The math to do that ranges from simple to complex 
depending on how many dimensions you care about.