[openal] alcSuspend/ProcessContext behavior?

Chris Robinson chris.kcat at gmail.com
Mon Sep 21 06:10:43 EDT 2015


I partly solved the issue, which was due to my own fault. I wasn't 
updating internal listener properties when suspending a context forced 
an update. However, there's still a remaining issue.

OpenAL Soft's suspend behavior includes deferring alSourcePlay and 
alSourcePause calls, so if those calls are made while a context is 
suspended, they won't take effect until processed. The idea there is 
two-fold: for one, it provides a way for an app to "stop" one sound and 
play another at the same time by pausing one source and playing another 
while updates are deferred, and second, it avoids some messiness with a 
source needing to be updated before playing with property changes that 
were deferred.

Consequently, the app plays a sound while updates are suspended, which 
defers the play state change, and then checks sources to see if any 
aren't playing before updates are processed. As a result, it sees the 
source as not playing and cleans it up before it gets a chance to play.

The only way I can think to fix this is to report the deferred state 
when AL_SOURCE_STATE is queried, but this would be a lie. The app would 
see a source as paused while it's continuing to play and advance, or see 
it as playing while it's not advancing.


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