Re: [openvrml-develop] OpenAL sound support in OpenVRML

[Thomas F. <tf...@us...>]

Just a few comments about this

Braden McDaniel wrote:

>On Mon, 2002-04-08 at 10:41, -oli- wrote:
>
>>As I wrote some weeks ago, I'm going to integrate OpenAL-support for the 
>>sound in OpenVRML.
>>
>
>Okay. I'm gonna be a bit more explicit than I was before in order to
>ensure expectations are set appropriately. I don't want you to complete
>this project and then be surprised by its reception.
>
>I don't think OpenAL is the best solution for audio in OpenVRML. At one
>time it looked like it might be; however...
>
>        * OpenAL's primary user and developer (Loki) is no more.
>        * There was never a (successful?) attempt to package OpenAL in a
>          way that would be palatable to end-users and OS distributions.
>          Even now, the OpenAL Web site directs persons looking for
>          "1.0" to CVS. The project has reached 1.0, and there's *still*
>          not a tarball.
>
>So OpenAL is difficult for end-users to install, and prospects for
>continued support and development seem dim.
>

Loki hasn't really been involved with OpenAL for quite some time outside 
of hosting the site and CVS. Creative Labs has really been the main 
driver behind it. Creative has made distributions available on their 
developer site for Windows and Mac (see 
http://developer.creative.com/scripts/DC_D&H_Games-Downloads.asp?opt=2) 
and, from recent mail on the openal mailing list, has recently taken 
over hosting the CVS repository as well...

>
>What this means:
>
>        * *Yes*, I would accept a patch for OpenAL-based audio support.
>        * This support would be disabled by default. If someone wanted
>          to build with it, they'd need to configure with
>          "--with-openal" or somesuch.
>
This sounds reasonable.

Tom