Best Sound API?
Author
I've been thinking about using OpenAL for my audio engine just due to its similar model to OpenGL, which is the graphics API I'm using, but I can't be sure since I don't have much experiance in terms of implementing audio in my applications. Any suggestions on a good sound API for C++ and FL Studio?
I've been thinking about using OpenAL for my audio engine just due to its similar model to OpenGL, which is the graphics API I'm using, but I can't be sure since I don't have much experiance in terms of implementing audio in my applications. Any suggestions on a good sound API for C++ and FL Studio?
I've had an excellent experience with FMOD (www.fmod.org), but it does depend on how complex the audio design for your game will be. If you want your game to make some noise and play music tracks, then OpenAL is quick and simple to set up and supports a variety of platforms, but if you want an all-singing-all-dancing event-based audio subsystem with UI tools and advanced effects then OpenAL has been a little outdated for years.
What would you like to achieve?
Another vote for FMOD if you're looking for something a bit more complex than just playing file X over and over and loading/off loading one hit SFX. Plus Fmod support is FANTASTIC!
Author
What would you like to achieve?[/quote]
I'd like as much flexability as possible, as well as performance, so I'm probably going to stay away from OpenAL now. I've taken a look at FMOD's site and I'm amazed at how many games use it, as well as how active their community is.
So I'll try FMOD out, unless if there's anything else that seems to be better than that. This looks really promising, though.
EDIT: I see that the licensing fee for FMOD is nearly $10,000, so I can't use that for my games at the moment. Any other ideas?
EDIT: I see that the licensing fee for FMOD is nearly $10,000, so I can't use that for my games at the moment. Any other ideas?
Actually you're looking at the "big boys" (i.e. Nintendo, Sony, etc) licensing section. For more casual projects this is their rate structure:
FMOD Casual License
This license is intended for budget titles released electronically, including Xbox Live Arcade, Sony PSN, Nintendo WiiWare, low price mobile, and PC.
Licensing for 1 title
ProductDescriptionCost for 1 title FMOD Ex (including Designer) First Platform $ 3,000 USD FMOD Ex (including Designer) Subsequent Platforms $ 1,500 USD FMOD Ex (including Designer) iOS/PSP Mini/Android $ 500 USD(taken from: http://www.fmod.org/index.php/sales)
[/quote]
$3,000 is much cheaper than $10,000 but it could still be beyond what is possible for your project. The nice part is you only have to pay the license when your game is published. Until then you can freely download and work with the tools so you could potentially put everything together then seek funding and use your functional game as a demonstration.
Author
Alright, that is a bit better. IMHO I'd rather stay away from any payed resources for my games that go over $1000, really. Don't get me wrong on this, it still looks like a fantastic API and I may even use it just to get insight on audio APIs in general, but I'd rather save expensive publishing licenses as a last resort for now. This still looks like a good idea to have in mind, though.
Any other ideas? For now I want to highlight the main tools out there that I can use when programming my games. I've google searched "audio API" and there's plenty of results out there, I'm just not sure which one to pick.
Any other ideas? For now I want to highlight the main tools out there that I can use when programming my games. I've google searched "audio API" and there's plenty of results out there, I'm just not sure which one to pick.
...So... OpenAL I suppose? What is the difference between that and FMod?
OpenAL, from what I remember when I worked with it, doesn't have nearly the same amount of ready-made tools and interfaces for the audio creator/implementer to work with. Also FMOD has a much deeper music system that can allow for full customization of when and how music cues transition from each other, add or subtract layers and many other things.
Author
OpenAL, from what I remember when I worked with it, doesn't have nearly the same
amount of ready-made tools and interfaces for the audio creator/implementer to
work with.[/quote]
Is this something that a DAW such as FL Studio could supplement for? Or is that completely different from the feature set of FMOD?
OpenAL is just a low level API for sound play back; the features that FMOD has above and beyond it would have to be built on top of it by a programmer.
(As a side note I'm suprised by the FMOD licensing as I seem to recall them having a cheaper option when I last looked... oh well...).
This has no relation to a DAW; you'd use FLStudio to render out your audio (be it sound fx or music) to something like WAV or Ogg format (or MP3 but that has licensing issues attached to it) and then load that in your program and present it to the API in much the same was as you'd use something like Blender to make a model which is then exported and loaded for display via OpenGL.
(As a side note I'm suprised by the FMOD licensing as I seem to recall them having a cheaper option when I last looked... oh well...).
This has no relation to a DAW; you'd use FLStudio to render out your audio (be it sound fx or music) to something like WAV or Ogg format (or MP3 but that has licensing issues attached to it) and then load that in your program and present it to the API in much the same was as you'd use something like Blender to make a model which is then exported and loaded for display via OpenGL.
This topic is closed to new replies.
Advertisement
Popular Topics
Advertisement
