A request of all game programmers
Author
If your game uses sound, please make it so if init''ing sound fails,
your program doesn''t crash, or display "ERROR!" and exit.
Just MsgBox or printf("Couldn''t Initialize Sound! Error: blah blah" ) and keep running.
I''ve found several demo''s from fellow GameDev''ers have this issue.
The reasoning for this:
a. Not everyone has a sound card.
Ok, I know 99.9% of people do. But I was stuck without one for a week, and I noticed most of my "indie" games, many of which have little to no sound, would not run at all. They just crashed out cause the could not init the audio.
b. MP3s! I''m a music addict, and it''s annoying to have to stop my music in order to play a game with little or no sound. (I''ve seen games that have NO sound, but require the audio device anyway !)
I know some people will say I''m "changing the game" by not playing the sound, but I''ve found most games make little use of the sound.
If your game does more than play some MIDI''s and BUWEEEP when you shoot, I''ll gladdly stop my music to play it.
Thanks for reading.
Travis Wells
quote:Original post by TravisWellsGood suggestion. Thanks.
Ok, I know 99.9% of people do. But I was stuck without one for a week, and I noticed most of my "indie" games, many of which have little to no sound, would not run at all. They just crashed out cause the could not init the audio.
500
I couldn''t agree more (well, I probably could, but I still agree a lot). And I know i suffered from the not-being-able-to-play-mp3-and-have-sound-in-games-at-the-same-time (although, it mostly wasn''t mp3s, but that isn''t the point) once upon a time. Then I changed the output plugin in winamp from waveOut to DirectSound, and nowdays it works quite fine. Just a thought.
quote:Original post by TravisWells
b. MP3s! I''m a music addict, and it''s annoying to have to stop my music in order to play a game with little or no sound. (I''ve seen games that have NO sound, but require the audio device anyway !)
I know some people will say I''m "changing the game" by not playing the sound, but I''ve found most games make little use of the sound.
If your game does more than play some MIDI''s and BUWEEEP when you shoot, I''ll gladdly stop my music to play it.
now i just have to wonder which games you found that wont work when you play mp3s. only know that from stone old soundcards/drivers and so far no piece of software kept me from playing mp3s in the background.
>If your game uses sound, please make it so if init'ing sound >fails, your program doesn't crash,
Actually, i found my game did exactly this when fux0rd my sound drivers by swapping sound cards around in my machine. Otherwise i probably wouldnt have noticed, and fixed it. It now reports that sound will be disabled, and continues.
[edited by - gibber on February 8, 2003 5:13:00 PM]
Actually, i found my game did exactly this when fux0rd my sound drivers by swapping sound cards around in my machine. Otherwise i probably wouldnt have noticed, and fixed it. It now reports that sound will be disabled, and continues.
[edited by - gibber on February 8, 2003 5:13:00 PM]
Definitely a worthy suggestion. I'll be implementing this (along with other fail-don't-exit features) in my upcoming engine. Thanks for increasing community awareness of the problem.
Later,
ZE.
//email me.//zealouselixir software.//msdn.//n00biez.//
miscellaneous links
[edited by - zealouselixir on February 8, 2003 5:26:20 PM]
Later,
ZE.
//email me.//zealouselixir software.//msdn.//n00biez.//
miscellaneous links
[edited by - zealouselixir on February 8, 2003 5:26:20 PM]
I''m currently programming an adventure game that is very dependent on sound. The game is practically centered around what the characters say. However, I plan on implimenting a text system that can be turned on/off and if the sound initialization fails will be used.
In any case there is very little excuse to have a game exit if the sound cannot be initialized.
In any case there is very little excuse to have a game exit if the sound cannot be initialized.
Get a halfway decent operating system and you''ll no longer have the mp3/game sound sharing issue.
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