jsut wondering, if people sell game engines for hundreds of dollars ($100-$300), would anyone buy a sound engine? maybe 10 dollars or something

Well, not for $10, but yes lisencing does occur for sound engines. Check out:

http://fmod.org/ and click on liscences at the top.

wow, $4,000 for a sound engine, that better be te best sound engine ever made

anyone got any feedback?

Quote:Original post by Avont29
wow, $4,000 for a sound engine, that better be te best sound engine ever made

Well, I can't speak for the newfangled EX or FX or whatever stuff, but the good old FMod would have to be one of the most pleasurable libraries that I've ever worked with. It's very well designed and has excellent features available through a minimal and simple interface. It's also efficient.

You might find game engines for $100 to $300, but there is a whole other class out there at around the ~$5,000 - $200,000 mark [UE, id, RE (well, not anymore), RenderWare, Gamebryo, that sort of thing]. And those pricing points are what FMod really caters to.

Of course, as with game engines, you should be able to find free sound engines. But I haven't really seen any for $10. It seems like it'd be more effort and cost to collect that kind of money than you'd actually make from it.

--CJM

umm... how old are you Avont29?

Quote:Original post by Anonymous Poster
umm... how old are you Avont29?

im 15, im not slow or retarded or anything, i never knew sound engines sell that high, because they aren't really hard to make, of course i havn't considered the fact that you would have to program every single that deals with sounds, loading, playing recodering, a lot of work if you think about it.....wow, $200,000

Sound engines are not that hard... way easier than the visibility or collision detection components of a 3D engine. But if you're a big studio it's usually worth the time to buy a third party product that's been debugged, tested, works, comes with documentation and support, etc. This is true with most things. You don't usually see game studios develop their own 3D modellers, right?

Sometimes you get a tech lead that will think he's better than those guys that are selling a $4,000 sound engine and try and write his own. It will work sure but it might have cost $50,000, and probably not be documented, nor supported when he leaves.

Also a true "game engine" would also include a sound engine, even if its OpenAL (doesn't Unreal do this?) Otherwise it's like selling a lawn mower without a blade, IMO.

I suggest every game programmer learn how sound works. Otherwise you're like a general contractor that doesn't know how a toilet works. It's really cool to hear that first 440Hz sine wave come through that you're finally figured out how to stream to the sound card.