thats a point phill if both can be supported and then have it autoswitch or have an option in a menu to switch if the system finds both, in my system for example where I have all the libs for just about everything that needs to exist I'd like that. At 07:08 p.m. 22/03/2010, you wrote: >Hi Thomas, > >My vote goes to DirectSound. All cons considered it is rock solid, and it's >been tried and tested for 10 years. XAudio2 is the future, certainly, but not >quite yet in my mind. Eventually I intend making Streemway support both >DirectSound and XAudio2 and adjust itself depending on Windows version, and >since Streemway has a wrapper API I don't need to modify my own games to >integrate this; just Streemway itself. > >Kind regards, > >Philip Bennefall >----- Original Message ----- From: "Thomas Ward" <[email protected]> >To: "Gamers Discussion list" <[email protected]> >Sent: Monday, March 22, 2010 7:01 AM >Subject: [Audyssey] DirectSound or XAudio > > >>Hi all, >>As most of you know I've spent the last three or four months >>converting my engine code from C# .NET to C++. At last after >>three/four months of hard work the engine is almost ready to begin >>using for building Mysteries of the Ancients beta 11. The one area of >>the engine I haven't quite completed though is the sound core. >>Initially I was using FMOD Ex 4.28, which is fine, but as you may know >>that requires a special license to use in commercial products. When >>incorperated into a game engine the license costs a lot more. I really >>don't have the money right now to pay for the license so I've been >>thinking about using DirectSound 8 or XAudio2.What I'm looking for is >>some educated advice which I should use for my engine. >>On one hand I know DirectSound 8 is old, is now technically moved to >>the legacy branch of DirectX, but it also is quite stable and very >>backwards compatible with older Windows releases. Plus Windows XP, >>Vista, and Windows 7 all come with it installed so no need to upgrade >>DirectX to use it. Thus if I go with DirectSound 8 I don't have to >>install anything extra, or ask anyone to upgrade DirectX. All of these >>things are compelling reasons for choosing DirectSound 8. >>On the other hand XAudio2 looks very promising. For one thing it is a >>lot newer, is designed for Windows releases beyond Windows 7, and is >>currently being supported by Microsoft. This means going with it now >>will save me some trouble upgrading my games when the time comes that >>DirectSound is officially removed from DirectX altogether, but nobody >>knows when that will be.Too many games and other multimedia products >>depend on DirectSound to just up and drop it as Microsoft well knows. >>They probably won't drop it completely until XAudio2 has fully >>replaced DirectSound for newer games and other multimedia products. So >>the fact that XAudio2 is current doesn't necessarily mean DirectSound >>is a bad option. It just means my games will be more up to date so to >>speak. >>However, as i said before there are some features that make it >>promising. For one thing I see according to the docs you can play and >>stream some compressed file types like wma and xwma. This is obviously >>a great feature as some music and ambience tracks can be quite big. >>Having support for some compressed file types makes it a good choice >>in that regard. >>Besides that XAudio2 has some improvements in DSP support and can be >>used to mix sounds for 5.1 and 7.1 sound cards which is very good >>since the fact we depend on an entire audio environment to begin with. >>The more realistic sounding the mixer is the more realistic the game's >>audio environment will be. However, even though a game may support >>such a high tech sound environment most of my customers are likely to >>be stuck with some budget sound card like a Soundmax AC-97 that >>shipped with their computer. So I'm not really certain that putting >>extra work into specifically supporting 5.1 or 7.1 mixing will do them >>a whole heck of a lot of good without the higher end hardware. If this >>is the case then Xaudio2 3d mixing won't be much better than >>DirectSound's 3d mixing if they don't have the equipment to take >>advantage of the better 3d mixing. Any thoughts here? >>Has anyone actually sat down and compared these two APIs and have a >>better list of pros and cons? More to the point which do you think I >>should pick? I can basically use either one right now, and I should be >>able to update the engine in a day or so once I figure out which to >>use for the project. >> >>Thanks. >> >>--- >>Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] >>If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. >>You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at >>http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. >>All messages are archived and can be searched and read at >>http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. >>If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, >>please send E-mail to [email protected]. > > >--- >Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] >If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. >You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at >http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. >All messages are archived and can be searched and read at >http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. >If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, >please send E-mail to [email protected].
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