[Openal] 5.1 sound

[Andrew McDonald]

Massimo wrote:
> Il gio, 2005-09-08 alle 17:43, dpeacock at creativelabs.com ha scritto:
>
>> ...under Windows, you can configure the card to output to headphones, 
>> stereo, 4 channel, 5.1, 6.1 or 7.1.
>
> This can be done thuru a panel right?
> I would like to know if it is planned to give this functionality to some 
> AL function (maybe an extension).
> I see DirectX audio has this call but I think I've read it would take some 
> effort to make it work on Linux (I believe it still needs to edit some 
> kind of file but I'm not used to this).
> I ask this mainly because I noticed the last two games I took a look at 
> (one based on GameByro the other on Unreal Technology 2 I think) allowed 
> the user to change the setting from inside the game. Although I realize 
> this is just a minor feature, I believe it would be nice to have it 
> avaiable.

No, this shouldn't be done by the application. If you read the docs for
IDirectSound8::SetSpeakerConfig() (the DirectX call you mentioned), you'll 
see:

"Note: This function controls a global Windows setting that affect all users 
and applications on the system. It is provided only for use by configuration 
utilities provided by audio device vendors.  No other applications should 
call it."

What speakers the user has connected to their machine is really a system 
setting, and isn't really associated with the game. Plus if we add that 
functionality in, then it opens a whole can of worms with people wanting 
direct access to the channels etc.

--
Andrew