[Openal] 5.1 sound

[Garin Hiebert]

> 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.

The fact that DirectSound has this has caused no end of troubles.   
Games would change the settings (sometimes without the user even  
being in control of the change!) and not change them back, and  
Creative would get a tech support call from the user wondering why  
half their speakers stopped working, etc.

It's also bad for the end user if the hardware can do an upmix on  
behalf of the user, but the game may overrides the user's setting.   
For instance, if the game renders to a stereo output (DirectSound,  
directly or though the OpenAL wrapper) but the user has a 5.1 setup,  
their hardware may be able to do an upmix.  If the game (knowing it  
is a stereo engine) forces the speaker mode to stereo, then the upmix  
goes away.

The bottom line -- we're trying to set up a scenario where the user  
is in control over speaker configuration and it is centralized rather  
than having every game be its own speaker-configuration app.

Garin