[Openal] Using more than soundcard (w/o own DLL) at the same time

[Jason Daly]

Fabian Wickborn wrote:
> Is it possible to use both of these sound cards at the same time at all? Or
> do I have to fall back to a (non-preferred, believe me ;-) )
> DirectSound-based implementation of my application? If so, how is the
> situation with Linux? Will I be able to use OpenAL there like described
> above?
>   

Supposedly on the most recent Creative SDK, there's a new extension 
called ALC_ENUMERATE_ALL_EXT, which will give you the ability to 
enumerate individual cards ("Generic Hardware on Sigmatel Audio", for 
example).  I've not used it myself, so I'm not sure how it works, but 
Daniel Peacock from Creative just commented on it on the list yesterday.

Under Linux, at the moment your best bet will be to use ALSA to combine 
your two devices into one large virtual device.  Again, I don't have any 
experience with this myself, but I've heard it's possible.

Another possibility in Linux is to use two different backends (one for 
each device).  It's a bit of a hack, but it could work.  Say, for 
example your SigmaTel is your primary ALSA device (plughw:0) and your 
TerraTec card is at /dev/dsp1 using the OSS emulation features of ALSA.  
You could set up your .openalrc like this:

(define devices '(alsa oss))
(define alsa-out-device "plughw:0")
(define lin-dsp-write-path "/dev/dsp1")

Then open up the "alsa" and "oss" devices explicitly in your code.  I've 
just done this from memory, so it might not be exactly right, but it 
should give you a start.

--"J"