[Openal] Implementing an adjustable master volume

[Chris Robinson]

On Thursday 15 May 2008 01:14:22 am Jörn Koch wrote:
> My question is how this listener gain interacts with OS volume controls.
> Can I be certain that the user will hear something if the listener gain
> is 1.0 even if the master volume control of the Windows mixer is set to
> zero or do these controls overwrite the gain set in OpenAL?

IMO, the OpenAL listener gain should always be affected by the OS's master 
volume controls. Whether or not this is always the case, I don't know (the 
spec doesn't seem to mention).

> If the OpenAL gain is indeed affected by OS volume controls, what is the
> best way to handle this? Implement OS specific code to control the OS
> mixer controls or is there a general way of doing this?

An app should never ever change the master volume controls, IMO, without at 
least being very explicit that it is doing so. Nothing more annoying than 
getting the volume controls all set great via the Windows mixer or alsamixer, 
then having some app come along thinking it knows better, and changes it all 
up.

The best way to handle it, IMO, is to just ignore any other volume controls. 
Have a listener gain of 1.0 as the max volume for the app, 0.5 as 50%, etc. 
Any further adjustments should be up to the user to take care of themselves.

IMHO. :)