[Openal] latency

[Chris Robinson]

On Saturday 21 February 2009 4:27:06 am Jarryd Beck wrote:
> Is it possible to send messages back to the sender to say that you don't
> want any more data for a while? You could have some sort of "ideal buffer
> window", you could have say 50 buffers available, and the ideal is between
> 20 and 30, if it drops above or below you tell the sender to either slow
> down or speed up respectively.

Ultimately it comes down to the sound card. If one sound card captures 8khz 
audio faster than another card plays 8khz audio, you will build up more 
samples than you can play, regardless of how it's sent. This happens because a 
sound card (same as a graphics card and the motherboard) has its own internal 
clock, and no two clocks are precisely in sync. It can happen just as easily 
(if not more-so) over a network as it can on the same machine with two sound 
cards.

The question is what to do with the build-up. Drop the excess to get back to 
manageable amounts, or play it faster to get back to manageable amounts? Or 
some other thing I haven't thought of.