OpenAL Audio Server
Contents |
Project Overview
Rich, 3D environments need sound to provide the user a feeling of complete immersion. When visualization is provided by a cluster of computers, the sound processing can be handled by a dedicated machine that is in turn connected to the speakers and other audio equipment. The OpenAL Audio Server (OAS) provides this functionality via a network interface on a Linux machine. OAS is based loosely on the aging Windows DirectSound AudioServer project by Marc Schreier, and is backwards compatible.
Status
- Server Backend
-- The backend of the server is functional. Connections can be made, instructions and audio files can be sent, and audio can be played, stopped, moved, etc.
-- All network input and output is handled by a dedicated thread that parses the input into discrete audio instructions and queues it up.
-- A separate thread retrieves these instructions from the queue and performs the desired action (i.e. play sound, move sound position, etc.)
-- File format support is limited only by the OpenAL extensions that are installed on the audio server.
-- Server is persistent and stable between different connections.
-- Server settings (port, cache directory, etc.) are read from an XML configuration file.
- Server Frontend
-- The frontend of the server uses FLTK and currently consists of a tabbed interface.
-- The frontend also resides in its own thread, allowing the user interface to operate independently from the backend of the server.
-- Errors are displayed in bold, warnings are displayed in italics, and informative messages contain no special formatting.
- Client API
-- Undergoing testing.
To-Do
- Extend the osgAudio nodekit to add support for the OAS client API
- Add server support for instructions that modify listener position and orientation.
- Add more goodies to the front-end (i.e. visual and tabular representation of sound sources)
- Refactor threading system so that the main thread has more complete possession of other threads
Future Work
- Enhance sockets code to add support for multiple connected clients. Asynchronous socket I/O.
Participants
Software Developers:
Project Advisors:
Misc. Development Assistance:
- Philip Weber
- Andrew Prudhomme
Initial Concept Base:
