Re: my intro, and seeking basic tutorials for OpenAL with OS10

Thanks for the video link, that was very interesting and explained a lot!

What I failed to say in my first post is that I am blind (hence the audio game project). I looked, but was unable to locate your book on http://www.bookshare.org, a website offering those with visual or learning disabilities digital versions of books. I realize that other online sources may offer the book in digital form, but none of those will allow me to read it in braille like bookshare.org will. With any subject involving coding or math, braille is essential; imagine having someone read a block of code aloud to you, meaning you can't "see" the exact punctuation or quickly go back to a chunk of code. Braille eliminates these problems.

In any case, I think the Apple-provided example you mentioned, the one that lets the user manipulate different parameters, would be a good starting point. Unfortunately, even though I have installed Xcode, I am unable to locate this or any other example. Do you happen to know where it is, or from where all these examples may be downloaded?

My main focus for now is on Mac development; once I get Objective-C, Xcode, and so on down with that I may consider shelling out the $100 to develop iOS apps (remember that Apple's screen reader, Voiceover, is not useable on iOS simulators so I would need to sign my apps to test them on my personal phone). Much of what I see, though, is specifically iOS, so how much of that can I expect to run on 10.8's version of OpenAL?

Thanks again for your response. I am hoping that, once I can see an example of the basics (loading sounds, playing them, and manipulating them) the rest will be simply implementing my ideas in Objective-c. Oh, I almost forgot: you never stated in the video what the source limit is on OS10, but I'm assuming it is 32 from the discussion you had near the end of the video. Is that correct? To "release" a source, do you literally have to call the release method? If so, does that destroy the source, or (virtually) set it aside? Sorry if that gets more into Objective-c than OpenAL.
On Jan 19, 2013, at 5:04 PM, Eric Wing <[email protected]> wrote:

> On 1/19/13, Alex Hall <[email protected]> wrote:
>> Hello,
>> I am new to Objective-c but want to learn it. One project I have in mind is
>> an audio-only game, for which OpenAL will be needed. Apple's documentation
>> mentions OpenAL in the context of the Core Audio framework, but I am
>> confused as to how to use OpenAL. I can import it directly, but the docs
>> seem to suggest that Apple has an easier-to-use interface for OpenAL rather
>> than using it by itself.
> 
> Core Audio is a big framework which encompasses a lot. The image proxy
> for my video shows the iOS (and also Mac if you ignore
> AudioSesionServices) API stack.
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QQAzhwalPI
> 
> At the lowest level, Core Audio gives you a lot more control over
> things than OpenAL. But if you don't need that, it might be a wash
> between OpenAL and Core Audio, though Core Audio is also challenging
> to learn and much bigger. If you need portability to other platforms,
> OpenAL wins.
> 
>> So, my questions:
>> 1. Does anyone know if there is an interface to OpenAL? If so, could you
>> point me toward docs explaining it, or at least where to find the header
>> files on the Mac?
> 
> Apple fully supports OpenAL as a standard framework that ships with
> the OS. On Mac, it is in in
> /System/Library/Frameworks/OpenAL.framework.
> (Headers and libraries are inside which is their standard framework layout.)
> 
>> 2. Can anyone provide a basic tutorial on OpenAL itself? I found one, but it
>> is from 2002 and will, I fear, be so out of date that I will be unable to
>> apply much of what I learn.
> 
> I wrote a book on it :) See my signature and link at the bottom.
> 
>> Keep in mind that my (relatively limited) programming has all been with
>> Python, Java, and web languages, so tutorials that gloss over advanced code
>> will be of limited benefit. Thank you in advance for any help you may be
>> able to provide.
> 
> I also wrote a higher level library called ALmixer which is open
> source. It is used by the Corona SDK which has Lua bindings to it.
> (Check their website for their audio api.) This might be a way you can
> get your head around the transition considering your background. The
> mappings are pretty close between Corona and the actual ALmixer C-API,
> though the OpenAL source stuff was hidden in plain sight so only users
> who needed it would know about it (Google: corona secret audio apis).
> 
> -Eric
> -- 
> Beginning iPhone Games Development
> http://playcontrol.net/iphonegamebook/



Have a great day,
Alex (msg sent from Mac Mini)
[email protected]




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