OpenAL Specification and Reference | ||
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To the implementor, OpenAL is a set of commands that affect the operation of CPU and sound hardware. If the hardware consists only of an addressable output buffer, then OpenAL must be implemented almost entirely on the host CPU. In some cases audio hardware provides DSP-based and other acceleration in various degress. The OpenAL implementors task is to provide the CPU software interface while dividing the work for each AL command between the CPU and the audio hardware. This division should be tailored to the available audio hardware to obtain optimum performance in carrying out AL calls.
OpenAL maintains a considerable amount of state information. This state controls how the Sources are rendered into the output buffer. Some of this state is directly available to the user: he or she can make calls to obtain its value. Some of it, however, is visible only by the effect it has on what is rendered. One of the main goals of this specification is to make OpenAL state information explicit, to eludicate how it changes, and to indicate what its effects are.
![]() | Annotation (Native audio APIs) |
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Implementors can choose to implement OpenAL on top of an existing native audio API. |
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