Current sound extensions. FMOD vs. OpenAL vs. other...?

Questions
1

What are people using for audio these days? I’ve never used the FMOD extension, and haven’t used the OpenAL extension for ages, any opinions?

  • I’m looking to target web, but it would be convenient if it also worked on desktop (at least windows). I used a javascript sound lib for my asteroids game, which worked fine, but it was annoying to not be able to test or share desktop builds with sound.

  • I really only need: 1) Pitch variation, and 2) Pause- & resume-able sounds. The simpler and more lightweight way to get those, the better.

1 Like
2

OpenAL is simpler, but FMOD has more features. However OpenAL has everything what are you asking for.

It should be tested more on all platforms, it should work, but some adjustments may be needed on different platforms.

6 Likes
3

As @sergey.lerg said, if you’re looking for the lightweight option, go for OpenAL. FMOD is amazing if you want to do adaptive music and filters, but it’s pretty heavy-duty for your needs. It’s also not completely free. You can only release one game per year for free with it.

Having said that, just by having the tools to play with, we did some cool stuff with the sound of Interrogation that we didn’t know we wanted in the first place.

5 Likes
4

Use FMOD 100% if you are doing a commercial game @dapetcu21 has done an incredible job with the extension for it.

Doing platform specific audio bank compression is fast and easy. It’s kind of like texture profiles for audio. FMOD Studio has many convenient features which make it less necessary to use some other editors.

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5

Alright, cool. Thanks guys! I’ll try out OpenAL for now and look into FMOD for bigger, future projects.

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6

And what do you, guys, think about Debeat?

7

It looks cool, but it’s just a wrapper over the built-in sound library and that has some important limitations, like pausing, seeking, pitch shift…

2 Likes