Alure

Alure is a C++ 3D audio API. It uses OpenAL for audio rendering, and provides common higher-level features such as file loading and decoding, buffer caching, background streaming, and source management for virtually unlimited sound source handles.

Features

Alure supports 3D sound rendering based on standard OpenAL features. Extra 3D sound features may be available depending on the extensions supported by OpenAL (newer versions of OpenAL Soft provide the necessary extensions and is thus recommended, but is not required if those features aren't of interest).

Environmental audio effects are supported with the ALC_EXT_EFX extension. This provides multi-zone reverb, sound occlusion and obstruction (simulating sounds being behind doors or walls), and atmospheric air absorption.

Binaural (HRTF) rendering is provided with the ALC_SOFT_HRTF extension. When used with headphones, this provides an unparalleled sense of 3D sound positioning. Multiple and custom profiles can also be select from to get a closer match for different people.

Alure supports decoding audio files using external libraries: VorbisFile, OpusFile, libFLAC, libsndfile, and libmpg123. A built-in standard wave file reader is also available, supporting basic PCM formats. Application-defined decoders are also supported in case the default set are insufficient.

And much more...

Building

- Dependencies -

Before even building, Alure requires the OpenAL development files installed, for example, through Creative's OpenAL SDK (available from openal.org) or from OpenAL Soft. Additionally you will need a C++11 or above compliant compiler to be able to build Alure.

These following dependencies are only needed to automatically support the formats they handle;

• ogg : ogg playback
• vorbis : ogg vorbis playback
• flac : flac playback
• opusfile : opus playback
• SndFile : various multi-format playback
• mpg123 : mpeg audio playback

Two of the packaged examples require the following dependencies to be built.

• PhysFS : alure-physfs
• dumb : alure-dumb

If any dependency isn't found at build time the relevant decoders or examples will be disabled and skipped during build.

- Windows -

If your are using MinGW-w64, the easiest way to get all of the dependencies above is to use MSYS2, which has up-to-date binaries for all of the optional and required dependencies above (so you don't need to build each from scratch).

Follow the MSYS2 installation guide and then look for each dependency on MSYS2 package repo and pacman -S [packagename] each package to acquire all dependencies.

After acquiring all dependencies, you will need to make sure that the includes, libraries, and binaries for each file are in your path. For most dependencies this isn't a big deal, if you are using msys these directories are simply msys/mingw64/bin, msys/mingw64/lib and msys/mingw64/include. However the cmake file for Alure requires you to use the direct directory where OpenAL Soft headers are located (so instead of msys/mingw64/include, it's msys/mingw64/include/AL).

After cmake generation you should have something that looks like the following output if you have every single dependency:

-- Found OpenAL: C:/msys64/mingw64/lib/libopenal.dll.a
-- Performing Test HAVE_STD_CXX11
-- Performing Test HAVE_STD_CXX11 - Success
-- Performing Test HAVE_WALL_SWITCH
-- Performing Test HAVE_WALL_SWITCH - Success
-- Performing Test HAVE_WEXTRA_SWITCH
-- Performing Test HAVE_WEXTRA_SWITCH - Success
-- Found OGG: C:/msys64/mingw64/lib/libogg.dll.a
-- Found VORBIS: C:/msys64/mingw64/lib/libvorbisfile.dll.a
-- Found FLAC: C:/msys64/mingw64/lib/libFLAC.dll.a
-- Found OPUS: C:/msys64/mingw64/lib/libopusfile.dll.a
-- Found SndFile: C:/msys64/mingw64/lib/libsndfile.dll.a
-- Found MPG123: C:/msys64/mingw64/lib/libmpg123.dll.a
-- Found PhysFS: C:/msys64/mingw64/lib/libphysfs.dll.a
-- Found DUMB: C:/msys64/mingw64/lib/libdumb.dll.a
-- Configuring done
-- Generating done
-- Build files have been written to: .../alure/cmake-build-debug

Use make install to install Alure library in C:\Program Files (x86) for it to be available on your system. Otherwise simply run make to build the library and each example you have the dependencies for. Note if you use mingw (or mingw-w64, the name is the same for both) you may need to use mingw32-make.exe instead of make, and make sure that file is located in your path. Note you may need to run make install as admin.

- Linux -

If you are using Ubuntu, many of the pre-requisites may be installed, however you may find that many of the header files are not. Here is the full list of packages that must be installed. The list is in the format:

[dependency name]: [library package name], [header package name]

• openal-soft : libopenal1, libopenal-dev
• ogg : libogg0, libogg-dev
• vorbis : libvorbis0a, libvorbis-dev
• flac : libflac8, and libflac-dev
• opusfile : libopusfule0, libopusfile-dev
• SndFile : libsndfile1, libsndfile1-dev
• mpg123 : libmpg123-0, libmpg123-dev
• physfs : libphysfs1, libphysfs1-dev
• dumb : libdumb1, libdumb1-dev

For each package pair, run sudo apt-get install [packagename]. After doing so you should get a cmake output that looks something like:

-- Found OpenAL: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libopenal.so
-- Performing Test HAVE_STD_CXX11
-- Performing Test HAVE_STD_CXX11 - Success
-- Performing Test HAVE_WALL_SWITCH
-- Performing Test HAVE_WALL_SWITCH - Success
-- Performing Test HAVE_WEXTRA_SWITCH
-- Performing Test HAVE_WEXTRA_SWITCH - Success
-- Performing Test HAVE_GCC_DEFAULT_VISIBILITY
-- Performing Test HAVE_GCC_DEFAULT_VISIBILITY - Success
-- Performing Test HAVE_VISIBILITY_HIDDEN_SWITCH
-- Performing Test HAVE_VISIBILITY_HIDDEN_SWITCH - Success
-- Found OGG: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libogg.so
-- Found VORBIS: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libvorbisfile.so
-- Found FLAC: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libFLAC.so
-- Found OPUS: /usr/lib/libopusfile.so
-- Found SndFile: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libsndfile.so
-- Found MPG123: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libmpg123.so
-- Found PhysFS: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libphysfs.so
-- Found DUMB: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libdumb.so
-- Configuring done
-- Generating done
-- Build files have been written to: .../alure/cmake-build-debug

Use sudo make install to install Alure library on your system. Otherwise simply run make to build the library and each example you have the dependencies for.

- OSX -

$ cd <path-to-repo>
$ mkdir build && cd build
$ cmake .. # -DCMAKE_INSTAL_PREFIX=<where-to-install-optionally>
$ cmake --build . -- -j4
$ make install # to install to specified destination or system default