There's fairly detailed Wikipedia article on DirectSound, with reference links for further reading.

As for immediate successors, many games developed during the WinXP -> Vista -> Win7 transitional period used OpenAL.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2023-10-03, 18:18:

There's fairly detailed Wikipedia article on DirectSound, with reference links for further reading.

As for immediate successors, many games developed during the WinXP -> Vista -> Win7 transitional period used OpenAL.

Yes there was OpenAL, but did MS offer nothing in that period?

That links to DSound. I mentioned DSound3D

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2023-10-03, 18:40:

That links to DSound. I mentioned DSound3D

From the article that I linked:

In DirectX 8, DirectSound and DirectSound3D (DS3D) were officially merged and given the name DirectX Audio, however the API is still commonly referred to as DirectSound.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2023-10-03, 18:46:

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2023-10-03, 18:40:

That links to DSound. I mentioned DSound3D

From the article that I linked:

In DirectX 8, DirectSound and DirectSound3D (DS3D) were officially merged and given the name DirectX Audio, however the API is still commonly referred to as DirectSound.

To be specific I am talking about the old, before merger, DirectSound3D... it performs HRTF, thats' all I know...

There is some additional info in the reference links of the Wikipedia article:

• Overview of DirectSound Hardware Acceleration
• KSNODETYPE_3D_EFFECTS
• KSDS3D_BUFFER_ALL
• KSDS3D_LISTENER_ALL

I'm not sure if that info is from before the merger or after, but it might be relevant. Anyhow, from personal experience, I can say that DirectSound3D allows 5.1 surround sound in certain games. Some of those are documented in this thread.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2023-10-03, 19:11:

There is some additional info in the reference links of the Wikipedia article: […]
Show full quote

There is some additional info in the reference links of the Wikipedia article:

• Overview of DirectSound Hardware Acceleration
• KSNODETYPE_3D_EFFECTS
• KSDS3D_BUFFER_ALL
• KSDS3D_LISTENER_ALL

I'm not sure if that info is from before the merger or after, but it might be relevant. Anyhow, from personal experience, I can say that DirectSound3D allows 5.1 surround sound in certain games. Some of those are documented in this thread.

GTA Vice City has DSOUND3D HW acceleration, and there is DSOUND HW acceleration. I am quite unsure how Dsound3d sw emulation (which is default for gtavc nowadays) has been running smoothly for P4 users with AC'97 chips. Could it be that dsound3d sw is just plain Dsound?

Edit: A remarkably good read: http://shanekirk.com/2015/10/a-brief-history- … ows-audio-apis/

From the Link in my prev message, I come to the following conclusion:

Wave Mapper (broadly, WINMM) was the predecessor of Dsound

XAudio2 is the successor of DSound

2007-2008, when Vista launched and there was no XAudio2, MS still supported Dsound, but only in SW mode. This should mean the earliest DX10 libaries should contain DirectSound too. The only HW accelerated API back then was OpenAL?

WASAPI is the spot of all sound sessions. It could be compared to DWM but not completely (DWM could be more definitely compared to its parent Core Audio API)

I will take some time to edit my first post, feel free to correct my interpretation if incorrect

Another confusion made from:
Re: indirect sound

jonpol talks about wanting to use Wasapi over XAudio2, but I interpret that XAudio2/Dsound has to stay on top of Wasapi and throw it's instructions on a wasapi sessions. If there's no XAudio2, then how?

I could assume that direct hardware programming for exclusive mode in Wasapi can remove the dependency of an API, but what for non-exclusive modes? Is this direct WASAPI usage a form of WDM/kernel streaming in Win9x (without using DSound)?

Also Wikiledia states XAudio2 runs on top of DSound in XP but Wasapi in Vista+, this makes DSound's successor Core Audio? Again XAudio2 runs on top of DSound on XP, is there a way to have XAudio2 over DSound over Wasapi on Vista+?

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2023-10-03, 18:18:

As for immediate successors, many games developed during the WinXP -> Vista -> Win7 transitional period used OpenAL.

I would not say. The OpenAL is a proprietary API from Creative.
Somebody tried to use it and happily forgot about it.
FMOD defeated everyone.
And this is good, because everyone is tired of the problems with h/w DirectSound3D.

shevalier wrote on 2023-10-04, 07:57:

I would not say. The OpenAL is a proprietary API from Creative.

Proprietary or not, quite a few games used OpenAL during the 2006-2009 transitional period, including AAA heavy hitters like Unreal Tournament 3, Battlefield 2142, Mass Effect and Bioshock. Obviously, it was used before that as well.

It did fall out of favor during the early 2010s though.

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2023-10-03, 17:31:

What is the Wave Mapper? Was it one (or one of the multiple predecessors of DSound (that is still used today)? = WinMM

Wave Mapper, just like Midi Mapper is a way for you (as a developer using the winmm API) to get a default output device without having to do the enumeration and choosing of available devices yourself (e.g. how you configure the MIDI synth that Windows Media Player is using).

MIDI_MAPPER is a device ID you can pass to midiOutOpen() - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win … api-midioutopen

WAVE_MAPPER is a device ID you can pass to waveOutOpen() - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win … api-waveoutopen

Both functions are part of the winmm library, it’s not a separate API. Sometimes the family of functions are called “waveOut API” and “midiOut API”.

thp wrote on 2023-10-04, 08:37:

Wave Mapper, just like Midi Mapper is a way for you (as a developer using the winmm API) to get a default output device without […]
Show full quote

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2023-10-03, 17:31:

What is the Wave Mapper? Was it one (or one of the multiple predecessors of DSound (that is still used today)? = WinMM

Wave Mapper, just like Midi Mapper is a way for you (as a developer using the winmm API) to get a default output device without having to do the enumeration and choosing of available devices yourself (e.g. how you configure the MIDI synth that Windows Media Player is using).

MIDI_MAPPER is a device ID you can pass to midiOutOpen() - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win … api-midioutopen

WAVE_MAPPER is a device ID you can pass to waveOutOpen() - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win … api-waveoutopen

Both functions are part of the winmm library, it’s not a separate API. Sometimes the family of functions are called “waveOut API” and “midiOut API”.

Yes, that makes sense 👍

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2023-10-04, 08:04:

Proprietary or not, quite a few games used OpenAL during the 2006-2009 transitional period, including AAA heavy hitters like Unreal Tournament 3, Battlefield 2142, Mass Effect and Bioshock. Obviously, it was used before that as well.

It did fall out of favor during the early 2010s though.

"One game studio" Croteam used it for some reason in 2020 in Serious Sam 4.
But OpenAL was not a replacement for DirectSound3D, it was an attempt by Creative to stall for time.
Some studios have decided to experiment with this technology, just like Physx.
At the time of Vista's release, the most common sound card was Realtek ALC655 😀
In which the most correct and reference audio render was used - software.
Because Microsoft finally got tired of this abundance of proprietary APIs from vendors, with which the result was different for everyone.

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2023-10-03, 17:31:

[*]What is the WASAPI?

Microsoft's attempt to oust Steinberg with their ASIO.
Well, so that audiophiles don’t make a fuss.
An interface that allows low latency transmission of a bit-accurate stream to a sound card.

shevalier wrote on 2023-10-04, 10:30:

Microsoft's attempt to oust Steinberg with their ASIO. Well, so that audiophiles don’t make a fuss. An interface that allows low […]
Show full quote

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2023-10-03, 17:31:

[*]What is the WASAPI?

Microsoft's attempt to oust Steinberg with their ASIO.
Well, so that audiophiles don’t make a fuss.
An interface that allows low latency transmission of a bit-accurate stream to a sound card.

Yes that talks about the exclusive mode WASAPI, but how would you program it for shared and exclusive mode. For example, in DSound you have different interfaces to choose from, from which you choose an operation to be done. You choose a device for output, query for device capabilities. Does WASAPI have equivalent resources for this in shared mode? And how is it done in exclusive mode?

This is not my level of questions.
But if you understand the code, clsid2 in MPC-HC solved this issue.
In addition, it’s open source, you can borrow it.
https://github.com/clsid2/mpc-hc/tree/develop

Although OpenAL with the transfer of coordinates of 5.1 speakers for further mixing into headphones using X-Fi for watching movies would be ideal.
But alas, OpenAL became dead without being born.