Question

That’s pretty much it. I’ve got a function to set up an OpenAL context and device, and load a WAV file into a buffer and pass that buffer along with data from the file to alBufferData. I then try to call alSourcePlay(source) and no sound comes out. The whole function compiles and runs fine, but through debugging I found that the alGetError() function returned AL_ILLEGAL_ENUM after my call to alListener3f(AL_ORIENTATION, 0, 0, -1). Surely AL_ORIENTATION is a valid OpenAL enum? I’ve been following the tutorial here: http://enigma-dev.org/forums/index.php?topic=730.0

Here’s my code (excuse the mess, frantic debugging…):

void initOpenAL() {

ALenum errorNum = alGetError();
// initialise OpenAL
ALCdevice* device = alcOpenDevice(NULL);
ALCcontext* context = alcCreateContext(device, NULL);
alcMakeContextCurrent(context);

errorNum = alGetError();

alListener3f(AL_POSITION, 0, 0, 0);

errorNum = alGetError();

alListener3f(AL_VELOCITY, 0, 0, 0);

errorNum = alGetError();

alListener3f(AL_ORIENTATION, 0, 0, -1);

errorNum = alGetError(); // this is where alGetError == AL_INVALID_ENUM

alGenSources(1, &source);

errorNum = alGetError();

alSourcef(source, AL_PITCH, 1);
alSourcef(source, AL_GAIN, 2);
alSource3f(source, AL_POSITION, 0, 0, 0);
alSource3f(source, AL_VELOCITY, 0, 0, 0);
alSourcei(source, AL_LOOPING, AL_FALSE);

errorNum = alGetError();

ALuint buffer;
alGenBuffers(1, &buffer);
alSourcei(source, AL_BUFFER, buffer);

errorNum = alGetError();

FILE* file;
file = fopen("../../arcade.wav", "r");
if (file == NULL) {
    printf("File access error\n");
    exit(1);
}

char xbuffer[5];
if (fread(xbuffer, sizeof(char), 4, file) != 4 || strcmp(xbuffer, "RIFF") != 0)
    throw "Not a WAV file";

file_read_int32_le(xbuffer, file);
if (fread(xbuffer, sizeof(char), 4, file) != 4 || strcmp(xbuffer, "WAVE") != 0)
    throw "Not a WAV file!";

if (fread(xbuffer, sizeof(char), 4, file) != 4 || strcmp(xbuffer, "fmt ") != 0)
    throw "Invalid WAV file!";

printf("char size: %i", sizeof(char));

errorNum = alGetError();

file_read_int32_le(xbuffer, file);
short audioFormat = file_read_int16_le(xbuffer, file);
short channels = file_read_int16_le(xbuffer, file);
int sampleRate = file_read_int32_le(xbuffer, file);
int byteRate = file_read_int32_le(xbuffer, file);
file_read_int16_le(xbuffer, file);
short bitsPerSample = file_read_int16_le(xbuffer, file);

if (fread(xbuffer, sizeof(char), 4, file) != 4 || strcmp(xbuffer, "data") != 0)
    throw "Invalid WAV file";

int dataChunkSize = file_read_int32_le(xbuffer, file)+4;
unsigned char* bufferData = file_allocate_and_read_bytes(file, (size_t)dataChunkSize);

printf("Error before alBufferData: %x\n", alGetError());

float duration = float(dataChunkSize)/byteRate;
alBufferData(buffer, GetFormatFromInfo(channels, bitsPerSample), bufferData, dataChunkSize, sampleRate);
free(bufferData);
fclose(file);

errorNum = alGetError();

printf("Error after alBufferData, before alSourcePlay: %x\n");

alSourcePlay(source);
errorNum = alGetError();
if (errorNum != AL_NO_ERROR) {
    printf("Error starting playback: %x", errorNum);
}
fgetc(stdin);
}

Answer 1

I found the answer to this a while ago and I’ve only just remembered to answer it on here: the AL_ORIENTATION enum is used in the alListenerfv method, not alListener3f. And it takes a vector instead of 3 ints. I’m amazed how long it took to find that out!