Give me advice about game sounds

#1

Hi!

I need your advice about game sounds.
I have about 100 short sounds and about 5 long music tracks. I combine them in .fla file and compile .swf file.
In my AIR game I dynamically load .swf and use it such way:

var appDomain:ApplicationDomain = null;
for each(appDomain in _applicationDomainArray)
{
	if(appDomain.hasDefinition(name))
	{
		var temp:Class = appDomain.getDefinition(name) as Class;
		return new temp() as Sound;
	}
}

What can your recommend in OpenFL/Starling version of game?
Is it a good idea to embed about 100 .ogg files in project.xml?

How do your use sounds in your projects?

Thx!

#2

For sound effects, itā€™s probably fine.

For music tracks, it depends on how long the tracks are and when you choose to load them. Iā€™ve found that OpenFL takes a while to load .ogg music files and that can cause hiccups in the CPU. We were loading music tracks in our OpenFL game (targeting a Windows .exe) as things were animating and there was always about a half second stutter.

If you can stomach using more disk space, .wav files will load very quickly. Otherwise, you might have to try loading the .ogg files on a separate thread.

#3

What mechanism do you use to load .ogg/.wav files?

embed=true in project.xml

Starling AssetManager

Sound.loadFromFile

or anything else?

#4

I use Starlingā€™s AssetManager with .ogg files

assetManager.enqueueWithName(Config.PATH_MUSIC + fileName + fileExtension, musicID);
assetManager.loadQueue(callbackFunction);

private function callbackFunction():Void
{
   trace("music files loaded");
}
2 Likes
#5

What about formats? Safari doesā€™t support .ogg
How to configure OpenFL/Starling project to use different formats for one game sound?

#6

I use conditionnal compiling or whatever itā€™s called :slight_smile:

like

var fileExtension:String;
#if flash
fileExtension = ".mp3";
#elseif sys
fileExtension = ".ogg";
#end

I donā€™t have much web experience with openFL, if there is a format that will work with all browsers (mp3 maybe ?) then you can do

#if html5
fileExtension = ".mp3";
#end

Otherwise you will probably have to mix conditionnal compiling + safari detection

1 Like
#7

I think there is a mechanism inside Lime or OpenFL to automate that.

Like using html5 ā€˜audioā€™ tag:

<audio controls>
  <source src="myAudio.mp3" type="audio/mpeg">
  <source src="myAudio.ogg" type="audio/ogg">  
</audio>

Somebody knows??)

#8

There might be an even better way, but I know of a couple of options (Note: my examples will use OpenFLā€™s asset system, rather than Starlingā€™s).

  1. In project.xml, give each sound asset an id, but use a different file extension for different targets:
<assets path="sounds/my_sound.mp3" id="sounds/my_sound" if="html5"/>
<assets path="sounds/my_sound.ogg" id="sounds/my_sound" if="cpp"/>

Since they both have the same id, the Haxe code shouldnā€™t need any conditional compilation:

var sound:Sound = Assets.getSound("sounds/my_sound");
  1. If you have a lot of sounds, it might be somewhat tedious to list every individual sound file in your project.xml, so you could include all sounds with a particular file extension like this:
<assets path="sounds" include="*.mp3" if="html5"/>
<assets path="sounds" include="*.ogg" if="cpp"/>

Then, you need only minor conditional compilation in your Haxe code to differentiate between extensions:

private static final SOUND_FILE_EXTENSION:String = #if html5 ".mp3" #else ".ogg" #end;

Which youā€™d use like this:

var sound:Sound = Assets.getSound("sounds/my_sound" + SOUND_FILE_EXTENSION);
4 Likes
#9

Thx!

But how about one html5 target with different extensions?
.ogg for all browsers except Safari and .mp3 for Safari?

#10

That kind of detection would need to be done at run-time rather than compile-time. I donā€™t think OpenFL has an API for that.

However, hereā€™s one way to do it manually from Haxe by calling native JS APIs:

var htmlWindow = cast(js.Lib.global, js.html.Window);
var audio = cast(htmlWindow.document.createElement("audio"), js.html.Audio);
var canPlayOgg = audio.canPlayType("audio/ogg; codecs=vorbis") != "";
trace("can play ogg? " + canPlayOgg);

If you plan to support native targets too, youā€™ll obviously need to wrap that section in #if html5 and #end.

2 Likes
#11

Hi all!

  1. I have an ā€œUnknown errorā€ in Starling asset manager while adding .wav files. Is it supported?
    No problem with .ogg.

  2. I have another problem. How to start background game music without a user gesture on the page?
    Chrome prevent it - Autoplay policy in Chrome - Chrome Developers

Thx!

#12

Hi

On which target ? Pretty sure I used .wav on windows with no issue. If itā€™s a Starling issue Iā€™ll look into it

My experience with web is limited/old but I think all browsers do this and thereā€™s no way around it ? Kinda like fullscreen, I think you have to make the user click or tap something in your app first (I could be wrong)

#13

html5.

Example:

_assets = new AssetManager(1);
        _assets.enqueue([
            Assets.getPath("assets/sounds/village_loop.ogg"), // no errors
            Assets.getPath("assets/sounds/ambar.wav") // error
        ]);

 _assets.loadQueue(onComplete, onError);

private function onError(str:String):Void
{
    // str = "Unknown error" for ambar.wav
}

File ambar.wav (if you need)

#14

I only did a quick test on getting the path but it works for me : could it be something with your project.xml asset settings ?

if you look into your html5/bin/assets/sounds folder, is the ambar.wav file there ?

#15

Yes.
I have
<assets path="assets/sounds" embed="false" />
in project.xml

I converted .wav to .mp3 and now it works.

About my second question. I added temporal global listener to first TouchEvent from user to start music. I donā€™t know is it a good solution, but it works.

P.S. If it is interested - my current game working progress - Mushroomers Demo

#16

My bad, I thought you were having an error when trying to get the path

Iā€™ll do some further checking on this.

The game looks good already, I was lucky to find the button to change the language :slight_smile: I love how russian looks but I canā€™t read anything ^^

I got some mushrooms but didnā€™t really understand what I was supposed to do :slight_smile:

By the way, you might be interested in knowing that there is a port of as3 feathers for openFL-starling in progress. I donā€™t know how much time it will take though.

#17

It is only part of game) It will be ā€œcity builderā€ with mushrooms collecting as economic part of game.

ā€œfeathers for openFL-starlingā€ sounds interesting! As for me I need reach textField stuff form it.