The Architecture of Audio Runtimes

This chapter explains how the components of an interactive audio system fit together and what additional sub-systems can be implemented cheaply to make the foundation more practically useful.

The design splits the implementation into two layers. The first is generic to all platforms, written in a portable subset of C++, providing a rich and consistent interface for the game or application audio programmer to work with. It wraps an inner physical layer which tailors the output of the platform-independent logical layer to the most suitable hardware or software interface provided by the platform vendor.


Layers and threads of the audio runtime systems explained in the book

Concepts

• Eight reasons for layering audio runtimes
• Scheduling new platform implementations
• Steps in extending existing implementations
• Finding the nearest sound
• Coupling asynchronous AI systems
• Synchronising sound and vision
• Compiler differences
• More context-specific optimisations

  The scheme described has been implemented and shipped on a dozen platforms, for four game engines and five asset toolchains, with software and hardware mixing, on big and little-endian 32- and 64-bit processors from Intel, AMD, MIPS, ARM and PowerPCs.
  
  

  Further reading

  Quick Curves - Transcendental Optimisations - next chapter abstract.
  Streaming Case Studies - previous chapter abstract.
  Return to the index of chapters.
  Click here to get your own copy of Beep To Boom.
  
  Copyright © 2019 Simon N Goodwin     [';']