sound_win

Sound Latency on Windows >>Issue: Sound Latency on Windows >>Subject: button sounds played on top of background sounds. > > >Much of what Tab says is good to know, but doesn't help fix your >problem, unless Beatnik would solve the problem, but it would be a >shame to have to go to so much trouble when you don't have to. > >The way I've been solving it is like this: > >on startmovie > if the sounddevice <> "qt3mix" then set the sounddevice = "qt3mix" > if the sounddevice <> "qt3mix" then set the sounddevice = "directsound" >end > > >Testing to see if the sounddevice is already qt3mix will save some >time when coming back to this movie from somewhere else. If >QuickTime 3 or 4 is installed, qt3mix will be selected before you >get to the second line. If it's not, the second line will attempt to >use directsound. Here's the outcome of it all: > >On a Mac, nothing will change, you'll still be happily on MacSoundManager > >On Windows 95/98/NT/2000 with QuickTime 3 or 4 installed, you'll get >good sound mixing, and hardly any latency. minor addendum: If you are on NT and use QTMIX, there will still be plenty of latency, because Quicktime can't use DirectSound, because DirectSound doesn't run under NT. (The second 'if' statement will fail because Director will not let you turn on a crummy version of directsound (such as is present on most flavors of NT). >On Windows 95/98/2000 with DirectSound installed, but no QuickTime, >you'll be on directsound and should get good mixing. > >On Windows NT with no QuickTime installed you'll be on macromix, and >will be no worse off than you are at the moment. > > >So, rather than disable the whole feature, make an attempt to use a >good sound mixer and if that fails, just let the user suffer. I guess you didn't understand either my Lingo or my explanation. Here it is in slow motion: on startmovie --mac is on macsoundmanager, windows is on directsound if it is supported, macromix otherwise if the sounddevice <> "qt3mix" then set the sounddevice = "qt3mix" --mac same, all windows that have QT3 or 4 are on qt3mix, the rest still on macromix if the sounddevice <> "qt3mix" then set the sounddevice = "directsound" --mac same, any windows that had QT3 or 4 are the same, any that didn't will try directsound end The QuickTime mixer I was talking about is QT3Mix, not QTMix (whatever that is), and doesn't have bad latency. The second if statement will do nothing if you have QuickTime 3 or 4, and will attempt to use DirectSound if you don't have QT3 or 4. If you are on NT, where DirectSound isn't supported, you end up on MacroMix, which is no worse off than you would be if you attempted no fix at all. If you have a preference for DirectSound over QuickTime, you could rearrange the checks like this: on startmovie if the sounddevice <> "QT3Mix" and the sounddevice <> "DirectSound" then set the sounddevice = "QT3Mix" end That would take care of most needs in one line. If the machine has a Director supported DirectSound, it will probably be set already, so the single line check will only set QT3Mix if you are on a system that doesn't have a good enough DirectSound. Excuse me if I sound over confident in QT3Mix's lack of latency, I've just finished five months of developing five NT based kiosks that have plenty of simultaneous sounds, including ones triggered by the user pressing on things, and they seem to trigger the sounds right away.