home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- DirectSound 3 Readme File
-
-
- 1. New Features in DirectSound 3
- ================================
-
- - DirectSound3D is finally available! This implementation includes
- the ability to position and move sounds in 3D space, complete with Doppler
- shifting, attenation due to distance, and a sound cone feature which
- allows you to create sounds which are louder when pointing straight at
- you than when they are pointing away. DirectSound3D has a flexible
- coordinate system which allows you to use your internal game coordinates
- and still get the effects you want. To learn more, check out the help
- files, or look at the following samples:
-
- \dxsdk\sdk\samples\ds3dview
- \dxsdk\sdk\samples\dsshow3d
- \dxsdk\rockem
-
- - Global Sounds. Many developers wanted to make sounds even when their
- application is not the foreground application. Now you can! Just create
- your sound sound buffer with the DSBCAPS_GLOBALFOCUS flag specified and
- the sound buffer will be audible regardless of sound focus. However,
- please note the following caveats:
-
- a) Global sounds will not be audible if the sound focus application
- has the DSSCL_EXCLUSIVE level set. That application has requested
- that it not be interrupted, so we respect that request.
-
- b) You can't create a global sound on a DirectSound object that has
- DSSCL_WRITEPRIMARY.
-
-
- 2. New Sound Driver Support
- ===========================
-
- This release contains support for the ESS 1788 card and new versions of
- the ESS 1688 and SoundBlaster AWE 32 cards, in addition to the drivers
- supported in DirectX 1 and 2. This brings our total sound card coverage
- to the following:
-
- - Sound Blaster: 8-bit cards, 16-bit cards, and the AWE32.
- - ESS: 488, 688, 1488, 1688, 1788.
- - MediaVision: PAS 16, PAS Studio, PAS Plus, Pro 3D, and Blue Lite Special.
- - Aztech: Nova 16, Washington 16, Rocky 2.
- - Microsoft: Windows Sound System.
-
- Sound cards which do not have DirectSound drivers can still be accessed
- through DirectSound. If no driver is available, DirectSound will use its
- emulation layer to communicate with the device through the standard Wave
- driver interface. This provides full DirectSound functionality, but
- increases latency significantly and prevents access to hardware
- acceleration.
-
- We have also encountered faults in certain situations on the Roland
- Rap 10 and the Gravis UltraSound MAX.
-
-
- 3. Known Problems with this release
- ===================================
-
- - DirectSound3D consumes more CPU than ordinary mixing. Our measurements
- indicate that it consumes about 6% of a P90 per sound. If you ask
- DirectSound to play more 3D sounds than the processor is capable of, we
- will do our best to satisfy your demand. In practice, this will mean
- that the CPU will be overloaded and will be unable to spend any cycles
- on ordinary things like updating your display or reading your keyboard.
- So be sure to test your application to make sure that it runs on your
- low-end target platform.
-
-
- Thanks!
- The DirectSound Team.
-
-
-