Package: libopenal-dev (1:1.4.272-2)

Software implementation of the OpenAL API (development files)

OpenAL, the Open Audio Library, is a joint effort to create an open, vendor-neutral, cross-platform API for interactive, primarily spatialized audio. OpenAL's primary audience are application developers and desktop users that rely on portable standards like OpenGL, for games and other multimedia applications.

This library is meant as a compatible update/replacement to the OpenAL Sample Implementation (the SI). The SI has been unmaintained for quite a while, and would require a lot of work to clean up. This is a fork the old Windows version to attempt an accelerated ALSA version of an OpenAL implementation.

OpenAL Soft supports mono, stereo, 4-channel, 5.1, 6.1, and 7.1 output, as opposed to the SI's 4-channel max (though it did have some provisions for 6 channel, this was not 5.1, and was seemingly a "late" addition). OpenAL Soft does not support the Vorbis and MP3 extensions, however those were considered deprecated even in the SI. It does, though, support some of the newer extensions like AL_EXT_FLOAT32 and AL_EXT_MCFORMATS for multi-channel and floating-point formats, as well as ALC_EXT_EFX for environmental audio effects, and others.

This package contains the OpenAL Soft header files and static libraries.

Tags: Software Development: Libraries, Role: Development Library