Audio/XACT

Re: XACT 2 vs. Windows Vista Core Audio APIs

Keltins — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 14:31:21 GMT

Hi,

I want to create an application that will support Windows XP and VIsta

and also windows server 2003 above..

What audio API is preferrable to use?

Re: XACT 2 vs. Windows Vista Core Audio APIs

Scott Selfon — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 15:23:33 GMT

Hi Nick,

Just to clarify, XACT is a high-level audio playback engine and tools, handling things like asset compression, bundling, streaming, notifications, etc., as well as higher-level concepts like non-repetitive sound effects and dynamic music. XACT sits on top of XAudio2 on both Windows (Vista and XP) and Xbox 360, which is a low-level audio engine that handles things like format conversion, decompression, mixing, etc. XAudio2 in turn sits on DirectSound (Windows XP), the core audio APIs you referred to (Vista), and on the low-level audio hardware driver (Xbox 360).

The core audio APIs on Windows Vista, while very powerful and flexible, tend to require the programmer to implement even the most basic elements of signal routing, mixing, decompression, etc. They're quite effective for someone writing a software mixer or their own ground-up audio engine, so I suspect that in the game space they'll be of primary interest to middleware and proprietary sound engine developers.

I'd certainly recommend checking out XAudio 2 (haven't seen too much discussion yet on this forum, though if you encounter bugs or product suggestions, the XAudio 2 beta site has a form you can fill out) depending on your title's ship schedule. Thanks for the inquiry!

Cheers,

Scott

Re: XACT 2 vs. Windows Vista Core Audio APIs

jwatte — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 19:59:16 GMT

XAudio2 is compatible with Windows XP. Windows Vista Core Audio is not. This may affect the addressable size of your market :-)

Also, XAudio2 contains game-specific functionality which isn't in Core Audio, such as the fancy filtering and mixing. Further, Core Audio doesn't do format conversion; you have to conform to whatever the device wants.

However, Core Audio is shipping now, whereas XAudio2 is still in beta.

XACT 2 vs. Windows Vista Core Audio APIs

nickhaddady — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 11:15:18 GMT

As a developer for Windows, I'm a little confused as to why I would want to use XACT 2 vs. using the Windows Core Audio APIs? Is XACT 2 built on top of these Core Audio? If not are there benefites to using one over the other?

Thanks,
-Nick