OpenAL Posted Thursday, March 9 11:52 by kornel
Not much news on the consumer 3D frontline but to fill in the lack of news we received a PR from LokiGames about the existence of the open-source OpenAL 3D audio library which will be used in the Linux port of Heavy Gear II Here is the entire PR:

Loki Spearheads OpenAL

Open-Source, Cross-Platform 3D-Audio Library
Debuts at the Game Developers Conference


San Jose, CA. -- March 8, 2000 -- Loki Entertainment Software, the
leading publisher of commercial games for the Linux operating system,
today announces a multi-company project to create and distribute OpenAL,
an open-source, cross-platform 3D-Audio library.

3D-Audio greatly improves the immersive quality of a game. It allows
games and other applications to take advantage of powerful spacialized
sound effects, including distance and direction attenuation, panning and
reverb. With these features, gamers can, for example, determine by sound
the distance and direction of an explosion in a 3D-gaming environment.

"OpenAL represents a milestone for Linux and for the game industry in
general," said Scott Draeker, president, Loki Entertainment Software.
"Until now, games running on Linux have not had access to the advanced
3D-Audio features available on other platforms. OpenAL provides those
advanced features with an open-source, nonproprietary implementation
which is available not just for Linux, but for Windows and MacOS games as
well. What SGI's OpenGL has done for 3D-Video, OpenAL will do for
3D-Audio."

Prior to OpenAL, there was no standard way to implement 3D-Audio for
Linux. Because the proprietary audio libraries for Mac and Windows are
not compatible with Linux, Loki decided to create an audio API that would
be both cross-platform and open-source. Loki drew upon the previous
efforts of members of the open-source community and teamed with hardware
vendors such as Creative Technology Ltd. (NASDAQ: CREAF) to make the
project a reality.

Creative Technology, the leader in providing advanced PC audio hardware,
plans to release Linux drivers that will work with OpenAL, and which
natively support the advanced 3D-Audio effects which OpenAL enables. In
addition, Creative is evaluating MacOS and Windows implementations of the
OpenAL standard

"Creative is excited to be a part of the OpenAL creation and authoring
committee", said Jacob Hawley, Director of the Custom Engineering
division at Creative. "This API will help content developers provide
robust applications on Linux and other leading platforms, opening new
markets for hardware vendors such as Creative in the process. This API is
a win / win for everyone."

"OpenAL is another major step forward for Linux and shows how complete a
gaming platform Linux has become," said Dr. Michael Cowpland, President
and CEO of Corel Corporation. "Corel has long been a supporter of open
standards and cross-platform compatibility. We are thrilled with the
progress by Loki and Creative Labs and we look forward to including more
of their technology in our future releases."

Loki is already incorporating OpenAL into it's growing product line of
AAA Linux games. In March, Loki will release the Linux version of
Activision's Heavy Gear II, the first Linux game to support 3D-Audio
using OpenAL.

The source code for OpenAL for Mac, Windows and Linux is freely available
for download and is offered under the GNU Library Public License (LGPL).
Visit www.openal.org for more information.