SDL 2.0
SDL_audio.h File Reference
#include "SDL_stdinc.h"
#include "SDL_error.h"
#include "SDL_endian.h"
#include "SDL_mutex.h"
#include "SDL_thread.h"
#include "SDL_rwops.h"
#include "begin_code.h"
#include "close_code.h"
+ Include dependency graph for SDL_audio.h:
+ This graph shows which files directly or indirectly include this file:

Go to the source code of this file.

Data Structures

struct  SDL_AudioSpec
 
struct  SDL_AudioCVT
 A structure to hold a set of audio conversion filters and buffers. More...
 

Macros

Audio flags
#define SDL_AUDIO_MASK_BITSIZE   (0xFF)
 
#define SDL_AUDIO_MASK_DATATYPE   (1<<8)
 
#define SDL_AUDIO_MASK_ENDIAN   (1<<12)
 
#define SDL_AUDIO_MASK_SIGNED   (1<<15)
 
#define SDL_AUDIO_BITSIZE(x)   (x & SDL_AUDIO_MASK_BITSIZE)
 
#define SDL_AUDIO_ISFLOAT(x)   (x & SDL_AUDIO_MASK_DATATYPE)
 
#define SDL_AUDIO_ISBIGENDIAN(x)   (x & SDL_AUDIO_MASK_ENDIAN)
 
#define SDL_AUDIO_ISSIGNED(x)   (x & SDL_AUDIO_MASK_SIGNED)
 
#define SDL_AUDIO_ISINT(x)   (!SDL_AUDIO_ISFLOAT(x))
 
#define SDL_AUDIO_ISLITTLEENDIAN(x)   (!SDL_AUDIO_ISBIGENDIAN(x))
 
#define SDL_AUDIO_ISUNSIGNED(x)   (!SDL_AUDIO_ISSIGNED(x))
 
Audio format flags

Defaults to LSB byte order.

#define AUDIO_U8   0x0008
 
#define AUDIO_S8   0x8008
 
#define AUDIO_U16LSB   0x0010
 
#define AUDIO_S16LSB   0x8010
 
#define AUDIO_U16MSB   0x1010
 
#define AUDIO_S16MSB   0x9010
 
#define AUDIO_U16   AUDIO_U16LSB
 
#define AUDIO_S16   AUDIO_S16LSB
 
int32 support
#define AUDIO_S32LSB   0x8020
 
#define AUDIO_S32MSB   0x9020
 
#define AUDIO_S32   AUDIO_S32LSB
 
float32 support
#define AUDIO_F32LSB   0x8120
 
#define AUDIO_F32MSB   0x9120
 
#define AUDIO_F32   AUDIO_F32LSB
 
Native audio byte ordering
#define AUDIO_U16SYS   AUDIO_U16LSB
 
#define AUDIO_S16SYS   AUDIO_S16LSB
 
#define AUDIO_S32SYS   AUDIO_S32LSB
 
#define AUDIO_F32SYS   AUDIO_F32LSB
 

Typedefs

typedef Uint16 SDL_AudioFormat
 

Functions

Driver discovery functions

These functions return the list of built in audio drivers, in the order that they are normally initialized by default.

int SDL_GetNumAudioDrivers (void)
 
const char * SDL_GetAudioDriver (int index)
 
Audio lock functions

The lock manipulated by these functions protects the callback function. During a SDL_LockAudio()/SDL_UnlockAudio() pair, you can be guaranteed that the callback function is not running. Do not call these from the callback function or you will cause deadlock.

void SDL_LockAudio (void)
 
void SDL_LockAudioDevice (SDL_AudioDeviceID dev)
 
void SDL_UnlockAudio (void)
 
void SDL_UnlockAudioDevice (SDL_AudioDeviceID dev)
 
void SDL_CloseAudio (void)
 
void SDL_CloseAudioDevice (SDL_AudioDeviceID dev)
 

Allow change flags

Which audio format changes are allowed when opening a device.

#define SDL_AUDIO_ALLOW_FREQUENCY_CHANGE   0x00000001
 
#define SDL_AUDIO_ALLOW_FORMAT_CHANGE   0x00000002
 
#define SDL_AUDIO_ALLOW_CHANNELS_CHANGE   0x00000004
 
#define SDL_AUDIO_ALLOW_SAMPLES_CHANGE   0x00000008
 
#define SDL_AUDIO_ALLOW_ANY_CHANGE   (SDL_AUDIO_ALLOW_FREQUENCY_CHANGE|SDL_AUDIO_ALLOW_FORMAT_CHANGE|SDL_AUDIO_ALLOW_CHANNELS_CHANGE|SDL_AUDIO_ALLOW_SAMPLES_CHANGE)
 
#define SDL_AUDIOCVT_MAX_FILTERS   9
 
#define SDL_AUDIOCVT_PACKED
 
typedef void(* SDL_AudioCallback) (void *userdata, Uint8 *stream, int len)
 
typedef void(* SDL_AudioFilter) (struct SDL_AudioCVT *cvt, SDL_AudioFormat format)
 

Pause audio functions

These functions pause and unpause the audio callback processing. They should be called with a parameter of 0 after opening the audio device to start playing sound. This is so you can safely initialize data for your callback function after opening the audio device. Silence will be written to the audio device during the pause.

#define SDL_LoadWAV(file, spec, audio_buf, audio_len)    SDL_LoadWAV_RW(SDL_RWFromFile(file, "rb"),1, spec,audio_buf,audio_len)
 
#define SDL_MIX_MAXVOLUME   128
 
typedef struct _SDL_AudioStream SDL_AudioStream
 
void SDL_PauseAudio (int pause_on)
 
void SDL_PauseAudioDevice (SDL_AudioDeviceID dev, int pause_on)
 
SDL_AudioSpecSDL_LoadWAV_RW (SDL_RWops *src, int freesrc, SDL_AudioSpec *spec, Uint8 **audio_buf, Uint32 *audio_len)
 
void SDL_FreeWAV (Uint8 *audio_buf)
 
int SDL_BuildAudioCVT (SDL_AudioCVT *cvt, SDL_AudioFormat src_format, Uint8 src_channels, int src_rate, SDL_AudioFormat dst_format, Uint8 dst_channels, int dst_rate)
 
int SDL_ConvertAudio (SDL_AudioCVT *cvt)
 
SDL_AudioStreamSDL_NewAudioStream (const SDL_AudioFormat src_format, const Uint8 src_channels, const int src_rate, const SDL_AudioFormat dst_format, const Uint8 dst_channels, const int dst_rate)
 
int SDL_AudioStreamPut (SDL_AudioStream *stream, const void *buf, int len)
 
int SDL_AudioStreamGet (SDL_AudioStream *stream, void *buf, int len)
 
int SDL_AudioStreamAvailable (SDL_AudioStream *stream)
 
int SDL_AudioStreamFlush (SDL_AudioStream *stream)
 
void SDL_AudioStreamClear (SDL_AudioStream *stream)
 
void SDL_FreeAudioStream (SDL_AudioStream *stream)
 
void SDL_MixAudio (Uint8 *dst, const Uint8 *src, Uint32 len, int volume)
 
void SDL_MixAudioFormat (Uint8 *dst, const Uint8 *src, SDL_AudioFormat format, Uint32 len, int volume)
 
int SDL_QueueAudio (SDL_AudioDeviceID dev, const void *data, Uint32 len)
 
Uint32 SDL_DequeueAudio (SDL_AudioDeviceID dev, void *data, Uint32 len)
 
Uint32 SDL_GetQueuedAudioSize (SDL_AudioDeviceID dev)
 
void SDL_ClearQueuedAudio (SDL_AudioDeviceID dev)
 

Audio state

Get the current audio state.

enum  SDL_AudioStatus {
  SDL_AUDIO_STOPPED = 0 ,
  SDL_AUDIO_PLAYING ,
  SDL_AUDIO_PAUSED
}
 
SDL_AudioStatus SDL_GetAudioStatus (void)
 
SDL_AudioStatus SDL_GetAudioDeviceStatus (SDL_AudioDeviceID dev)
 

Initialization and cleanup

These functions are used internally, and should not be used unless you have a specific need to specify the audio driver you want to use. You should normally use SDL_Init() or SDL_InitSubSystem().

typedef Uint32 SDL_AudioDeviceID
 
int SDL_AudioInit (const char *driver_name)
 
void SDL_AudioQuit (void)
 
const char * SDL_GetCurrentAudioDriver (void)
 
int SDL_OpenAudio (SDL_AudioSpec *desired, SDL_AudioSpec *obtained)
 
int SDL_GetNumAudioDevices (int iscapture)
 
const char * SDL_GetAudioDeviceName (int index, int iscapture)
 
int SDL_GetAudioDeviceSpec (int index, int iscapture, SDL_AudioSpec *spec)
 
int SDL_GetDefaultAudioInfo (char **name, SDL_AudioSpec *spec, int iscapture)
 
SDL_AudioDeviceID SDL_OpenAudioDevice (const char *device, int iscapture, const SDL_AudioSpec *desired, SDL_AudioSpec *obtained, int allowed_changes)
 

Macro Definition Documentation

◆ AUDIO_F32

#define AUDIO_F32   AUDIO_F32LSB

Definition at line 116 of file SDL_audio.h.

◆ AUDIO_F32LSB

#define AUDIO_F32LSB   0x8120

32-bit floating point samples

Definition at line 114 of file SDL_audio.h.

◆ AUDIO_F32MSB

#define AUDIO_F32MSB   0x9120

As above, but big-endian byte order

Definition at line 115 of file SDL_audio.h.

◆ AUDIO_F32SYS

#define AUDIO_F32SYS   AUDIO_F32LSB

Definition at line 127 of file SDL_audio.h.

◆ AUDIO_S16

#define AUDIO_S16   AUDIO_S16LSB

Definition at line 98 of file SDL_audio.h.

◆ AUDIO_S16LSB

#define AUDIO_S16LSB   0x8010

Signed 16-bit samples

Definition at line 94 of file SDL_audio.h.

◆ AUDIO_S16MSB

#define AUDIO_S16MSB   0x9010

As above, but big-endian byte order

Definition at line 96 of file SDL_audio.h.

◆ AUDIO_S16SYS

#define AUDIO_S16SYS   AUDIO_S16LSB

Definition at line 125 of file SDL_audio.h.

◆ AUDIO_S32

#define AUDIO_S32   AUDIO_S32LSB

Definition at line 107 of file SDL_audio.h.

◆ AUDIO_S32LSB

#define AUDIO_S32LSB   0x8020

32-bit integer samples

Definition at line 105 of file SDL_audio.h.

◆ AUDIO_S32MSB

#define AUDIO_S32MSB   0x9020

As above, but big-endian byte order

Definition at line 106 of file SDL_audio.h.

◆ AUDIO_S32SYS

#define AUDIO_S32SYS   AUDIO_S32LSB

Definition at line 126 of file SDL_audio.h.

◆ AUDIO_S8

#define AUDIO_S8   0x8008

Signed 8-bit samples

Definition at line 92 of file SDL_audio.h.

◆ AUDIO_U16

#define AUDIO_U16   AUDIO_U16LSB

Definition at line 97 of file SDL_audio.h.

◆ AUDIO_U16LSB

#define AUDIO_U16LSB   0x0010

Unsigned 16-bit samples

Definition at line 93 of file SDL_audio.h.

◆ AUDIO_U16MSB

#define AUDIO_U16MSB   0x1010

As above, but big-endian byte order

Definition at line 95 of file SDL_audio.h.

◆ AUDIO_U16SYS

#define AUDIO_U16SYS   AUDIO_U16LSB

Definition at line 124 of file SDL_audio.h.

◆ AUDIO_U8

#define AUDIO_U8   0x0008

Unsigned 8-bit samples

Definition at line 91 of file SDL_audio.h.

◆ SDL_AUDIO_ALLOW_ANY_CHANGE

◆ SDL_AUDIO_ALLOW_CHANNELS_CHANGE

#define SDL_AUDIO_ALLOW_CHANNELS_CHANGE   0x00000004

Definition at line 144 of file SDL_audio.h.

◆ SDL_AUDIO_ALLOW_FORMAT_CHANGE

#define SDL_AUDIO_ALLOW_FORMAT_CHANGE   0x00000002

Definition at line 143 of file SDL_audio.h.

◆ SDL_AUDIO_ALLOW_FREQUENCY_CHANGE

#define SDL_AUDIO_ALLOW_FREQUENCY_CHANGE   0x00000001

Definition at line 142 of file SDL_audio.h.

◆ SDL_AUDIO_ALLOW_SAMPLES_CHANGE

#define SDL_AUDIO_ALLOW_SAMPLES_CHANGE   0x00000008

Definition at line 145 of file SDL_audio.h.

◆ SDL_AUDIO_BITSIZE

#define SDL_AUDIO_BITSIZE (   x)    (x & SDL_AUDIO_MASK_BITSIZE)

Definition at line 77 of file SDL_audio.h.

◆ SDL_AUDIO_ISBIGENDIAN

#define SDL_AUDIO_ISBIGENDIAN (   x)    (x & SDL_AUDIO_MASK_ENDIAN)

Definition at line 79 of file SDL_audio.h.

◆ SDL_AUDIO_ISFLOAT

#define SDL_AUDIO_ISFLOAT (   x)    (x & SDL_AUDIO_MASK_DATATYPE)

Definition at line 78 of file SDL_audio.h.

◆ SDL_AUDIO_ISINT

#define SDL_AUDIO_ISINT (   x)    (!SDL_AUDIO_ISFLOAT(x))

Definition at line 81 of file SDL_audio.h.

◆ SDL_AUDIO_ISLITTLEENDIAN

#define SDL_AUDIO_ISLITTLEENDIAN (   x)    (!SDL_AUDIO_ISBIGENDIAN(x))

Definition at line 82 of file SDL_audio.h.

◆ SDL_AUDIO_ISSIGNED

#define SDL_AUDIO_ISSIGNED (   x)    (x & SDL_AUDIO_MASK_SIGNED)

Definition at line 80 of file SDL_audio.h.

◆ SDL_AUDIO_ISUNSIGNED

#define SDL_AUDIO_ISUNSIGNED (   x)    (!SDL_AUDIO_ISSIGNED(x))

Definition at line 83 of file SDL_audio.h.

◆ SDL_AUDIO_MASK_BITSIZE

#define SDL_AUDIO_MASK_BITSIZE   (0xFF)

Definition at line 73 of file SDL_audio.h.

◆ SDL_AUDIO_MASK_DATATYPE

#define SDL_AUDIO_MASK_DATATYPE   (1<<8)

Definition at line 74 of file SDL_audio.h.

◆ SDL_AUDIO_MASK_ENDIAN

#define SDL_AUDIO_MASK_ENDIAN   (1<<12)

Definition at line 75 of file SDL_audio.h.

◆ SDL_AUDIO_MASK_SIGNED

#define SDL_AUDIO_MASK_SIGNED   (1<<15)

Definition at line 76 of file SDL_audio.h.

◆ SDL_AUDIOCVT_MAX_FILTERS

#define SDL_AUDIOCVT_MAX_FILTERS   9

Upper limit of filters in SDL_AudioCVT

The maximum number of SDL_AudioFilter functions in SDL_AudioCVT is currently limited to 9. The SDL_AudioCVT.filters array has 10 pointers, one of which is the terminating NULL pointer.

Definition at line 202 of file SDL_audio.h.

◆ SDL_AUDIOCVT_PACKED

#define SDL_AUDIOCVT_PACKED

Definition at line 225 of file SDL_audio.h.

◆ SDL_LoadWAV

#define SDL_LoadWAV (   file,
  spec,
  audio_buf,
  audio_len 
)     SDL_LoadWAV_RW(SDL_RWFromFile(file, "rb"),1, spec,audio_buf,audio_len)

Loads a WAV from a file.

Compatibility convenience function.

Definition at line 878 of file SDL_audio.h.

◆ SDL_MIX_MAXVOLUME

#define SDL_MIX_MAXVOLUME   128

Maximum volume allowed in calls to SDL_MixAudio and SDL_MixAudioFormat.

Definition at line 1123 of file SDL_audio.h.

Typedef Documentation

◆ SDL_AudioCallback

typedef void(* SDL_AudioCallback) (void *userdata, Uint8 *stream, int len)

This function is called when the audio device needs more data.

Parameters
userdataAn application-specific parameter saved in the SDL_AudioSpec structure.
streamA pointer to the audio data buffer.
lenLength of stream in bytes.

Definition at line 159 of file SDL_audio.h.

◆ SDL_AudioDeviceID

SDL Audio Device IDs.

A successful call to SDL_OpenAudio() is always device id 1, and legacy SDL audio APIs assume you want this device ID. SDL_OpenAudioDevice() calls always returns devices >= 2 on success. The legacy calls are good both for backwards compatibility and when you don't care about multiple, specific, or capture devices.

Definition at line 416 of file SDL_audio.h.

◆ SDL_AudioFilter

typedef void(* SDL_AudioFilter) (struct SDL_AudioCVT *cvt, SDL_AudioFormat format)

Definition at line 192 of file SDL_audio.h.

◆ SDL_AudioFormat

CategoryAudio

Access to the raw audio mixing buffer for the SDL library. Audio format flags.

These are what the 16 bits in SDL_AudioFormat currently mean... (Unspecified bits are always zero).

++-----------------------sample is signed if set
||
|| ++-----------sample is bigendian if set
|| ||
|| || ++---sample is float if set
|| || ||
|| || || +---sample bit size---+
|| || || | |
15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00

There are macros in SDL 2.0 and later to query these bits.

Definition at line 66 of file SDL_audio.h.

◆ SDL_AudioStream

typedef struct _SDL_AudioStream SDL_AudioStream

Definition at line 988 of file SDL_audio.h.

Enumeration Type Documentation

◆ SDL_AudioStatus

Enumerator
SDL_AUDIO_STOPPED 
SDL_AUDIO_PLAYING 
SDL_AUDIO_PAUSED 

Definition at line 681 of file SDL_audio.h.

682{
SDL_AudioStatus
Definition SDL_audio.h:682
@ SDL_AUDIO_STOPPED
Definition SDL_audio.h:683
@ SDL_AUDIO_PLAYING
Definition SDL_audio.h:684
@ SDL_AUDIO_PAUSED
Definition SDL_audio.h:685

Function Documentation

◆ SDL_AudioInit()

int SDL_AudioInit ( const char *  driver_name)
extern

Use this function to initialize a particular audio driver.

This function is used internally, and should not be used unless you have a specific need to designate the audio driver you want to use. You should normally use SDL_Init() or SDL_InitSubSystem().

Parameters
driver_namethe name of the desired audio driver.
Returns
0 on success or a negative error code on failure; call SDL_GetError() for more information.
Since
This function is available since SDL 2.0.0.
See also
SDL_AudioQuit

◆ SDL_AudioQuit()

void SDL_AudioQuit ( void  )
extern

Use this function to shut down audio if you initialized it with SDL_AudioInit().

This function is used internally, and should not be used unless you have a specific need to specify the audio driver you want to use. You should normally use SDL_Quit() or SDL_QuitSubSystem().

Since
This function is available since SDL 2.0.0.
See also
SDL_AudioInit

◆ SDL_AudioStreamAvailable()

int SDL_AudioStreamAvailable ( SDL_AudioStream stream)
extern

Get the number of converted/resampled bytes available.

The stream may be buffering data behind the scenes until it has enough to resample correctly, so this number might be lower than what you expect, or even be zero. Add more data or flush the stream if you need the data now.

Since
This function is available since SDL 2.0.7.
See also
SDL_NewAudioStream
SDL_AudioStreamPut
SDL_AudioStreamGet
SDL_AudioStreamFlush
SDL_AudioStreamClear
SDL_FreeAudioStream

◆ SDL_AudioStreamClear()

void SDL_AudioStreamClear ( SDL_AudioStream stream)
extern

Clear any pending data in the stream without converting it

Since
This function is available since SDL 2.0.7.
See also
SDL_NewAudioStream
SDL_AudioStreamPut
SDL_AudioStreamGet
SDL_AudioStreamAvailable
SDL_AudioStreamFlush
SDL_FreeAudioStream

◆ SDL_AudioStreamFlush()

int SDL_AudioStreamFlush ( SDL_AudioStream stream)
extern

Tell the stream that you're done sending data, and anything being buffered should be converted/resampled and made available immediately.

It is legal to add more data to a stream after flushing, but there will be audio gaps in the output. Generally this is intended to signal the end of input, so the complete output becomes available.

Since
This function is available since SDL 2.0.7.
See also
SDL_NewAudioStream
SDL_AudioStreamPut
SDL_AudioStreamGet
SDL_AudioStreamAvailable
SDL_AudioStreamClear
SDL_FreeAudioStream

◆ SDL_AudioStreamGet()

int SDL_AudioStreamGet ( SDL_AudioStream stream,
void *  buf,
int  len 
)
extern

Get converted/resampled data from the stream

Parameters
streamThe stream the audio is being requested from.
bufA buffer to fill with audio data.
lenThe maximum number of bytes to fill.
Returns
the number of bytes read from the stream, or -1 on error.
Since
This function is available since SDL 2.0.7.
See also
SDL_NewAudioStream
SDL_AudioStreamPut
SDL_AudioStreamAvailable
SDL_AudioStreamFlush
SDL_AudioStreamClear
SDL_FreeAudioStream

◆ SDL_AudioStreamPut()

int SDL_AudioStreamPut ( SDL_AudioStream stream,
const void *  buf,
int  len 
)
extern

Add data to be converted/resampled to the stream.

Parameters
streamThe stream the audio data is being added to.
bufA pointer to the audio data to add.
lenThe number of bytes to write to the stream.
Returns
0 on success, or -1 on error.
Since
This function is available since SDL 2.0.7.
See also
SDL_NewAudioStream
SDL_AudioStreamGet
SDL_AudioStreamAvailable
SDL_AudioStreamFlush
SDL_AudioStreamClear
SDL_FreeAudioStream

◆ SDL_BuildAudioCVT()

int SDL_BuildAudioCVT ( SDL_AudioCVT cvt,
SDL_AudioFormat  src_format,
Uint8  src_channels,
int  src_rate,
SDL_AudioFormat  dst_format,
Uint8  dst_channels,
int  dst_rate 
)
extern

Initialize an SDL_AudioCVT structure for conversion.

Before an SDL_AudioCVT structure can be used to convert audio data it must be initialized with source and destination information.

This function will zero out every field of the SDL_AudioCVT, so it must be called before the application fills in the final buffer information.

Once this function has returned successfully, and reported that a conversion is necessary, the application fills in the rest of the fields in SDL_AudioCVT, now that it knows how large a buffer it needs to allocate, and then can call SDL_ConvertAudio() to complete the conversion.

Parameters
cvtan SDL_AudioCVT structure filled in with audio conversion information.
src_formatthe source format of the audio data; for more info see SDL_AudioFormat.
src_channelsthe number of channels in the source.
src_ratethe frequency (sample-frames-per-second) of the source.
dst_formatthe destination format of the audio data; for more info see SDL_AudioFormat.
dst_channelsthe number of channels in the destination.
dst_ratethe frequency (sample-frames-per-second) of the destination.
Returns
1 if the audio filter is prepared, 0 if no conversion is needed, or a negative error code on failure; call SDL_GetError() for more information.
Since
This function is available since SDL 2.0.0.
See also
SDL_ConvertAudio

◆ SDL_ClearQueuedAudio()

void SDL_ClearQueuedAudio ( SDL_AudioDeviceID  dev)
extern

Drop any queued audio data waiting to be sent to the hardware.

Immediately after this call, SDL_GetQueuedAudioSize() will return 0. For output devices, the hardware will start playing silence if more audio isn't queued. For capture devices, the hardware will start filling the empty queue with new data if the capture device isn't paused.

This will not prevent playback of queued audio that's already been sent to the hardware, as we can not undo that, so expect there to be some fraction of a second of audio that might still be heard. This can be useful if you want to, say, drop any pending music or any unprocessed microphone input during a level change in your game.

You may not queue or dequeue audio on a device that is using an application-supplied callback; calling this function on such a device always returns 0. You have to use the audio callback or queue audio, but not both.

You should not call SDL_LockAudio() on the device before clearing the queue; SDL handles locking internally for this function.

This function always succeeds and thus returns void.

Parameters
devthe device ID of which to clear the audio queue.
Since
This function is available since SDL 2.0.4.
See also
SDL_GetQueuedAudioSize
SDL_QueueAudio
SDL_DequeueAudio

◆ SDL_CloseAudio()

void SDL_CloseAudio ( void  )
extern

This function is a legacy means of closing the audio device.

This function is equivalent to calling...

void SDL_CloseAudioDevice(SDL_AudioDeviceID dev)

...and is only useful if you used the legacy SDL_OpenAudio() function.

Since
This function is available since SDL 2.0.0.
See also
SDL_OpenAudio

◆ SDL_CloseAudioDevice()

void SDL_CloseAudioDevice ( SDL_AudioDeviceID  dev)
extern

Use this function to shut down audio processing and close the audio device.

The application should close open audio devices once they are no longer needed. Calling this function will wait until the device's audio callback is not running, release the audio hardware and then clean up internal state. No further audio will play from this device once this function returns.

This function may block briefly while pending audio data is played by the hardware, so that applications don't drop the last buffer of data they supplied.

The device ID is invalid as soon as the device is closed, and is eligible for reuse in a new SDL_OpenAudioDevice() call immediately.

Parameters
devan audio device previously opened with SDL_OpenAudioDevice().
Since
This function is available since SDL 2.0.0.
See also
SDL_OpenAudioDevice

◆ SDL_ConvertAudio()

int SDL_ConvertAudio ( SDL_AudioCVT cvt)
extern

Convert audio data to a desired audio format.

This function does the actual audio data conversion, after the application has called SDL_BuildAudioCVT() to prepare the conversion information and then filled in the buffer details.

Once the application has initialized the cvt structure using SDL_BuildAudioCVT(), allocated an audio buffer and filled it with audio data in the source format, this function will convert the buffer, in-place, to the desired format.

The data conversion may go through several passes; any given pass may possibly temporarily increase the size of the data. For example, SDL might expand 16-bit data to 32 bits before resampling to a lower frequency, shrinking the data size after having grown it briefly. Since the supplied buffer will be both the source and destination, converting as necessary in-place, the application must allocate a buffer that will fully contain the data during its largest conversion pass. After SDL_BuildAudioCVT() returns, the application should set the cvt->len field to the size, in bytes, of the source data, and allocate a buffer that is cvt->len * cvt->len_mult bytes long for the buf field.

The source data should be copied into this buffer before the call to SDL_ConvertAudio(). Upon successful return, this buffer will contain the converted audio, and cvt->len_cvt will be the size of the converted data, in bytes. Any bytes in the buffer past cvt->len_cvt are undefined once this function returns.

Parameters
cvtan SDL_AudioCVT structure that was previously set up by SDL_BuildAudioCVT().
Returns
0 if the conversion was completed successfully or a negative error code on failure; call SDL_GetError() for more information.
Since
This function is available since SDL 2.0.0.
See also
SDL_BuildAudioCVT

◆ SDL_DequeueAudio()

Uint32 SDL_DequeueAudio ( SDL_AudioDeviceID  dev,
void *  data,
Uint32  len 
)
extern

Dequeue more audio on non-callback devices.

If you are looking to queue audio for output on a non-callback playback device, you want SDL_QueueAudio() instead. SDL_DequeueAudio() will always return 0 if you use it with playback devices.

SDL offers two ways to retrieve audio from a capture device: you can either supply a callback that SDL triggers with some frequency as the device records more audio data, (push method), or you can supply no callback, and then SDL will expect you to retrieve data at regular intervals (pull method) with this function.

There are no limits on the amount of data you can queue, short of exhaustion of address space. Data from the device will keep queuing as necessary without further intervention from you. This means you will eventually run out of memory if you aren't routinely dequeueing data.

Capture devices will not queue data when paused; if you are expecting to not need captured audio for some length of time, use SDL_PauseAudioDevice() to stop the capture device from queueing more data. This can be useful during, say, level loading times. When unpaused, capture devices will start queueing data from that point, having flushed any capturable data available while paused.

This function is thread-safe, but dequeueing from the same device from two threads at once does not promise which thread will dequeue data first.

You may not dequeue audio from a device that is using an application-supplied callback; doing so returns an error. You have to use the audio callback, or dequeue audio with this function, but not both.

You should not call SDL_LockAudio() on the device before dequeueing; SDL handles locking internally for this function.

Parameters
devthe device ID from which we will dequeue audio.
dataa pointer into where audio data should be copied.
lenthe number of bytes (not samples!) to which (data) points.
Returns
the number of bytes dequeued, which could be less than requested; call SDL_GetError() for more information.
Since
This function is available since SDL 2.0.5.
See also
SDL_ClearQueuedAudio
SDL_GetQueuedAudioSize

◆ SDL_FreeAudioStream()

void SDL_FreeAudioStream ( SDL_AudioStream stream)
extern

Free an audio stream

Since
This function is available since SDL 2.0.7.
See also
SDL_NewAudioStream
SDL_AudioStreamPut
SDL_AudioStreamGet
SDL_AudioStreamAvailable
SDL_AudioStreamFlush
SDL_AudioStreamClear

◆ SDL_FreeWAV()

void SDL_FreeWAV ( Uint8 audio_buf)
extern

Free data previously allocated with SDL_LoadWAV() or SDL_LoadWAV_RW().

After a WAVE file has been opened with SDL_LoadWAV() or SDL_LoadWAV_RW() its data can eventually be freed with SDL_FreeWAV(). It is safe to call this function with a NULL pointer.

Parameters
audio_bufa pointer to the buffer created by SDL_LoadWAV() or SDL_LoadWAV_RW().
Since
This function is available since SDL 2.0.0.
See also
SDL_LoadWAV
SDL_LoadWAV_RW

◆ SDL_GetAudioDeviceName()

const char * SDL_GetAudioDeviceName ( int  index,
int  iscapture 
)
extern

Get the human-readable name of a specific audio device.

This function is only valid after successfully initializing the audio subsystem. The values returned by this function reflect the latest call to SDL_GetNumAudioDevices(); re-call that function to redetect available hardware.

The string returned by this function is UTF-8 encoded, read-only, and managed internally. You are not to free it. If you need to keep the string for any length of time, you should make your own copy of it, as it will be invalid next time any of several other SDL functions are called.

Parameters
indexthe index of the audio device; valid values range from 0 to SDL_GetNumAudioDevices() - 1.
iscapturenon-zero to query the list of recording devices, zero to query the list of output devices.
Returns
the name of the audio device at the requested index, or NULL on error.
Since
This function is available since SDL 2.0.0.
See also
SDL_GetNumAudioDevices
SDL_GetDefaultAudioInfo

◆ SDL_GetAudioDeviceSpec()

int SDL_GetAudioDeviceSpec ( int  index,
int  iscapture,
SDL_AudioSpec spec 
)
extern

Get the preferred audio format of a specific audio device.

This function is only valid after a successfully initializing the audio subsystem. The values returned by this function reflect the latest call to SDL_GetNumAudioDevices(); re-call that function to redetect available hardware.

spec will be filled with the sample rate, sample format, and channel count.

Parameters
indexthe index of the audio device; valid values range from 0 to SDL_GetNumAudioDevices() - 1.
iscapturenon-zero to query the list of recording devices, zero to query the list of output devices.
specThe SDL_AudioSpec to be initialized by this function.
Returns
0 on success, nonzero on error.
Since
This function is available since SDL 2.0.16.
See also
SDL_GetNumAudioDevices
SDL_GetDefaultAudioInfo

◆ SDL_GetAudioDeviceStatus()

SDL_AudioStatus SDL_GetAudioDeviceStatus ( SDL_AudioDeviceID  dev)
extern

Use this function to get the current audio state of an audio device.

Parameters
devthe ID of an audio device previously opened with SDL_OpenAudioDevice().
Returns
the SDL_AudioStatus of the specified audio device.
Since
This function is available since SDL 2.0.0.
See also
SDL_PauseAudioDevice

◆ SDL_GetAudioDriver()

const char * SDL_GetAudioDriver ( int  index)
extern

Use this function to get the name of a built in audio driver.

The list of audio drivers is given in the order that they are normally initialized by default; the drivers that seem more reasonable to choose first (as far as the SDL developers believe) are earlier in the list.

The names of drivers are all simple, low-ASCII identifiers, like "alsa", "coreaudio" or "xaudio2". These never have Unicode characters, and are not meant to be proper names.

Parameters
indexthe index of the audio driver; the value ranges from 0 to SDL_GetNumAudioDrivers() - 1.
Returns
the name of the audio driver at the requested index, or NULL if an invalid index was specified.
Since
This function is available since SDL 2.0.0.
See also
SDL_GetNumAudioDrivers

◆ SDL_GetAudioStatus()

SDL_AudioStatus SDL_GetAudioStatus ( void  )
extern

This function is a legacy means of querying the audio device.

New programs might want to use SDL_GetAudioDeviceStatus() instead. This function is equivalent to calling...

SDL_AudioStatus SDL_GetAudioDeviceStatus(SDL_AudioDeviceID dev)

...and is only useful if you used the legacy SDL_OpenAudio() function.

Returns
the SDL_AudioStatus of the audio device opened by SDL_OpenAudio().
Since
This function is available since SDL 2.0.0.
See also
SDL_GetAudioDeviceStatus

◆ SDL_GetCurrentAudioDriver()

const char * SDL_GetCurrentAudioDriver ( void  )
extern

Get the name of the current audio driver.

The returned string points to internal static memory and thus never becomes invalid, even if you quit the audio subsystem and initialize a new driver (although such a case would return a different static string from another call to this function, of course). As such, you should not modify or free the returned string.

Returns
the name of the current audio driver or NULL if no driver has been initialized.
Since
This function is available since SDL 2.0.0.
See also
SDL_AudioInit

◆ SDL_GetDefaultAudioInfo()

int SDL_GetDefaultAudioInfo ( char **  name,
SDL_AudioSpec spec,
int  iscapture 
)
extern

Get the name and preferred format of the default audio device.

Some (but not all!) platforms have an isolated mechanism to get information about the "default" device. This can actually be a completely different device that's not in the list you get from SDL_GetAudioDeviceSpec(). It can even be a network address! (This is discussed in SDL_OpenAudioDevice().)

As a result, this call is not guaranteed to be performant, as it can query the sound server directly every time, unlike the other query functions. You should call this function sparingly!

spec will be filled with the sample rate, sample format, and channel count, if a default device exists on the system. If name is provided, will be filled with either a dynamically-allocated UTF-8 string or NULL.

Parameters
nameA pointer to be filled with the name of the default device (can be NULL). Please call SDL_free() when you are done with this pointer!
specThe SDL_AudioSpec to be initialized by this function.
iscapturenon-zero to query the default recording device, zero to query the default output device.
Returns
0 on success, nonzero on error.
Since
This function is available since SDL 2.24.0.
See also
SDL_GetAudioDeviceName
SDL_GetAudioDeviceSpec
SDL_OpenAudioDevice

◆ SDL_GetNumAudioDevices()

int SDL_GetNumAudioDevices ( int  iscapture)
extern

Get the number of built-in audio devices.

This function is only valid after successfully initializing the audio subsystem.

Note that audio capture support is not implemented as of SDL 2.0.4, so the iscapture parameter is for future expansion and should always be zero for now.

This function will return -1 if an explicit list of devices can't be determined. Returning -1 is not an error. For example, if SDL is set up to talk to a remote audio server, it can't list every one available on the Internet, but it will still allow a specific host to be specified in SDL_OpenAudioDevice().

In many common cases, when this function returns a value <= 0, it can still successfully open the default device (NULL for first argument of SDL_OpenAudioDevice()).

This function may trigger a complete redetect of available hardware. It should not be called for each iteration of a loop, but rather once at the start of a loop:

// Don't do this:
for (int i = 0; i < SDL_GetNumAudioDevices(0); i++)
// do this instead:
const int count = SDL_GetNumAudioDevices(0);
for (int i = 0; i < count; ++i) { do_something_here(); }
int SDL_GetNumAudioDevices(int iscapture)
Parameters
iscapturezero to request playback devices, non-zero to request recording devices.
Returns
the number of available devices exposed by the current driver or -1 if an explicit list of devices can't be determined. A return value of -1 does not necessarily mean an error condition.
Since
This function is available since SDL 2.0.0.
See also
SDL_GetAudioDeviceName
SDL_OpenAudioDevice

◆ SDL_GetNumAudioDrivers()

int SDL_GetNumAudioDrivers ( void  )
extern

Use this function to get the number of built-in audio drivers.

This function returns a hardcoded number. This never returns a negative value; if there are no drivers compiled into this build of SDL, this function returns zero. The presence of a driver in this list does not mean it will function, it just means SDL is capable of interacting with that interface. For example, a build of SDL might have esound support, but if there's no esound server available, SDL's esound driver would fail if used.

By default, SDL tries all drivers, in its preferred order, until one is found to be usable.

Returns
the number of built-in audio drivers.
Since
This function is available since SDL 2.0.0.
See also
SDL_GetAudioDriver

◆ SDL_GetQueuedAudioSize()

Uint32 SDL_GetQueuedAudioSize ( SDL_AudioDeviceID  dev)
extern

Get the number of bytes of still-queued audio.

For playback devices: this is the number of bytes that have been queued for playback with SDL_QueueAudio(), but have not yet been sent to the hardware.

Once we've sent it to the hardware, this function can not decide the exact byte boundary of what has been played. It's possible that we just gave the hardware several kilobytes right before you called this function, but it hasn't played any of it yet, or maybe half of it, etc.

For capture devices, this is the number of bytes that have been captured by the device and are waiting for you to dequeue. This number may grow at any time, so this only informs of the lower-bound of available data.

You may not queue or dequeue audio on a device that is using an application-supplied callback; calling this function on such a device always returns 0. You have to use the audio callback or queue audio, but not both.

You should not call SDL_LockAudio() on the device before querying; SDL handles locking internally for this function.

Parameters
devthe device ID of which we will query queued audio size.
Returns
the number of bytes (not samples!) of queued audio.
Since
This function is available since SDL 2.0.4.
See also
SDL_ClearQueuedAudio
SDL_QueueAudio
SDL_DequeueAudio

◆ SDL_LoadWAV_RW()

SDL_AudioSpec * SDL_LoadWAV_RW ( SDL_RWops src,
int  freesrc,
SDL_AudioSpec spec,
Uint8 **  audio_buf,
Uint32 audio_len 
)
extern

Load the audio data of a WAVE file into memory.

Loading a WAVE file requires src, spec, audio_buf and audio_len to be valid pointers. The entire data portion of the file is then loaded into memory and decoded if necessary.

If freesrc is non-zero, the data source gets automatically closed and freed before the function returns.

Supported formats are RIFF WAVE files with the formats PCM (8, 16, 24, and 32 bits), IEEE Float (32 bits), Microsoft ADPCM and IMA ADPCM (4 bits), and A-law and mu-law (8 bits). Other formats are currently unsupported and cause an error.

If this function succeeds, the pointer returned by it is equal to spec and the pointer to the audio data allocated by the function is written to audio_buf and its length in bytes to audio_len. The SDL_AudioSpec members freq, channels, and format are set to the values of the audio data in the buffer. The samples member is set to a sane default and all others are set to zero.

It's necessary to use SDL_FreeWAV() to free the audio data returned in audio_buf when it is no longer used.

Because of the underspecification of the .WAV format, there are many problematic files in the wild that cause issues with strict decoders. To provide compatibility with these files, this decoder is lenient in regards to the truncation of the file, the fact chunk, and the size of the RIFF chunk. The hints SDL_HINT_WAVE_RIFF_CHUNK_SIZE, SDL_HINT_WAVE_TRUNCATION, and SDL_HINT_WAVE_FACT_CHUNK can be used to tune the behavior of the loading process.

Any file that is invalid (due to truncation, corruption, or wrong values in the headers), too big, or unsupported causes an error. Additionally, any critical I/O error from the data source will terminate the loading process with an error. The function returns NULL on error and in all cases (with the exception of src being NULL), an appropriate error message will be set.

It is required that the data source supports seeking.

Example:

SDL_LoadWAV_RW(SDL_RWFromFile("sample.wav", "rb"), 1, &spec, &buf, &len);
SDL_AudioSpec * SDL_LoadWAV_RW(SDL_RWops *src, int freesrc, SDL_AudioSpec *spec, Uint8 **audio_buf, Uint32 *audio_len)
SDL_RWops * SDL_RWFromFile(const char *file, const char *mode)

Note that the SDL_LoadWAV macro does this same thing for you, but in a less messy way:

SDL_LoadWAV("sample.wav", &spec, &buf, &len);
#define SDL_LoadWAV(file, spec, audio_buf, audio_len)
Definition SDL_audio.h:878
Parameters
srcThe data source for the WAVE data.
freesrcIf non-zero, SDL will always free the data source.
specAn SDL_AudioSpec that will be filled in with the wave file's format details.
audio_bufA pointer filled with the audio data, allocated by the function.
audio_lenA pointer filled with the length of the audio data buffer in bytes.
Returns
This function, if successfully called, returns spec, which will be filled with the audio data format of the wave source data. audio_buf will be filled with a pointer to an allocated buffer containing the audio data, and audio_len is filled with the length of that audio buffer in bytes.

This function returns NULL if the .WAV file cannot be opened, uses an unknown data format, or is corrupt; call SDL_GetError() for more information.

When the application is done with the data returned in audio_buf, it should call SDL_FreeWAV() to dispose of it.

Since
This function is available since SDL 2.0.0.
See also
SDL_FreeWAV
SDL_LoadWAV

◆ SDL_LockAudio()

void SDL_LockAudio ( void  )
extern

This function is a legacy means of locking the audio device.

New programs might want to use SDL_LockAudioDevice() instead. This function is equivalent to calling...

void SDL_LockAudioDevice(SDL_AudioDeviceID dev)

...and is only useful if you used the legacy SDL_OpenAudio() function.

Since
This function is available since SDL 2.0.0.
See also
SDL_LockAudioDevice
SDL_UnlockAudio
SDL_UnlockAudioDevice

◆ SDL_LockAudioDevice()

void SDL_LockAudioDevice ( SDL_AudioDeviceID  dev)
extern

Use this function to lock out the audio callback function for a specified device.

The lock manipulated by these functions protects the audio callback function specified in SDL_OpenAudioDevice(). During a SDL_LockAudioDevice()/SDL_UnlockAudioDevice() pair, you can be guaranteed that the callback function for that device is not running, even if the device is not paused. While a device is locked, any other unpaused, unlocked devices may still run their callbacks.

Calling this function from inside your audio callback is unnecessary. SDL obtains this lock before calling your function, and releases it when the function returns.

You should not hold the lock longer than absolutely necessary. If you hold it too long, you'll experience dropouts in your audio playback. Ideally, your application locks the device, sets a few variables and unlocks again. Do not do heavy work while holding the lock for a device.

It is safe to lock the audio device multiple times, as long as you unlock it an equivalent number of times. The callback will not run until the device has been unlocked completely in this way. If your application fails to unlock the device appropriately, your callback will never run, you might hear repeating bursts of audio, and SDL_CloseAudioDevice() will probably deadlock.

Internally, the audio device lock is a mutex; if you lock from two threads at once, not only will you block the audio callback, you'll block the other thread.

Parameters
devthe ID of the device to be locked.
Since
This function is available since SDL 2.0.0.
See also
SDL_UnlockAudioDevice

◆ SDL_MixAudio()

void SDL_MixAudio ( Uint8 dst,
const Uint8 src,
Uint32  len,
int  volume 
)
extern

This function is a legacy means of mixing audio.

This function is equivalent to calling...

SDL_MixAudioFormat(dst, src, format, len, volume);
void SDL_MixAudioFormat(Uint8 *dst, const Uint8 *src, SDL_AudioFormat format, Uint32 len, int volume)

...where format is the obtained format of the audio device from the legacy SDL_OpenAudio() function.

Parameters
dstthe destination for the mixed audio.
srcthe source audio buffer to be mixed.
lenthe length of the audio buffer in bytes.
volumeranges from 0 - 128, and should be set to SDL_MIX_MAXVOLUME for full audio volume.
Since
This function is available since SDL 2.0.0.
See also
SDL_MixAudioFormat

◆ SDL_MixAudioFormat()

void SDL_MixAudioFormat ( Uint8 dst,
const Uint8 src,
SDL_AudioFormat  format,
Uint32  len,
int  volume 
)
extern

Mix audio data in a specified format.

This takes an audio buffer src of len bytes of format data and mixes it into dst, performing addition, volume adjustment, and overflow clipping. The buffer pointed to by dst must also be len bytes of format data.

This is provided for convenience – you can mix your own audio data.

Do not use this function for mixing together more than two streams of sample data. The output from repeated application of this function may be distorted by clipping, because there is no accumulator with greater range than the input (not to mention this being an inefficient way of doing it).

It is a common misconception that this function is required to write audio data to an output stream in an audio callback. While you can do that, SDL_MixAudioFormat() is really only needed when you're mixing a single audio stream with a volume adjustment.

Parameters
dstthe destination for the mixed audio.
srcthe source audio buffer to be mixed.
formatthe SDL_AudioFormat structure representing the desired audio format.
lenthe length of the audio buffer in bytes.
volumeranges from 0 - 128, and should be set to SDL_MIX_MAXVOLUME for full audio volume.
Since
This function is available since SDL 2.0.0.

◆ SDL_NewAudioStream()

SDL_AudioStream * SDL_NewAudioStream ( const SDL_AudioFormat  src_format,
const Uint8  src_channels,
const int  src_rate,
const SDL_AudioFormat  dst_format,
const Uint8  dst_channels,
const int  dst_rate 
)
extern

Create a new audio stream.

Parameters
src_formatThe format of the source audio.
src_channelsThe number of channels of the source audio.
src_rateThe sampling rate of the source audio.
dst_formatThe format of the desired audio output.
dst_channelsThe number of channels of the desired audio output.
dst_rateThe sampling rate of the desired audio output.
Returns
0 on success, or -1 on error.
Since
This function is available since SDL 2.0.7.
See also
SDL_AudioStreamPut
SDL_AudioStreamGet
SDL_AudioStreamAvailable
SDL_AudioStreamFlush
SDL_AudioStreamClear
SDL_FreeAudioStream

◆ SDL_OpenAudio()

int SDL_OpenAudio ( SDL_AudioSpec desired,
SDL_AudioSpec obtained 
)
extern

This function is a legacy means of opening the audio device.

This function remains for compatibility with SDL 1.2, but also because it's slightly easier to use than the new functions in SDL 2.0. The new, more powerful, and preferred way to do this is SDL_OpenAudioDevice().

This function is roughly equivalent to:

SDL_AudioDeviceID SDL_OpenAudioDevice(const char *device, int iscapture, const SDL_AudioSpec *desired, SDL_AudioSpec *obtained, int allowed_changes)
#define SDL_AUDIO_ALLOW_ANY_CHANGE
Definition SDL_audio.h:146
#define NULL
Definition begin_code.h:165

With two notable exceptions:

  • If obtained is NULL, we use desired (and allow no changes), which means desired will be modified to have the correct values for silence, etc, and SDL will convert any differences between your app's specific request and the hardware behind the scenes.
  • The return value is always success or failure, and not a device ID, which means you can only have one device open at a time with this function.
Parameters
desiredan SDL_AudioSpec structure representing the desired output format. Please refer to the SDL_OpenAudioDevice documentation for details on how to prepare this structure.
obtainedan SDL_AudioSpec structure filled in with the actual parameters, or NULL.
Returns
0 if successful, placing the actual hardware parameters in the structure pointed to by obtained.

If obtained is NULL, the audio data passed to the callback function will be guaranteed to be in the requested format, and will be automatically converted to the actual hardware audio format if necessary. If obtained is NULL, desired will have fields modified.

This function returns a negative error code on failure to open the audio device or failure to set up the audio thread; call SDL_GetError() for more information.

Since
This function is available since SDL 2.0.0.
See also
SDL_CloseAudio
SDL_LockAudio
SDL_PauseAudio
SDL_UnlockAudio

◆ SDL_OpenAudioDevice()

SDL_AudioDeviceID SDL_OpenAudioDevice ( const char *  device,
int  iscapture,
const SDL_AudioSpec desired,
SDL_AudioSpec obtained,
int  allowed_changes 
)
extern

Open a specific audio device.

SDL_OpenAudio(), unlike this function, always acts on device ID 1. As such, this function will never return a 1 so as not to conflict with the legacy function.

Please note that SDL 2.0 before 2.0.5 did not support recording; as such, this function would fail if iscapture was not zero. Starting with SDL 2.0.5, recording is implemented and this value can be non-zero.

Passing in a device name of NULL requests the most reasonable default (and is equivalent to what SDL_OpenAudio() does to choose a device). The device name is a UTF-8 string reported by SDL_GetAudioDeviceName(), but some drivers allow arbitrary and driver-specific strings, such as a hostname/IP address for a remote audio server, or a filename in the diskaudio driver.

An opened audio device starts out paused, and should be enabled for playing by calling SDL_PauseAudioDevice(devid, 0) when you are ready for your audio callback function to be called. Since the audio driver may modify the requested size of the audio buffer, you should allocate any local mixing buffers after you open the audio device.

The audio callback runs in a separate thread in most cases; you can prevent race conditions between your callback and other threads without fully pausing playback with SDL_LockAudioDevice(). For more information about the callback, see SDL_AudioSpec.

Managing the audio spec via 'desired' and 'obtained':

When filling in the desired audio spec structure:

  • desired->freq should be the frequency in sample-frames-per-second (Hz).
  • desired->format should be the audio format (AUDIO_S16SYS, etc).
  • desired->samples is the desired size of the audio buffer, in sample frames (with stereo output, two samples–left and right–would make a single sample frame). This number should be a power of two, and may be adjusted by the audio driver to a value more suitable for the hardware. Good values seem to range between 512 and 4096 inclusive, depending on the application and CPU speed. Smaller values reduce latency, but can lead to underflow if the application is doing heavy processing and cannot fill the audio buffer in time. Note that the number of sample frames is directly related to time by the following formula: ms = (sampleframes*1000)/freq
  • desired->size is the size in bytes of the audio buffer, and is calculated by SDL_OpenAudioDevice(). You don't initialize this.
  • desired->silence is the value used to set the buffer to silence, and is calculated by SDL_OpenAudioDevice(). You don't initialize this.
  • desired->callback should be set to a function that will be called when the audio device is ready for more data. It is passed a pointer to the audio buffer, and the length in bytes of the audio buffer. This function usually runs in a separate thread, and so you should protect data structures that it accesses by calling SDL_LockAudioDevice() and SDL_UnlockAudioDevice() in your code. Alternately, you may pass a NULL pointer here, and call SDL_QueueAudio() with some frequency, to queue more audio samples to be played (or for capture devices, call SDL_DequeueAudio() with some frequency, to obtain audio samples).
  • desired->userdata is passed as the first parameter to your callback function. If you passed a NULL callback, this value is ignored.

allowed_changes can have the following flags OR'd together:

  • SDL_AUDIO_ALLOW_FREQUENCY_CHANGE
  • SDL_AUDIO_ALLOW_FORMAT_CHANGE
  • SDL_AUDIO_ALLOW_CHANNELS_CHANGE
  • SDL_AUDIO_ALLOW_SAMPLES_CHANGE
  • SDL_AUDIO_ALLOW_ANY_CHANGE

These flags specify how SDL should behave when a device cannot offer a specific feature. If the application requests a feature that the hardware doesn't offer, SDL will always try to get the closest equivalent.

For example, if you ask for float32 audio format, but the sound card only supports int16, SDL will set the hardware to int16. If you had set SDL_AUDIO_ALLOW_FORMAT_CHANGE, SDL will change the format in the obtained structure. If that flag was not set, SDL will prepare to convert your callback's float32 audio to int16 before feeding it to the hardware and will keep the originally requested format in the obtained structure.

The resulting audio specs, varying depending on hardware and on what changes were allowed, will then be written back to obtained.

If your application can only handle one specific data format, pass a zero for allowed_changes and let SDL transparently handle any differences.

Parameters
devicea UTF-8 string reported by SDL_GetAudioDeviceName() or a driver-specific name as appropriate. NULL requests the most reasonable default device.
iscapturenon-zero to specify a device should be opened for recording, not playback.
desiredan SDL_AudioSpec structure representing the desired output format; see SDL_OpenAudio() for more information.
obtainedan SDL_AudioSpec structure filled in with the actual output format; see SDL_OpenAudio() for more information.
allowed_changes0, or one or more flags OR'd together.
Returns
a valid device ID that is > 0 on success or 0 on failure; call SDL_GetError() for more information.

For compatibility with SDL 1.2, this will never return 1, since SDL reserves that ID for the legacy SDL_OpenAudio() function.

Since
This function is available since SDL 2.0.0.
See also
SDL_CloseAudioDevice
SDL_GetAudioDeviceName
SDL_LockAudioDevice
SDL_OpenAudio
SDL_PauseAudioDevice
SDL_UnlockAudioDevice

◆ SDL_PauseAudio()

void SDL_PauseAudio ( int  pause_on)
extern

This function is a legacy means of pausing the audio device.

New programs might want to use SDL_PauseAudioDevice() instead. This function is equivalent to calling...

SDL_PauseAudioDevice(1, pause_on);
void SDL_PauseAudioDevice(SDL_AudioDeviceID dev, int pause_on)

...and is only useful if you used the legacy SDL_OpenAudio() function.

Parameters
pause_onnon-zero to pause, 0 to unpause.
Since
This function is available since SDL 2.0.0.
See also
SDL_GetAudioStatus
SDL_PauseAudioDevice

◆ SDL_PauseAudioDevice()

void SDL_PauseAudioDevice ( SDL_AudioDeviceID  dev,
int  pause_on 
)
extern

Use this function to pause and unpause audio playback on a specified device.

This function pauses and unpauses the audio callback processing for a given device. Newly-opened audio devices start in the paused state, so you must call this function with pause_on=0 after opening the specified audio device to start playing sound. This allows you to safely initialize data for your callback function after opening the audio device. Silence will be written to the audio device while paused, and the audio callback is guaranteed to not be called. Pausing one device does not prevent other unpaused devices from running their callbacks.

Pausing state does not stack; even if you pause a device several times, a single unpause will start the device playing again, and vice versa. This is different from how SDL_LockAudioDevice() works.

If you just need to protect a few variables from race conditions vs your callback, you shouldn't pause the audio device, as it will lead to dropouts in the audio playback. Instead, you should use SDL_LockAudioDevice().

Parameters
deva device opened by SDL_OpenAudioDevice().
pause_onnon-zero to pause, 0 to unpause.
Since
This function is available since SDL 2.0.0.
See also
SDL_LockAudioDevice

◆ SDL_QueueAudio()

int SDL_QueueAudio ( SDL_AudioDeviceID  dev,
const void *  data,
Uint32  len 
)
extern

Queue more audio on non-callback devices.

If you are looking to retrieve queued audio from a non-callback capture device, you want SDL_DequeueAudio() instead. SDL_QueueAudio() will return -1 to signify an error if you use it with capture devices.

SDL offers two ways to feed audio to the device: you can either supply a callback that SDL triggers with some frequency to obtain more audio (pull method), or you can supply no callback, and then SDL will expect you to supply data at regular intervals (push method) with this function.

There are no limits on the amount of data you can queue, short of exhaustion of address space. Queued data will drain to the device as necessary without further intervention from you. If the device needs audio but there is not enough queued, it will play silence to make up the difference. This means you will have skips in your audio playback if you aren't routinely queueing sufficient data.

This function copies the supplied data, so you are safe to free it when the function returns. This function is thread-safe, but queueing to the same device from two threads at once does not promise which buffer will be queued first.

You may not queue audio on a device that is using an application-supplied callback; doing so returns an error. You have to use the audio callback or queue audio with this function, but not both.

You should not call SDL_LockAudio() on the device before queueing; SDL handles locking internally for this function.

Note that SDL2 does not support planar audio. You will need to resample from planar audio formats into a non-planar one (see SDL_AudioFormat) before queuing audio.

Parameters
devthe device ID to which we will queue audio.
datathe data to queue to the device for later playback.
lenthe number of bytes (not samples!) to which data points.
Returns
0 on success or a negative error code on failure; call SDL_GetError() for more information.
Since
This function is available since SDL 2.0.4.
See also
SDL_ClearQueuedAudio
SDL_GetQueuedAudioSize

◆ SDL_UnlockAudio()

void SDL_UnlockAudio ( void  )
extern

This function is a legacy means of unlocking the audio device.

New programs might want to use SDL_UnlockAudioDevice() instead. This function is equivalent to calling...

void SDL_UnlockAudioDevice(SDL_AudioDeviceID dev)

...and is only useful if you used the legacy SDL_OpenAudio() function.

Since
This function is available since SDL 2.0.0.
See also
SDL_LockAudio
SDL_UnlockAudioDevice

◆ SDL_UnlockAudioDevice()

void SDL_UnlockAudioDevice ( SDL_AudioDeviceID  dev)
extern

Use this function to unlock the audio callback function for a specified device.

This function should be paired with a previous SDL_LockAudioDevice() call.

Parameters
devthe ID of the device to be unlocked.
Since
This function is available since SDL 2.0.0.
See also
SDL_LockAudioDevice