node-openal

This addon makes it possible to use the OpenAL library from within a node application.

Helpful Sources

I didn't know anything about OpenAL or creating c++ node "addons" before starting this, so I got a lot of help from the following sources:

• node-midi provided a great example of a nicely designed c++-based node module
• nodejs.org addon manual
• This simple OpenAL example
• OpenAL Programmers Guide
• My OpenAL framework is broken, how can I fix it? (OSX Lion)

Testing

As a newcomer to node addons, rather than setting up the whole Eclipse-based debugging environment, I found it helpful to compile my addon in debug mode and just run node through gdb:

node-gyp clean && node-gyp configure && node-gyp build --debug
gdb node
(gdb) set args test/stream.js
(gdb) run

Even though node isn't compiled with debug symbols, this got me close enough to the problem when I was getting weird segfaults.

To do

• Use libuv for stream reading?
• OpenAL-soft air absorption, occlusion, and environmental reverb
• same as EFX?
• use MPlayer for compressed formats? or ogg
• ultimately, I want to be able to stream the audio that is generated. Is this article relavant?