PlaySound() and file length.

[DumRat]

Hi,
I'm currently interested in playing a sound in win32 API. I found out that the function PlaySound() does pretty well. However, none of the examples I have seen specify how to use PlaySound with SND_MEMORY, that is, playing a sound that is in the memory. Using the function to open a file and play it is too time consuming (At minimum it took 60ms on my machine.). So, I want to load the sound into memory, and play it using the function. How can I do this? Is there any special way to read in the file? (Like, do I have to throw away the header, etc?). And, if not, how can I get the size of the file to allocate memory for the file? Thank you.

[weaknessforcats]

You will need to learn how to work with files.

In this case you will want to:

1) open file
2) seek to the end of the file
3) tell to get byte offset from the beginning of the file
4) allocate that much memory
5) read the file to your allocation as binary. This is done in one read.
6) call PlaySound wthe the address of your allocation and the SND_MEMORY.

No guarantee this will be faster that playing the sound from the disc file since in both cases you have to read the file.

[DumRat]

You will need to learn how to work with files.

In this case you will want to:

1) open file
2) seek to the end of the file
3) tell to get byte offset from the beginning of the file
4) allocate that much memory
5) read the file to your allocation as binary. This is done in one read.
6) call PlaySound wthe the address of your allocation and the SND_MEMORY.

No guarantee this will be faster that playing the sound from the disc file since in both cases you have to read the file.

Actually, I'm trying to use the sounds in a little game. So, I thought of loading all the sounds initially and using those sounds later when I need to. So, it has to be fast. However, after I posted my question, I had an idea, do stuff like that normally happen multithreaded? I mean, I don't know anything about threads, but is it the way it's done? Glad if you can help me out. Thanks.

[weaknessforcats]

You could load all your sounds as your game starts up and then use the SND_MEMORY during playtime. That will definitely be faster than reading files as needed.

As to multithreading, you could write a function to load your sounds and create a thread using CreateThread. The files are then loaded without interupting the program. It will appear as though it is done in parallel. You have the thread function set an event when the load is complete. Back on the main thread just before you launch into play, you check the event and hold there until the worker thread has finished.

Your thread function must have the form:

DWORD WINAPI MyThread(LPVOID);
 

Microsoft calls this a threadproc.

You use the address of this function in the CreateThread call.

Good luck.

[DumRat]

I'll try it out. Thanks.