C++ Library ma_sound* management

[Ar-Ess]

Hey, I'm back again.
I'm building a C++ Audiophysic Library which uses miniaudio as an audio system. This library has a core class (from now on "CORE"), an audio system class (from now on "AUDIO"), and a physic body class (from now on "BODY").

• USER creates a new CORE
• CORE has access to AUDIO (not reverse)
• BODY is independent, no access to anyone.
• CORE has a vector of BODY's.
• AUDIO has a std::vector of ma_sound*'s (we'll call it "ma_sound_vector")

During all this time since today, I developed this library thinking that I can play the same ma_sound twice at the same time, but miniaudio does not work like this, and I want to explain my code as simple as I can in case anyone can suggest another solution.
This is the wrong situation of my code:

User can load different sounds to the CORE library using CORE->LoadSound(const char* path);
These sounds loaded travels inside AUDIO (which CORE has access) and is "emplace_back()" into the ma_sound vector (known as "ma_sound_vector").
BODY's are the classes that generate sounds, so there is a function "BODY->PlaySound(int indexSound);"
"int indexSound" referes to the index of the ma_sound loaded in AUDIO's ma_sound_vector.
PlaySound(int indexSound) stores the "call of playing a sound" into a "query list". This list has information about the index each BODY wants to play in a frame.
Then, at the end of that code iteration, AUDIO updates, reads all the list and plays all the sounds. Example:

core->LoadSound("path1"); // Sound stored in index "0" of AUDIO's vector of ma_sounds*
core->LoadSound("path2"); // Sound stored in index "1" of AUDIO's vector of ma_sounds*
core->LoadSound("path3"); // Sound stored in index "2" of AUDIO's vector of ma_sounds*

body1->PlaySound(0); // Added new information to the query list: "body1 wants to play sound in index 0"
body2->PlaySound(2); // Added new information to the query list: "body1 wants to play sound in index 2"
body3->PlaySound(1); // Added new information to the query list: "body1 wants to play sound in index 1"

audio->Update();

now, inside audio->Update() function.

void AUDIO::Update()
{

for (int index : "query list")
{
ma_sound* sound= ma_sound_vector[index];
ma_sound_start( sound );
}

}

As you might see, the problem with this comes when 2 different BODY's play the same sound at the same frame. As there is just one ma_sound* stored in ma_sound_vector, it is not possible to play it twice the same frame (or as long as it is playing).

In the future, I'll need to use nodes in order to add effects, so a function to directly play the sound from the path won't work.
Do you see a better way to manage the ma_sound* without having to create the same ma_sound per body that wants to play it??

Hopefully this explanation is understandable. Actually I am not able to provide a code example, but if you think is better, I'll try to do one as soon as I can. Meanwhile, any doubt, I'll reply fast.

[Ar-Ess]

I got a solution (and an idea at the bottom of the answer)
I'm treating ma_sound_vector as a list of ma_sounds to create the actual ma_sounds that will be played.

After playing an ma_sound, I'll do:

void AUDIO::Update()
{

for (int index : "query list")
{
ma_sound* sound = new ma_sound();
ma_sound_init_copy(&engine, ma_sound_vector[index], ..., ..., sound);
ma_sound_start( sound );
}

}

This way I am using ma_sound_vector as a vector of how the sounds should be, but I am not actually playing them.

Idea:
It would be awesome that miniaudio had a wrapper class to init with information, and with it, initialize an ma_sound.
Like a "ma_sound_data", that had all the initialized information for an ma_sound,
and through a "ma_sound_init_data(&ma_sound_data, &sound);", it could easily be initialized.

Just a suggestion!

[mackron]

Yes, you need a separate ma_sound for each instance you want to initialize. If you call ma_sound_init_from_file() multiple times with the same file path, the file is only ever loaded once under the hood (just be careful of the reference counting gotcha mentioned here in section 6.2.2: https://miniaud.io/docs/manual/#ResourceManagement).

What you're proposing is essentially the same thing, except instead of ma_sound_init_copy() it's called ma_sound_init_data() and instead of an existing sound it's ma_sound_data. It's really just a difference in terminology.

[Ar-Ess]

Nice, I'll take it into account!