OpenAL reading a WAV file lib - c++

Question

I am just getting started with OpenAL for a Game Engine that I am building. My understanding is that there are some libraries that can help you open an use .wav files. I understand that ALUT is deprecated, but I have heard mention of a more current library called libaudio. I cannot, however, find that library online anywhere.
My question is this: Where can I find libaudio? Or is there a better, more maintained library out there like alut that I can use? I really don't want to have to learn how to open a .wav file if I can help it. Any suggestions would be great.

Answer 1

I broke down and wrote it manually based on this awesome tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmVRpNFP9ys
Here is the code:
//check big vs little endian machine
static bool IsBigEndian(void)
{
int a = 1;
return !((char*)&a)[0];
}
static int ConvertToInt(char* buffer, int len)
{
int a = 0;
if(!IsBigEndian())
{
for(int i = 0; i < len; ++i)
{
((char*)&a)[i] = buffer[i];
}
}
else
{
for(int i = 0; i < len; ++i)
{
((char*)&a)[3-i] = buffer[i];
}
}
return a;
}
//Location and size of data is found here: http://www.topherlee.com/software/pcm-tut-wavformat.html
static char* LoadWAV(string filename, int& channels, int& sampleRate, int& bps, int& size)
{
char buffer[4];
std::ifstream in(filename.c_str());
in.read(buffer, 4);
if(strncmp(buffer, "RIFF", 4) != 0)
{
std::cout << "Error here, not a valid WAV file, RIFF not found in header\n This was found instead: "
<< buffer[0] << buffer[1] << buffer[2] << buffer[3] << std::endl;
}
in.read(buffer, 4);//size of file. Not used. Read it to skip over it.
in.read(buffer, 4);//Format, should be WAVE
if(strncmp(buffer, "WAVE", 4) != 0)
{
std::cout << "Error here, not a valid WAV file, WAVE not found in header.\n This was found instead: "
<< buffer[0] << buffer[1] << buffer[2] << buffer[3] << std::endl;
}
in.read(buffer, 4);//Format Space Marker. should equal fmt (space)
if(strncmp(buffer, "fmt ", 4) != 0)
{
std::cout << "Error here, not a valid WAV file, Format Marker not found in header.\n This was found instead: "
<< buffer[0] << buffer[1] << buffer[2] << buffer[3] << std::endl;
}
in.read(buffer, 4);//Length of format data. Should be 16 for PCM, meaning uncompressed.
if(ConvertToInt(buffer, 4) != 16)
{
std::cout << "Error here, not a valid WAV file, format length wrong in header.\n This was found instead: "
<< ConvertToInt(buffer, 4) << std::endl;
}
in.read(buffer, 2);//Type of format, 1 = PCM
if(ConvertToInt(buffer, 2) != 1)
{
std::cout << "Error here, not a valid WAV file, file not in PCM format.\n This was found instead: "
<< ConvertToInt(buffer, 4) << std::endl;
}
in.read(buffer, 2);//Get number of channels.
//Assume at this point that we are dealing with a WAV file. This value is needed by OpenAL
channels = ConvertToInt(buffer, 2);
in.read(buffer, 4);//Get sampler rate.
sampleRate = ConvertToInt(buffer, 4);
//Skip Byte Rate and Block Align. Maybe use later?
in.read(buffer, 4);//Block Align
in.read(buffer, 2);//ByteRate
in.read(buffer, 2);//Get Bits Per Sample
bps = ConvertToInt(buffer, 2);
//Skip character data, which marks the start of the data that we care about.
in.read(buffer, 4);//"data" chunk.
in.read(buffer, 4); //Get size of the data
size = ConvertToInt(buffer, 4);
if(size < 0)
{
std::cout << "Error here, not a valid WAV file, size of file reports 0.\n This was found instead: "
<< size << std::endl;
}
char* data = new char[size];
in.read(data, size);//Read audio data into buffer, return.
in.close();
return data;
}