Just thought I would post an update to the progress while I am waiting for a build...
So far, SDL has been stripped out of XBMC, a new audio layer called, yes, you guessed it, "AudioEngine" has been built. This new layer is able to handle
bit-perfect reproduction of audio, mixing, preloaded sounds, resampling, downmixing, post-processing filters.
What works so far:
* alsa output (NOTHING ELSE)
* dvdplayer
* gui sounds
* paplayer (90%) including
x-fade for wsapi users
* visualization add-ons (the interface has not changed, add-ons are compatible)
PAPlayer's stream handing code, cross fade, and gapless mess has been re-written to take advantage of AE. PAPlayer does not re-sample anymore either as AE handles re-sampling, format conversion, channel remapping, down-mixing, making the code in the PAPlayer and dvdplayer MUCH simpler and robust.
Whats still left to do before a release:
* Make paplayer output the codec's native format, currently it converts everything to float
* Make passthrough work again
* Fix paplayer's seek
* Make the other AudioRenderers work (they will probably be re-written somewhat)
* add channel mapping support to paplayer for FLAC files (this one will make lots of people happy)
Obviously NONE of this will make it into Dharma, so don't even ask for it it is way too experimental and un-tested to release just yet.
I know there has been a-lot of stalled "new audio layer" attempts in the past, this time though we are 90% through having everything working where we can move onto new features such as up-mixing, ladspa plugins, etc. There may even be a addon interface for custom post-proc filters at some stage