Introduction
libGDX provides methods to playback small sound effects as well as stream larger music pieces directly from disk. It also provides convenient read and write access to the audio hardware.
All access to the audio facilities is done through the audio module, referenced by:
Audio audio = Gdx.audio;
libGDX will automatically pause and resume all audio playback for you if your application is paused and resumed.
Audio on Android
libGDX Android backend uses the SoundPool API to play Sounds and the MediaPlayer for Music. These API have some limitations and known issues in certain scenarios:
- Latency is not great and the default implementation is not recommended for latency sensitive apps like rhythm games.
- Playing several sounds at the same time may cause performance issues on some devices. An easy way to fix it (with the limitation some methods are unsupported) is using the alternative Android implementation
AsynchronousAndroidAudioby implementingcreateAudio()onAndroidLauncherlike this:
@Override
public AndroidAudio createAudio(Context context, AndroidApplicationConfiguration config) {
return new AsynchronousAndroidAudio(context, config);
}
Generally speaking, Audio on Android is problematic and there may be other scenarios or device especific issues.
Alternatives
In an attempt to fix some of these issues Google created Oboe that can be used on libGDX projects thanks to libGDX Oboe.
Another alternative is MiniAudio through gdx-miniaudio project which is an actively mantained cross-platform audio engine already used in production by some libGDX games.