How to disable audio for SimpleApplication

[Dawud_Shakir]

I just started the tutorial but unfortunately I can't get past the "Could not locate OpenAL library." exception for the Hello SimpleApplication because my computer does not have a sound card (work doesn't allow sound cards).

Is there any way around that?

[pspeed]

http://javadoc.jmonkeyengine.org/com/jme3/system/AppSettings.html#setAudioRenderer-java.lang.String-

[jayfella]

I had this problem too. I disable my soundcard and use HDMI or bluetooth. If I have no sound it results in the same output as above. I never bothered to look into why. Tyvm.

[Dawud_Shakir]

I am still getting the same exception

public class MyGame extends SimpleApplication {

    public static void main(String[] args){
    	AppSettings settings = new AppSettings(true);
    	settings.setAudioRenderer(null);
    	
    	MyGame app = new MyGame();
    	app.setSettings(settings);
        app.start(); // start the game
 
    }

    @Override
    public void simpleInitApp() {
        Box b = new Box(1, 1, 1); // create cube shape
        Geometry geom = new Geometry("Box", b);  // create cube geometry from the shape
        Material mat = new Material(assetManager,
          "Common/MatDefs/Misc/Unshaded.j3md");  // create a simple material
        mat.setColor("Color", ColorRGBA.Blue);   // set color of material to blue
        geom.setMaterial(mat);                   // set the cube's material
        rootNode.attachChild(geom);              // make the cube appear in the scene
    }
}

AL lib: (EE) MMDevApiOpenPlayback: Device init failed: 0x80070490
AL lib: (EE) MMDevApiOpenPlayback: Device init failed: 0x80070490
AL lib: (EE) MMDevApiOpenPlayback: Device init failed: 0x80070490
AL lib: (EE) MMDevApiOpenPlayback: Device init failed: 0x80070490
Sep 14, 2017 11:18:23 AM com.jme3.app.LegacyApplication handleError
SEVERE: Uncaught exception thrown in Thread[jME3 Main,5,main]
java.lang.RuntimeException: org.lwjgl.LWJGLException: Could not locate OpenAL library.
	at com.jme3.audio.lwjgl.LwjglALC.createALC(LwjglALC.java:17)
	at com.jme3.audio.openal.ALAudioRenderer.initOpenAL(ALAudioRenderer.java:95)
	at com.jme3.audio.openal.ALAudioRenderer.initialize(ALAudioRenderer.java:225)
	at com.jme3.app.LegacyApplication.initAudio(LegacyApplication.java:283)
	at com.jme3.app.LegacyApplication.initialize(LegacyApplication.java:603)
	at com.jme3.app.SimpleApplication.initialize(SimpleApplication.java:178)
	at com.jme3.system.lwjgl.LwjglAbstractDisplay.initInThread(LwjglAbstractDisplay.java:130)
	at com.jme3.system.lwjgl.LwjglAbstractDisplay.run(LwjglAbstractDisplay.java:211)
	at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

[pspeed]

Then you need to rebuild again or something because that code must not be being used.

If you look at the initAudio() code:

 private void initAudio(){
        if (settings.getAudioRenderer() != null && context.getType() != Type.Headless){
            audioRenderer = JmeSystem.newAudioRenderer(settings);
            audioRenderer.initialize();  // Line 283 from the exception
            AudioContext.setAudioRenderer(audioRenderer);

            listener = new Listener();
            audioRenderer.setListener(listener);
        }
}

There is no way that block runs if the audio renderer is null.

And there is nothing special about AppSettings as it's just a map. So... not sure what to tell you.

Edit: updated with the exception line number to prove that app settings is not setup right in that error dump.

[Darkchaos]

And it actually sounds like lwjgl is unable to load the openAL.dll it extracts. Maybe you'd have the same problem for physics then.

Do you have some restriction/anti Virus blocking dlls?

Anyway try a Clean & Build, Maybe something just got messed up

[jayfella]

I edited your post. Look how beautiful it looks when you use code blocks

[Serenic]

Seems I’m a late poster in this thread, but I stumbled onto the same issue myself. I did some research, and I believe I may have found a bug in how the AppSettings’ AudioRenderer value is handled.

I’ve based my application on the SimpleApplication class, and I got the same “Could not locate OpenAL library” message while using a computer without a sound card driver. After reading this thread, I tried OP’s approach by creating my own AppSettings and setting its AudoRenderer value to null:

public static void main(String[] args){
    AppSettings settings = new AppSettings(true);
    settings.setAudioRenderer(null);

    MyGame app = new MyGame();
    app.setSettings(settings);
    app.start();
}

As OP, I still got the same result as before. The code inside the initAudio() method mentioned by pspeed would still run, causing exceptions.

After a little debugging, I noticed that AudoRenderer’s value in AppSettings had reverted back to “LWJGL” and was no longer null when initAudio() was invoked. This was a bit strange, since I was sure I set it to null in the main() method. A bit more research, and I noticed that the AudioRenderer value got changed back to “LWJGL” when SimpleApplication.start() was invoked.

I checked the JME documentation to make sure I wasn’t using AppSettings in an unintentional way, but according to the information found at https://jmonkeyengine.github.io/wiki/jme3/intermediate/appsettings.html, OP’s approach is correct, and I assume this is how it’s intended to work.

This seems to be an issue exclusively with the AudioRenderer. I haven’t tested all settings, but the FrameRate setting, for instance, doesn’t get overwritten, and works just fine. I was able to work around the issue by setting the AudioRenderer to null on both the SimpleApplication and its context after invoking app.start(), but this feels like a hack.

I’m running JME version 3.2-stable on 64-bit linux.