Useful Environment Variables

Below is a list of environment variables that can be set to aid with running or
debugging apps that use OpenAL Soft. They should be set before the app is run.

*** Logging ***

ALSOFT_LOGLEVEL
Specifies the amount of logging OpenAL Soft will write out:
0 - Effectively disables all logging
1 - Prints out errors only
2 - Prints out warnings and errors
3 - Prints out additional information, as well as warnings and errors

ALSOFT_LOGFILE
Specifies a filename that logged output will be written to. Note that the file
will be first cleared when logging is initialized.

*** Overrides ***

ALSOFT_CONF
Specifies an additional configuration file to load settings from. These
settings will take precedence over the global and user configs, but not other
environment variable settings.

ALSOFT_DRIVERS
Overrides the drivers config option. This specifies which backend drivers to
consider or not consider for use. Please see the drivers option in
alsoftrc.sample for a list of available drivers.

ALSOFT_DEFAULT_REVERB
Specifies the default reverb preset to apply to sources. Please see the
default-reverb option in alsoftrc.sample for additional information and a list
of available presets.

ALSOFT_TRAP_AL_ERROR
Set to "true" or "1" to force trapping AL errors. Like the trap-al-error config
option, this will raise a SIGTRAP signal (or a breakpoint exception under
Windows) when a context-level error is generated. Useful when run under a
debugger as it will break execution right when the error occurs, making it
easier to track the cause.

ALSOFT_TRAP_ALC_ERROR
Set to "true" or "1" to force trapping ALC errors. Like the trap-alc-error
config option, this will raise a SIGTRAP signal (or a breakpoint exception
under Windows) when a device-level error is generated. Useful when run under a
debugger as it will break execution right when the error occurs, making it
easier to track the cause.

ALSOFT_TRAP_ERROR
Set to "true" or "1" to force trapping both ALC and AL errors.

ALSOFT_EAX_TRACE_COMMITS
Overrides the EAX trace-commits config option. This specifies whether EAX
property commits are logged with trace messages.

*** Compatibility ***

__ALSOFT_HALF_ANGLE_CONES
Older versions of OpenAL Soft incorrectly calculated the cone angles to range
between 0 and 180 degrees, instead of the expected range of 0 to 360 degrees.
Setting this to "true" or "1" restores the old buggy behavior, for apps that
were written to expect the incorrect range.

__ALSOFT_ENABLE_SUB_DATA_EXT
The more widely used AL_EXT_SOURCE_RADIUS extension is incompatible with the
now-defunct AL_SOFT_buffer_sub_data extension. Setting this to "true" or "1"
restores the AL_SOFT_buffer_sub_data extension for apps that require it,
disabling AL_EXT_SOURCE_RADIUS.

__ALSOFT_REVERSE_Z
Applications that don't natively use OpenAL's coordinate system have to convert
to it before passing in 3D coordinates. Depending on how exactly this is done,
it can cause correct output for stereo but incorrect Z panning for surround
sound (i.e., sounds that are supposed to be behind you sound like they're in
front, and vice versa). Setting this to "true" or "1" will negate the localized
Z coordinate to flip front/back panning for 3D sources.

__ALSOFT_REVERSE_Y
Same as for __ALSOFT_REVERSE_Z, but for Y (up/down) panning.

__ALSOFT_REVERSE_X
Same as for __ALSOFT_REVERSE_Z, but for X (left/right) panning.

__ALSOFT_VENDOR_OVERRIDE
Overrides the value returned by alGetString(AL_VENDOR), for apps that misbehave
without particular values.

__ALSOFT_VERSION_OVERRIDE
Overrides the value returned by alGetString(AL_VERSION), for apps that
misbehave without particular values.

__ALSOFT_RENDERER_OVERRIDE
Overrides the value returned by alGetString(AL_RENDERER), for apps that
misbehave without particular values.

__ALSOFT_DEFAULT_ERROR
Applications that erroneously call alGetError prior to setting a context as
current may not like that OpenAL Soft returns 0xA004 (AL_INVALID_OPERATION),
indicating that the call could not be executed as there's no context to get the
error value from. This can be set to 0 (AL_NO_ERROR) to let such apps pass the
check despite the problem. Other applications, however, may see AL_NO_ERROR
returned and assume any previous AL calls succeeded when they actually failed,
so this should only be set when necessary.

__ALSOFT_SUSPEND_CONTEXT
Due to the OpenAL spec not being very clear about them, behavior of the
alcSuspendContext and alcProcessContext methods has varied, and because of
that, previous versions of OpenAL Soft had them no-op. Creative's hardware
drivers and the Rapture3D driver, however, use these methods to batch changes,
which some applications make use of to protect against partial updates. In an
attempt to standardize on that behavior, OpenAL Soft has changed those methods
accordingly. Setting this to "ignore" restores the previous no-op behavior for
applications that interact poorly with the new behavior.
