Clip slower on 64-bit JRE's

Java Sound & OpenAL
#1

HI everybody,

I’ve been playing javax.sound.sampled.Clips like this:


public void play(final String key) {
//new Thread() { @Override public void run() {
	Clip clip = clips.get(key);
	if (clip!=null) {
		clip.stop();
		clip.setFramePosition(0);
		clip.start();
	}
//}}.start();
}

I’m testing on a Core 2 Duo, 4GHz, so the machine is plenty fast. My game is running at 30 fps, and I’m noticing a big performance difference when using a 32-bit JRE vs. a 64-bit one.

I’m currently playing a sound each time the user presses a key. If the user holds down the key, that sound plays repeatedly, as quickly as possible. When running on a 32-bit JRE, this works fine, and the game stays at a solid 30 fps. When running on a 64-bit JRE, however, performance drops to 15 fps. I tested with a 1.5 and 1.6 JRE for both levels of bitness, and the result is the same.

Any idea what’s causing this? Am I doing something wrong? I notice that when I run the sound effect in a thread (using the commented out lines), I don’t have this performance drop in 64-bit. Is this a bad workaround - launching (possibly) 30 threads per second, albeit short-lived threads?

#2

Hmm. I see something similar as well. Your best bet would be to post on the java forums at sun/oracle. They have a javax.media section.

#3

Aye, I just thought I’d try here first since the folks here are pretty smart and responses often come pretty quickly. I’ll post over there and if I get a response I’ll post the solution back here.