I have seen some posting about JOAL but was unable to find anything abou it on Google. Is this related to the JOGL project?
Also, what are the various 3D sound options avaible for Java (if any)?
Mahalo
It provides bindings to OpenAL the same cross-platform audio framework used by LWJGL.
I’m not too sure about OpenAL yet. Iknow very little about it, but I have to wonder how much control one needs over audio that the Java binding couldn’t go directly to the OS native routines instead of through the OpenAL framework (which does not appear to be “included” with the OS in the same sense as OpenGL might be.).
Quite frankly I would rather see better JavaSound, with support for ByteBuffers, and mixer controls, synchronization, etc… we don’t need a zillion sound APIs
JOAL (Java OpenAL) is, as was mentioned, a set of java bindings for OpenAL. OpenAl is, very specifically, an API for 3D sound designed to simplify integrating 3D positional audio into a OpenGL application, with a set of naming conventions and programming model very similar to that of OpenGL.
JOAL is not a replacement for JavaSound (OpenAL has no real facilities for audio mixing and synthesis, while JavaSound has no real facilities for 3D positional audio) and, as such, joal has been written with an eye toward enabling the two to be used together to provide a complete 3D audio solution.