Main thread lags when calling Seek on SoundPlayer

[nolife99]

Hi,
I am trying to replace the audio backend of my app from bass to SoundFlow. Bass has fast seeking, so I originally performed it multiple times per frame. However SoundFlow appears to have a major cost to seeking calls, reducing my FPS from 500 to 20. It also sounds like the audio is lagging behind as well

I tried removing the seeking every frame and it works well, but seeking is still slow and has a noticeable lag spike.

Any suggestions to mitigate the issue?

[iFloneUEFN]

Having same issue using seek, #35, I'm glad It's not a only me issue.

[LSXPrime]

Sorry for the delayed response, I don't seem to be receiving notifications for discussions via email.

@nolife99 SoundFlow's default backend is miniaudio. This means that seeking in SoundFlow first calls miniaudio's seeking method, and then seeks the managed stream to keep it in sync during the miniaudio callback. I can't help with this, as it's beyond my understanding of miniaudio, you may need to open an issue at miniaudio repository.

However, as a workaround, if the audio files are small, consider using AssetDataProvider or RawDataProvider. These don't need to call miniaudio to handle seeking because they directly manipulate the source decoded stream, using pre-decoded audio data instead of decoding on the fly.

@iFloneUEFN , The seek delay should be the same as above, but upon revisiting this discussion, I no longer perceive the distortions in v1.0.4.

However, could you try SimpleSoundPlayer from this reply? Others confirm it eliminated distortions. Since you're working on a game, it should be a better option because this simple player doesn't have to pre-buffer for performing interpolation. This eliminates at least 100ms (the default player's resampler's buffer size) of delay.

[iFloneUEFN]

Sorry for the delayed response, I don't seem to be receiving notifications for discussions via email.

@nolife99 SoundFlow's default backend is miniaudio. This means that seeking in SoundFlow first calls miniaudio's seeking method, and then seeks the managed stream to keep it in sync during the miniaudio callback. I can't help with this, as it's beyond my understanding of miniaudio, you may need to open an issue at miniaudio repository.

However, as a workaround, if the audio files are small, consider using AssetDataProvider or RawDataProvider. These don't need to call miniaudio to handle seeking because they directly manipulate the source decoded stream, using pre-decoded audio data instead of decoding on the fly.

@iFloneUEFN , The seek delay should be the same as above, but upon revisiting this discussion, I no longer perceive the distortions in v1.0.4.

However, could you try SimpleSoundPlayer from this reply? Others confirm it eliminated distortions. Since you're working on a game, it should be a better option because this simple player doesn't have to pre-buffer for performing interpolation. This eliminates at least 100ms (the default player's resampler's buffer size) of delay.

I tested using AssetDataProvider, RawDataProvider and the SimpleSoundPlayer, still happening. I'm on Mac M1 Pro 16GB if it can help. My Repo is public if you own a Mac and can test https://github.com/iFloneUEFN/FortnitePortingMac, it's in the RadioViewModel.cs file.

[LSXPrime]

Given that the public repository is still on version 1.0.3 (<PackageReference Include="SoundFlow" Version="1.0.3" />), I'll assume you're using 1.0.4 locally.

I tested using AssetDataProvider, RawDataProvider and the SimpleSoundPlayer, still happening. I'm on Mac M1 Pro 16GB if it can help

Unfortunately, I don't have a Mac machine, so I can't confirm this directly.

To help troubleshoot, could you please try the "Getting Started - Basic Example" from the repository? Also, could you share some of the audio files you've tested?

[iFloneUEFN]

Given that the public repository is still on version 1.0.3 (<PackageReference Include="SoundFlow" Version="1.0.3" />), I'll assume you're using 1.0.4 locally.

I tested using AssetDataProvider, RawDataProvider and the SimpleSoundPlayer, still happening. I'm on Mac M1 Pro 16GB if it can help

Unfortunately, I don't have a Mac machine, so I can't confirm this directly.

To help troubleshoot, could you please try the "Getting Started - Basic Example" from the repository? Also, could you share some of the audio files you've tested?

Yes I did update to 1.0.4 locally.
With basic example since seek does not depend on the slider from avalonia, it's working. I believe it's happening because of the slider "ValueChanged" property as it's seeking every time the slider value change. Maybe try with same scenario?

 <Slider Grid.Column="2" Value="{Binding CurrentTime.TotalSeconds}"
                            Minimum="0" Maximum="{Binding TotalTime.TotalSeconds}"
                            ValueChanged="OnPlaybackSliderChanged" />

  private void OnPlaybackSliderChanged(object? sender, RangeBaseValueChangedEventArgs e)
    {
        if (sender is not Slider slider) return;
        //ViewModel.Scrub(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(slider.Value));
    }

 public void Scrub(TimeSpan time)
   {
       if (AudioReader is null) return;
       AudioReader.Seek((float)time.TotalSeconds);
   }