[gmpi] Re: Topic 7.2: In-place processing
- From: David Olofson <david@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: gmpi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2003 00:09:37 +0200
On Monday 02 June 2003 23.35, Tim Hockin wrote:
> > c) Yes. A plugin is given inputs and produces it's own output
> > buffers based on internal knowledge or other variables. The host
> > is not involved, except to furnish new buffers as requested. The
> > plugin must re-use or release all input buffers. All inputs and
> > outputs are unique.
> > <<<
> >
> > In other words, baton passing, right? I vote for (c). See my
> > other suggestions re. DirectX and our internal implementation of
> > this stuff.
>
> So, to play devil's advocate:
>
> Does it really win us anything? It is mildly more complex, and is
> a potential source for bugs. Even though I dreamed it up (not
> knowing anything about DX), I want to see the Right Answer chosen.
It's been suggested that on average, only half of the plugins in a
"full studio" net are actually processing audio at a time. In a
normal mix, you rarely, if ever, use all tracks at once, and
realistically, even IIR plugins *do* reach levels we can consider
silent in realistic amounts of time.
It's quite obvious that silence support makes a huge difference in
"multimedia sound engines", and other applications that deal with
multiple songs, each with it's own FX net - but how many hosts do
that kind of stuff? (I'm not talking about Multiple Document
Interface applications, but rather having all songs ready to start
playing at any time - at the same time, if necessary.) Is it
important that GMPI plugins can run in such environments, without
dirty hacks to turn plugins on and off?
I'd like to see real data on this; not just speculation. It's obvious
that we shouldn't have a useless feature, and it's equally obvious
that we *should* have a feature that saves huge numbers of cycles in
many applications, unless it's insanely complex.
//David Olofson - Programmer, Composer, Open Source Advocate
.- The Return of Audiality! --------------------------------.
| Free/Open Source Audio Engine for use in Games or Studio. |
| RT and off-line synth. Scripting. Sample accurate timing. |
`-----------------------------------> http://audiality.org -'
--- http://olofson.net --- http://www.reologica.se ---
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