OSS4 (Open Sound System) - OpenAL Lag Spike/Freezes

22 July 2019, 20:39:10

Hello all, I'm really desperate here. I've gotten OSS4 to compile and work using the oss-git AUR package with a small modification, it uses GCC5 to compile because otherwise osscore fails to initialize. Everything works perfect EXCEPT OpenAL, any games that use the library for audio output cause a CPU usage spike, and temporarily freeze the game. It seems to occur upon new sounds being loaded, however like clockwork every 20 to 30 seconds it will lag spike (aka freeze for a few seconds), and then return to normal. It makes anything using OpenAL unplayable, which is a fair amount of games. It's worth noting that SDL works fine, direct OSS supported games work fine, Wine's driver works fine, everything but OpenAL leading me to believe it's an issue regarding the library and Arch/Artix. If I do soundoff and play, no lag. I have a friend who uses Slackware with OSS4, and he experiences no such issue. I've tried compiling OpenAL with GCC5, downgrading it to the version on Slack (1.18.0), and finally compiled OpenAL without JACK/ALSA/PulseAudio backends, still lag spikes. You can imagine how infuriating this is, especially since OpenAL has always been a great choice for OSS4 users. I would appreciate any help or insight. Thanks in advance.

Here's a gdb backtrace from a game where the lag spike occurs:

Quote

0x00007ffff7e387bc in __lll_lock_wait () from /usr/lib/libpthread.so.0
(gdb) bt
#0 0x00007ffff7e387bc in __lll_lock_wait () from /usr/lib/libpthread.so.0
#1 0x00007ffff7e31e34 in pthread_mutex_lock () from /usr/lib/libpthread.so.0
#2 0x00007ffff6b2c34c in alDeleteSources () from /usr/lib/libopenal.so.1
#3 0x000000000060f3ac in OpenAL_ChannelUpdate ()
#4 0x000000000061720f in S_Update ()
#5 0x00000000005841e9 in Host_Frame ()
#6 0x0000000000404aa7 in main ()
(gdb) Quit