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Bug 4801

Summary: Make pulseaudio stream description configurable
Product: SDL Reporter: bugzilla.libsdl.org
Component: audioAssignee: Ryan C. Gordon <icculus>
Status: RESOLVED FIXED QA Contact: Sam Lantinga <slouken>
Severity: enhancement    
Priority: P2 Keywords: target-2.0.14
Version: HG 2.1   
Hardware: x86_64   
OS: Linux   

Description bugzilla.libsdl.org 2019-09-11 17:24:04 UTC 
Currently, SDL has a hard-coded description for its PulseAudio stream:

    h->stream = PULSEAUDIO_pa_stream_new(
        h->context,
        "Simple DirectMedia Layer", /* stream description */
        &paspec,    /* sample format spec */
        &pacmap     /* channel map */
    );

(from src/audio/pulseaudio/SDL_pulseaudio.c)

This stream description is user-visible. For example, it is how streams are identified in pavucontrol's "Playback" tab. So if a user currently wishes to adjust the playback volume of an SDL-based application using pavucontrol, then they need to know that the application's audio stream will be identified as "Simple DirectMedia Layer".

This is not a great user experience. It would be better if the application could tell SDL to use a specific name for the audio stream, one that has more meaning to the user than "Simple DirectMedia Layer".
Comment 1 Ryan C. Gordon 2020-03-23 03:36:36 UTC 
I've wanted to do this for awhile! I'll try to plug this in for 2.0.14.

--ryan.
Comment 2 Ryan C. Gordon 2020-05-04 02:29:36 UTC 
As of https://hg.libsdl.org/SDL/rev/4d04f91e1776, you can set hints before opening the audio device to pass this info to PulseAudio...

    SDL_SetHint(SDL_HINT_AUDIO_DEVICE_APP_NAME, "My Game 2: The Revenge");

    // Set up the thing that plays all the game's sounds...
    SDL_SetHint(SDL_HINT_AUDIO_DEVICE_STREAM_NAME, "Game audio");
    dev = SDL_OpenAudioDevice(...);

    // We also open a USB headset that is only used for multiplayer chat.
    SDL_SetHint(SDL_HINT_AUDIO_DEVICE_STREAM_NAME, "Team VoIP chat");
    dev2 = SDL_OpenAudioDevice(...);


...this can also be used from the command line for apps that don't supply this information...

    SDL_AUDIO_DEVICE_STREAM_NAME="My Music Track" SDL_AUDIO_DEVICE_APP_NAME="My Media Player" ./playsound abc.mp3

...in SDL 2.1, we'll likely make this part of the formal API, but I think this as far as it will got for 2.0.

--ryan.
Comment 3 bugzilla.libsdl.org 2020-05-04 20:49:13 UTC 
Awesome, thanks for this!