Question regarding audio sources

[Whatthefuck]

Hey, I have a quick question - is there a limit as to how many sounds can be played back simultaneously? I ask because it seems if I play about 30 sounds at the same time, then other sounds won't play (I call source:play(), then print(source:isPlaying()) which prints out false), and it's driving me crazy - am I doing something wrong or is there some limit set internally?

[Sir_Silver]

I am like 80% sure that there is a limit on the number of sounds you can have playing simultaneously. Not sure what that number is, or how to extend it though. I'm sure Slime or someone could have a definitive answer for you though!

[Whatthefuck]

I'm digging through love2d source code and have found this in src/modules/audio/openal/Pool.h:

// Maximum possible number of OpenAL sources the pool attempts to generate.
static const int MAX_SOURCES = 64;

If this is what I think it is, then there's a max. sound limit set to 64 sources.
If I could get a confirmation that it really is the limit, then I'd appreciate it.

Edit: just did a quick test from Lua side, and yep, it really is the max. source limit.
A moderator can now close the thread.

[Nixola]

If I recall correctly, there are systems/situations where the number of sources can be lower than that (I seem to recall 16 playing sources as a limit).

[slime]

There's the max limit that love's source code imposes (64), and then there's a max limit inside the OpenAL library (i believe it's 32 or 64 on most platforms, possibly 16 on iOS? I don't remember). The actual limit will be the lower of those two, although OpenAL doesn't provide a way to query it.

You can check the return value of Source:play, it will return false if it wasn't able to play due to reaching the limit.