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FAQ.md

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Can I write audio data from Java to Oboe?

Oboe is a native library written in C++ which uses the Android NDK. To move data from Java to C++ you can use JNI.

That said, if you are generating your audio in Java you'll get better performance using the Java AudioTrack class. This can be created with low latency using the AudioTrack.Builder method setPerformanceMode(AudioTrack.PERFORMANCE_MODE_LOW_LATENCY).

You can dynamically tune the latency of the stream just like in Oboe using setBufferSizeInFrames(int) Also you can use blocking writes with the Java AudioTrack and still get a low latency stream. Oboe requires a callback to get a low latency stream and that does not work well with Java.

Note that AudioTrack.PERFORMANCE_MODE_LOW_LATENCY was added in API 26, For API 24 or 25 use AudioAttributes.FLAG_LOW_LATENCY. That was deprecated but will still work with later APIs.

Can I use Oboe to play compressed audio files, such as MP3 or AAC?

Oboe only works with PCM data. It does not include any extraction or decoding classes. However, the RhythmGame sample includes extractors for both NDK and FFmpeg.

For more information on using FFmpeg in your app check out this article.

Android Studio doesn't find the Oboe symbols, how can I fix this?

Start by ensuring that your project builds successfully. The main thing to do is ensure that the Oboe include paths are set correctly in your project's CMakeLists.txt. Full instructions here.

If that doesn't fix it try the following:

  1. Invalidate the Android Studio cache by going to File->Invalidate Caches / Restart
  2. Delete the contents of $HOME/Library/Caches/AndroidStudio<version>

We have had several reports of this happening and are keen to understand the root cause. If this happens to you please file an issue with your Android Studio version and we'll investigate further.

I requested a stream with PerformanceMode::LowLatency, but didn't get it. Why not?

Usually if you call builder.setPerformanceMode(PerformanceMode::LowLatency) and don't specify other stream properties you will get a LowLatency stream. The most common reasons for not receiving one are:

  • You are opening an output stream and did not specify a callback.
  • You requested a sample rate which does not match the audio device's native sample rate. For playback streams, this means the audio data you write into the stream must be resampled before it's sent to the audio device. For recording streams, the audio data must be resampled before you can read it. In both cases the resampling process (performed by the Android audio framework) adds latency and therefore providing a LowLatency stream is not possible. To avoid the resampler on API 26 and below you can specify a default value for the sample rate as detailed here. Or you can use the new resampler in Oboe, which allows the lower level code to run at the optimal rate and provide lower latency.
  • If you request AudioFormat::Float on an Input stream before Android 9.0 then you will not get a FAST track. You need to either request AudioFormat::Int16 or enable format conversion by Oboe.
  • The audio device does not support LowLatency streams, for example Bluetooth.
  • You requested a channel count which is not supported natively by the audio device. On most devices and Android API levels it is possible to obtain a LowLatency stream for both mono and stereo, however, there are a few exceptions, some of which are listed here.
  • The maximum number of LowLatency streams has been reached. This could be by your app, or by other apps. This is often caused by opening multiple playback streams for different "tracks". To avoid this open a single audio stream and perform your own mixing in the app.
  • You are on Android 7.0 or below and are receiving PerformanceMode::None. The ability to query the performance mode of a stream was added in Android 7.1 (Nougat MR1). Low latency streams (aka FAST tracks) are available on Android 7.0 and below but there is no programmatic way of knowing whether yours is one. Question on StackOverflow

My question isn't listed, where can I ask it?

Please ask questions on Stack Overflow with the Oboe tag or in the GitHub Issues tab.