Audio Problem Phonegap iOS 9

[bymafmaf]

I'm using Phaser's built-in sound manager and Phonegap for mobiles. But sound plays on iOS 8.4, doesn't work on  iOS 9. Also it works on iOS 9 simulator.

 

To identify the problem: does Phaser use Web Audio API? Phonegap actually supports WebAudio..

[tsphillips]

I had many problems with audio working with Phaser and plain HTML5.  I finally used Cordova's Native Audio plugin, like this:

window.plugins.NativeAudio.preloadSimple( 'zap', 'asset/audio/zap.ogg', function(msg){}, function(msg){    console.log( 'error: ' + msg );});

To play the audio, I did this:

window.plugins.NativeAudio.play( 'zap' );

[Whoops -- I edited the play line  above. It had erroneously listed the non-Cordova play function.]

 

Tom

Edited December 27, 2015 by tsphillips

[bymafmaf]

Yes, I tried it but it lacks one very basic function: mute.

 

It doesn't have that, so I had to use Phaser audio.

[tsphillips]

Phaser wants to use WebAudio if available.  Some relevant snippets are below.  There was an interesting post on StackOverflow about WebAudio and iOS: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12517000/no-sound-on-ios-6-web-audio-api  Apparently, the only way to have sounds start playing was (or is?) "to play a sound in a user input event (create a buffer source, connect it to destination, and call noteOn())."  The writer also states that iOS 9 changed from allowing audio to start in a touchstart event to only starting in a touchend event.

 

Various Phaser code about initializing sound is below.

 

src/system/Device.js checks for the audio support:

    function _checkAudio () {        device.audioData = !!(window['Audio']);        device.webAudio = !!(window['AudioContext'] || window['webkitAudioContext']);        var audioElement = document.createElement('audio');        var result = false;        try {            if (result = !!audioElement.canPlayType)            {                if (audioElement.canPlayType('audio/ogg; codecs="vorbis"').replace(/^no$/, ''))                {                    device.ogg = true;                }                if (audioElement.canPlayType('audio/ogg; codecs="opus"').replace(/^no$/, '') || audioElement.canPlayType('audio/opus;').replace(/^no$/, ''))                {                    device.opus = true;                }                if (audioElement.canPlayType('audio/mpeg;').replace(/^no$/, ''))                {                    device.mp3 = true;                }                // Mimetypes accepted:                //   developer.mozilla.org/En/Media_formats_supported_by_the_audio_and_video_elements                //   bit.ly/iphoneoscodecs                if (audioElement.canPlayType('audio/wav; codecs="1"').replace(/^no$/, ''))                {                    device.wav = true;                }                if (audioElement.canPlayType('audio/x-m4a;') || audioElement.canPlayType('audio/aac;').replace(/^no$/, ''))                {                    device.m4a = true;                }                if (audioElement.canPlayType('audio/webm; codecs="vorbis"').replace(/^no$/, ''))                {                    device.webm = true;                }            }        } catch (e) {        }    }

In src/sound/SoundManager.js there is an interesting comment about the audio context:

/*** The Sound Manager is responsible for playing back audio via either the Legacy HTML Audio tag or via Web Audio if the browser supports it.* Note: On Firefox 25+ on Linux if you have media.gstreamer disabled in about:config then it cannot play back mp3 or m4a files.* The audio file type and the encoding of those files are extremely important. Not all browsers can play all audio formats.* There is a good guide to what's supported here: http://hpr.dogphilosophy.net/test/** If you are reloading a Phaser Game on a page that never properly refreshes (such as in an AngularJS project) then you will quickly run out* of AudioContext nodes. If this is the case create a global var called PhaserGlobal on the window object before creating the game. The active* AudioContext will then be saved to window.PhaserGlobal.audioContext when the Phaser game is destroyed, and re-used when it starts again.** Mobile warning: There are some mobile devices (certain iPad 2 and iPad Mini revisions) that cannot play 48000 Hz audio.* When they try to play the audio becomes extremely distorted and buzzes, eventually crashing the sound system.* The solution is to use a lower encoding rate such as 44100 Hz.** @class Phaser.SoundManager* @constructor* @param {Phaser.Game} game - Reference to the current game instance.*/Phaser.SoundManager = function (game) {

In the boot function of the SoundManger (src/sound/SoundManager.js), Phaser is looking for the audio context (only the WebAudio part is here):

        if (window['PhaserGlobal'] && window['PhaserGlobal'].audioContext)        {            this.context = window['PhaserGlobal'].audioContext;        }        else        {            if (!!window['AudioContext'])            {                try {                    this.context = new window['AudioContext']();                } catch (error) {                    this.context = null;                    this.usingWebAudio = false;                    this.touchLocked = false;                }            }            else if (!!window['webkitAudioContext'])            {                try {                    this.context = new window['webkitAudioContext']();                } catch (error) {                    this.context = null;                    this.usingWebAudio = false;                    this.touchLocked = false;                }            }        }

Tom

[gabdab]

On 27/12/2015 at 9:53 AM, tsphillips said:

I had many problems with audio working with Phaser and plain HTML5.  I finally used Cordova's Native Audio plugin, like this:

window.plugins.NativeAudio.preloadSimple( 'zap', 'asset/audio/zap.ogg', function(msg){}, function(msg){    console.log( 'error: ' + msg );});

To play the audio, I did this:

window.plugins.NativeAudio.play( 'zap' );

[Whoops -- I edited the play line  above. It had erroneously listed the non-Cordova play function.]

 

Tom

By using intel xdk , it complains about window not being defined and so on .

I included cordova.js before phaser in index.html, but it isn't recognized apparently .

Any hint ?

[EDIT] Just checking this app -Audio Player- from intel xdk repository :

https://github.com/gomobile/sample-audio-player