Declare an official FMod version number

[randi]

It's just playing a simple pre-mixed sound stream. Everything before that is under FMOD's control.

And I've never had any trouble whatsoever with it on any system. Also, setup is still up to the application; FMOD provides the tools to do it, but that doesn't mean there aren't considerations to be made by the application.)

What could the driver lie about to break that, that wouldn't affect other apps that use DSound/whatever in the same manner?

Just the act of asking a broken driver could cause problems. A simple DirectSound application wouldn't even bother to ask.

Considering that you don't even use Windows, all you're doing is repeating hearsay. Unless you've actually experienced trouble with it on Windows are know first-hand somebody who has, I don't think these concerns even deserve to be brought up. I think these claims that FMOD crashes systems is made solely by a vocal minority of stupid people who don't have a clue and want to blame FMOD because it's a big target.

Failing to work with ALSA

Works fine for me.

What use is it to provide a dynamic lib if it not only shouldn't be installed globally

Because people who use the free version are automatically advertising for them because they can't hide it inside their executable. Blame Unix for adopting a directory structure that likes to install stuff all over the drive instead of letting installed applications keep their dependencies nearby.

Personally, I'd rather favor stability for user-space, so that apps made with it today will still work with it a few years down the line after the latest updates.

Apps made today will still work with it a few years down the line, because they'll still be using whichever version they were developed with.

Honestly, all your complaints are coming from the perspective of a Linux user. Considering that they're probably lucky if they've ever gotten any money at all for Linux, you're lucky they even bothered to waste their time on a Linux port. If you can convince commercial houses to consider Linux a serious gaming platform, maybe you can get Firelight to improve their Linux port. But it works fine for me, and since I don't really use Linux, I frankly don't care if it's not perfect for you and OpenAL is uberleetsauce that everybody should use instead, and I'm done with this conversation. I don't like OpenAL, but I don't go shitting in every thread where it's mentioned, and I would appreciate it if you would stop doing that every time somebody even breathes a word of FMOD.

[Graf Zahl]

Considering that FMOD is intended to be installed side-by-side with the program using it (or embedded into it, for the paying customers) and not globally on the OS, why should Firelight care? This way they get to keep the API clean as it evolves instead of trying to retrofit new features into an old API.

Closed thread or not, I still need to comment on this one.

I don't like this attitude. It wouldn't be a problem if FMod would allow different versions of its SDK to coexist more nicely and they'd include the version number in their DLLs.

But the way they handle version differences creates major problems with old applications. Even something simple like compiling old versions of ZDoom is not possible with the way FMod is handled.

But this is really the only complaint I have. Technically it is and always has been working perfectly for me.