OpenAL
OpenAL (Open Audio Library) is a cross-platform 3D audio API. It is designed to do for 2D/3D sound what OpenGL does for 2D/3D graphics. The API tries present an interface similar in syntax and format to the OpenGL API, so that applications can be more easily written with hardware accelerated graphics and sound.
Because the library is cross-platform programmers do not have to worry about the OS, soundcard or number of speakers used at runtime. When avaliable a program written with OpenAL can take advantage of hardware accelerated audio filters such as HRTF, occlusions, environmental audio and doppler effect.
At the moment OpenAL seems to lack easy configuration on Linux so, for example, setting your system's OpenAL drivers to use surround sound or headphones is tricky.
OpenAL was originally developed by Loki in cooperation with soundcard maker Creative Labs for use in the games they ported to Linux.
External links
This article is a stub and needs to be finished. Plunge forward and help it grow!