MS XAudio 2 will replace ASIO under the hood?

[computermensch]

Hi.

First of all - thx for this ASIO driver. Needed it very hard for x64 Vista.

Recon somebody here may know ...

XAudio 2 just went RTM at MS. Are ASIO interfaces for Windows applications going to present themselves as an interface while using this new directsound technology under the hood?



If so consider it a tip to see ASIO4ALL going in the that direction. But guess the guys here already considered that.

Some around the net seem to expect music software will eventually start using XAudio 2 over time. As I understand XAudio 2 may have impacted the general availability of ASIO drivers (vendors may be awaiting its release). Seems XAudio 2, for Windows, may open a valid low-latency path versus the encryption problem with consumer operating systems - i.e. HDCP and encryption of digital media also coming over time. Probably even in the Mac. However, ASIO has become the defacto interface for lots of music software.

[Michael Tippach]

Aug 5, 2008 22:06:52 GMT computermensch said:

XAudio 2 just went RTM at MS. Are ASIO interfaces for Windows applications going to present themselves as an interface while using this new directsound technology under the hood?



If so consider it a tip to see ASIO4ALL going in the that direction. But guess the guys here already considered that.

Some around the net seem to expect music software will eventually start using XAudio 2 over time. As I understand XAudio 2 may have impacted the general availability of ASIO drivers (vendors may be awaiting its release). Seems XAudio 2, for Windows, may open a valid low-latency path versus the encryption problem with consumer operating systems - i.e. HDCP and encryption of digital media also coming over time. Probably even in the Mac. However, ASIO has become the defacto interface for lots of music software.

The way it looks to me, this is just another software layer in the Windows audio stack. The one thing you don't want for low-latency-as-direct-as-possible audio is another software layer to mess with the audio data, hence we'll simply bypass it, no matter what "Some around the net seem to expect".

What do MSFT say about this? Well, here we go:

XAudio 2 is intended as the replacement for DirectSound for Windows game titles. (Technically on Windows XP, it operates ‘on top of’ DirectSound, though it’s essentially just a pass-through; on Windows Vista, it operates directly on the low-level audio renderer, in parallel to any legacy DirectSound applications.)

Not going to affect ASIO in any way.