Monogame: MG3.8 - can't initialise audio on Android 6.0 and 7.1

[shimfish]

Creating a SoundEffect object produces an exception on Android 6.0. and 7.1.2 devices, including Amazon Fire HD 8 2018

It seems to produce one of two possible errors:

Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Audio.NoAudioHardwareException: Audio has failed to initialize. Call SoundEffect.Initialize() before sound operation to get more specific errors.
at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Audio.SoundEffect..ctor (System.Byte[] buffer, System.Int32 offset, System.Int32 count, System.Int32 sampleRate, Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Audio.AudioChannels channels, System.Int32 loopStart, System.Int32 loopLength) [0x00028] in :0
at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Audio.SoundEffect..ctor (System.Byte[] buffer, System.Int32 sampleRate, Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Audio.AudioChannels channels) [0x00000] in :0

or

System.DllNotFoundException: Couldn't initialize OpenAL because the native binaries couldn't be found.
at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Audio.OpenALSoundController..ctor () [0x00022] in :0
at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Audio.OpenALSoundController.EnsureInitialized () [0x00014] in :0
at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Audio.SoundEffect.PlatformInitialize () [0x00000] in :0
at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Audio.SoundEffect.Initialize () [0x0001d] in :0
at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Audio.SoundEffect..ctor (System.Byte[] buffer, System.Int32 offset, System.Int32 count, System.Int32 sampleRate, Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Audio.AudioChannels channels, System.Int32 loopStart, System.Int32 loopLength) [0x00011] in :0
at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Audio.SoundEffect..ctor (System.Byte[] buffer, System.Int32 sampleRate, Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Audio.AudioChannels channels) [0x00000] in :0

What version of MonoGame does the bug occur on:

• MonoGame 3.8 release nuget android

What operating system are you using:

• MacOS

What MonoGame platform are you using:

• Android

[NicusorN5]

Does it work on 3.7?

[shimfish]

I can’t confirm as I actually don’t possess one of the affected devices. This is from live crash reports.

Certainly worked on 3.6.

[VictorRabotko]

3.6 was the last error-free version.
Since 3.7 version I always getting random crushes on random devices. And it is always a "openal audio" problem

[harry-cpp]

Duplicate of #6738 I suppose.

[harry-cpp]

I'm gonna keep this one open and close the other one.

[shimfish]

This doesn't crash on startup like the other bug but only when trying to instantiate a SoundEffect object. Maybe that's just because 3.8 defers the loading of the openal lib?

[Jjagg]

Yes, the audio system has been changed so it does not initialize on startup so users can use other audio solutions (like fmod).

The underlying issue is the same.

[SimonDarksideJ]

Are there any docs yet for swapping the audio backend, say for fmod, available @Jjagg as a possible workaround?

[Apostolique]

According to #6629 the audio is already optional.