Make limiting power screen sounds to 16 optional.

This was added in e3e5bd1 as a work around for some openal-soft bug.
When too many audio samples got played at the same time, the global
volume dropped. This was fixed in openal-soft 0.19.0, released more
than two years ago. We're keeping the work around, because some
distros may still ship with buggy openal-soft versions and some
players may like the changed behavior. It's disabled by default.

doc/040_cvarlist.md

@@ -75,6 +75,12 @@ it's `+set busywait 0` (setting the `busywait` cvar) and `-portable`
   If *cl_async* is set to `0` *vid_maxfps* is the same as *cl_maxfps*,
   use *cl_maxfps* to set the framerate.
 
+* **cl_limitsparksounds**: If set to `1` the number of sound generated
+  when shooting into power screen and power shields is limited to 16.
+  This works around global volume drops in some OpenAL implementations
+  if too many sounds are played at the same time. This was the default
+  behavior between Yamagi Quake II 7.10 and 7.45. Defaults to `0`.
+
 * **cl_loadpaused**: If set to `1` (the default) the client is put into
   pause mode during single player savegame load. This prevents monsters
   and the environment from hurting the player while the client is still

src/client/cl_main.c

@@ -59,6 +59,7 @@ cvar_t *cl_loadpaused;
 
 cvar_t *cl_lightlevel;
 cvar_t *cl_r1q2_lightstyle;
+cvar_t *cl_limitsparksounds;
 
 /* userinfo */
 cvar_t *name;
@@ -526,6 +527,7 @@ CL_InitLocal(void)
 
 	cl_lightlevel = Cvar_Get("r_lightlevel", "0", 0);
 	cl_r1q2_lightstyle = Cvar_Get("cl_r1q2_lightstyle", "1", CVAR_ARCHIVE);
+	cl_limitsparksounds = Cvar_Get("cl_limitsparksounds", "0", CVAR_ARCHIVE);
 
 	/* userinfo */
 	name = Cvar_Get("name", "unnamed", CVAR_USERINFO | CVAR_ARCHIVE);

src/client/cl_tempentities.c

@@ -714,21 +714,32 @@ CL_ParseTEnt(void)
 				CL_ParticleEffect(pos, dir, 0xb0, 40);
 			}
 
-			num_power_sounds++;
-
-			/* If too many of these sounds are started in one frame (for
-			 * example if the player shoots with the super shotgun into
-			 * the power screen of a Brain) things get too loud and OpenAL
-			 * is forced to scale the volume of several other sounds and
-			 * the background music down. That leads to a noticable and
-			 * annoying drop in the overall volume.
-			 *
-			 * Work around that by limiting the number of sounds started.
-			 * 16 was choosen by empirical testing.
-			 */
-			if (sound_started == SS_OAL && num_power_sounds < 16)
+			if (cl_limitsparksounds->value)
 			{
-				S_StartSound(pos, 0, 0, cl_sfx_lashit, 1, ATTN_NORM, 0);
+				num_power_sounds++;
+
+				/* If too many of these sounds are started in one frame
+				 * (for example if the player shoots with the super
+				 * shotgun into the power screen of a Brain) things get
+				 * too loud and OpenAL is forced to scale the volume of
+				 * several other sounds and the background music down.
+				 * That leads to a noticable and annoying drop in the
+				 * overall volume.
+				 *
+				 * Work around that by limiting the number of sounds
+				 * started.
+				 * 16 was choosen by empirical testing.
+				 *
+				 * This was fixed in openal-soft 0.19.0. We're keeping
+				 * the work around hidden behind a cvar and no longer
+				 * limited to OpenAL because a) some Linux distros may
+				 * still ship older openal-soft versions and b) some
+				 * player may like the changed behavior.
+				 */
+				if (num_power_sounds < 16)
+				{
+					S_StartSound(pos, 0, 0, cl_sfx_lashit, 1, ATTN_NORM, 0);
+				}
 			}
 
 			break;

src/client/header/client.h

@@ -316,6 +316,7 @@ extern	cvar_t	*cin_force43;
 extern	cvar_t	*vid_fullscreen;
 extern	cvar_t	*cl_kickangles;
 extern  cvar_t  *cl_r1q2_lightstyle;
+extern  cvar_t  *cl_limitsparksounds;
 
 typedef struct
 {