SDL_PauseAudioDevice(3)

✨ SDL_PauseAudioDevice(3) ✨

okay bestie, welcome to the SDL3 FUNCTIONS section of the manual, and today's main character is SDL_PauseAudioDevice 💅

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🎀 NAME 🎀

SDL_PauseAudioDevice — the function you use to pause audio playback on a specified device. that's it, that's the vibe 🦋

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

#include <SDL3/SDL_audio.h>

bool SDL_PauseAudioDevice(SDL_AudioDeviceID devid);

like, look at her. one include, one function call, one bool return. iconic ✨

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💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

so what does this actually DO, you ask? it pauses audio processing for a given device. any bound audio streams will just… not progress. no audio gets generated. it's giving silence era 🙈

and here's the part people always get wrong — pausing one device does NOT stop other unpaused devices from running. they're all out here living their best lives. only the one you paused is on pause. periodt 💅

Unlike in SDL2, audio devices start in an unpaused state, because an app has to bind a stream before any audio will even flow. so no, they don't start paused, they start ready. and pausing a paused device? totally legal, it's a no-op. nothing happens. no drama, no error, we love a chill function 🫶

why would you even pause a device? great question bestie 🎀 it's useful to halt all audio without unbinding all the audio streams. think: game is paused, level is loading, etc. you don't wanna tear down your whole stream setup, you just wanna mute the moment. slay.

🚨 important caveat though: physical devices can NOT be paused or unpaused. only logical devices created through SDL_OpenAudioDevice() can be. so don't come for the hardware, she doesn't play that game 💀

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🧚 FUNCTION PARAMETERS 🧚

• devid — a device opened by SDL_OpenAudioDevice(). that's the one you're pausing, bestie 🌸

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⭐ RETURN VALUE ⭐

returns true on success or false on failure 😭 and if it fails? call SDL_GetError() for more information. she'll tell you what went wrong, i promise 💜

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🔥 THREAD SAFETY 🔥

it is safe to call this function from any thread 👑 no cap. go wild, queen.

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🌈 AVAILABILITY 🌈

this function has been available since SDL 3.2.0. so if you're on something older… not me finding out the hard way 😭

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💅 SEE ALSO 💅

• SDL_ResumeAudioDevice(3) — the un-pause, for when you're done being quiet 🦋
• SDL_AudioDevicePaused(3) — check if it's paused before you assume, iykyk ✨

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Simple Directmedia Layer — SDL 3.4.18 — SDL_PauseAudioDevice(3) 🎀

and that's the whole page bestie!! go forth and pause responsibly, mwah 💖✨🌸🫶