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WebSound Library

This page explains how remote sounds are downloaded and cached.

Overview

The web-sound library downloads remote audio files and stores them inside

data/lilia/sounds/<IP>/<Gamemode>/. Each server therefore keeps its own

collection of downloaded sounds. The library overrides sound.PlayFile and

sound.PlayURL so HTTP(S) URLs may be passed directly—the file is downloaded,

cached and then played. Entity:EmitSound is also hooked so web addresses can

be used anywhere a sound path is expected. Subsequent calls using the same URL

will reuse the previously saved file and you may also pass the cached name to

sound.PlayFile.

lia.websound.register

Purpose

Downloads a sound from the given URL and saves it in the web-sound cache. Any existing file with the same name is overwritten by the new download. If the request fails the old cached file is used and passed to the callback.

Parameters

  • name (string): Unique file name including extension.

  • url (string): HTTP address of the sound file.

  • callback (function | nil): Called as callback(path, fromCache, err) where

path is the local file path relative to DATA/, fromCache is true if

loaded from disk and err is an error string on failure.

Realm

Client

Returns

  • nil: This function does not return a value.

Example Usage

-- Download a sound and play it when ready
lia.websound.register("alert.mp3", "https://example.com/alert.mp3", function(path)
    if path then
        sound.PlayFile(path, "", function(chan) if chan then chan:Play() end end)
    end
end)

lia.websound.get

Purpose

Returns the file path cached with lia.websound.register. If the file is

missing nil is returned. Both sound.PlayFile and sound.PlayURL call this

internally when a cached name or matching URL is supplied.

Parameters

  • name (string): File name used during registration.

Realm

Client

Returns

  • string | nil: Local data path or nil if not found.

Example Usage

-- Retrieve a cached sound and play it
local path = lia.websound.get("alert.mp3")
if path then
    sound.PlayFile(path, "", function(chan) if chan then chan:Play() end end)
end

-- Play directly from the web
sound.PlayFile("https://example.com/alert.mp3", "", function(chan)
    if chan then chan:Play() end
end)

-- Emit a web sound from an entity
local ply = LocalPlayer()
ply:EmitSound("https://example.com/alert.mp3")

Clearing the Cache

To remove all downloaded web sounds on the client use the following console command:

lia_wipe_sounds

Any sounds played afterwards will be downloaded again as needed.