I've seen various programs that control mp3 playback through Winamp (mIRC scripts, remote controls, ect...), and I also noticed that Winamp will play in the background while Verge 2.6 is running. Does anyone, i.e. tSB, think it would be possible to include control of Winamp in the next version for mp3 playback?

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~redhalo [ redhalo@sega.net ]

eh.... MP3s don't sound like a particularly attractive option at the moment.

Sure, they're a bit more flexible than MOD music, but they're also huge, and computationally expensive to decode, as Zaratustra pointed out.

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'Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.' -F. Scott Fitzgerald

Thats my point though, controlling Winamp meens Verge dosn't have to decode the mp3. Winamp incorporates communication between programs, so it would'nt be much work for the coder.

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~redhalo [ redhalo@sega.net ]

Jeeze, I'm just saying as an option...I'm sure there are plenty of comercial games that you can't play...but they still exist for those of us who can.

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~redhalo [ redhalo@sega.net ]

If all you want is mp3 control in verge just do this : burn your songs to a cd! Verge already supports cd playback. If you can't do that, well tough cookies. Run them in the background like you're already doing.

I wouldn't really be against mp3 playback in verge just for the sake of having another perk to attract people, but if mp3s are as big a strain on systems as tsb and zara say I'd just as soon forget about it.

The idea of people making gigantic games which are mostly pirated mp3s also rubs me the wrong way. The last thing I want to see is a verge demo with ripped ff6 sprites playing n'sync in the background. Vecna would regret ever making verge. ^_~

- Choris

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I don't think it matters that Verge isn't decoding the mp3 itself. Your computer will still be decoding the mp3 and that will still take up computational resources.

But I don't know, since I've seen commercial games using mp3s. Of course, I've also seen commercial games using IT.

Whatever...

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Companions the creator seeks, not corpses, not herds and believers. Fellow creators the creator seeks--those who write new values on new tablets. Companions the creator seeks, and fellow harvesters; for everything about him is ripe for the harvest.

I honestly think that adding MP3 playback to an engine such as verge is a bad decision, if only because it will cause games to explode from 2-10MB to 15+ megabytes each. (dial up? sucks to be you, or something) Compressing sound effects is pointless, since ZIPing tends to compress them anyway. (that's what it's designed to do, anyhow)

But if it's that big of a deal, I'll see what I can do. aegisknight (of Sphere fame) is writing a general-purpose sound library for Sphere/Naikai, so I might as well sit and wait/help him out and see how it turns out.

This isn't happening soon, though, and don't take this post as a set-in-stone promise or anything.

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'Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.' -F. Scott Fitzgerald

I would like to see the MP3 format supported eventually. It is an excellent compression method, and as long as it is not misused (adding 50+ megs of music) it would be a great benefit to have 10:1 audio compression availible for large and/or higher quality sound effects.

Keep in mind also that there is no need to use 128+kbsp
streams. A lesser bitrate would probably work just as well for VERGE.

Oh, and I have a P1-233, and MP3 playback doesn't hurt my system much. The graphics I try to push through VERGE are far more lethal to my FPS. ;)


On a side note, there are also those people like myself (at least I hope I'm not the only one) who cannot write MODs. And ModPlug's MIDI to MOD converter sucks. (I'm talking tempo-trashing, track dropping, note rearanging sucks)

-Devon

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--- Square's making money. We're making art.

I've seen various programs that control mp3 playback through Winamp (mIRC scripts, remote controls, ect...), and I also noticed that Winamp will play in the background while Verge 2.6 is running. Does anyone, i.e. tSB, think it would be possible to include control of Winamp in the next version for mp3 playback?

First off, you can only play stuff while v2.6 is running if your sound card supports multiple input streams, many cards still do not have this support. (the SoundBlaster 64V is one and is in many OEM machines) Secondly if you mean mearly firing up winamp with a specified playlist and controling it from code, this is possibly already possible in the 2.7beta. 2.7 uses python for its scripting language, python is a much more robust language than vc, and it maybe possible (infact there might be a module for it somewhere on the net) to control winamp playback. But I doubt that this is something that you want for your game for several reasons.
1)The problem I designated above
2)This would encourage people to use pirated music in their games which potentially could get the creators of verge in trouble. (not to mention all the moral issues)
3)Crappy 2d verge games would become the size of commercial 3d game demos (30+meg easily) people would then get annoyed and stop dl'ing games made with verge.
4)MP3's are computationally expensive. Most verger's (and non-hardcore gamers/computer people) do not have the best computers in the world.

Now as to the mpeg video issue. First off verge hasn't had working FMV support since the origional v2, and even then it was flc (which isn't that great). Secondly mp3's are mpeg1 layer 3. Mpeg 1 while being more supported cross platform is inferior in compression to the new mpeg4/divix format. Also, most people's fmv's would (I assume) be either short or few in number adding probably only 2-3meg to the total download. Even mpeg's would be smaller (and faster) than the current method that people have for fmv which is to blit the individual frames in succession. If you have the latest version of v2.6 you get png support which helps, but alot of people can't run 2.6 due to instability and have to resort to v2k+j which allows only bmp(?),gif,jpeg, and pcx files.

If you still wish mp3 playback via winamp or whatever, verge's source is available and you can add it in yourself or have a coder friend add it in for you.

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-The Developer "[A review of ff4(2)]Aaaahhh... great game, great characters, great story, great music, BAAAAAAAD graphics."

That's just silly.

If I'm going to allow v2.7 to play MP3s, then I might as well simply use a sound library that's capable of such.

I was saying that it might be possible using python to control winamp, it can be done via mIRC script (I think, though it might reqire external dll's), and I was merely musing about the possibility of doing so. It wouldn't work on my computer the way I described since my soundcard can't get accept more than one feed at a time (i.e. it can do winamp or v2.6 but not both)

I'd be pretty surprised if vecna et al were able to be held accountable for what someone did with a verge game. ;)

You haven't been keeping up with what queen RIAA has been doing have you? ^_~ Seriously they're pushing internet radio stations to either give them something 6cents a song played (per listener I believe) or like 6% of gross income, which usually ammounts up to all of a company's profit.

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-The Developer "[A review of ff4(2)]Aaaahhh... great game, great characters, great story, great music, BAAAAAAAD graphics."