Orbitersound compression

[movieman]

Am I right in thinking that you can't use compressed files in Orbitersound? I'm currently putting a bunch
of extra sound files into NASSP for the Apollo missions and I'd like to use different versions for each
mission, from the actual air/ground recordings: however, uncompressed we're probably talking at least
20-30MB per mission, which is a lot of disk space just for audio chatter.

Is there any codec that gives decent sound and compression which will work with Orbitersound? I tried
compressing the wav files using the mp3 codec (i.e. .wav files but with mp3 data inside them) and while
normal audio programs can play them, Orbiter won't.

[DanSteph]

Hello,


OrbiterSound read only wav format for several reason,
Mp3 would  be too "processor intensive" and may not work
well on several configuration. (latency , compatibilities trouble etc etc)
so this is the reason I didn't implemented them. Anyway zipping the
sound pack you can obtain at least the same size then simple mp3
at least for download. Most hard disk now have several Go so I
think user can afford sound pack of 30mo when decompressed.

But Don't forget that most sound don't need Cd quality to achieve
a great result, voice sound can render great at even 11kh perhaps
your can reduce greatly the size of your sound pack reducing the quality
of sound until you notice the degradation.

Hope this help ?

Dan

[movieman]

Yes, but these are .wav files, they just happen to be mp3-compressed .wav files. I don't know if there's
some way you can hook in the Windows codecs to decompress the files or whether you can only support
reading uncompressed data out of the file.

The thing is, even if people have a big hard disk, 20-30MB per flight would be more like 150-250MB to
cover all the Apollo flights. I can halve that by cutting it down to 22kHz from 44kHz but I don't really
want to have to cut the quality down too much.

[DanSteph]

You can achieve great effect cuting down the sound, look at the OrbiterSound
pack... it is only 3.70 mo wide for 72 sounds and I don't things the sounds
are that bad.
44khz is a shame for a pack that must be downloaded (most guy won't notice
any difference beetween 44 and 22) even 22khz can be cuted down while
keeping a really good quality.

For radio voice I recommend even 11khz mono. If you do a spectrum of the radio
sound of apollo you will be surprised how the band used is low.

Don't forget that if you want that your pack is to be used by another guy you must
keep it "download friendly" otherwise you will have only a few guy that will use it.

Only my two cents of course,

Dan

[CarlosTheTackle]

Just be sure to take the appropriate steps to prevent aliasing when downsampling, as that can
sound really bad if not done correctly.

[reekchaa]

My favorite software for this is 'Cool Edit Pro 2.1'  ...great audio studio, despite the name.  
It Can convert any way, any codec, plus a huge FX list.  Just my own 2 cents.

[DanSteph]

I use Cool edit also, nice proggy.

Dan

[Aqua]

If it isn't too much trouble, could it be implemented with a warning that using mp3 files may degrade
performance? Shorter files wouldn't matter but longer files could have both mp3 and wave types offered so
that the user could chose depending on their system specs. Also, currently lots of people listen to music
when they play orbiter and having orbitersound be able to play mp3's would mean they wouldn't have to
open another program to do it.

[DanSteph]

The first reason is that the engine of orbitersound was develloped by me
using "low level" directx code. So I have the hand on about everything that happen on it.
Developing a MP3 decoder would take me month so I should relly on
third party MP3 library. In this case you can add all the bug of this library to  
OrbiterSound and I will loose the control over what happen.

Anyway I'll have a look about what library are available now perhaps
there where some improvment that would allow me to include just mp3
decoding ?  No promise anyway.

I wonder, doesn't winamp work well in background ?

Dan

[L.Long]

Didn't i see a Winamp2 MFD? I've forgotten where exactly I saw that, but seemed like a goodie if
one wanted to listen to some tunes while truckin' it out to Mars.. Ok so not exactly an answer to
the original question, lol.

[DanSteph]

L.Long wrote:
> Didn't i see a Winamp2 MFD? I've forgotten where exactly I saw
> that, but seemed like a goodie if

mhhh ?

At least the name speak to me but
I can't remember on my life if I really saw that
one day or not....

Dan

[samplehunter]

What would be with simplier codecs like adpcm or gsm or the other built in windows codecs? I
think they worked even on my old 486 in realtime. Does OrbiterSound use Windows MCI Functions
or something "built in" to play sounds or do you use own Functions that can play raw PAM only?

[DanSteph]

It's plain directx8 low level so OrbiterSound
have exactly the same abilities and limitation
than directX8.


Dan

[PeterR]

In order to use compressed audio in DirectX-based games, you need to use the DirectShow API. Then, you
can use codecs for a variety of compression formats.

Peter

[Aqua]

The reason that I pointed out people using winamp in the background is that for them and many others the
extra load  on the processor isn't a burden.  Also, while the compression increases processor usage
wouldn't it save time on hardisk ascess and decrease ram usage?

Any computer that has some kind of mpg video player already has an mp3 decoder don't they?

Ofcourse I completely understand if you don't want to due it due to time required or the other points you
have stated.