Hack Request: What about making the Game accept common MP3's, not wrapped in a .WAV envelop?
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Back in the WinXP days, I could easily save an MP3 wrapped as a .WAV. But some months ago I tried this (Win10 and Win7) and found it isn’t very easily possible. Iirc I could do it, but then the sound was horribly compressed (sounding like 56kbps MP3), or the game would only play like 23 seconds of it.
(I still have my old PC btw, and the Freelancer sound oddity is one of the reason I don’t dispose of it. But it is not operational, and kind of a hassle anyway.)
Of course, with our hugely increased storage capacities as compared to when the game was released, we might as well use uncompressed WAVs, and I frankly intend to do so.
But I just figured: with all the magic hacks that have been achieved, wouldn’t it just be possible to make the game engine accept common formats, like MP3s? All the codecs are already on our machines; it’s a bit silly that Freelancer wouldn’t understand. (On the other hand, back in the days I could use WinAmp to play the Freelancer WAV files. Now it won’t eat them. Of course, the game should not lose its ability to read the original sound files.)
Of course, this comes from someone who really doesn’t have a clue of what these issues entail
But asking never hurts.EDIT: corrected ‘codecs’; I erroneously wrote ‘codes’
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There is a reason way thay used .WAV format, it is the best for creating seamless loops.When you use .MP3 there is always a small silent gap at the beginning and the end of the file. This is because the MP3 compression algorithm leaves a silent space of 10ms to 50ms at the start and end of the file. So if you try to loop the audio, you can hear a short pause – a “hiccup” – at the looping point. In short, you don’t get a seamless loop.
Read more about this at:
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@XeNd Thanks, that makes sense.
Mostly at least. That is to say, not entirely, because the FL sound files actually (or so I was told, and as far as I could look into them, I can confirm) are MP3s — but they are ‘enveloped’ into a .WAV file. But maybe that is what removes the gap you’re speaking off.
Btw On my mp3 player (I still don’t use my cellphone for music) I do hear the annoing gap, when two mp3s ought to sequence seamless. But using WinAmp on a PC, I don’t.
In any case, I do think you might have a point so even it is possible, it might not be a good idea.
