10 replies to this topic

[shellashock]

This just a request for a simple mp3 player in MW:O.

Just make a folder that you can put any mp3 music file in and allow it to be played through the game. Then you will have a stopgap for the missing music in this game until you can get some studio made music in-game. You want to switch to some pump up music when the brawl begins? Just press a hot key backwards or forwards and find the music you want to play.

This eliminates the requirement to have a separate music program running at the same time and having to alt tab in and out to change songs. I do not know too much about programming, but it should not be an extremely difficult thing to allow a music file to be played through an in-game music player that you just drag and drop music files into. If anyone wants to comment on the difficulty of this, you are welcome to. Please stay relatively on topic though.

Edited by shellashock, 18 September 2013 - 04:50 PM.

[Johnny Z]

It would be great if they add scripted music using a folder we could add to or replace the various uses, mp3 is fine. Same goes for voice if they could add more computer voice choices.

[Zerberus]

Would be nice to see some day eventually (read "not Soon^TM"), but IMO Winamp in the background works just fine, too. I`m not playing battlemech DJ, I`m listening to music while shooting battlemechs.

One issue I see, though not technical but rather financial: Use of the MP3 codec in your product requires a license to do so. While this can be acquired from the Fraunhofer Institute with relative ease, but costs a significant sum of money.

So significant that a large AAA title like GTA IV: San Andreas, which HAD an ingame radio system, was shipped without it, on the assumption that most people would already be using Windows XP which had native MP3 suport... those not playing on WinXP had to drag .wav files into their folder, instead. And Rockstar got lambasted for it for months.

And, Yes I know that there are numerous free mp3 codecs out there. Most of them are designed for encoding, not playback, and of those usable for playback NONE have a license that allows commercial use, which is what MWO most obviously is.

Edited by Zerberus, 19 September 2013 - 05:19 AM.

[Funky Bacon]

What about .OGG files? They require a license too?

[Zerberus]

Funky Bacon, on 19 September 2013 - 08:27 AM, said:

What about .OGG files? They require a license too?

AFAIK the OGG Vorbis codec is Public domain and therefore free to use for commercial and non-commercial applications, therefore it would be a viable alternative.

That said, I`d still like to see lots of other things done before even considering investing time in an ingame music player or soundtrack

Edited by Zerberus, 19 September 2013 - 09:20 AM.

[Johnny Z]

Tunes are very important for a game or any media or entertainment. Chill tunes in the mech bay and then some victory music or defeat music and so on is a must eventually.

Someone said someone was doing the music, but when and how will be interesting. This is as important as ui 2.0 or faction warefare i think.

The trailer music so far has been great for action. Maybe to much bass on the last one in parts, but that could be my sound only.

I keep thinking something similar to recent Deux Ex title music or something for the chill music. That game had great atmosphere in alot of places. Of course Skyrim and also Mass Effect also had great music. But i have always thought of mechwarrior as a more cyberpunk title.

[Mechteric]

Is there something wrong with iTunes, WMP, WinAmp, or any of the other hundred music player applications?


My only real point is they are better off spending their development time doing new stuff, not reinventing the musical wheel.

[shellashock]

So from what I have heard on this thread, use of the mp3 codec for playback commercially requires a license and getting a license means paying a large amount of money? Is this restricted to only mp3 music files or does it also cover music file types like wav. files etc?

Also, there is nothing wrong with using a program in a background to play music, it is just annoying for me to have to switch back and forth between the game and the program to be able to change the music. I would much prefer that they could just make a simple in-game music player that would allow you to play back songs of your choice using a hotkey. Just drag the music file to the folder and press a hotkey to play whatever songs.

I also would prefer that they would spend their time working on developing CW and other important features before they made this, just thought that it would be nice to have this feature to save a little frustration. Hopefully this idea might become viable when U.I 2.0 and most of the hotly anticipated features are released

[Zerberus]

shellashock, on 19 September 2013 - 01:27 PM, said:

So from what I have heard on this thread, use of the mp3 codec for playback commercially requires a license and getting a license means paying a large amount of money? Is this restricted to only mp3 music files or does it also cover music file types like wav. files etc?

It`s not only the MP3 codec that requires license fees, but it is of course the most prominent example and in this case also the most logical choice. some codecs require a license, other like OV do not.

.wav is actually an entirely different story, because a .wav file is completely "pure" digital audio without any compression, which is why it 5-20x larger than more commonly distrubuted formats (and also provides higher fidelity). It is very little more than the actual sound as 1s and 0s, it is the base format for all digital audio, which is also why there are practically no players that cannot play back .wav files, be it a standalone player like an iPod or acell phone or an application for a pc or newer console. Simply because .wav is the format the file is in a microsecond before it hits the D/A converter and then the amplifier stages.

Or, expressed differently and possibly more understandable for some: All you`re really doing with an MP3 player is taking a .wav file that was compressed into an MP3, unpacking it back into a wav in the player`s RAM, converting it into an analog signal, and amplifying it so you can hear it. Literally the exact opposite of what was done to create the mp3.

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Also, there is nothing wrong with using a program in a background to play music, it is just annoying for me to have to switch back and forth between the game and the program to be able to change the music. I would much prefer that they could just make a simple in-game music player that would allow you to play back songs of your choice using a hotkey. Just drag the music file to the folder and press a hotkey to play whatever songs.

I also would prefer that they would spend their time working on developing CW and other important features before they made this, just thought that it would be nice to have this feature to save a little frustration. Hopefully this idea might become viable when U.I 2.0 and most of the hotly anticipated features are released

Just a thought: I used to have a logitech keyboard that had player hotkeys that allowed me to control winamp without minimizing CS.... something along those lines may be a viable solution until an ingame interface is made.

Edited by Zerberus, 19 September 2013 - 02:21 PM.

[shellashock]

I perfectly understood the first explanation so the second wasn't really needed regarding .wav files. Thanks for adding both explanations though. As for a player hotkey that i could use to bind to music controls, I do not have that kind of keyboard and would prefer to have hotkeys and music players in one nice tidy package in a program instead of multiple programs. But if it really gets to the point where I do have to have some hotkeys setup for music control (which I probably won't), then I will be sure to keep your suggestion in mind. Thanks for the quick response!

[Ryvucz]

I'd rather they work on other things, I just use a media player in the background.