Or at least .ogg support...
Due to copyright and patent and license reasons I never work with mp3 files (and recommend everybody to avoid working with those and to use .ogg in stead).
Even better could also be flac support...
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All my music files are .wav and it's a bit of a hassle to convert them. Definitely support.
.ogg are typically smaller files with minimal if any quality loss so it's better for web
In response to %{ user }@AFTERWORLDSTUDIOS
.ogg is a lossy format meaning you do have quality loss... However if it's more or less than .mp3 I do not know.... But from legal point, .ogg is the better option anyway.
In response to %{ user }@Tricky
I engineer audio on the side I notice no difference in quality between mp3 or ogg however on high-end speakers/headphones there may be but not really noticeable at personal volumes
Last modified on May 17, 2020 by AFTERWORLDSTUDIOS @AFTERWORLDSTUDIOS
In response to %{ user }@AFTERWORLDSTUDIOS
mp3 is just like ogg also a lossy format... FLAC is lossless and thus no quality losing there. What I say now is merely about the file format... I am not an audio expert...
Most indie games would be using (.ogg) so id imagine it makes sense but ultimately its up to Cros
In response to %{ user }@AFTERWORLDSTUDIOS
That is also because .ogg is recommended for legal reasons. If your game has .mp3 files and goes viral, then you can have one heck of a bill to pay on royalties on the mp3 system itself. With .ogg and .flac you'll never have that issue. A lot of free game engines do therefore not even offer support for .mp3 to avoid that trouble.
In response to %{ user }@Tricky
Really you need to pay royalties to use mp3 I never had that issue and who collects it?
In response to %{ user }@AFTERWORLDSTUDIOS
.mp3 is a commercial format bound to very heavy copyright and patent protections. A lot of people do not know this. Officially it's not even allowed to make open source encoders for it nor decoders, however the LAME project found some holes in that setup. They do tolerate it now, but officially they are also forbidden. MP3 is property of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. If you use mp3 for personal use, they'll tolerate things (even though that is officially also not allowed), however when mp3 allows you to score a viral, then it's no longer a personal project and then things can get nasty. The .ogg format was even invented in order to counter this issue with .mp3 and to come up with a 100% free format.
For a long time the GIF format was in the same boat, but as far as I know the patent on GIF has expired by now, so that issue is by now out of the way when it comes to GIF pictures.
I own a seriously hardcore record label, with sometimes even more heavily quality focused subsidiaries and sister companies. We all only use .WAV for everything, and so it's a serious pain in the rump to have to make MP3 files, just for this one and only service! Seriously, if you allowed .WAV, we could also free up space on all of our servers by deleting all the .MP3 junk we've stashed away over the years!
In response to %{ user }@JadeJohnsonIndustries
Perhaps you should consider FLAC. FLAC files are smaller than WAV files, but have no quality loss like MP3 and OGG. (The name FLAC even implies that "Free Lossless Audio Codec")
Back to the point, I do think that Game Jolt will perform some automated conversion to lossy format such as MP3 or OGG once files are received, so people listening on GJ may still have a bit of quality loss. I hope you are fine with that. When it comes to having multiple audio files on your hard drive containing the same music.... I know the pain...
Actually, I put said format to the test, by taking a hi-fi audio clip, and then lowering the quality as far as it would go, and it, indeed, did have a variable bit rate. Very disappointing, and definitely not a recommended file format, especially since many websites still do not support it.
In response to %{ user }@JadeJohnsonIndustries
You mean FLAC? FLAC uses lossless compression, meaning that the output is always as good as the input. MP3 and OGG are both lossy... Thus quality loss... Now wanting lossy compression is understandable for websites (as FLAC and WAV can be quite costly on bandwith, and not everybody has unlimited bandwidth (despite popular belief). However the legal issues with mp3 always make me wonder why most sites only support that... In the sense of legal thinking it does not really make sense.
Hmm. Then I must've tested .ogg and mixed it up with .flac. I did a bunch of quality tests on the same day, but I have a one bit memory, so it's either on or off. I don't seem to have any room for remembering order or significance. I guess that's what I get for having that autotuner installed in my larynx — ¡lol!
Anyway, I just retested .flac compression, and it actually DOES sound great, even at minimum quality! But there's still the support hurtle. In case you're wondering though, there is a great, though somewhat lossy and mono only, compression codec for .wav, called "GSM 6.10", which can shrink a 75.3MB track down below a minned out .MP3 file, to just 3.82MB. That's smaller than any other format can compress to, and it still uses the exact same 44.100kHz sample rate as well!
I've never worked with GSM.. The current engine I use myself only supports WAV in pure form, but since I have an lzma library attached I can at least pack them with lzma and uncompress them in the memory before sending them to the sound library...
.FLAC has indeed the trouble that there are many programs not supporting it. I did speak with audio professionals who really recommend .FLAC for anything due to the quality always being the same and still having compression. They were actually pretty angry about the entire existence of lossy formats such as mp3 and ogg, and the fact that FLAC is not as popular as it should be.
As far as sound tracks on GJ are concerned it think it would help a lot if aside from mp3, wav, ogg and flac are supported. That would cover the mostly used audio formats. And it would indeed also save the trouble of having the same song multiple times in different formats.
In response to %{ user }@Tricky
Perfect! Let's go with that!
I want a way to send audio and video files to friends on gamejolt or on groupchats