Audio Question For ET Developers

(Sonix) #1

Why the choice to go with 22kz wav instead of mp3 for the audio in ET?

(Bongoboy) #2

Choice?
Ain’t no choice about it.
RtCW/QIII uses 22kHz WAV’s with 16-Bit resolution. We added 44 kHz support because it makes our ears happy, and the difference in quality is detectable even on low-end sound cards.
MP3’s require licensing (not free) and on-load decompression which has a significant impact on CPU usage.

Odd question, really.

:moo:

(Loffy) #3

Yes, that is one thing I remember from the inital weeks when ET came. The sound had a better… crisp. Clearer.
I also remember that there was a lot of whining among rtcw players who tried ET, over the type of the sound. Some said the guns had sissy sounds, “poff poff poff”. (Hm, “type of the sound” isnt correct english I guess.)
Those where the days…
:clap:
// Loffy

(SuperIQMan) #4

I’m really happy ET don’t use destructive audio compression (mp3, ogg, or whatever). This sort of compression is bad for the brain, especially if you listen to these sounds a lot. I know some people will say it’s not true, that’s because their brain are already damaged, it’s too late !

So in short, I prefer 1000 times 22kHz PCM.

(TNCK) #5

I’m really happy ET doesn’t use destructive audio compression (mp3, ogg, or whatever). This sort of compression is bad for the brain, especially if you listen to these sounds a lot. I know some people will say it’s not true, that’s because their brain are already damaged, it’s too late !

Lay off the MP3’s man.

:nod:

(SuperIQMan) #6

:smiley:

(Sonix) #7

Hey…just asking…what makes it so odd?

(joker) #8

as far as i know decoding mp3 is free for any developer. there are decoding engines which are legally free.

“on-load decompression which has a significant impact on CPU usage”
BS. et needs some good hardware to be played well, on such systems the decompression is surely insignificant.

(Salteh) #9

[silly mode]
0o0oh yeh!

lets go decompression mp3s, recieving emails, compressing Divx and ripping DVDs while playing ET! surely our super-machine must be able to handle it!

[/silly mode]

(Kamel) #10

hmm… i am not saying this to be problematic or anything, but couldn’t you just use .ogg format if that were the case?

i wont complain though, with EAX, it sounds great. never had a problem with it.

(McAfee) #11

Sound files in ET/RTCW/Q3 are already compressed. No need to compress them twice.

Remember all files are stored on PK3 files (aka ZIP). What would be the advantage of re-compressing an MP3? All you are gonna get is more CPU usage for nothing.

Plus sound files are cached, I don’t know how efficient it would be to cache multiple mp3’s, maybe they would have to be stored uncompressed in memory anyways.

(weasel) #12

I don’t see how that could possibly be true. Do you have a reference?

(Sauron|EFG) #13
  • Zip compression of the ET sounds is ~15%.
  • Using a MP3 compression rate of 1:8 (high quality) the size of pak0.pk3 could have been reduced by ~85 MB.
  • Runtime decoding of MP3 sounds would use more CPU cycles than WAV sounds, but on the other hand RAM and/or disk usage would be reduced.
  • The MP3 licensing fee for a game is US$ 2,500.00.

Conclusion: I’m bored, and I like hard facts. (I don’t really care if it’s MP3 or WAV as long as it works. :D)

PS. OSP for RtCW contains an MP3 to WAV decoder that is used for Democasts. I doubt that it is licensed though. :eek2:

(SuperIQMan) #14

I’ve read some interesting stuff on the subject, but can’t find where, sorry.

Maybe I exagerated when I talked about damaged brains, I’ll try to clarify my opinion, more seriously this time :

(I use “MP3-like” to refer to MP3 and OGG and other similar compression methods)

  1. MP3-like compression removes certain frequencies from the original sound, these frequencies are tought to be inaudibles, I think while it’s true you don’t notice these frequencies, some are heard and make their way and effect to the brain, making you feel something.

  2. If you take the habbit to listen to these simplified sounds, your brain (or at least the part concerned with sound) will be more and more happy not to listen anymore to these frequencies, as opposed to trying to discern more and more. Note also that MP3-like compression don’t removes just frequencies but some part of sounds you’re not supposed to be capable to hear (and what if you are ?).

Part 2 is not too bad, because you hear these frequencies in everyday life. The problem is with part 1: Are we sure MP3-like can’t affect the gaming experience ? (I’m not)

Again, it’s my opinion, feel free to shoot at me, and sorry for the bad english.

( Content not sponsored by the RIAA :smiley: )

(wouter) #15

I don’t see the advantage of adding more CPU cycles to decompressing sound anyway.

Someone care to explain why you should want to have that?

(bani) #16

ogg doesnt require licensing though. and many games use it now.

(Salteh) #17

wich games :stuck_out_tongue:

(Sauron|EFG) #18
(Salteh) #19

ET beats all… because ET uses normal WAV files!!!

…
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.
.

.

just kidding :þ
:drink:

(Rain) #20

Right off the top of my head, I know that the Serious Sam engine supports it.

Since loading all the menu scripts in ET makes up about 20% of my total load time, I imagine that there wouldn’t be much difference in decompressing the sounds at level load if menu load times were made less awful…