[FF9]2016 release

[Meru]

Lucky for me I don't use FFIX mods, I'd rather take stability/functionality over mods on this game. I hope SS never ports another game again.

Don't wanna to disappoint, but they are officially working on FF12 I mean it is not for PC, but hey... FFX wasn't supposed to come to PC too...
Edit: and their test version works on PC yea, but there will not be PC version. No way there would be one.
The only good part about it is that we may FINNALY be able to have IZJS with Japanese voices. Making "International" versions Japan-only with English audio only... only Square knows why this is a good idea.

 

[Meru]

btw, after a quick look it appears that magic effects are not the same as other audio on the psx. So it could be that they all are "broken" in PC version.
But that would lead to a different issue. How to tell that the ones in PC version are not what it actually meant to be? PSX sounds the way it is because that is how that particular hardware renders it. PC files , on the other hand, are pre-rendered. What if they used the "right" way to render them.

 

[Fraggoso]

You mean that the sound is made by the psx Chip like it plays music?
I'm not entirely sure if that is the case with sound effects.

 

[Kaldarasha]

You mean that the sound is made by the psx Chip like it plays music?
I'm not entirely sure if that is the case with sound effects.

Considering what Dan has researched from FF7, it is very likely that the PSX does modify the sounds on the fly.

 

[Meru]

You mean that the sound is made by the psx Chip like it plays music?
I'm not entirely sure if that is the case with sound effects.

Yea I mean that. I can't comment more on it. Since all the "problems" mentioned were regarding magic I tried to look for magic. Whatever what I found is not magic, or it is different from everything else. Most of the audio, except maybe movies and some selected pieces are a collection of samples that are composed on the fly. But Magic doesn't seem to work the same way. If it is pre-composed/pre-rendered, that wouldn't explain the difference between PC and PSX. And the difference in sound is not like something that comes from shitty conversion. It just sounds differently.

 

[Fraggoso]

That sounds more of an issue. :/
How the hell didn't the team saw that (heard that ^^) the sound effects are off.
If they're not processed the same way, wouldn't the best way to let them sound the same without any magic by the soundchip?
I can't recall that FFVII and/or VIII hat this Problem.

 

[Meru]

Fraggoso

If this is the case, I don't find it surprising that FF7/8 had no sound issue while FF9 has. When FF7/8 ports were made, the actual square developer team took some part in it. Steam version is a port of these old PC ports. I don't think anyone of them worked on FF9 port though. Many probably don't work for square at all anymore...

Edit: in fact FF9 was made by Square USA, which was dissolved at some point (or something else happened I forgot, but it is long gone).
Edit2: I have not played FF7/8 on PC yet, haha. Maybe when I'll finish backgrounds for FF9 i'll try FF8 PC...

 

[the_randomizer85]

So all the spells are borked, as I suspected, none of them sounded right to me at all. That's just asinine.

FFVII, VIII and X all had correct sound effects emulated.

 

[dclem]

The sounds effects will be fixed as soon as I find a solution to the random crashes that currently occur when any sfxs is replaced.
I'm trying to see if there's a way, or could be a way to reverse the engine's sound system, so it can accept easier formats - minus the akb header and length obligation altogether.

Yes, I know the dreaded horrid Sandstorm sfxs, I replaced it and it works well, but the problem is, the game crashes right after.

2 scenarios went down after replacing that sfx.

1. After the battle ended, all sfxs stopped playing and then the game crashed.

2. After the battle ends, and soon as another sfx is called to play, it doesn't, and then game crashes.

Random crashes being more likely because the game can't fully handle the new sfxs that's been imported. My best guess at this point.

Bottom line, this sound engine needs some tweaking to become more simpler, or else, you'd be playing a game with a whole lot of bugs and random crashes, ruining your gameplay, you don't want that, do you? I know I can stand it.

 

[Meru]

The sounds effects will be fixed as soon as I find a solution to the random crashes that currently occur when any sfxs is replaced.
I'm trying to see if there's a way, or could be a way to reverse the engine's sound system, so it can accept easier formats - minus the akb header and length obligation altogether.

Why length is an issue? Just make a replacement file of the same length?

If AKB is a culprit why you want to get rid of it? It is only 304 bytes long. Only 22 bytes of them are different between files. Is it so hard to find out the meaning these?

 

[Fraggoso]

The "problem" as I see and heard is that some sound effects are split into different files instead of being one as it should be.
And not everyone is as technical as you, Meru. Heck I don't even know what that header means. *lol*

 

[Meru]

The "problem" as I see and heard is that some sound effects are split into different files instead of being one as it should be.

Well even if they are split or joined, I don't see why the replacement files can't be split or joined too.
Edit: just needs someone skilled with Audition or Audacity

And not everyone is as technical as you, Meru. Heck I don't even know what that header means. *lol*

To me this sounds like you're saying "Sharon does not know what he is doing". But I assume this is not what you meant to say

 

[Fraggoso]

I seriously need to finish the damn Background mod so I can poke a bit in the dark.
I didn't say that he's not knowing what he's doing. Albeit I say that he maybe need a little push in the right directions as he has (to my knowledge) no background in modding sound files whatsoever and you seem pretty smart. ^^

 

[Meru]

I seriously need to finish the damn Background mod so I can poke a bit in the dark.

IKR. I already want to poke something else, but still long way to go with backgrounds too

I didn't say that he's not knowing what he's doing. Albeit I say that he maybe need a little push in the right directions as he has (to my knowledge) no background in modding sound files whatsoever and you seem pretty smart. ^^

Well, figuring out what some values in the header are is a very basic thing in hacking some uncommon file format. Regardless of what you're trying to do. Be it audio, or whatever else. If that is not possible, I would leave the project for someone else to do.

 

[Meru]

BTW I took for granted that file LENGTH is an issue. But does that really so?

Making file longer with the same or higher bitrate makes file SIZE bigger. Which could result in all the files in the archive being broken after the point of insertion., which may lead to crashes and all sorts of nasty things. If SIZE is a real issue, then you may need some much more serious engine modifications than just an AKB header. Edit: of course making sure it is never bigger than original is an option too. Assuming proper splitting/joining will be done, neither SIZE nor LENGTH issue should matter. Unless you want to increase the bitrate. But there is no real need in doing so, ~128kbps is more than enough.

 

[dclem]

So using this "Foobar2000" I got to see more details of the steam sfxs files format:

And everything seems the same expect for the muthafucking bit rate.
The bit rate varies throughout each sfx.

Data that is the same:

Sample Rate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 1
Codec: Vorbis
Encoding: lossy
Tool: Xiph.Org libVorbis I 20090709

Other-
<BITRATE_NOMINAL>: 86

 

[the_randomizer85]

So using this "Foobar2000" I got to see more details of the steam sfxs files format:

And everything seems the same expect for the muthaferning bit rate.
The bit rate varies throughout each sfx.

Data that is the same:

Sample Rate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 1
Codec: Vorbis
Encoding: lossy
Tool: Xiph.Org libVorbis I 20090709

Other-
<BITRATE_NOMINAL>: 86

Ugh, maybe I shouldn't have suggested Foobar2000, it only made things worse. Bugger >.>

 

[Meru]

dclem

There is no unknown info about audio in FFIX PC (except maybe values in AKB header, but they are very few and not necessarily all of them are relevant).
What are you trying to say? You said you already replaced sandstorm effect and it works. And now you are saying you saw the details of the format. To replace the effect you should have know that info already.

Except for the AKB header, the format is very common that people use every day and hundreads or thousands of the games use to store audio. Some files have different bitrate. There are stereo and mono files 128 and 86 kbps respectively. I have not noticed other variants. But it does not matter really.

 

[Meru]

Audio LENGTH does not matter (edit: bitrate too, as long as you are within the size limits). I just replaced an effect with duration of 11760 samples with random tone of 20000 samples and there are no issues. There have to be a size value in the AKB header.

I used this one. Original was 267ms
Code: [Select]

Format                                   : VorbisFormat settings, Floor                   : 1Duration                                 : 454 msBit rate mode                            : VariableBit rate                                 : 40.0 kb/sChannel(s)                               : 1 channelSampling rate                            : 44.1 kHzCompression mode                         : LossyStream size                              : 2.22 KiB (41%)Writing library                          : aoTuV 20110424 (UTC 2011-04-24)

 

[Fraggoso]

Meru thank you so much, I think this will help!
As long as the random crashes are minimized or entirely gone this will make fun (I think *lol*).

Edit: That damn phone is auto correcting your name every time.
My apologize!