[KARMA]

Originally posted by Zarax


P.S.
This is a bit off-topic but would you implement MP3/WMA/WMV ingame if someone gives you a licence?

I think that if someone give em a license, they'd more than happy to add em even to actual fso:)

[Zarax]

And about ogg...
You obviously have never seen something coded serioulsly with WMA...

[bKtHeG]

Originally posted by Zarax
And about ogg...
You obviously have never seen something coded serioulsly with WMA...

If you understand german i can show you audio-codec  tests in a big german pc-magazine. They tested several codecs and ogg was not the winner (only second - accPlus made the race) but it got a higher score than wmv - and what is really importand: ogg is free. wma is (nearly) windows only

[Zarax]

If that's true Kazan, how come that there are no ogg capable players on the market?
Please don't tell me the usual MS is doing this and that story...

[karajorma]

Circular logic

No one writes .ogg players because they believe .ogg is slower and they believe .ogg is slower because no one writes players for it.

.ogg is free and crossplatform. I say that is reason enough to use it even if it was slower (which I doubt it is).

The world is full of people using technically inferior solutions for a variety of reasons.

[bKtHeG]

Originally posted by Zarax
If that's true Kazan, how come that there are no ogg capable players on the market?
Please don't tell me the usual MS is doing this and that story...

The test is from November 2003 - so quiet up to date. (wma: They criticized the - compared to other post-mp3 audiocodecs - bad sound quality and some things regarding the converters but said that it is a very fast codec).

Wma is so wide spread because over 80% of all dektop computers are capable of playing wma (because they have the mediaplayer installed). Therefore some chip-manufactures created a decoder chip for players. Thats it.

[Zarax]

Ok, i just hope that you agree at least that WMA is way better than mp3...
Anyways, my question was:
Given the licence would you SCP guys implement it ingame?

[Kazan]

Originally posted by Zarax
If that's true Kazan, how come that there are no ogg capable players on the market?
Please don't tell me the usual MS is doing this and that story...

there are ogg players on the market, several "mp3" players are also ogg capable - go look it up on toms hardware and slashdot

[Kazan]

Originally posted by Zarax
Ok, i just hope that you agree at least that WMA is way better than mp3...
Anyways, my question was:
Given the licence would you SCP guys implement it ingame?

No WMA is _NOT_ superior to MP3
NO I will not be trapped by M$ fscking licenses - and I will be avoiding M$-dependant technologies _completely_

FERRIUM MANDATE BETA: ABSOLUTELY NO Microsoft-dependant technologies will be used

[Kazan]

Zarax: I am against MSFT for good reason and you very well know it

not to mention the whole copyright issues of M$ formats as UT pointed out which is my biggest motivation to mandate their avoidance in Fe2

as for MP3 sounding flat in comparision to WMA at the same bitrate, excuse me while i laugh - you musth ave been listening to some poorly encoded mp3s

-----

KaraJorma -- EXCELLENT Nice to have you on board

[Zarax]

No Kazan, i don't know why you are against MSFT and frankly you are the only and first person i've ever seen defending mp3 against WMA...

[Kazan]

if i'm honestly the first person you've seen defend mp3 against WMA you've either been talking to too many newbies or MFST sycophants

[Kazan]

thanks Zarax

Windows Media Audio

You may have encountered Windows Media Audio under the name of "ASF". ASF is Microsoft's specification for streaming -- essentially a wrapper format. WMA is a lossy audio compression algorithm which works only as part of the Windows media player and not as a standard Windows codec (so that you may not convert WMA files to other formats).

In 1998 I applauded the superiority of WMA in the arena of streaming media. With clear stereo music even at 22kbps, WMA is the only way to get an acceptable quality in typical phoneline speeds. Its low CPU requirements and broad availability have turned it, as I predicted, to the Real Audio killer!

Stereo image and voice is not as good however, so Microsoft's claim for FM quality at phoneline speeds is not true. Also, Microsoft's second claim that WMA provides CD quality at 64kbps is entirely wrong. Not only does the 64kbps WMA lack in violin detail, but even at 128kbps (which Microsoft touts as "audiophile") suffers from overbrightness.

MPEG Layer III

MP3 is the closest thing to JPG; developed by Fraunhofer Research (the leading MPEG research institute at Germany and also the people who build the MP3 codec for Internet Explorer), the algorithm is open and free for anyone to use. MP3 has become a source of great controversy as it facilitates the transfer of CD quality music on portable media and the internet. Despite the complains of commercial entertainers MP3 has become a standard in music broadcasting. Supported in popular packages like Winamp and Internet Explorer, MP3 only requires a 486 to play on average bitrates.

MP3 is still the top quality standard. It is the only guarantee to get a high quality song that will play everywhere. To all my tests, we have been completely unable to separate the original from the compressed. However, lower bitrate MP3s suffer from a high frequency loss that becomes insufferable on anything less than 44kbps. MP3 files will not play clearly on phone line bitrates.

MP3 still develops. Both Fraunhofer Research and the general public have presented algorithms that create much better results than previous encoders. I tried Fraunhofer's new Fastenc engine (found at Musicmatch Jukebox or Nero) and I was surprised with the quality on an average of 85kbps stream! The Lame Encoder performs almost as well, with CD quality at 113kbps average.

[Zarax]

BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!
That is taken directly from a Fraunhofer employee...
Go and ask to ANY audiophile what they thinks about an MP3 at that bitrate...

[Fineus]

128 is fine, and the file size is a good trade off. Most people won't know the difference.

[Zarax]

BTW, that was a comparison between MP3 and the oldest version of WMA, even before it got the name...
Get a serious comparison:
http://www.nstl.com/downloads/Final_MSAudio_Report.pdf

[kasperl]

ok, now, please.

can some admin please split the thread into posts about Fe2 and audio formats? i would love to continue discossion on Fe2, but really, there is no reason to fight about fileformats already.

[Starks]

Zarax, what are you smoking? WMA is horrible. OPEN YOUR DAMN EYES!

[Starks]

The PC that was used in that test is a 5 year old piece of crap!

[Kazan]

yes please split the audio format posts