[Base Music] OpenMSX v0.3.1

[NekoMaster]

Hello there, i can not get the music to work.

I extract the newest version from here http://bundles.openttdcoop.org/openmsx/releases/0.3.1/ into the GM folder, choose it in game option, but still no music at all. The tracks keep skipping in the music browser in-game in lighting speed.

Please help.

Whats your OS? If its windows then you may be missing a sound driver, if its Linux, your missing timidity

[flake]

regarding mp3/ogg/... implementation i am on the midi side of the force.
old transport tycoon style musik (like keep on rollin ) is what i want in the game.
if i want more or other musik i take another software outside the game.

[NekoMaster]

Hey guys, hows about a OpenTTD holiday music pack :3 Maybe some hardcore xmas music

[Eddi]

you mean like this?

[kamnet]

Happy New Year to everybody! Just thought I'd drop a note to everybody that in just a few week OpenMSX will celebrate it's one-year anniversary!

Unfortunately, after one year, we've not yet hit the 1.0.0 milestone. We are currently at version 0.3.1, and while we do have a complete set of 31 MIDI, a large part of it is still currently being filled by contributions outside of the OpenTTD community. There are a few prior submissions that had to be pulled because of technical glitches with the MIDI files, and there were some pieces that were started but not completed. I'd like to see OpenMSX hit 1.0.0 this year, but we cannot do that without the community continuing to contribute!

If you're new to the OpenTTD community, welcome! In the last year we've seen several users contribute to this project and create some great music. If you're looking for a project to contribute to, and can create General MIDI music files, we value your submission. Just read the first two posts on this thread. If you've already contributed to the project, thank you, and for those who have contributed, if you can find a few more minutes to contribute more, that would be fantastic.

[Bad_Brett]

regarding mp3/ogg/... implementation i am on the midi side of the force.
old transport tycoon style musik (like keep on rollin ) is what i want in the game.
if i want more or other musik i take another software outside the game.

I respect that you enjoy the old midi music. When I was younger, I sometimes put a cable to my soundcard and recorded the midi tunes to cassettes. Ah, good times. And I understand that many OpenTTD players don't want new graphics and mp3's. Fine. I love the feeling in older games as well.

But even though I understand what you're after, I can't find a single reason to why implementing mp3 support would be a bad idea. To begin with, all midi files can be saved as mp3's, so that they sound exactly how the composer wanted them to sound. With midi files, everything depends on what soundfonts you have loaded. And even if you somehow believe that this is the fun part, being able to change the sound by messing around with soundfonts, I can't see why the in-game player can't support midi's as well.

As you may know, I'm working on a Western Railroad mod and the plan is to record old traditional tunes. Acoustic guitar, banjo, harmonica, stand-up bass and vocals. I think this really would improve the atmosphere for the scenario. Now, I understand that someone needs to do a lot of coding to make mp3-files work, but if someone is willing to do this, I really can't understand why someone would think that it's a bad idea.

[planetmaker]

Implementing mp3 is problematic as there are patents on the algorithm and there's no guarantee that its use will be or remain royalty free; in principle things like flac/vorbis are thinkable - but no-one did so far invest the time to actually add support for these formats to OpenTTD.

[kamnet]

Vorbis would be a very good option to go with. Perhaps somebody needs to nudge Owen again and see if he'll get back to work on his media player extension?

Be that as it is, though... we still need some MIDIs

[Bad_Brett]

Implementing mp3 is problematic as there are patents on the algorithm and there's no guarantee that its use will be or remain royalty free; in principle things like flac/vorbis are thinkable - but no-one did so far invest the time to actually add support for these formats to OpenTTD.

Thanks for clearing things up. In that case, Vorbis sounds like the natural choice. We'll just have to hope that someone who knows how to do it is willing to do it. And sooner or later, I'm sure someone will.

I'm still convinced that music is one of those things that could improve the atmosphere in Transport Tycoon significantly, especially if it somehow could be connected to what happens in-game, so that each track could be given properties in the same fashion as newgrf's. For example, in the 30's and 40's, there would be a lot of jazz music, in the 50's and 60's there would be rock'n'roll and so on. Good economic results would lead to happy, up-tempo music, poor results would lead to melancholic ballads.

I realise that this would be a HUGE project, but I think it should be discussed at least.

[Lord Aro]

I would guess that could somehow be included in the .obm (?) file that comes with the music set currently. Not sure how feasible that is though...

[NekoMaster]

The thing is, I've worked with vorbis in other programs before an though the quality is good, I find that it takes longer to load then midi or mp3

[Bad_Brett]

The thing is, I've worked with vorbis in other programs before an though the quality is good, I find that it takes longer to load then midi or mp3

OpenTTD seems to be rather well-optimized (except when you fast-forward that is). Do you think that the loading times would affect the overall gameplay?

If the music can be released seperately, .wav could be an option as well.

[orudge]

The thing is, I've worked with vorbis in other programs before an though the quality is good, I find that it takes longer to load then midi or mp3

In my implementation of Vorbis/MP3/FLAC support for OpenTTD, there is absolutely no noticeable difference between those formats and MIDI. Indeed, MIDI is often a bit slower, due to the use of the MS software synthesizer. Plus, it's multithreaded anyway, so it won't affect the actual gameplay.

The problem with this implementation is it's woefully out of date, and not all that great to begin with. I did start a newer one a while back, but that's currently not doing much because I've just been too busy to work on it, and nobody seems all that enthusiastic about it anyway. That, and OpenTTD's source is almost unrecognisable compared with when I last did any serious work on it (although, admittedly, the music bits probably haven't changed too much).

[Lord Aro]

could you perhaps upload what you have done?

[kamnet]

(and maybe split this off into it's own development thread?)

[Bad_Brett]

The problem with this implementation is it's woefully out of date, and not all that great to begin with. I did start a newer one a while back, but that's currently not doing much because I've just been too busy to work on it, and nobody seems all that enthusiastic about it anyway.

I'm really enthusiastic about it. Midi in today's gaming is just stupid, because if you want that sound you can make a mp3 that sounds like a midi. And my experience is also that midi files have a tendency to lag.

[Dima909]

Hello I just registered to say that it would be really great to try your modification. Using mp3s as background music is the one thing missing from OTTD in my opinion. It feels more natural and complete if I could simply replace the game's midi tracks by my own music or midis which have been recorded in high quality on better hardware than the Windows emulation. And to have all of this within OTTD without the need of any third-party apps such as Winamp. That's all I wanted to say - really can't wait Keep it up!

[Ammler]

you should be able to let your mp3player running while playing openttd...

BTW. Why does this project still need submissions, isn't OpenMSX already "full"?

[NekoMaster]

you should be able to let your mp3player running while playing openttd...

BTW. Why does this project still need submissions, isn't OpenMSX already "full"?

Im pretty sure theres still some slots unfilled in this music pack

[planetmaker]

BTW. Why does this project still need submissions, isn't OpenMSX already "full"?

It has indeed a full set of 31 songs and no free slot anymore (si tacuisses... @ Nekomaster). Some songs could still need improvement though, so it could rather be seen as a code-review needed for the set. But it seems no music artists are around who are interested