Compatible with MP3?

[YEEART]

I've been wanting to import over some audio files in the format of MP3 from my prior game in VX Ace, but they don't seem to show up in the 'Sound Test' menu? Is RPGMAKERMV not compatible with the MP3 format by chance?

 

[Ms Littlefish]

MV can use .ogg and .m4a. Any .mp3 files can be converted easily using an application such as Audacity or Switch Sound File Converter. Audacity often needs additional .dlls for format conversions, but I think to OGG Vorbis is a default one it will do.

 

[Zalerinian]

No, the MP3 format is not supported. There are better formats available, like the supported OGG Vorbis and AAC m4a formats. These are the two audio formats that MV supports itself. MP3 files will technically work, as most browsers support the file directly, however you can't add them in through the editor, you'd have to set them to play by manually editing the JSON files that the editor creates, and that will not be a fun experience for you, I guarantee it.

You'd also have to edit one of the default scripts to make sure it loads the proper file format.

Alternatively, a way around this limitation is to name the file .mp3.ogg. This will trick MV into thinking the file is an ogg file, as it only checks the file extension and not the file contents. Keep in mind, however, keep in mind that doing this will mean you won't get any official support for audio fiels not playing, because you are using a unsupported format.

 

[YEEART]

Arghh! That sucks, but fortunately I've been given solutions to counter this minor problem. Thanks, I'll take you guys suggestions into consideration.

 

[Mako]

MP3 format is covered by a patent... It is not free, nor is it sharable. Though everyone and their grandmother does it.

 

[The_Golemancer]

Agreed, Mako. It's not that well known, since like Mako said everybody does it anyway, but it's technically illegal to distribute mp3s without buying a license from them first. mp3 is one of the best for file size, but not for quality. Much better to go with OGGs. Larger file size but with WAY better quality, and zero legal issues. I don't have much experience using m4a, but like OGG there are no licenses required to distribute or stream them.

 

[KisaiTenshi]

Agreed, Mako. It's not that well known, since like Mako said everybody does it anyway, but it's technically illegal to distribute mp3s without buying a license from them first. mp3 is one of the best for file size, but not for quality. Much better to go with OGGs. Larger file size but with WAY better quality, and zero legal issues. I don't have much experience using m4a, but like OGG there are no licenses required to distribute or stream them.

M4A (AAC audio) is actually smaller and higher quality than MP3 in all cases. People began distributing MP3's back in 1997 or so, so all patents on mp3 expire on 2017/04/16, and it's generally problematic to use since it's not always clear what patents need to be licensed.

AAC is free to use to stream and distribute, unlike MP3. There are still patent licenses involved for creating and distributing AAC codecs, but distributing the files in the format is not. Hence why web browsers support it.

M4A is a MPEG4 part 14 container for audio. So it doesn't necessarily mean the audio inside the M4A file is AAC, it could be ALAC/FLAC, MP3 (Mpeg 1 layer 3), ALS, SLS, and so forth.

Firefox support:

To avoid patent issues, support for MPEG 4, H.264, MP3 and AAC is not built directly into Firefox on desktop and mobile (Android and Firefox OS). Instead it relies on support from the OS or hardware (the hardware also needs to be able to support the profile used to encode the video, in the case of MP4). 

Chrome/Chromium (and thus node.js/node-webkit/cordova) support:

Codec Support

Chromium supports the following:

Vorbis audio codec

Theora video codec

Opus audio codec

VP8 video codec

VP9 video codec

PCM 8-bit unsigned integer

PCM 16-bit signed integer little endian

PCM 32-bit float little endian

Ogg container format

WebM container format

WAV container format

 

When building Google Chrome, the following codecs/containers are also included:

MP3 audio codec

AAC audio codec (Main only, not AAC-LC, AAC-SSR, HE-AAC)

H.264 video codec

MP4 container format

Note that RPG Maker MV only supports H.264/AAC on iOS/Android, while Chromium/Cordova/node.js/node-webkit do not support it

Due to licensing issues, the pre-built binary doesn't ship with the necessary codecs for patented media formats. If you require support for these formats, see the instructions below.

Consult a lawyer if you do not understand the licensing constraints and require patented media formats in your application.

 

[Bernkastel]

is there a nice simple and quick way to convert over 100 songs at one time?

 

[Nimbus]

Ugh, it seems like a major hassle to convert all of my old music to a new file format. But based on what I read and what you guys mentioned, it really does sound like OGG and M4A are superior formats to MP3 (and WAV). I guess if everyone just stuck with their old, inferior formats because it's a "standard" then that standard would never change. Embrace progress!

On a side note though, what about MIDI? I know it's suuuper old and outdated at this point, but VX Ace still supported it and I had a handful of projects that used them because of the unique sounds they produced. Any chance we'll ever see support for those?

 

[KillaMaaki]

I'd warn against using MP3s for music anyway. MP3 can add a tiny amount of silence to the end of your song as part of how the format was designed, and this of course will completely destroy your loop.

I had this issue with a song of mine - directly exported from FL Studio as MP3, imported into VX Ace, and there was a tiny gap at the loop point which was totally unacceptable. But once I exported a WAV and converted that to OGG format, it was perfectly fine. I think OGG also sounds better at lower bitrates than MP3 does, IMHO.

EDIT: Ah crap, didn't read the time of last post. There I go necroposting again... d'oh.