Replacing all my looping OGGs with MIDIs...

[Olivier]

So my project has a large (i mean LARGE) soundtrack of looping OGGs, which takes up more than 3 GB of space...I don't want my game to be that large LOL! So instead I've tried replacing all these looping OGGs with looping MIDIs instead, and that saved me a lot of file space (yay!). At first I was concerned about the quality of the midi music, because, let's be honest, midis sound horrible without good soundfonts. I found a workaround by using a combination of the MCI Audio Player script which bypasses RPGMaker's crappy default soundfont, CoolSoft's VirtualMidiSynth which allows you to replace Windows' crappy wavetable synth soundfont with a custom one, and the HQ orchestral soundfont. With this combo the music sounds great, if not better than the looping OGGs (in my opinion). However, it means that anyone who wants to play my game would have to install VirtualMidiSynth and this soundfont in order to get the full experience. 


What do you guys think? Would having to download this software be a hassle for you? Would you play a game if it recommended/required you to download additional software? IMHO it's just like a RTP, but for my game, so it shouldn't be a dealbreaker...idk...just thinking lol

 

[Shaz]

I've moved this thread to General Discussion (Game Mechanics are systems/actions the player has to use in the game, not what type of BGM you use). Please be sure to post your threads in the correct forum next time. Thank you.


I would personally not want to have to install extra software in order to play a game.

 

[Tsukihime]

Only if you include it in the installation process. If I had to figure out how to install it myself I'd likely end up having to troubleshoot before I even get to the game.

 

[LaFlibuste]

Agreed with Tsuki. I might do it if it was nicely packaged with the game. If I have to go on a wild goose chase on the internet for those software and manage multiple installers, no way.

 

[Henryetha]

I would rather download the 3gb.


Tbh.. Today that's no problem anymore with average download speeds of 20-200k. (Not even talking about space - when you have a TB disk, 3GB is nothing)


Just be sure to choose well the upload site, so it won't slow down the download.


Maybe the process of installing this thing is fast and uncomplicated.. still the market is flooded with videogames, I think, the majority of people will be just too lazy to even figure out what to do.

 

[taarna23]

I would rather download the 3gb.


Tbh.. Today that's no problem anymore with average download speeds of 20-200k. (Not even talking about space - when you have a TB disk, 3GB is nothing)


Just be sure to choose well the upload site, so it won't slow down the download.


Maybe the process of installing this thing is fast and uncomplicated.. still the market is flooded with videogames, I think, the majority of people will be just too lazy to even figure out what to do.

That's just really not true. I would not ever download an RPG Maker game that was over a GB. Seriously. And my internet's not even that bad. Some peoples' is far worse because of location or that's just how it is where they're from.


To preserve space on mine, I just compressed the crap out of the ogg files by running them through fre:ac and setting a pretty low "quality." I put quality in quotes because it really doesn't made an enormous difference, unless your audience are all audiophiles. But seeing as we're talking video games, that's probably not the case.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

RPG Maker XP uses DirectMusic. There's probably a way (possibly with a plugin) to change the soundbank it uses.


I know DirectMusic uses DLS format files. While it is possible to convert soundfonts to the DLS format (http://www.fmjsoft.com/awavestudio.html) unfortunately I don't know of any free software that can do this.


If you did have a DLS soundbank to use one possible dirty/hacky way to use it might be with a launcher for your game that edits the registry so that windows uses your dls file for music. You would then set it back to the default when you exit the game. That's really not a terribly good way of doing things and it's going to set off everyone's virus software but it might work.


I think this video shows you the right registry key that would need to be played about with: https://youtu.be/4pUq_irfDyE


Sorry couldn't be more helpful, just some ideas that might point you in the right direction.


I have to ask though, how do you have 3gb of ogg files for your game? That's like 30-40 hours of music!

 

[Henryetha]

That's just really not true. I would not ever download an RPG Maker game that was over a GB. Seriously. And my internet's not even that bad. Some peoples' is far worse because of location or that's just how it is where they're from.


To preserve space on mine, I just compressed the crap out of the ogg files by running them through fre:ac and setting a pretty low "quality." I put quality in quotes because it really doesn't made an enormous difference, unless your audience are all audiophiles. But seeing as we're talking video games, that's probably not the case.

Well, just stating my opinion from my view.


Not as a Game Dev (that wouldn't help you), but as a lazy consumer who just want to play.


And as for many people from Europe, a 100MB download speed is just "normal" for me.


Most steam games anyway only take 1-3 seconds to download. If it is a bigger game (a few G it can take 2-6 minutes, depending.


And unless it is a game I've been exciting for anyway, I wouldn't like to bother with extra installations.


As a Gamer I just wanna download+install and play.


Not sure why 1GB would be nowadays a problem.. - space-wise. And I even have only 500GB space. 


If a Game seems interesting, I wouldn't refuse it just because it is a 3GB download.


After all, if you don't know the game yet, you can't know beforehand, why it is large. 


It's true, there are locations, where the most people's internet is worse.. and if your target audience - for example - shall mainly be from  south america, than indeed I would bother more about the game's size. 


Of course there are opinions different than mine and in the end everyone should make his game how he thinks it is right.


I only can tell you, it is really true, I wouldn't refuse an RPG Maker Game that was over a GB, just because it is over a GB. Seriously.


Some games are even released as different versions (full version + light version), this can be a solution aswell - depending on how much effort you wanna make and if you'd be willing to create + upload 2 versions of your game.

 

[LaFlibuste]

I'm with taarna on this one. I would never download a 1GB+ RPG Maker game either.