Priston Tale Sound System

Hmm. Well, I'm used to having a Log() function available to me as part of the standard RTL, though I rarely have any need for it. So I'm not sure about the internal function.

I do know that most programs filter the buffer for Volume and stream mixing before passing them to DirectX... cleaver ones only mix in software to compensate for missing hardware channels, but if you have a normal 16-bit PCM stream in your buffer, then taking each 16-bit figure (sample) and dividing it by a percentage before asking DirectSound to play it. (or, at least the current buffer) ^_^

I could only notice a sound volume difference when I did
SetVolume(DBS_MAXVOLUME) or something like that.
but as you can see here, the parameter this function takes is strange.

Quote:

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The volume is specified in hundredths of decibels (dB). Allowable values are between DSBVOLUME_MAX (no attenuation) and DSBVOLUME_MIN (silence). These values are currently defined in Dsound.h as 0 and -10,000 respectively. The value DSBVOLUME_MAX represents the original, unadjusted volume of the stream. The value DSBVOLUME_MIN indicates an audio volume attenuated by 100 dB, which, for all practical purposes, is silence. Currently DirectSound does not support amplification.

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IDirectSoundBuffer::SetVolume (Windows CE .NET 4.2)

Why are you looking up DirectSound APIs for Windows CE (Old Mobile phone devices) in .NET 4.2?

They aren't the same API parameters as Win32... usually. XD

Code:

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SetVolume    (lpDS, DWORD  dwVolume)

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But that's from an old DirectSound article on the MSDN, Only DirectX 9 seems to be documented now, and that method seems to have been dropped. :\

It's an arse to find anything useful on DirectX on the on-line MSDN though. I find most useful stuff seems to be in the SDK downloads.

well, my SetVolume method just takes one parameter as described in that site... I thouhg Windows CE was just an old kind of .net framework or stuff xD

well, if you can find any examples of how to use this function it would be nice, a link to a DX SDK documentation, IDK.

That's all on my main rig somewhere in a VM, and I don't think you can "link" to a specific page in the HelpText2 docs anyway. (Most annoying) But no, Windows CE was a "Compact Edition" designed for early Smart Phones and released at about the same time as ME (Millenium Edition). Unlike ME it has been progressively updated through the XP and into the Vista era, but most Windows phones are now running Windows Mobile, not CE. Just as you could put Windows ME on your brand new Windows 7 PC, if you are a phone company, you could still choose to buy Windows CE for your new SmartPhone... I just don't think it would sell that well. XD Phone companies are still shipping firmware updates to their older WinCE devices though.

well, I plan now to completely move to my DLL the entire sound system. I saw sandurr's dll and how he deals with classes, I think I'll start doing as he does. its better to save my variables indeed and keep the code clean aswell.

a little help of him would be nice too =p
just a tip of how to change the volume :blush:

Remember that PT uses DirectX 6.

That link to IDirectSoundBuffer::SetVolume on the MSDN website about Windows CE is pretty much the same DirectSound interface as the one that is used in PT (if not exactly the same). I can tell. PT uses the IDirectSound interface.

When DirectX 8 was released, it came with a new DirectSound interface which is the IDirectSound8 interface, but this is not used in PT.

If I remember correctly PT loads all sounds in one big array with IDirectSoundBuffer pointers in it. Like this:

Code:

---

LPDIRECTSOUNDBUFFER bigarray[MAX_SOUNDS];

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Then somewhere in PT there is a global function that looks like this (perhaps its inline in PT, i dont know):

Code:

---

void PlaySomeSound(int index)
{
  bigarray[index]->Play(...);
}

---

What you can do is find that function and replace it with your own, and remember the volume in a global variable:

Code:

---

int g_volume;

void PlaySomeSound(int index)
{
  bigarray[index]->SetVolume(g_volume);
  bigarray[index]->Play(...);
}

---

I'm sure its a bit more complicated in PT but it comes down to that.

but the g_volume must be between 0 and -10000 I think.

I wanted to make something like between 0% and 100%, like the volume bar of youtube, like windows itself, you know? :)

FFS.
x = 0 to -10000
y = (-x) / 100

Now y = your percentage. And if 0 is full volume and -10000 is mute then just 100 - y. XD

About sounds... there are some good composer music software for newbies (like myself) that with a few clicks u can make great songs very easily to change the whole BG music set (i like for that magix music maker, and there u can search for the sound banks )

but the wav files are crappy. its size is very large, consuming unecessary disk space, while ogg files is very small (compared to wav) and the quality is better. I already changed the sound system, I was trying to to something with the infos about graphic sandurr gave, but its very hard to do something... there are too many missing informations and changing that would require a lot of knoledge in directx and reverse engineering, which I dont have xD

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SheenBR

ogg files is very small (compared to wav) and the quality is better.

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That statement is (at least) a half falsehood. MP3 and OGG are lossy compression formats. PCM WAV (as used by PT) is uncompressed and therefor not lossy. Therefor the quality of "the WAVs" is "perfect".

The quality of the music included with PT is noisy... as if they where recorded badly, or encoded at 22khz 8bit and then up-sampled. (and not very well up-sampled at that) But still the technical "potential quality" of the PCM WAV files is higher than CD-Quality. PT will hapily play back 48khz 24-bit PCM audio Wave files, where CDs are 44khz 16-bit only. (you can fudge 24-bit, but that's not standard and introduces many potential problems)

Vormavs suggestion of using FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Compression) has the "advantage" that it would keep the unparalleled quality of PCM WAV files, while still reducing the file size. The disadvantage is that FLAC doesn't stream very well (needs quite sizable buffers) and requires more CPU power to decompress than OGG or MP3. (or AAC / MP4 Audio) There are other lossless audio compressors, Apple Lossless is quite popular, but the license is more restrictive. I quite like APE. (the so-called Monkey's Audio) I wouldn't say I "prefer" it to FLAC, but I think they each provide good competition for the other.

However, I think OGG, MP3 or AAC are most appropriate in this instance, because they are designed to be "streamed" (played back before the entire file has been "seen") even by very low power (performance) devices. MOD\XM\MID etc are also good choices, because they are "music" tab formats, designed to be mixed live from samples or wave functions (oscillators / sound synths) "on-the-fly" taking very little space and very little CPU power... they can "eat" hardware audio channels though. XD

Spoiler:

An interesting side-note may be that "sound fonts" (which are the instrument packs used in MIDI and some MOD\Tracker files) are "analogue" sounds. They are designed to be programmed into a MIDI synth as a set of frequency waves which overlap to synthesize the sound of the instrument... What this means is that each individual note played in the music is stored in the file at infinity-bits and infinity frequency. Which clearly surpasses even lossless digital audio. ^_^ Most PCs will "digitize" or "Soft Synth" these wave forms before playback however... but if you happen to have a Roland MT Midi Synth chip, or equivalent on your sound card (usually as a separate "module") then, believe me, the audio playback quality is quite stunning. :thumbup:

well, I noticed some quality "gain" after changing to ogg... and I think we'll save at leats some 200mb of sound files...

just for comparison:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/m1rfg7

Intro.wav and Intro.ogg - the size difference are "huge".
the ogg file has only 11% of the wav size

I've done it my self. The poor recording quality of the original music means that, if you don't re-compose them, I see no advantage to keeping them in a lossless form.

However, if you wanted to replace them with something "better" sounding, then preserving the lossless nature of the original PCM audio may well be advantageous. Just depends how much of an "audiophile" you are. I think most of us don't take much notice of the background music when we are hunting... even if we haven't turned it off all-together. XD

To look at other "big brand" games, most use MP3 or WMV... but there are a few which use OGG, especially for voice-acting or narration.

I just wanted to change the wav to something smaller :P
But I just patched the ambient files yet, havent go any further yet.

I cant order too much quality since my poor 15R$ speakers are nearly collapsing xD