I suppose my question is, which file format should I use to get the most note data, while maintaining the correct sounds? I'm hoping to use something like OpenAL to bring my FL Studio projects into my games/programs. Is there a file format that will let me, say, start the theme at the very beginning and set it to repeat at a different location? And I want the correct sounds and instruments too, such as if I'm using a Sytrus trumpet, I'd like to be able to save precise note data for a score/theme while saving the correct sounds (i.e. the trumpet), while being able to manipulate it in my program. What's the best file format to use for this? Is it even possible to read from the FLS project file directly, or is there some sort of encryption envolved?

Thanks for any help/advice, even though this is a rather obscure question.


EDIT: And if you vote for "other" make sure to at least provide explanation for that, since it looks a little confusing otherwise.

Is there a file format that will let me, say, start the theme at the very beginning and set it to repeat at a different location?
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This is more related to the audio engine and not audio file format. Something like Wwise or Fmod could easily do this but you'd have to edit your audio files or set up the parameters to make the playback what you want. Many audio engines can accept a variety of file formats.

And I want the correct sounds and instruments too, such as if I'm using a Sytrus trumpet, I'd like to be able to save precise note data for a score/theme while saving the correct sounds (i.e. the trumpet), while being able to manipulate it in my program.
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If you're talking about VST (or AU) then your DAW would be able to save and print out your notation (some DAWs are better at this than others).

Yeah, Sytrus is an audio synthesizer plugin for FL Studio. I suppose the main thing I'll have to focus on is configuring FLs settings for what I want (such as seamless looping and etcetera). Wave files should do what I want for now, since FL exports all sounds precisely. The only downside is that I can't manipulate the notes in my game, then again I suppose I should do all that in FL Studio only.

Thanks!

Sorry for hijacking your thread, but I've heard that I can't simply load MP3-Files in a commercial game even if it's the users own music due to the licensing issues of MP3?

Is that right?
We're planning a music based game and I think it would be pretty fun for the players to throw their own music in there.

Sorry for hijacking your thread, but I've heard that I can't simply load MP3-Files in a commercial game even if it's the users own music due to the licensing issues of MP3?

Is that right?
We're planning a music based game and I think it would be pretty fun for the players to throw their own music in there.

I don't kow the exact details but it is somehting liek that. I know if you want to export mp3s with Audacity you must aquire the dll to do so yourself as they can't ship it with Audacity for licensing reasons.

Your poll only allows the selection of one format - there is no 'one size fits all' in most cases (some consoles have decoding-on-chip which allows a single format to be used for short sound effects AND long streaming tracks).

For PC I generally use WAV (PCM16) for sound effects, and OGG for streaming tracks.

As for MP3 licensing:

Do I need a license to use mp3 or mp3surround in games?
Yes. Games using mp3 encoded content are licensed on a per-title basis.

However, no license fees are due if less than 5 000 copies of a particular game title are distributed.

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From: http://mp3licensing.com/help/developers.html#59
License prices: http://mp3licensing.com/royalty/games.html

You can select multiple answers now. I have a slight bias towards ogg due to the small file size, but then again that might be to a loss of quality. I'll probably use wavs for smaller sounds and ogg for themes and so forth, like what deadstar said. But is there anything that MP3 has that's worth wading through all these copyright issues I'm hearing about? Is it better than ogg in terms of maintaining quality and a small file size?

But is there anything that MP3 has that's worth wading through all these copyright issues I'm hearing about? Is it better than ogg in terms of maintaining quality and a small file size?

Some platforms (mostly iDevice related) have better MP3 support than they do OGG. To support OGG requires some specialized code whereas the line of Apple products natively support MP3 and OGG has been shown to be a bit more taxing on the CPU therefore impacting how well the game performs. So it's not solely based on audio quality or if you have to pay a license fee or not. (Note: usually the project would pay the licensing fee, not the audio guy, especially if they're requiring MP3 for their game.) That's what I don't think you're grasping, to be completely blunt. Video game audio has far less to deal with file type preferences and much more about what works well with the technology. For example your response to my post:

Yeah, Sytrus is an audio synthesizer plugin for FL Studio. I suppose the main thing I'll have to focus on is configuring FLs settings for what I want (such as seamless looping and etcetera).

Sure you can use FL Studio to create seamless audio files within that DAW but putting it into an audio engine and having it behave the way you intend could be (and usually is) a different matter. No offense but your posts and polls seem heavily focused on file type and much less on audio engines and game technology... which are key items.

For example you have MIDI as one of your poll answers but very few consoles use MIDI format these days. Most use some for of audio and a few (mainly like the Nintendo DS lines) use MIDI along with custom-made samples and an archiving system for music playback. The DS line does this because it allows the developers to put a ton content into a game with very little footprint (or data space used). A PS3 title has no need to use MIDI because data space isn't nearly as limited. So as others have already said in this thread - there is no one-size-fits-all type of music file format. It depends heavily on the console technology you're working with.

Thanks,

Nate

I've posted another thread regarding what API I should use to gain flexability/performance, that's my next step in starting an audio setup for my games.

One of my concerns was to get the best vantage point for manipulating note data, which I figured would be MIDI, but that would really require me to implement my own audio synthesizer in my games. I really don't want that, especially because there'd be a lot of CPU overhead doing that, and it's not very cross-platform either. That type of work really needs to be done in the DAW. I guess its really about understanding where the workload goes in terms of the DAW and audio API.

Thanks for the info given here. I have a lot more insight on how my audio engine needs to work now.