   Music File Formats Advice
  Hi,I'm trying to incorporate music files into my games.  I have a set of mp3's I'd like to play.  Unfortunately, I've heard that there are copyright restrictions with these.What format should I convert the mp3's to?  I tried WAV format, but it turned a 3 MB file into 30 MB's, which is ridiculously large.I'd like my files to be playable via DirectX, if possible (DirectSound/Music, or DirectShow).  But my biggest priority is file size.I'm using C++ and DirectX, by the way.Any file format suggestions, advice, and suggestions as to how to go about playing these files would be appreciated.Thanks-Gauvir_Mucca   
  You should look into Ogg Vorbis. Royalty free, fairly easy to load and work with, cross-platform...the only hitch is that WMP 10 won't play them, just in case you care.JetAudio does play them, though, and it actually converts mp3 to Ogg without shoving a 30 day time limit on you.   ;  I second the vote for Ogg's.  ogg vorbis has a library for loading their ogg files, check Promit's link for that, and im currently using OpenAL to play them (actually OpenAL has a beta library that does ogg loading for you iirc, OpenAL's Website should have the details.  Ive heard bad things about converting mp3->ogg so it would be best to go from cd->ogg or cd->wav->ogg or something like that because mp3's are lossy, and so are Ogg's but what ive heard is that they remove different parts of the data, so what results from a mp3->ogg conversion isnt of very good quality (ive done it once before it didnt seem that bad) but idealy youd go wav->ogg or somethinghope that helps-Dan   ;  yeah i agree   ;  Windows media Player 10 can play OGG files!  Not natively, but there are free installers to allow it.  Here  This is what I use.Slaru   ;  A word of advice - don't convert MP3 to OGG as the end result is gonna be particulary crappy in quality due the different compression algorithms used by the formats removing different sets of data. Try converting to WAV first then to OGG for better results.   ;Quote:Original post by SpudderA word of advice - don't convert MP3 to OGG as the end result is gonna be particulary crappy in quality due the different compression algorithms used by the formats removing different sets of data. Try converting to WAV first then to OGG for better results.Seconded! Great call Spudder as well as Ademan555. I also agree with everyone else about using OGG. You just can't beat the fact it is free and performs just as good if not better than MP3   ;  I don't believe even going from MP3 to WAV and then to OGG will help as opposed to straight from MP3 to OGG.  The intermediate WAV file will still only contain the sounds the MP3 saved.  I am almost sure that converting from MP3 to OGG requires decoding the MP3 to WAV (raw sound) first.  The best bet is to use the original source (CD, original output from program...) converted to OGG.   ;Quote:Original post by SlaruI don't believe even going from MP3 to WAV and then to OGG will help as opposed to straight from MP3 to OGG.  The intermediate WAV file will still only contain the sounds the MP3 saved.  I am almost sure that converting from MP3 to OGG requires decoding the MP3 to WAV (raw sound) first.  The best bet is to use the original source (CD, original output from program...) converted to OGG.That is correct. Going from MP3->WAV only makes the file bigger and doesn't provide you any more quality. Both MP3 and OGG are lossy formats, meaning that when they take in raw audio (wav) data they throw parts of it away that humans usually can't discern anyway, and there's no way to recover that lost information.But yeah, I give the (8th?) vote to use OGG too. I actually e-mailed the company who licenses the MP3 technology because they didn't state whether free, non-profit games would be exempt from their outrageous charges and I got an e-mail back from them saying "yes, you still have to pay even if it's a free project." (*wishes there was a middle finger smilie here*). OGG is just as good (if not better) than MP3 in terms of quality, compression, and play-back, so screw those assholes and their ridiculous licensing fees.;Quote:Original post by Ademan555I second the vote for Ogg's.  ogg vorbis has a library for loading their ogg files,FMOD plays a variety of audio formats, including ogg.   