[gooberdude]

Does anyone know what file type the audio is on games??

last night I played MechAssault2: lone wolf for the 1st time on XBOX...its a fun game.
i thought the sound quality was kinda lacking & am wondering what file type it is.   

Since the game info is loaded onto the HD, and not read from the DVD in real time, i'll ass-u-me they are a compressed file.

[jqp]

Interesting...it would help to know more details about how the sound data is moved to the HD, etc. Probably there is no standard way of handling sound. With some games you can load your music to play during racing games, etc.

[nathanm]

If you mean the in-game sounds they are probably WAV files, although most likely at lower sampling frequencies (e.g. 22, 11 or 8KHz)  I would suspect MP3 decoding would eat up more processing power, but I'm not certain.

[gooberdude]

I went home for lunch today and decided to continue with the MechAssault game i started last night...i'm right on the cusp of completing a hard stage.    i played the Cardas Sweep track through the XBOX DVD drive since i had time - takes 4 minutes.      I do this prior to listening to music, but its also necessary prior to gaming IF you want the sound to be right.   i had not tried the Sweep Track prior to gaming ever - i rarely play.

today i couldn't give a crap about the music file type, it sounded so good and the deep bass of gunshots & explosions was there...last night the sound was HF harsh and the bass...wasn't.

no idea if the sweep track helps with video performance, but the imrovement to the audio spectrum leads me to believe it should.

[George]

I know the unreal engine uses ogg files for the in-game music, dunno if they do the same for the other audio or not.

[jqp]

Hmmm I don't recall poor sound from the Mech Warrior game...maybe you have a bad XBox?

Also have you tried playing any cd other that that Cardas track CD before listening as a test?

[gooberdude]

Hey JQP,

The game's audio was quite harsh last night, but the reason being that i had not run the Sweep track prior to playing the game.   My XBOX is dope sounding these days, been working the last few weeks to make it so and the results are stupifying - to me.

I'm using XBOX as my main cd player, it kills the Sony 5 disc changer i've been using the last few years.   i have another post in the circle about it.

you gotta understand the background to get my statement though.  i don't think the Mech Assault audio was bad, it simply sounded bad because i've been Sweep Tracking the XBOX before listening to CD's, and had NOT played the magic track before playing Mech Assault.   

i'm so used to the sound of a 'clean' XBOX, that in its normal operation it sounds bad.  unfortunatly, i can say the same about my phono rig, computer audio, IPOD, car stereo & boombox.   degaussing, or whatever this track does, works amazing to my ears.

the key to the sweep track is playing it every time your gear is turned on.  if you play the track then leave XBOX on 24/7, you won't need to play it again for a week or more - at least that's what i've found.

i keep XBOX off when not in use.


matt