GC Music Files?
- Thread starter Ion Dune
- Start date
Lunaboy
New member
There are several ways for the Gamecube to produce music.
1. Using one of the hardware-supported GC-ADPCM compression-formats
2. Using a custom decoder and pass the decoded data to the hardware
3. Using a midi-based sequencer to play the music
Most games are using the first method. However, these games will use their own container-format to store the data. Once you can decode the audiodata of the hardware-based codecs, you can play many file types by supporting their containers.
Some other games are using their own compression-formats. This makes it a lot easier to write games for different platforms. To port the game to another platform the programmers just have to pass the output of their decoder to another API-system. They don't have to re-encode the original audio data and they can keep using the same audio-engine on every platform.
Sometimes when position-based music is needed (music will change based on the position of the player) a midi-sequencer can be used. During gameplay all midi-tracks are playing, but some tracks are muted. If the player walks to another part of the level, the game-engine just has to mute / unmute the required tracks to change the music (mostly with volume-fades). Since the Gamecube is surround-compatible, the sequencer can select each of the four channels to play the notes.
With the sequencer-method it is also possible to change the music at any time without plops. During the battle with Phantom Gannon in Zelda The Wind Waker the music changes smoothly every time you hit a fire-ball with your sword (user-controlled music).
The In_Cube Winamp plugin has support for the hardware-based codecs, some custom codecs and a number of file-container formats. As far as I know there are no players which can play Gamecube sequenced-music. Writing a sequencer is far more difficult than writing a streamed-player, since the samples needs to be resampled to different frequencies and has to be mixed afterwards.
1. Using one of the hardware-supported GC-ADPCM compression-formats
2. Using a custom decoder and pass the decoded data to the hardware
3. Using a midi-based sequencer to play the music
Most games are using the first method. However, these games will use their own container-format to store the data. Once you can decode the audiodata of the hardware-based codecs, you can play many file types by supporting their containers.
Some other games are using their own compression-formats. This makes it a lot easier to write games for different platforms. To port the game to another platform the programmers just have to pass the output of their decoder to another API-system. They don't have to re-encode the original audio data and they can keep using the same audio-engine on every platform.
Sometimes when position-based music is needed (music will change based on the position of the player) a midi-sequencer can be used. During gameplay all midi-tracks are playing, but some tracks are muted. If the player walks to another part of the level, the game-engine just has to mute / unmute the required tracks to change the music (mostly with volume-fades). Since the Gamecube is surround-compatible, the sequencer can select each of the four channels to play the notes.
With the sequencer-method it is also possible to change the music at any time without plops. During the battle with Phantom Gannon in Zelda The Wind Waker the music changes smoothly every time you hit a fire-ball with your sword (user-controlled music).
The In_Cube Winamp plugin has support for the hardware-based codecs, some custom codecs and a number of file-container formats. As far as I know there are no players which can play Gamecube sequenced-music. Writing a sequencer is far more difficult than writing a streamed-player, since the samples needs to be resampled to different frequencies and has to be mixed afterwards.