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Topic: Ogg Vorbis in games (Read 6058 times) previous topic - next topic
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Ogg Vorbis in games

Just thought I'd let you guys know that Ogg Vorbis is the file format of choice for audio in the latest Duke Nukem title (Manhattan Project). Excellent game, by the way. Easily one of the better games I've played over the past few years.

What other games use Ogg? I know there were a few.

Ogg Vorbis in games

Reply #2 –
Neat

It's a relief that game companies aren't using wave files so much anymore. To make them a decent size, they usually had to be 11 khz/mono files. High quality was considered 22 khz/stereo. Ugh.

Ogg Vorbis in games

Reply #3 –
Quote
Originally posted by Trelane
It's a relief that game companies aren't using wave files so much anymore. To make them a decent size, they usually had to be 11 khz/mono files. High quality was considered 22 khz/stereo. Ugh.


Most of them used ADPCM.
Sim City 3000, Baldur's Gate, Descent3, Most EA games...

And some used MP3 too, like The Sims

Some used Midi, like Ultima 8...

But, indeed, the list of games that used plain WAV is enourmous. Quite sad...

Ogg Vorbis in games

Reply #4 –
Remember old school games (Duke Nukem 3D, Rise of the Triad, etc.)? MIDI/VOC combination. How could we hear the sound effects through all the static?!

Ogg Vorbis in games

Reply #5 –
Yeah, it's cool to see companies starting to commit to using Vorbis in games.  Let's just hope that they use it wisely and don't attempt to use such a low bitrate that the quality ends up suffering significantly.

Coming to mind recently is Jedi Knight II.  They used mp3 (which isn't as good as vorbis at low bitrates anyway), and they must have used a really low bitrate (and probably a crappy encoder) because the sound is absolutely horrible, especially on the voice overs.  It's really amusing too after playing the game and hearing the sound, and then seeing this:

http://www.lucasarts.com/products/outcast/html/knotes5.html

A priceless quote:

Quote
Having worked on Star Wars®: Dark Forces®, Star Wars® Jedi Knight®: Dark Forces®II and Star Wars®: Jedi Knight®: Mysteries of the Sith®, we wanted to maintain the approach that worked so well in those games while at the same time taking advantage of some of the newer audio technologies available to us in the Jedi Outcast game engine. One of the first things you will notice is the high fidelity of the voice, music and sound in the game. Higher data rates and MP3 technology allowed us to approach a film-quality soundtrack for this title.


Heh... yeah.

Let's hope Vorbis fair's better in UT

Ogg Vorbis in games

Reply #6 –
Quote
Originally posted by Trelane
Remember old school games (Duke Nukem 3D, Rise of the Triad, etc.)? MIDI/VOC combination. How could we hear the sound effects through all the static?!


We didn't

Well, Ultima8 used the same combination.
It was nearly impossible to distinguish what the hell the titans were
saying with that terrible voc encoding.

But was funny as hell, anyway.

Ogg Vorbis in games

Reply #7 –
Quote
Originally posted by Dibrom
Let's just hope that they use it wisely and don't attempt to use such a low bitrate that the quality ends up suffering significantly.


I can't say for other games, but the bitrate for all audio in Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project is 315 kbps. The audio in the game is top notch... we get to hear Duke's witty one-liners (and there are some good ones in this game) in perfect clarity  And, yes, I agree with you about JK2. The audio was horrible

rjamorim:

Ogg Vorbis in games

Reply #8 –
Trelane: You new sig is SICK!

I  think I'm too horrified to sleep tonight...

Ogg Vorbis in games

Reply #9 –
Haha... you can thank my sister for that link. Funniest Bush parody I've seen in awhile. Although, I will admit that it's a tad horrific. I'm not sure which is worse, the pictures themselves or the fact that somebody spent many hours in Photoshop making them.

Ogg Vorbis in games

Reply #10 –
Another game that uses Ogg is Serious Sam: The Second Encounter, which has been out for a while now. The original Serious Sam used MP3 (I think), and in the Second Encounter they switched to Ogg.

Ogg Vorbis in games

Reply #11 –
Two (older) games also use Vorbis:

Operation Flashpoint
Star Trek: Away Team

Ogg Vorbis in games

Reply #12 –
operation flashpoint uses vorbis?  i'll have to play it more...
Dan

Ogg Vorbis in games

Reply #13 –
I just bought Schimz and it's using ogg, but only for music (not for voice/sounds)

Is there a list somewhere of all games using ogg? It seems strange that I didn't find such a list neither on vorbis.com neither on xiph.org

Ogg Vorbis in games

Reply #14 –
Grand Theft Auto 3 uses mp3 for the radio stations of the game and Rock Manager uses ogg, a game that you are the manager of a rock group and you also edit the sound recordings of the band that you manage.