In-Game Winamp support

[legacy-the dark six]

Originally posted by Jair_mejia
All I want is for the engine to support mp3s so I cant just dump them all in the music folder, unless it already does and I dont know about it?

The music player plays mp3s fine. And it doesn't have to be in the music directory either, it can be anywhere else on the computer. (I have a suspicion that it can play CDs as well but I haven't tried to do that yet)

I do wish the volume would stop resetting to the default level everytime the player plays through the list, though.

[jefe]

I've suggested this briefly before now, but wouldn't it be great if the game could interface with winamp, instead of just having its own built-in music player.

See, if it could work with winamp, it could turn the volume down when required, allow you to move between tracks, and basically still do all the stuff the in-game player does at the moment.

But it's much better if winamp is used. There's a TON more features in winamp than you could ever hope to bundle into an in-game music player.

So from the gamers point of view: Loads more flexibility with your ingame music, without compromising the 'mute sound' VoIP feature.

From Epic/DE/Atari's POV: This is an easy thing to do (relatively speaking). Why reinvent the wheel? Winamp is free, I'm 100% certain that nullsoft would LOVE UT to have winamp integration in it... and this doesnt have to interrupt the existing in-game player in the slightest... just switch to winamp support if winamp is loaded.

Anyone see a good reason not to do this?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Atari/Epic would have to pay AOL Time Warner a sh|tload of money if Winamp were somehow included with UT2k4. That's a pretty good reason for them not to include it if they already have a music player.

But anyway, as long as you turn the in-game music volume down to zero, Winamp 5 (2 with the right plugin) already has the ability to everything you asked for except mute during VOIP. Global hotkeys let you change tracks without minimizing (default is ctrl alt pg up, pg down) and volume independent of the game volume (ctrl alt arrow up/down).

Dr. Sin wrote:
Actually, if you use Winamp you lose the ability to have a separate music level. Winamp's volume adjusts the full system volume which is global across the board.

I guess that could be true if Winamp were used as the main audio driver as Foo suggested, but that doesn't happen on my machine while doing anything, including play UT2k4. That might possibly happen on some sound cards though, but I doubt many people would be affected, as I have never seen that happen, even on really old SB's.

MF-BoltressHL2 wrote:

Here's a reason why not to use WinAmp.
WinAmp is a big resource hog. Why would you want a game that takes up huge rescources, share processor cycles with a program that will just slow down your game for no reason.

Winamp most likely uses more CPU time than the in-game driver, yes. However, on my machine, the in-game music player skips and hiccups from time to time, even playing ogg-vorbis. That's really annoying, and one of the reason I use Winamp instead. Also, I'm not fond of songs starting over at the beginning each time a level is loaded, and I like the ability to listen to music formats other than mp3 or ogg.

[legacy-Mr. Roboto]

Actually the DirectSound output plug-in allows for WinAmp to not mess with the Wav output volume. In fact WinAmp will then be subjected to what ever the Wav output volume level is.

[legacy-TheGreatFoo]

Originally posted by DrSiN
Actually, if you use Winamp you lose the ability to have a separate music level. Winamp's volume adjusts the full system volume which is global across the board.

Strange. I dont experience that on my system. Running Winamp 2.91.

[legacy-TheGreatFoo]

Originally posted by Pezman
OGG = Free
MP3 = Fee

Take your pills.

[legacy-TheGreatFoo]

Originally posted by MF-BoltressHL2
What kind of features would you like the music player to have in UT? Do you want a visualizer or something? Your playing a game not attending a rock concert.

For a start, all my playlists and in general all my music management is already set up in winamp. I've got hundreds of playlists, and having to make a new playlist inside UT seems like repeating the same task twice.... I dont see a good reason why Epic shouldn't make use of someone elses 3rd party program for music integration.

Aside from playlists, there's the equaliser and DSP functions, and Library. UT is never going to have these in its built-in player, so why not just link the game up to winamp and concentrate on making the game?

Here's a reason why not to use WinAmp.
WinAmp is a big resource hog. Why would you want a game that takes up huge rescources, share processor cycles with a program that will just slow down your game for no reason.

I'm seeing 9Mb and less than 1% processor usage when playing mp3s on my copy of winamp. Doesn't seem like a resource hog to me, at all.

There is really no reason to have UT2004 remotely interface with any outside audio player.

I've just listed the reasons above.

The only feature I would like is to have UT play my playlists from startup instead of the default music being played.

No ****. Well, that would work with winamp support, for a start.

Better than that, with winamp support, music would be continuous between loadings.

So you see, there are good reasons why including support might be desirable.

But the basic point is that you may as well offer this option to people who want it. It's NOT a lot of work, just a bit of DDE or OLE messing, I would wager. Leave issues like resource usage and what benefits you might get from it up to the people who want to use it.

[Dicky B]

If I want music while I play, I use computer #5. It's the one with the full-room speaker setup, can use WinAmp, play shoutcast streams and all that. Plus, the mute button is an easy reach from here.

Dicky B, my gaming rig isn't top drawer, but I have more computing power in this room than most of you single-rig types.

ps-everyone has a computer more powerful than all of NASA's computers put together up until at least 1980.. Think about that, and how you're wasting it.

[Edit: Finally sig'd my specs, like anyone cares]

[legacy-Prisoner1138]

Originally posted by Dicky B
If I want music while I play, I use computer #5. It's the one with the full-room speaker setup, can use WinAmp, play shoutcast streams and all that. Plus, the mute button is an easy reach from here.

Dicky B, my gaming rig isn't top drawer, but I have more computing power in this room than most of you single-rig types.

ps-everyone has a computer more powerful than all of NASA's computers put together up until at least 1980.. Think about that, and how you're wasting it.

yea, i hear ya. i may not have a single bleeding edge technology computer, but i have plenty of power in 1 box to play games, i can browse the net from most rooms in the house, play plenty of games anywhere i want, watch videos, dvds, listen to music, whatever in any room with a tv. i can do without ut2k4 having winamp support(wtf, wouldnt it make more sense just to improve the mp3 player it comes with?), and i dont even care about ut2k4 playing my mp3's in the first place.

[Dicky B]

Originally posted by Prisoner1138
yea, i hear ya. i may not have a single bleeding edge technology computer, but i have plenty of power in 1 box to play games, i can browse the net from most rooms in the house, play plenty of games anywhere i want, watch videos, dvds, listen to music, whatever in any room with a tv. i can do without ut2k4 having winamp support(wtf, wouldnt it make more sense just to improve the mp3 player it comes with?), and i dont even care about ut2k4 playing my mp3's in the first place.

Yeah, a lot of games I play, you don't want music at all, gotta hear something besides beats when you're scanning the skies for planes, or have to hear those footsteps..

Dicky B, when I'm playing ONS though, music on or off is fine.

[jefe]

Originally posted by TheGreatFoo
For a start, all my playlists and in general all my music management is already set up in winamp. I've got hundreds of playlists, and having to make a new playlist inside UT seems like repeating the same task twice.... I dont see a good reason why Epic shouldn't make use of someone elses 3rd party program for music integration.

Aside from playlists, there's the equaliser and DSP functions, and Library. UT is never going to have these in its built-in player, so why not just link the game up to winamp and concentrate on making the game?


I'm seeing 9Mb and less than 1% processor usage when playing mp3s on my copy of winamp. Doesn't seem like a resource hog to me, at all.


I've just listed the reasons above.


No ****. Well, that would work with winamp support, for a start.

Better than that, with winamp support, music would be continuous between loadings.

So you see, there are good reasons why including support might be desirable.

But the basic point is that you may as well offer this option to people who want it. It's NOT a lot of work, just a bit of DDE or OLE messing, I would wager. Leave issues like resource usage and what benefits you might get from it up to the people who want to use it.

Epic adding support for someone else's brand of media player is only going to cost more money in the form of licensing, which you can be certain would be passed down to end users. UT comes with basic media functions, which should fulfill the needs of most people. Sure, it's not nearly as refined a stand-alone player and has some problems, but it gets the job done.

Now hopefully you actually read my previous post. There isn't a need for 'support' when you can run Winamp in the background and control just about every function without minimizing UT.

[legacy-moppel]

By importing 3rd party software, you also import their exploits. Winamp is not secure. Therefore: NO

[jefe]

Good point. I could just imagine programs like UTsecure having to be updated everytime there's a bugfix for Winamp. :bulb:

[legacy-TheGreatFoo]

Originally posted by Jefe
Epic adding support for someone else's brand of media player is only going to cost more money in the form of licensing, which you can be certain would be passed down to end users. UT comes with basic media functions, which should fulfill the needs of most people. Sure, it's not nearly as refined a stand-alone player and has some problems, but it gets the job done.

Winamp. Is. Free.

Now hopefully you actually read my previous post. There isn't a need for 'support' when you can run Winamp in the background and control just about every function without minimizing UT.

I thought the same thing, until I tried voice chat and discovered my music was muffling the speech.
In-game player mutes when speech is active. This is all I really want from winamp support.

[legacy-TheGreatFoo]

Originally posted by moppel
By importing 3rd party software, you also import their exploits. Winamp is not secure. Therefore: NO

Read my above post. You've lost the plot here.

I'm not talking about importing winamp into UT. I'm talking about UT simply being able to turn down the volume on winamp when VoIP is active, IF winamp is loaded.

This isn't rocket science people. Nor does it affect any other part of the game in terms of secirity or otherwise.

[legacy-Prisoner1138]

just because an END USER can use winamp for free, does not mean that a company can integrate it into their software for free.