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by Knurek at 7:11 PM EDT on May 25, 2018

@bnnm: Unplayable XWB, from Vita version of Stardew Valley. AT9?
Cannot be also parsed by xwb_split.

by ChillyBilly at 2:04 PM EDT on May 27, 2018

Come to think of it... I've been wondering this for a while, but is it possible for vgmstream to support the .vas sound archives used in various Konami games? Just to use an example, a while back I posted the archives for the Wii Power Pro series (relevant page here), but I was unable to split/extract the audio. However, I at least know that they all contain DSP audio, which brings me back to my question of whether it's possible to make the archives themselves playable? Thanks in advance for any assistance on this matter!

by bnnm at 6:38 PM EDT on May 27, 2018

latest vgmstream changes (autobuilds (MSVC) / foobar / test+winamp+xmplay (GCC) / bug list)
- Add .xss RIFF extension [Spider-Man the Movie (Xbox)]
- Add .rda extension [Rhythm Destruction (PC)]
- Add .xwb ATRAC9 [Stardew Valley (Vita)]
- Fix TXTH data_size for IMA
- Fix some Ubi LyN [Michael Jackson the Experience (PS3)]
- Fix TXTP loop parsing

***

Updated xwb_split.

Scott Pilgrim I understand how it works but it's a pain to add, maybe later.

by Nicknine at 2:15 AM EDT on May 28, 2018

So apparently, RWS files from Madagascar have only one sub-stream and use segments as different tracks which makes playing them in vgmstream problematic. What a genius move from devs.
Any idea on what to do about it?

Sample:
KINGOFMU.RWS (PS2 version)

edited 2:15 AM EDT May 28, 2018

edited 11:51 AM EDT May 28, 2018

by Nicknine at 10:36 AM EDT on May 28, 2018

Another request, .VAI files used in some Disney/Pixar games on Gamecube/Wii.
The format is same as PS2 JOE counterpart except it's big endian, default interleave is 0x4000 bytes and there's DSP coefficient table at 0x0C. No idea about loop info, though.

Sample:
MENU.VAI

By the way, this is probably not good because those files have some padding at the end as well. From what I've seen, audio data always starts at 0x4020 (0x4060 on GC) so I think it should always use that offset instead.

edited 10:47 AM EDT May 28, 2018

by bnnm at 4:56 PM EDT on May 29, 2018

RWS I could put segments as subsongs I guess, not sure how would affect other sets. I'll give some thought.

For any new format, unless you post several samples and the name of the game there is no chance I'll implement.

QT IMA4 by Alpha23 at 7:29 AM EDT on May 30, 2018

Hi there!
I've found some aif files that contain QT IMA which isn't yet supported by vgmstream: https://mega.nz/#!CpsAyAAS!3CSqaKUYx_o8fE_V_OzNjqLUYrLKZseDvxCMXc2dxSg
I don't know how many games use this codec, the files are from "Alida" (PC, 2004). VLC can play the files btw.

by Nicknine at 1:15 PM EDT on May 30, 2018

The game is Ratatouille on GC/Wii (the sound files are identical in both versions). Here are 5 more samples:

rats.zip

by Ultrafighter at 2:32 PM EDT on May 30, 2018

Hi Bnnm, do you think you can help me with unpacking these audio archives? They're from The darkness & Need for speed: Undercover (X360 & PC respectively). I'll really appreciate it if you provide any solution for at least one title.

Darkness bigfiles apparently use nonstandard headers or store only headerless data so that I've got no idea how previous rips were done, maybe some TXTH will help us play the tracks? But of course we have to split these huge XWCs first.
Actually there's some BMS by Aluigi (you can find it in my package) but it doesn't solve the main problem: to divide sound banks into individual tracks.

NFS is yet another nasty example of EA's handiwork, they still use MUS+MPF but there're no SHCl headers this time. But possibly it doesn't mean that the game's unrippable (Windows version at least)? Weren't the latest Harry Potter VGs along with Simpsons game (PS3 ver.) rippable with all their EA ADPCM (?) in MUS files? I hope NFS-UC banks aren't unbreachable now...
BTW I found and tried out a script (written by AlphaTwentyThree) but it didn't work at all, resulting streams can't be played in VGMstream + ToWAV decodes them incorrectly (it outputs PCM WAVs that have just static in them).

Thanks in advance for all your input! All the best!

by Nicknine at 3:03 PM EDT on May 30, 2018

Someone has definitely ripped NFS: Undercover music before as seen here. The uploader doesn't know how it was extracted, though, he took the files uploaded somewhere else and the link has died since then.

by Ultrafighter at 11:15 AM EDT on May 31, 2018

@Bnnm: may I ask you about 1 more thing? There's PS2 port of Spy hunter 2 and I'm reripping it ATM but for some reason all the SS2 files (demuxed from PSS vids) don't play properly. Can it be fixed? I've got a few examples here.
Regards, Ultrafighter.

by Nicknine at 2:34 PM EDT on May 31, 2018

Update on JOE format, I've looked at it closer and it looks like the size in the header includes the file all the way to the end including the padding so I guess the current method for calculating data start is safe.

I've checked all of Asobo Studio's PS2 games and this format is used in their own engine which they've been using since their very first game on PS2, Super Farm, although it's different in the oldest games. Here are the results:

Super Farm:
superfarm.zip

0x00 - sample rate
0x04 - double of data size
0x08 - 0x0045039A
0x0C - 0x00108920
(don't know what these are)
0x10 - data start
Interleave is 0x4000

Sitting Ducks:
sittingducks.zip

0x00 - sample rate
0x04 - double of data size
0x08 - 0xCCCCCCCC
0x0C - 0xCCCCCCCC
(looks like padding)
0x10 - data start
Interleave is 0x8000

The Mummy: The Animated Series:
mummy.zip

0x00 - sample rate
0x04 - data size
0x08 - 0xCCCCCCCC
0x0C - 0xCCCCCCCC
(looks like padding)
0x10 - data start
Interleave is 0x8000

The format became what's seen in Pixar games and currently handled by vgmstream in Counter Terrorist Special Forces: Fire for Effect and remained unchanged since then:
0x00 - sample rate
0x04 - data size
0x08 - zero
0x0C to 0x401F - padding, contains garbage
0x4020 - data start
Interleave is 0x10

edited 9:02 PM EDT May 31, 2018

The Darkness files by Alpha23 at 11:41 AM EDT on June 1, 2018

Well, The Darkness contains XMA files. I haven't looked into the structure but just for the sake of showing, here are the two parsed files from ExtraContent.xwc: https://mega.nz/#!68lAUSqS!uKAzqiiBGCP4_-yX_sZDEm_hxIMq_Q-XUHC2M8qOCPc

by Ultrafighter at 4:24 AM EDT on June 2, 2018

Thanks Timo but I'll be even more thankful if you post the script (?) you used to split given XWC into 2 headerless tracks. You see the method of dividing *.xwc archives into individual streams is the main thing I'm after; as soon as I learn it I'll be able to play them with a TXTH I guess.

It's just that I want to make a rip that won't ever need any reripping (as utopian as it seems) and add it to VGM archives here, it means that I shouldn't add custom headers (be it XMA1 or XMA2) to the streams which were originally headerless. This is why I'd truly appreciate it if you shared your technique in this thread.

Bye!

by Alpha23 at 5:45 AM EDT on June 2, 2018

Well... that was just a quick test with manual cropping and testing with xma_parse: Cut at the start of the XMA stream, use the -x option of xma_parse, search for the next xma start with the help of the created XMA (just search for the end bytes to know where to look) and so on. Once I had the two unparsed xma files I could easily parse them with my script (). However, if (IF) I find the time in the near future, I'll just rip the game myself if that helps. ;)

by bnnm at 5:50 PM EDT on June 3, 2018

latest vgmstream changes (autobuilds (MSVC) / foobar / test+winamp+xmplay (GCC) / bug list)
- Fix some .XWC [The Darkness (X360)]
- Fix some .JOE [Super Farm (PS2), Sitting Ducks (PS2), The Mummy (PS2)]
- Fix TXTP upper ranges
- Add AIFC IMA4 [Alida (PC)]
- Add .H4M videos (wip)
- Added HCA key for Princess Connect Re:Dive (by micktu)

***

Remember .aif must be renamed to .aifc for foobar and co.

@Ultrafighter - EA SNR/SNS .MUS. Change first command to "endian big" for X360/PS3, happy TXTP'ing (I think the .mpf has song sequences at the end but it's quite impenetrable).
Unplayable NFS Undercover .sng, post original vids as I don't think they demuxed correctly.
For XWC use that bms to get WAVEDATA and STRINGS, then use this bms
SS2 rename to .vgsmtream + txth. Can't fix directly until I find enough real .ss2.

by Nicknine at 7:22 PM EDT on June 3, 2018

Seems like Asobo Studio's VAI header I mentioned earlier is only used in Ratatouille 'cause this is the only game they ever released for Gamecube.

by Koto at 7:28 PM EDT on June 3, 2018

@bnnm any chance to get a playable set of Scott Pilgrim?

by Ultrafighter at 10:50 AM EDT on June 4, 2018

Thanks a lot Bnnm, your TXTH for Spy hunter 2 worked perfectly & BMS for Darkness also seems to do its job just fine!
Bye!

Edit: BTW what is "a real .ss2"? Is it a file with SShd header which wasn't demuxed from a PSS video? I think I encountered a few PS2 VGs which used such files, I believe some of these rips can be found @Josh.Info.
So can they have what you're looking for? I can post their names if it helps.
Later!

Edit #2: here's a DL link for a few VP6s from Need for speed: Undercover. I attempted demuxing them with VGMToolBox but only audio tracks from attract vids & "storey_46" are currently playable.
Goodbye!

edited 8:49 AM EDT June 5, 2018

by Nicknine at 10:37 AM EDT on June 5, 2018

vgmstream fails to play some tracks from Hard Reset sample banks.

Example:
music_stream_menu.fsb

Plays every track except for the last one, menu-music-combined.

by AnonRunzes at 11:38 PM EDT on June 5, 2018

@bnnm
in case you're still around checking through this thread by now, i want you to take a look at this

ubi_jade_xbox_unplayable.7z

these files came from the Xbox version of a game called Peter Jackson's King Gong
said files were stored on an splitted archive file which i extracted using my very own .bms script that is still in its early stages
should you want to see the script, let me know

anyway, these .waa/.wac(only one .wac file at that!)/.wad/.wam files can't be played on even the most recent version of vgmstream despite said files using some Xbox ADPCM codec data

i just hope you're able to address this

by punk7890-2 at 2:18 AM EDT on June 10, 2018

I have a couple of questions.

1. Is there any way to play these .hca files inside this awb archive properly as 4 channels? The music in there all appear to be four channels, but they all get extracted as individual songs.
2. Is there a way to properly play these MPS files? They are little endian 16-bit PCM but appear to always have static in them, no matter the interleave.

by bnnm at 6:36 PM EDT on June 10, 2018

latest vgmstream changes (autobuilds (MSVC) / foobar / test+winamp+xmplay (GCC) / bug list)
- Fix some Ubi Jade [Peter Jackson's King Kong (Xbox)]
- Fix some FSB [Hard Reset (PC)]
- Fix JOE num_samples
- Add MPS extension
- Add FSB key [Monster Jam (PS2)]
- Add subsongs for FFmpeg formats
- (dev) Add VRTS counts
- (dev) Clean ADS code

***

@Ultrafighter - "real .ss2" AKA .ads = properly extracted, not transmogrified, not from .pss (not useful).
I don't even know if ".ss2" is ever used, actual files I've seen are .ads

@Koto - sooner or later, probably.

@punk7890-2 - AWC try HCA + create a .txtp file: TXTP layers info
MPC use TXTH. What game uses this?

by punk7890-2 at 7:03 PM EDT on June 10, 2018

Thanks for the info. The txtp works for the files, but always plays them on the left channel only.

The MPS.txth doesn't seem to work for me.

The MPS files come from a game called Scandal for the PS2.

by Ultrafighter at 1:49 PM EDT on June 11, 2018

@Bnnm - alright then, I guess I meant ADS then and I've never met a stream with "SShd" header plus *.SS2 extension myself.
I'd like to point out this set: I ripped it myself and can assure you that's the way the tracks originally were. Those *.ADS files didn't require any extraction for they were located in BGM1, BGM2, etc. folders on game disc, I merely copied them all to HDD then RAR'ed 'em up.

And may I ask if there're any news in regards to Need for speed - Undercover (PC) VP6 videos?

So long!

by Ultrafighter at 2:58 PM EDT on June 15, 2018

Hi Bnnm, I've just reripped a PS2 VG and can now provide a bunch of true SS2 (or ADS) samples (they're cheering SFX though), they're right here. If you need any BGM example files from that game just tell me and I'll provide them pronto!

BTW I also included a few WWise XMA2 (probably) samples and it'll be awesome if they become playable at some point. They come from Guitar hero: Live (X360).
Best regards!

PS. I'd also like to repost a pack of those bothersome vids from NFS:UC so here they're, I hope we'll be able to properly demux them one day and I can post a complete rip of Need for speed - Undercover!

edited 3:03 PM EDT June 15, 2018

by ChillyBilly at 12:02 AM EDT on June 17, 2018

Got another little request: So, I posted Redux: Dark Matters over at the joshw thread, but as I said there, this game's .mus files are unplayable, unfortunately. Is there anyway to change that? Thanks in advance to anyone who can help!

by bnnm at 5:42 AM EDT on June 17, 2018

latest vgmstream changes (autobuilds (MSVC) / foobar / test+winamp+xmplay (GCC) / bug list)
- Add .fsb basic headers mode [Biker Mice from Mars (PS2)]
- Fix some Ubi Lyn [Michael Jackson The Experience (Wii)]
- Fix some .wem [Guitar Hero Live (X360)]
- Fix some vid EA SCHl and simplify EA block parsing
- Redo ADS to fix various issues
-- Fix minor samples bugs
-- Fix ADSC variation [Kenka Bancho 2, Shunjuku no Okami]
-- Fix misc loops [Culdcept, Katakamuna, Super Galdelic Hour]
-- Fix Capcom loops [MM X7, BOF5, Clock Tower 3]
-- Fix cavia loops [Drakengard 1/2, GITS: Stand Alone Complex]
-- Fix Angel Studios videos [Red Read Revolver, Spy Hunter 2]
-- Fix misdetected files [Gran Turismo 2000 videos]
- (dev) Remove ps2_adsc as it's handled in ps2_ads now

***

@Ultrafighter - EA vids should work now, but language demuxing isn't perfect and there may be garbage/glitches in some files.
I think Alpha23 did another .bms demuxer you could try.

by Ultrafighter at 9:31 AM EDT on June 18, 2018

Hi Bnnm, I can't thank you enough for fixing those GHL WEMs & adding NFS:UC vids (I mean audio from movies)! All the SNGs demuxed from VP6s are playable now and *.unknown.bin files aren't so important anyway (I highly doubt there's any unique BGM in videos, it's mostly snippets from licensed songs or original score).
BTW I'm almost sure that unknown BINs store 5 more variations of the same track, each with VO in a different language and probably they can be demultiplexed too. It should be quite a bother... I guess? As I said *.unknown.bin files are actually unimportant because having vids with just English voiceovers should be enough.

"I think Alpha23 did another .bms demuxer you could try"
He only has demultiplexer for TGQ (that old video format from early 2000s or late 1990s) in his BMS thread and presumably he's never posted about VP6 files or MVhd headers anywhere at XeNTaX forum.

Regards, Ultrafighter.

PS. Is it OK if I post 2 different samples a week? It's obvious that I don't want to be overly haunting or obtrusive but I figured out it shouldn't be too much to ask...
So am I allowed to ask for help with 2 (max) new formats per week? I mean a pair of completely different audio files when I've got no clue to the way to make them playable / convertible. I hope you won't prohibit it but it's up to you to decide after all.

Best wishes and bye again!

edited 9:37 AM EDT June 18, 2018

by simonmkwii at 6:58 AM EDT on June 19, 2018

Little request:

Prefetches, .BFSTP

by AnonRunzes at 3:13 PM EDT on June 19, 2018

what do you mean by this?

by mariofan12ify at 2:30 PM EDT on June 21, 2018

Am I the only one that's having trouble with brstm looping? If not, It kinda needs fixing.

by MoldyPond at 3:47 PM EDT on June 21, 2018

I had posted about this a few months ago. Removing a few plugins helped, but they still have plaback problems 80% of the time. Either they show up in foobar with ? for the bitrate and it doesn't loop, or it just crashes foobar at some point.

by kode54 at 4:05 AM EDT on June 22, 2018

Really, remove foo_adpcm, or disable most of its inputs.

by mariofan12ify at 7:30 AM EDT on June 22, 2018

But doesn't that plugin add support for some other Wii games as well?

by bnnm at 7:17 PM EDT on June 22, 2018

@Ultrafighter - sure. I'd rather have more samples less times though, to add as I see fit.
Some things I need time to understand how to fix, or are better tackled together, or are just time consuming, etcetera. If not added I put them in the pile anyway.

@simonmkwii - never heard of those.

@mariofan12ify - brstm loops fine.
Remove the FFmpeg plugin if you have it. Other plugins can steal vgmstream's extensions at random times, find the culprit.

by Ultrafighter at 10:35 PM EDT on June 22, 2018

Hi Bnnm, can you help me with these samples from 2 different games? The 1st title can use entirely new format (or simply TXTH material) while the 2nd one might just ask for an easy quick fix of a pretty common type of an audio bank (that's my wishful thinking obviously). The VGs in question are Rock band Unplugged (PSP exclusive) & Saints row 2 (PC port).

The main problem with Rock band for PSP is ATM format (?) which can be merely a multi-layered headerless stream (AT3+ most likely because movies and preview tracks were encoded using ATRAC3+ codec) or (in the worst case scenario) some kind of proprietary archive which contains not just sound data. My guess is that each song has 4 layers (and probably 8 mono channels) but I've got no clue to the interleave value (I think we'll need it in any case: it's required to set that deinterleave.bms or make a proper 8ch TXTH, right?).
Of course I can only hope that those ATMs aren't generic archives (I.E. they're simply headerless streams) and such files can be made playable without the need to decompile an executable file or something... Oh and I almost forgot to mention where that info about amount of layers comes from: each *.atm has a companion BEATMATCH.STR and the latter file contains big chunks of plain text data; I inspected some STRs and found lists of tracks for different instruments, there're always 4 tracks (and supposedly 2*4 channels).

Saints row 2 uses XWBs mostly containing Windows Media Audio 2 + a tiny portion of Microsoft 4-bit ADPCM but the former typically doesn't play right. Strangely enough a few banks contain both playable & unplayable WMA tracks, playable ones (like SR2_CUTSCENES#1~2) have more realistic bitrates (like fixed 96 kbps) while unplayables use 32 kbps average. The latter start with noticeable glitches or my player simply skips them (some tracks can really store nothing besides silence so this has to be kept in mind too, I presume that devs put most or all voiceovers in another *.xwb bank).
My sample pack features 1 full example file along with an XSB (without names though) & cuts from 2 much bigger archives (beginning + ending as usual), feel free to request more if they're not enough. Apparently Windows version has insanely bad quality so that entire radio station (not just songs but also DJ comments & station jingles) can be 16 or 17 MB (!).

I wish you the best of luck with the samples if you decide to look into them, bye and have a good weekend!

by bnnm at 4:19 PM EDT on June 24, 2018

@Ultrafighter - Rock Band ATM are encrypted, STR are song notes/data.
Low bitrate WMA2 must be fixed in FFmpeg later.

by Nicknine at 2:08 AM EDT on June 25, 2018

@bnnm

Regarding the Asobo JOE header, it seems to me that 0x03 and 0x06 flags are merely used as start and end markers, not as looping points. So I think JOE files should not be always looped like they are now.
Also, could you implement VAI header (from Ratatouille [GC]) and AIF header (from late Asobo Studio games on PC). Both of them have already been studied earlier.

by AnonRunzes at 5:48 PM EDT on June 25, 2018

i'm just here to post one more sample
[heavy_rain_ps3]partitio.7z

by marcusss at 9:43 PM EDT on June 26, 2018

Hi bnnm.
I have some music from a pc game that uses cryo engine audio?

In hex editor the header says CRYO_APC1.20ÿçg.D¬....................blah blah.

Anyway ere are some examples.

APC exmaples

Any help would be appreciated. Cheers !

Mark

edited 9:44 PM EDT June 26, 2018

edited 7:42 PM EDT June 27, 2018

by Ultrafighter at 4:14 AM EDT on June 27, 2018

Hi Bnnm, of course it's quite sad to hear bad news about Rock band but at least there's hope for Saints row. Did you bring up that WMA issue on FFMPEG support forums so that they tried to fix it? Just wondering.

Also I'm posting another pair of samples, I hope you'll be able to dedicate some time to them. The 1st VG is Guitar hero - Live for X360 (actual ingame tracks might be encrypted but I usually hope for the best) & the 2nd one is new Need for speed - Hot pursuit (I'm reripping PS3 ver. and have stumbled upon a few unplayable SPS files, there're definitely some BGMs among them so that my set won't be really complete without them).

GHL uses *.wem files for previews, ingame songs themselves (they should be in stereo) & isolated guitar parts (pairs of mono streams I guess) but there're no RIFX/WAVEfmt headers, only "FSGC" identifiers. Maybe it's not a meaningless placeholder in place of a real header but some kind of pseudo-header with the most basic stream specs? As I said earlier I tend to believe in the best...

NFS uses mostly playable *.SPS but some don't play, EALayer3 converts them all (well 1 file doesn't dump to normal MPEG stream but it might be an insignificant stinger, I included it too just in case) but resulting MP3s are typically much smaller than corresponding SPSs, can the latter contain multiple tracks or more than 2 channels and we have to specify some start offset to extract all of them? I hope you'll clarify this!
Anyway it'd be better to have those added to VGMstream if it's possible. I think they shouldn't be much different from the main bulk of SPS files and it won't be very hard to add or fix them (wishful thinking again).

Best wishes!

by AceK at 11:01 PM EDT on June 28, 2018

Question about the .txtp format. Does it support "dummy" channel input strings of some sort?

I am looking into doing a proper 5.1 mix channel set, and while most of the tracks do work out correctly by having 6 separate audio-channel files (contains a dummy sub channel), there are some tracks that only has 5 audio-channel files (which excludes the sub channel entirely).

As a side note, there might be other games that formats the channels differently, and if the files are in stereo, that could be a problem. If possible, I think a format_channel string could work things out. Naturally, .txtp follows the .wav channel layout.

.wav:
0 = Front Left
1 = Front Right
2 = Center
3 = Sub
4 = Rear Left
5 = Rear Right

.ogg:
0 = Front Left
1 = Center
2 = Front Right
3 = Rear Left
4 = Rear Right
5 = Sub

If there were .ogg files, it would have to also be formatted differently in this case. The original format can be left blank or follow a style similar to this:

(format_channel = 0,1,2,3,4,5)

with .ogg files in mind, it can be modified to:

(format_channel = 0,2,1,5,3,4)

Could implementing something such as this work out?

edited 11:13 PM EDT June 28, 2018

by bnnm at 6:06 PM EDT on June 30, 2018

latest vgmstream changes (autobuilds (MSVC) / foobar / test+winamp+xmplay (GCC) / bug list)
- Add .mus Ogg [Redux - Dark Matters (PC)]
- Add .vai/apc extensions
- Add hca keys
- Add vgmstream version in foobar's file properties
- Fix The Bouncer .vs (.str)
- Fix some .joe looping jingles
- Allow extensionless files in Winamp [Baten Kaitos 2 (GC)]
- Allow extensionless files in foobar [The Last of Us (PS3)] (by shawwn)

(note, test.exe and xmplay already handled extensionless files)

For people with problems playing brstm or whatever, now check the properties dialog (right click > properties, then "details" tab), it should show "<VGMSTREAM VERSION>: x".

***

@Nicknine - I'll add them eventually, meanwhile TXTH vai aif (maybe rename .aif > .aiffl for foobar)

@AnonRunzes - I think those partitio things were used in other Quantic Dream games.
To understand them better I hope you can post a bunch of non-audio files and also audio/non-audio from other games (Fahrenheit?) if possible.

@marcusss - .apc try TXTH.

@Ultrafighter - .wem are encrypted. .sps are missing the header, bad rip?
WMA was already reported, but chances are I'll have to fix it myself, and that takes a lot of effort.

@AceK - I'll make a note but I think those features would be quite time consuming to add.
Btw, some formats (ex. XMA/Wwise) have channel mapping info included.

by AnonRunzes at 6:44 PM EDT on June 30, 2018

>To understand them better I hope you can post a bunch of non-audio files and also audio/non-audio from other games (Fahrenheit?) if possible.
will do

by marcusss at 1:55 AM EDT on July 1, 2018

@ bnnm : Thanks for the txth file as all the music plays!!

by Ultrafighter at 8:46 AM EDT on July 1, 2018

@Bnnm - about NFS:HP: this is how the files originally were, just multiple *.SPS tracks in 2 folders (SOUND\STREAMS & UI\STREAMS). The 1st folder I mentioned contains playable ambiences (16 streams) & 3 unplayables (ambient SFX too?) but the 2nd one only stores unplayable SPSs.
So can unplayables be made playable somehow? Could snr-make.bms help us or SNR+SNS is another format entirely?

In regard to Saints row 2: I don't think you should go into such lengths with XWBs, if I had had any idea about horrendous quality of PC banks I'd have never even started ripping that awkward port.
Anyway I'm currently working with another version which is easier to rip and has much higher audio quality, I guess we can all forget about Windows/Steam ver. now.

Bye!

edited 8:48 AM EDT July 1, 2018

by Nicknine at 1:01 PM EDT on July 1, 2018

Speaking of SPS files, I've looked into Frostbite Engine games and it looks like SPS parser needs additional work. These files in Frostbite can apparently contain multiple sounds (these may be variations or segments), each with their own header. Also, header may not be at file start, a lot of files have it at random offset. The unknown data sometimes present at the start appears to be "seek table" - it can be located before the segment or after the segment. Information about the segments is stored separately inside EBX files (these are so called asset nodes which may contain configurations and/or reference data chunks). I'm not sure if segment information can be found in SPS files, though.

nfstr.zip

Here are some samples from Need for Speed: The Run (PC) with EBX files converted to TXT. I don't think it has any files with multiple segments but this should still help.

EDIT:
Granted, this assumes we're working with raw audio chunks, perhaps they're meant to be cut using the data from EBX files. The problem is that EBX files contain only duration of each segment, no size or sample count. Is there data size in the header of SPS file?

edited 10:22 AM EDT July 2, 2018

by Ultrafighter at 4:58 PM EDT on July 1, 2018

And Bnnm, here's 1 more fact about NFS:Hot pursuit: I've just compared those troublesome SPS tracks from EUR ver. to their US counterparts and they're exactly same in both releases. I guess this rules out the possibility of a bad rip / low quality dump?
Later!

by TheGoldenChild at 5:53 PM EDT on July 1, 2018

Hello, I was wondering if I could have some help in this topic? Is there anything that can be done with the Wav's that I provided?

https://www.hcs64.com/mboard/forum.php?showthread=56642&showpage=1

by Mygoshi at 6:22 PM EDT on July 1, 2018

()

edited 7:09 AM EDT July 2, 2018

by bxaimc at 8:02 PM EDT on July 1, 2018

PSFs are sequences, not streams :)

by Mygoshi at 8:15 PM EDT on July 1, 2018

()

edited 7:10 AM EDT July 2, 2018

by AnonRunzes at 9:26 PM EDT on July 1, 2018

anyhow, here's a .ssm pack for eventual vgmstream support
ssm.7z
source of these files are from a game called Giftpia, released as a Gamecube exclusive only in Japan

by Nicknine at 7:00 AM EDT on July 2, 2018

@Ultrafighter

I've looked inside those files and they don't have the normal SPS header but something entirely different. My guess is that they're compressed.

by Nicknine at 11:06 PM EDT on July 2, 2018

Could you update EA SCHl parser so that it cuts multi-SCHl files into subsongs? Would help MUS files from games like Need for Speed which store music in segments.

by Nicknine at 12:41 AM EDT on July 3, 2018

Looks like vgmstream doesn't have a newer version of EA MicroTalk codec implemented, probably because an old version sx.exe was used for reversing.

copspeech.zip

Here's the latest version of sx.exe that is available (dated 2004) along with some samples from Need for Speed: Most Wanted which vgmstream currently doesn't play properly.

edited 4:40 AM EDT July 3, 2018

by Ultrafighter at 6:38 AM EDT on July 3, 2018

@Nicknine - Well thanks for looking into those SPS examples from Hot pursuit (2010), I'm sure that Bnnm would never turn down any third-party help with reversing/studying game codecs/formats.

As for NFS, SSX, 007, etc. bigfiles - do you really want VGMstream to identify initial MUS whoppers as banks (like FSBs or XWBs storing multiple streams, UbiSoft SS#/SP# archives or Bink audio with split channels stored in a single file)? While there's certainly some benefit in that I'd not say it's the best solution for playback of such files.
For example I originally started listening to untouched MW_Music.mus from NFS:MW '05 and everything was fine for almost 3 hours, then I got 25+ minutes of static in the end and had to start it all over and use another method (split the bank into individual segments with SCHL headers and re-organize them: put bunches of tiny tracks into separate folders). You see there was a succession of 4ch ambiences in the end and it broke it all (each preceding segment was stereo).
Taking all this into account I'm still fine with multi-SCHl files being played as long suites because typically EA music is heavily segmented and it'd not be too convenient to have loads of 2-3 sec. pieces in a playlist instead of 1 big track. Just my thoughts.

All the best!

PS. Do you think you can help me with these samples? It's all the stuff from Medal of honor (2010) (PC) that still remains unplayable/inconvertible and I'll be truly glad if someone helps me properly process them.
Bye!

edited 6:49 AM EDT July 3, 2018

by Nicknine at 7:15 AM EDT on July 3, 2018

@Ultrafighter

Oh, hey, this is exactly one of those problematic audio chunks from Frostbite Engine I talked about. Like I said, there's a seek table before the header which throws vgmstream off. You can make them playable with vgmstream by cutting it out with a hex editor and changing extension to SPS. Like this:

PYTHON_Music_Menu_001_Wave.sps

Note while this works for music, these chunks can contain multiple sounds and I can't think of a reliable way to cut the chunks into separate audio files. EBX/DBX files contain offset and duration for each sound but not size.

edited 7:16 AM EDT July 3, 2018

by bnnm at 2:26 PM EDT on July 3, 2018

@Ultrafighter - NFS Hot Pursuit SPS are simply headerless (EALayer3 v1 6ch), will play if you make a header.
Strange as (supposedly) SPS always include headers. Any files that look like could contain them? Otherwise I could adapt snr-make.
SPS headers almost always start with 0x4800000C (for .res you could find that value and cut before that).
If you can post more MOH .dbx/res (preferably non-music) I'll give it a look again.

@Nicknine - I'll fix NFS The Run, which program did you use to extract EBX? Could help to understand the Frostbite .sps better.
MUS I think would be better to parse the original map archives (like foo_adpcm does I think) rather than making subsongs.
EA MicroTalk it's just a parser bug.

@TheGoldenChild - I couldn't recognize those wavs, maybe they aren't audio?

by Nicknine at 2:39 PM EDT on July 3, 2018

@bnnm

I've used Python scripts made by Frankelstner:
Sb toc dumper

EBX To Text Converter

SPS files themselves appear to be practically same as in NFS: Hot Pursuit and other games except they can contain multiple headers plus they have a seek table before or after each sound.

Speaking of map archives, have you looked at MPF files in EA 6th gen games? The format seems to be vaguely similar to MAP files used in 5th gen games like Need for Speed 2/3 which I've figured out just now. Understanding MPF format might prove useful for games where music is segmented.

edited 2:47 PM EDT July 3, 2018

by Ultrafighter at 12:00 AM EDT on July 4, 2018

Hey Nicknine, HUGE thanks for that MOH hint, you're truly a lifesaver!

And Bnnm, I've just examined quite a few bigger samples from Hot pursuit (playable SPS files) in a hex editor and they all have expected headers while unplayables don't.
Anyway is it possible to play those ATM? Are you planning to add this kind of headerless *.SPS as a new variation of the format in the next update or can I simply make SNR+SNS for such streams? Of course I can wait for proper implementation, I just want to know what the upcoming solution is going to look like.

Goodbye!

by Nicknine at 8:28 PM EDT on July 5, 2018

Need to add 0x1A tag type to SCHl parser, it's seen in SSX 3 BNK files, vgmstream not parsing it prevents the files from being played. Don't know what it actually contains but it doesn't seem to be required for playback, I've changed it to 0x14 and the file played normally.

EDIT:
Some sounds from SSX3 also play partially or completely distorted:
ssx3.zip

edited 8:52 PM EDT July 5, 2018

by marcusss at 2:50 AM EDT on July 6, 2018

Can bnnm or someone take a look at these. Games have nice music apparently but seem encrypted ,obsufcated or something.

Both games use the same method and extensions. Both have .sec extensions and header for all? music is

SITERSKAIN-.›.F. -

Examples

Ps : Later will post exe also

Cheers.

edited 6:27 AM EDT July 6, 2018

by Nicknine at 4:18 PM EDT on July 7, 2018

Figured out how to cut up Frostbite chunks, I can go through blocks until end marker (block 0x45) is reached. I have adapted Frankelstner's decoder script so it extracts individual sounds as SPS files from chunks instead.

Frostbite SPS extractor

@bnnm - I think you should either rework init_vgmstream_ea_sps_fb to cut the file into subsongs or remove it entirely and leave it to users to chop up Frostbite chunks with a script.

EDIT: I'm also using a modified EBX converter script that ignores unknown field types instead of throwing exception.

Frostbite EBX Converter

edited 7:17 PM EDT July 7, 2018

by bnnm at 6:40 PM EDT on July 7, 2018

latest vgmstream changes (autobuilds (MSVC) / foobar / test+winamp+xmplay (GCC) / bug list)
- Fix some Frostbite .SPS [Need for Speed: The Run (PC)]
- Fix some EA SCHl MicroTalk [Need for Speed: Most Wanted (PC)]
- Fix various music and bank .ivaud [GTA IV (PC)]

***

@Ultrafighter - I think you missed my last message?

@marcusss - XOR'ed Ogg I believe, can't find the key. Maybe you could try to find the decrypted OggS in RAM (would have a "vorbis" word), would help.

@Nicknine - MPF never heard of it. Most SSX3 banks will play now but may have glitches, will fix later I guess. I'd need some chunked Frostbite .sps to check.

by Nicknine at 7:29 PM EDT on July 7, 2018

@bnnm - Here are 3 chunks with multiple sounds in them:

nfstr_audio.zip

/* file has a Frostbite descriptor (SoundWaveAsset segments) data before actual .sps, exact size unknown.
+ * 0x00: segments/flags/sizes? 0x04: SegmentLength?, 0x08: SeekTableOffset?, 0x0c: mini SPS header
+ * rest: unknown fields? may be padded? (ex. 0x22 > 0x24, 0x1d > 0x20 */

Uh, I'm not sure if this is correct? EBX files are stored separately from the actual audio chunks. AFAIK, chunk files only contain seek table besides the actual sounds which may or may not come before the first SPS header.

EDIT:
Seems like the header of this data before SPS header is platform specific, it starts with 0x011006C0 in NFS: The Run on PS3, just like in NFS: Rivals on PS4. I'm going to look at NFS: The Run on X360.

EDIT 2:
Alright, so the seek table may not be present in a chunk in which case SeekTableOffset will be set to 4294967295 (0xFFFFFFFF) in EBX file. When it is present it's always at the file start. That makes things easier.

EDIT 3:
Seek table starts with 0x01100180 on X360. The dumper does not work on X360 version on NFS: The Run for some reason, though.

edited 9:06 PM EDT July 7, 2018

by marcusss at 8:16 PM EDT on July 7, 2018

@bnnm. Thx. I will try to dump the ram ingame while playing and see how I go.

Mark

by Nicknine at 10:17 PM EDT on July 7, 2018

@bnnm - Could you add PS3 support to SCHl parser? Its platform ID is 0x0E, codec and sample rate defaults are same as for X360.

by Ultrafighter at 4:24 AM EDT on July 8, 2018

@Bnnm - I didn't miss it, perhaps I simply thought it's not so crucial to search for SPS headers when you've already found out the most basic codec info / audio specs. Anyway sorry for that, I see that having proper headers by devs (even if they hid them somewhere else) is better than guessing frequency and other values.

As I said earlier neither USRDIR\SOUND\STREAMS\ nor USRDIR\UI\STREAMS\ doesn't contain anything besides (mostly) troublesome *.SPS but I've just checked files with various extensions (set Alpha23's scan.bms according to the task, BTW I've just realized there was a preset for an SPS header all along!) from USRDIR\SOUND\, USRDIR\UI\ & even USRDIR\ (judging by names they might refer to audio or store some info about sound in the game) but found nothing, not a single file which starts with anything similar to 0x4800000C. Does it mean the headers we're looking for are really absent or would you like to try and look for them yourself?

All the best!

PS. Here's a list of those checked assets:
USRDIR\CUTSCENES.BNDL
USRDIR\GLOBALEFFECTS.BNDL
USRDIR\SOUND\AMBIENCES.BNDL
USRDIR\SOUND\GAMEMODESOUNDS.BIN
USRDIR\SOUND\GLOBAL.BIN
USRDIR\SOUND\METALCAR.BNDL
USRDIR\SOUND\MIXER_CHANNELS.BIN
USRDIR\SOUND\MUSIC.BIN
USRDIR\SOUND\PASSBY.BNDL
USRDIR\SOUND\REVERB.BIN
USRDIR\SOUND\REVERBROADDATA.BNDL
USRDIR\SOUND\SPEEDSOUNDS.BNDL
USRDIR\UI\ROADMAP.BNDL
USRDIR\UI\UICONFIG.BNDL
USRDIR\UI\SONGS\SONGS.BNDL

Edit: I've just started remaking Tribes - Aerial assault (PS2) rip I did a few months ago and I presume that music bank can be properly split, no ADPCM Player v1.44h or CubeMediaPlayer or anything like those programs is going to be required anymore. I suspect that headers for all 6 BGMs are in the very beginning of a bigfile while each track also has 2 stop markers (they're the same as in The matrix - Path of Neo or UFC Sudden impact) closer to end so that dividing the bank is possible... with a BMS I guess?

I upped entire MUSIC.PKG here since it's tiny anyway. Codec is Playstation 4-bit ADPCM, frequency is 22050, interleave equals 0x800 & there're 2 channels.
Finally there're exactly 6 mentions of 0x2256 at file start. That stop marker I was talking about looks like this: 0x00077777777777777777777777777777; I believe we have to use each 2nd marker as a split point if we don't want to actually leave out a portion of a track. I hope all these details help.

Bye!

edited 7:41 AM EDT July 8, 2018

by Nicknine at 9:12 AM EDT on July 8, 2018

@bnnm - MPF is a format usually paired up with MUS files in EA games starting from around 2003-2004. It presumably contains the layout of MUS file and other information on how music should be played. Here are some samples.

SSX 3
ssx3_mus.zip

Need for Speed: Underground 2 (10 MB cut)
nfsu2_mus.zip

Need for Speed: Most Wanted (10 MB cut)
nfsmw_mus.zip

by bnnm at 10:51 AM EDT on July 8, 2018

@Nicknine - PS3 SCHl ok, game?

MPF look similar to .MAP but not so easy to figure out.

For EBX Just to make it clearer:
- I extracted NFS Rivals (PS4) music.EBX (single file) with some BMS (I know little about the .EBX format).
- Resulting files where standard .sps and some of what I called "Frostbite .sps" (so I thought extraction was correct).
- Between Frostbite .sps start (0x01100xxx) and .SPS start is what I consider "Frostbite descriptor", dunno if it's all a seek table but seems to me the actual seek part exists only when offset @0x08 is not zero.
- All my files only had one Frostbite descriptor at the beginning.
The Frostbite SPS seemed consistent enough to be worth adding (like Dead Space .SNU) but dunno if the BMS reliably extracts .EBX, so I'm not sure that you consider EBX/seek/chunk here.

@Ultrafighter - For .SPS it's either find the header (named .SPH) or I could make a sph-make.bms (since it's very similar to SNR+SNS), can't have headerless SPS. Do note not all SPH start with 0x4800000C.
They are likely in MUSIC.BIN or SONGS.BNDL (compressed) as I've seen .BNDL with .SNR in the past, post and I'll check.
Tribes I'll take a look later.

by Nicknine at 11:58 AM EDT on July 8, 2018

@bnnm - NFS: Carbon, haven't checked NFS: ProStreet but it likely still uses SCHl format as well. Here's 20 MB cut of the music file.

nfsc_mus.zip

edited 12:16 PM EDT July 8, 2018

EDIT:
Just checked NFS: ProStreet, turns out it uses the SNR/SNS just like Undercover. So that makes Carbon the only NFS game on PS3 to use SCHl format.

edited 12:22 PM EDT July 8, 2018

by Nicknine at 12:04 PM EDT on July 8, 2018

@Ultrafighter - I've noticed three of these headerless SPS that are audio tracks for attract FMV and here's an interesting part - they're missing a tiny bit of audio at the start. This makes me think that these headerless SPS are prefetched sounds with the first N bytes including the header block being somewhere else, probably inside VP6 files in case of movie audio tracks.

by Nicknine at 1:58 PM EDT on July 8, 2018

Found another oddity with SSX 3, some of the BNK files contain "dummy sounds", e.g the header says there are 5 sounds and there are 5 entries in the header offset table but offsets 2 and 3 are zeroes and there are only three actual sounds in the BNK file, not sure what's up with that.

ssx3_bnk_dummy.zip

EDIT:
This is encountered in other games as well, I'm seeing this in NFS2 and NFS3.

edited 2:16 PM EDT July 8, 2018

by Nicknine at 5:46 PM EDT on July 8, 2018

Could you look into this format? These are cop speech sounds from Need for Speed: Undercover. Each sound consists of 3 files: HDR - header, STH - seek table(?), DAT - audio data. I've established that the audio is EALayer3 32000 Hz mono but that header doesn't look familiar at all.

nfsuc_copspeech.zip

EDIT:
Oh, wait, it looks like STH file contains a set of SNR headers starting from 0x04. Interesting.

EDIT 2:
Oh, yes, it's a set of "offset + SNR header" entries. HDR file contains number of sounds at 0x03 and again at 0x08. Trying to understand what the rest of HDR contents are.

EDIT 3:
Doesn't look like there's anything else of use in HDR file. Here's a QuickBMS script for parsing those files.

NFS: Undercover HDR/STH/DAT parser

EDIT 4:
@bnnm - All of those sounds cut off early when played in vgmstream, this is definitely a decoder bug because this doesn't happen if I use Zenchreal's EALayer3 tool to decode.

edited 8:00 PM EDT July 8, 2018

by marcusss at 11:41 PM EDT on July 8, 2018

Can someone with a fast pc get the key for these encrypted?? fsb5 files?? From the PC games Elimninator Kaede & SkyTime. Thx as I had no luck yet

KAEDE

SKYTIME




edited 11:42 PM EDT July 8, 2018

by Ultrafighter at 9:00 AM EDT on July 9, 2018

@Bnnm - Here you can find both MUSIC.BIN & SONGS.BNDL from Hot pursuit, I hope they'll finally provide a solution (or at least nudge us in the right direction)!

@Nicknine - Which exact ones are you talking about: select SPS samples from my 5-file pack made for Bnnm or others (like the ones taken from a complete ISO dump)? I'd really appreciate it if you listed the sounds you're talking about.
Anyway I'm not sure that videos have to do something with unplayable *.SPS, there're lots of VP6 & SPS files in USRDIR\UI\MOVIES\ but the former don't have any audio and the latter are all playable.

BTW maybe you'd like to check out NFS:MW '05 for PSN while you're at it? Who knows, it can be such a lazy straightforward port from last-gen platforms that SCHL streams are still used there... That's only my guess.

Best regards!

edited 9:02 AM EDT July 9, 2018

by Nicknine at 1:39 PM EDT on July 9, 2018

@Ultrafighter - I'm talking about the files I found in my installation of NFS: Hot Pursuit. There are 3 headerless SPS files in SOUND/STREAMS which are audio tracks for attract FMVs so I assumed that first N bytes for those sounds are stored inside FMV (VP6) files that use them.

by bnnm at 4:23 PM EDT on July 10, 2018

@marcusss - both contain multiple FSB5 you must extract (FSB5 size is values at @0x0c + @0x10 + @0x14 + fixed 0x3c)

@Ultrafighter - Music.bin (compressed) has the missing header+data for 3 tracks (579677~9.SPS), while songs.bndl didn't have anything useful.
Post global.bin as it may have info too, or just all bndls anyway.

by Nicknine at 5:52 PM EDT on July 10, 2018

@bnnm - Oh, there they are, it's just like I said, the files inside MUSIC.BIN are the first N bytes of the three files from SOUNDS/STREAMS. If you stitch them together, you'll get full files.

EDIT:
0x00 - sound offset
0x08 - filename offset
0x18 - sound size

edited 6:06 PM EDT July 10, 2018

by ChillyBilly at 6:46 PM EDT on July 10, 2018

So... I was wondering again if it's possible to make the .vas archives used in various Konami titles (particularly the GC/Wii Power Pro games) playable? I posted a few such archives here for reference...

by Nicknine at 7:21 PM EDT on July 10, 2018

@ChillyBilly - Audio header looks similar to the Konami DSP header described here. However, the archive itself is headerless so I'm not sure if it's possible to separate it into individual audio files.

edited 7:22 PM EDT July 10, 2018

by Ultrafighter at 5:12 AM EDT on July 11, 2018

@Bnnm - "Post global.bin as it may have info too, or just all bndls anyway."
Here they are.
Bye!

by Nicknine at 5:24 PM EDT on July 12, 2018

Wrote up a QuickBMS script for extracting SNR/SNS files from SBR/SBS (seen in 7th-gen Electronic Arts games):

EA SBR/SBS Extractor

AFAIK newer games store SPS inside those, if anyone owns any new (post 2009) games with this format, post them here, please.

edited 5:41 PM EDT July 12, 2018

by Nicknine at 6:04 PM EDT on July 12, 2018

Update on HDR format, turns out it's used in older games that still use SCHl audio header as well and it has a different format there. There's no STH file with SNR headers and HDR file contains offsets of sounds from DAT files instead.

EDIT:
EA HDR/DAT Extractor

Seen in FIFA 07 and likely some other games as well.

edited 6:35 PM EDT July 12, 2018

by Ultrafighter at 9:48 AM EDT on July 13, 2018

Hello Bnnm, can you please look into this pack of samples? They all have different levels of difficulty I guess so that I'll try to list them from the easiest to the hardest:

1) Road Rash 3D (PS1 exclusive title) - I'm almost sure that your demuxer BMS works correctly and these WVE vids simply don't have any audio but I'd still really appreciate it if you double-check this theory;

2) Need for speed - Rivals (PS4 rip, not mine - I think you did it?) - I found 2 unplayable *.sps files months ago but devised some way of playing one of them just yesterday. I cut out (or simply removed) a bit of data from the very start so that the stream started with typical SPS header bytes and it apparently worked, VGMstream was able to play it. Maybe it's possible to make it (162796545852b343a3b74ac971d7dbf8.sps) playable directly, without the need to manually trim it? I hope it's a relatively easy fix.
Oh and another troublemaker, 12142b70cec4314056fe118189a1b734.sps, has 0x4800000C @0x0 but still doesn't want to be played back, is the root of the problem hidden in file itself or can it be a bad rip (it wasn't unpacked correctly or something)?

3) Hunter - The reckoning - Wayward (available only for PS2) - first of all I'd like to apologize for confusion, the samples I upped a year or two ago weren't actually untouched streams copied from disc but with different extension; I thought that I merely renamed *.SVG to *.MIB and did nothing else, I was utterly wrong - supposedly I scanned given files with ADPCM Player or even CubeMediaPlayer, extracted whatever they found inside and saved it as MIBs I uploaded ITT (quite some time ago I have to add). Sorry for that.
Anyway this time I can provide real example tracks along with a qik 'n' dirty TXTH I made, it sort of works but would it be possible to implement this format in plugin? Technically speaking each BGM or ambience track seems to be stored in an archive with its own header, 2 VAG headers in a row then headerless data. I suppose that playing such pseudo-archives as 2ch Sony ADPCM streams should be the most convenient & preferable method, we only need those "VAGp" standalone headers to read frequency value from them but that's just my opinion, it's up to you to decide how these SVGs should be implemented.
BTW they might be 1-of-a-kind thing, both previous installments in the series weren't released on PS2 (but of course Wayward devs could utilize the same sound format in other VGs they made).

Have a nice day!

edited 9:51 AM EDT July 13, 2018

by Nicknine at 10:10 AM EDT on July 13, 2018

@Ultrafighter - For NFS: Rivals, you can use Frankelstner's Frostbite 3 dumper script to extract all the contents of sb/toc and then use my sound parser to get proper SPS files for each individual sound. Although my script is based on Frostbite 2 version and NFS: Rivals runs on Frostbite 3 so it might not work. Please let me know if it does work or not.

edited 12:14 PM EDT July 13, 2018

by Nicknine at 1:03 PM EDT on July 13, 2018

Definitely need proper parsing for those "dummy" sounds with zero offsets from EA BNK files since BNK file won't be played at all if the first sound is a "dummy".

edited 1:03 PM EDT July 13, 2018

by mariofan12ify at 2:50 AM EDT on July 14, 2018

With one of the new updates, how it added support for 10 channels for most file formats, it seems that foobar2000 mutes/disables one of the channels? Don't know if it's just me, but it might need to be fixed.

by Ultrafighter at 7:16 AM EDT on July 14, 2018

@Mariofan12ify - I don't quite get what you mean by "the new update added support for 10 channels for most file formats" but I probably understand what concerns you. If you think that some channels are lost in a playback / downmix process then you should check specs of your audio device, try to find info about how many channels it actually supports: if max amount is 8 or even 6 and you're listening to 8+ or 6+ channel files without using VGMstream's own downmixer (for example you have "Downmix channels to stereo" enabled in "Preferences: DSP manager" menu of FB2K) then you're likely to really not hear the 9th, 10th, etc. (or 7th, 8th, etc.) channels.

It means that if you're dealing with 16ch AWCs from Red dead redemption / Grand theft auto 5 or MOGGs from Rock band / Guitar hero (PS3 / X360 versions) or ingame / UI tracks from Manhunt 2 (PC) / Manhunt 1 (any platform) or Hyrule warriors (Wii U) multi-tracks or any other VGM streams with too many channels then you'd better disable Foobar2000's built-in downmixing DSP (or maybe keep it enabled, I'm just afraid that it might conflict with its VGMstream brother) and enable VGMstream downmixer (you can simply set it to downmix everything to stereo or to the max. amount of channels your sound card / audio device supports).
BTW this easy solution won't always work flawlessly, when it comes to RDR / GTA V *.awc you'd better play with TXTP (disabling select channels) or dump BGMs to PCM, open resulting WAVs in an audio editor then play some groups of channels (like ambient ones or tension ones).
I hope this helps, bye!

@Nicknine - I never intended to rip NFS: Rivals myself; I never actually considered ripping The run too, music might be quite good there but it's still not worth the effort - working with Frostbite engine then wading through hundreds of nameless and probably multi-layered segments (the same can also be said about MOH Warfighter or Army of two 3).
I even feel like I shouldn't have dedicated any time to HP '10 because it wasn't worth it (and of course I feel sorry for both of you, you had to invest so much time into inspection of those bothersome SPSs and they're most likely as boring & tasteless as all the tracks in the game).

Anyway if you're willing to redo Rivals (for PS4 or any other platform) or even make a set for The run (any version in existence, just not portables) then you're welcome, the more sets we have here the merrier (and obviously ripping / organizing manner or each set-maker has its own advantages, the more folks do it the better!).
BTW I'd truly appreciate it if Rivals set was a bit more organized from the beginning. For example I was wondering why there're so many 2-3 MB streams which only last for 2 seconds, I've just re-checked them and they seem to contain 15 small ambiences, each is 2 sec. long (why couldn't they use 1 long stream instead?!). It's all described in detail in "! Notes.txt" here, in my old edited version of Bnnm's (?) PS4 gamerip.
Later!

edited 7:24 AM EDT July 14, 2018

by Franpa at 7:39 AM EDT on July 14, 2018

There's no Downmixer in the Winamp version of this product?

by Nicknine at 8:54 AM EDT on July 14, 2018

@Ultrafighter - That'll only happen if you decide to sort through audio chunks manually, the scripts I use make everything pretty neat, organized and easy.
The only remaining problem is downmixing the audio, EA uses non-standard channel layout for 5.1 surround audio and instrumental music in The Run is split into 4 channels representing two stereo tracks with one containing the drums and the other containing the rest of the instruments. I have to use foobar DSP presets to mix the channels properly.

by mariofan12ify at 9:00 AM EDT on July 14, 2018

@Ultrafighter - Well I tried all those things but I guess my audio driver can only handle 8 channels but I have a program that splits all the channels in an individual wav file.

by Nicknine at 9:14 AM EDT on July 14, 2018

@mariofan12ify - vgmstream merely provides channels, how they are mixed depends on your audio player. You can use DSPs like Matrix Mixer to downmix/remix channels as required.

edited 9:14 AM EDT July 14, 2018

by mariofan12ify at 9:21 AM EDT on July 14, 2018

Ok, not sure what Matrix Mixer is or how to get it but I don't think I really need it anyway.

by Nicknine at 9:30 AM EDT on July 14, 2018

Channel mixer component for foobar2000 which allows you to mix channels in whatever way you want. Comes in handy when ripping multi-channel audio from games.

by mariofan12ify at 9:36 AM EDT on July 14, 2018

How do I install .dll plugins?

by Nicknine at 9:38 AM EDT on July 14, 2018

Eh, it's apparently an old way of distributing the components. You can install it by packing DLL into a ZIP archive and then installing ZIP from foobar.

by mariofan12ify at 9:50 AM EDT on July 14, 2018

Ok, I managed to install it but now I have no clue how to use it.

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