Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Ogg
is 'a free, open-source container format supporting a variety of
codecs, the most popular of which is the audio codec Vorbis. Vorbis i les
are often compared to MP3 i les in terms of quality.' Ogg i les are not as
commonly supported as MP3 i les; there is no support for Ogg playback
on any Apple device natively.
Pro Tip
To make your life a little bit easier,
as a general rule, if you know
your developer is using a Mac give
them. AIF i les, if they are using a
PC give them .WAV. If you are not
sure, deliver both. This way you
will mitigate the chances that the
developer will have to come back
to you for a re-delivery if for some
reason software compatibility with
these formats becomes an issue.
FLAC
is a lossless compression codec. You can think of lossless
compression as like zip but for audio. If you encode a PCM i le to FLAC
and then decode it again while playing, it will be a perfect copy of the
original. (All the other codecs discussed here are lossy.)
Proprietary Audio File Formats
WMA
(Windows Media Audio) is the format owned by Microsoft. It is
Microsoft's closed source alternative to MP3.
Pro Tip
One thing to know about MP3s is
that they are not the most reliable
at looping audio smoothly. This
makes it tricky to use MP3 for
things like ambiences or music.
Using MP3 for triggering one shot
sound ef ects or voice-over i les is
no problem, however. The reason
for this is that MP3 was designed
on an older, video frame-based
approach. If a sound's length does
not i ll the frame completely, a
gap is introduced that uses up
the rest of the frame. This can
cause signii cant headaches for
sound designers and the solution
is often determined by the game
engine or platform that the
developer is using, so make sure
you ask questions and speak
with the developer or integrator/
programmer about this specii c
annoying issue in advance of
delivery.
16 kbps =
0.1 MB
64 kbps =
0.45 MB
96 kbps =
0.7 MB
128 kbps =
0.9 MB
192 kbps =
1.4 MB
(Close to
CD quality)
256 kbps =
1.8 MB
320 kbps =
2.3 MB
(HD Mp3)
Chart showing a range of MP3 bit rates with relative quality. Measurements are based on a 10MB,
1 minute uncompressed stereo WAV i le 16 Bit @ 44.1KHz
AAC
(Advanced Audio Coding) is the 'format based on the MPEG4 audio
standard owned by Dolby. A copy-protected version of this format has
been developed by Apple for use in music downloaded from their iTunes
Music Store.'
Other Formats
.AU
is the standard audio i le format used by Sun's version of Unix and Java.
.CAF Core Audio Format
—also known as 'Cripes Another
Format!' (respect to the late Jef Essex). This format is the new
