Forums » Suggestions
Music Playback (MP3/Ogg)
I noted that the developers mentioned the MP3 libraries aren't very developer friendly (true!), and the OggVorbis libraries are (again, true)..
What's the point of this post?
I may have a sort-of-viable solution for getting around that restrictive license by using an existing utility offered for download [url=http://www.flippet.org/wawi/]here[/url].
It's called WinAmp Web Interface (WAWI for short). What would this need? Let's see..
It has a set of commands that you can send to the mini HTTP server that it runs, those are:
-------------------------
/play[?track=###]
/prev
/next
/pause
/stop
/stopslow (fadeout)
/vol?volume=(0>10) - 0 is mute, 10 is max vol.
/list (Gives a playlist, not sure of the format yet as I haven't taken the time to get any raw data from it)
-------------------
What am I proposing? A small interface being added to VO which can be toggled on/off either via a commandline switch or via defined keys.
This window would: Attempt to connect to WAWI (If it fails, it should do so almost instantly, and gracefully). If it connects, it should show a list of all files and detach the mouse so you can pick a single item on the list to play.
----------------
What's the downside?
WAWI enforces the use of HTTP/401 based authentication and has no TRUE anonymous usage ability, so one way or another VO would have to send a 401 auth.
Suggested preset username: vonline, password: vonline
This post probably isn't very well thought out in general, but I'm just passing around the idea - Ogg Vorbis, while a nice format, isn't all that popular.
If the reply to this is decent enough, I'll go through a see what data the server expects/returns, then reply here with more information.
What's the point of this post?
I may have a sort-of-viable solution for getting around that restrictive license by using an existing utility offered for download [url=http://www.flippet.org/wawi/]here[/url].
It's called WinAmp Web Interface (WAWI for short). What would this need? Let's see..
It has a set of commands that you can send to the mini HTTP server that it runs, those are:
-------------------------
/play[?track=###]
/prev
/next
/pause
/stop
/stopslow (fadeout)
/vol?volume=(0>10) - 0 is mute, 10 is max vol.
/list (Gives a playlist, not sure of the format yet as I haven't taken the time to get any raw data from it)
-------------------
What am I proposing? A small interface being added to VO which can be toggled on/off either via a commandline switch or via defined keys.
This window would: Attempt to connect to WAWI (If it fails, it should do so almost instantly, and gracefully). If it connects, it should show a list of all files and detach the mouse so you can pick a single item on the list to play.
----------------
What's the downside?
WAWI enforces the use of HTTP/401 based authentication and has no TRUE anonymous usage ability, so one way or another VO would have to send a 401 auth.
Suggested preset username: vonline, password: vonline
This post probably isn't very well thought out in general, but I'm just passing around the idea - Ogg Vorbis, while a nice format, isn't all that popular.
If the reply to this is decent enough, I'll go through a see what data the server expects/returns, then reply here with more information.
I don't see much of a point to this. If you want to play mp3 files, just mute the music in VO, and launch xmms/winamp/etc.
And I do see a number of problems: it relies on WinAmp, and so would only be useful for Windows users. That issue could be addressed by using a cross-platform solution such as VideoLan Server instead of WAWI. But both WAWI+WinAmp or VLS would still have the problem of being additional dependancies for this to work, which makes it a much more complicated solution than it may appear. And there's still the problem with it be a very questionable workaround of the MP3 licensing - it's one thing to use WAWI or VLS for personal, non-commercial use, it's an entirely different kettle of fish to integrate it with a commercial product. I think it's better to just play it safe & avoid any potential legal problems as much as possible.
And I do see a number of problems: it relies on WinAmp, and so would only be useful for Windows users. That issue could be addressed by using a cross-platform solution such as VideoLan Server instead of WAWI. But both WAWI+WinAmp or VLS would still have the problem of being additional dependancies for this to work, which makes it a much more complicated solution than it may appear. And there's still the problem with it be a very questionable workaround of the MP3 licensing - it's one thing to use WAWI or VLS for personal, non-commercial use, it's an entirely different kettle of fish to integrate it with a commercial product. I think it's better to just play it safe & avoid any potential legal problems as much as possible.
Was actually discussing this with Tramshed, and there may be another solution. Problem with just using XMMS/WinAmp is you have to either; Alt Tab out of the game, or run it in a Window.
Not a very graceful solution. I'll update this as I get more information. XMMS/WinAmp both have the same sort of HTTP-based plugins, but XMMS can also be controlled from the command-line. I'm still trying to get information on WinAmp and what can be used to control it.
Not a very graceful solution. I'll update this as I get more information. XMMS/WinAmp both have the same sort of HTTP-based plugins, but XMMS can also be controlled from the command-line. I'm still trying to get information on WinAmp and what can be used to control it.
a while ago there were a number of scripts that used tail to watch the errors log in vendetta and control MP3 players via it. I believe they were all for OS X, but you could easily make them for Linux. Windows versions would be a bit harder.
not really, grep ect can be used in winblows with cygwin...
Right, but the problem that exists for now is wether or not WinAMP accepts console commands. So far as I can tell, it doesn't. Every search of their forums for "console" or even "command line" come back with tons of MAKI Script references.
I like that Vendetta Online lacks support for MP3. Why? It's like a low quality but popular OS... a programmer has a choice between supporting the OS and perpetuating its use, or not supporting it and losing 90% of their userbase. People who are forced to use Ogg Vorbis for their Vendetta Online music might start using it elsewhere, too.
It's not a lot of trouble to convert MP3 to Vorbis, Vorbis decodes and encodes faster, and at higher quality, Vorbis does not have any sort of restrictive license, Vorbis has an open-source implementation that is easy to integrate with existing projects.
Guild doesn't really get anything from including MP3 support in VO aside from a bloated, uncertainly licensed client and a LOT of patent royalties, and those of us who don't need or use it have suffer.
-:sigma.SB
P.S. A bypassing scheme, such as outlined in the original post, is not legal. Believe me.
It's not a lot of trouble to convert MP3 to Vorbis, Vorbis decodes and encodes faster, and at higher quality, Vorbis does not have any sort of restrictive license, Vorbis has an open-source implementation that is easy to integrate with existing projects.
Guild doesn't really get anything from including MP3 support in VO aside from a bloated, uncertainly licensed client and a LOT of patent royalties, and those of us who don't need or use it have suffer.
-:sigma.SB
P.S. A bypassing scheme, such as outlined in the original post, is not legal. Believe me.
I don't think there's really a downside to including ogg support in VO, those who use normal formats (you know, some of us have iPods, and like to play our MP3s on them) can continue using iTunes or whatever. This leads me to another idea...perhaps it would be possible to write a script that would control music players (iTunes, Winamp, etc) from VO, as someone suggested previously?
iTunes supports AppleScripting. It wouldn't be too hard to make a borg that controls iTunes from Vendetta, all you need is a knowledge of how to call AppleScript code from a command line tool... or really REALLY leet AppleScripting skills....
-:sigma.SB
-:sigma.SB
You are correct, WinAMp does nt support shell commands, but there are lots of commanl line applications (some as small as 22k) that let you play any sound format via the command line.
IE: http://www.webxpace.net/software/software.html#WavPlayer for example, winamp isnt the only media player around, just like mp3 isnt the only format around.
IE: http://www.webxpace.net/software/software.html#WavPlayer for example, winamp isnt the only media player around, just like mp3 isnt the only format around.