FOT music problem

M

murlocdummy

First time out of the vault
Hello, I've been trying to switch out the mp3's in the music folder for more a more "tactical" soundtrack, replacing the battle music with more RPG-esque music, along with the menu music, replacing it with less Fallout-like ambience and incurring a more Final Fantasy Tactics feel to it.

Unfortunately, IT DIDN'T WORK

I've tried several things to determine what went wrong, but to no avail, and NO, I'M NOT USING THE CUSTOM FOLDER. Playing random tracks is just not the same

The new music doesn't play when I try and start up the game

I tried changing the bitrate to match that of the other files, but the new music didn't work, however, if I changed the bitrate of the original (not new) files, it WOULD work.

I also tried switching around the original mp3's, finding that THAT would work. Kind of useless, considering the fact that I'm trying to switch all of the music, except for the raiders battle music. That stuff's awesome.

I haven't done much regarding the sample rate, but undoubtedly, it's not going to solve the problem, either, as I've already changed the sample rate of some of the original files, finding that they still work.

Here are a few answers to obvious questions you may ask:

I'm NOT trying to put files into the custom music folder. I'm replacing all of the mp3's in the other folders with mp3's of my own.

The music isn't messed up or anything when I try and play the game, it just doesn't play.

The original music files that came with the game when I first installed it will work when I switch them around and rename them. Like when I took the raider battle music and used it as the menu music, it worked.

Any help or comments would be much appreciated!
 
Check the mp3 files you want to use aren't corrupted or protected.

Make sure that the renamed files are named correctly and there's no typos or spaces where there shouldn't be.

Set up a path as detailed in the editor readme, with just the music/gui and music/battle folders inside. That way you can replace the music without having to keep swapping files around and renaming them.
 
Your post appeared to be starkingly unhelpful, as expected. Not that that's meant as an insult in any way, it's just that unhelpful posts are just to be expected, statistically speaking.

The path seems to be correct, and the files are renamed correctly, indicated by the fact that I've successfully switched around the existing mp3's that came with the game to test certain theories as to the root of the problem.

I'll check the readme again and any manuals I can find, in the slim chance that it'll shed light on the situation.

The mp3 files that I want to use appear to work when I use media players such as Windows Media Player, VCL, etc. etc., so they don't show any signs of being corrupted.

Now, about being protected, THAT'S something that could have a slim chance of being true.

SO, in the interest of following all possible leads, I'll ask this: what's the most straightforward way to check for protection,

and the more useful question: in what way can I check a more clandestine form of protection?

To be honest, I'm not much of a copyright encryption person, and am not familiar with these kinds of things, in any way, shape, or form.

I have checked these files and found that there appears to be something in the "Properties" that indicates a copyright. The copyright, HOWEVER, appears to be some kind of website where the things were downloaded from, not necessarily the artist or company that made the original music.
Could it be possible to remove this copyright?

I've been suspecting that the mp3's that the game came with and/or the coding that plays them is somehow different from normal mp3's. Correct me if I'm completely off on this assumption
 
Just because you didn't make a mistake in renaming the original files doesn't mean you couldn't of made a mistake in naming the new files. :roll:

In xp if you hold your cursor over a file the information should open up with bit rate, file size and if protected etc. It wouldn't surprise me if Vista did something similar, I can't remember about W98.

The game uses and will play normal mp3 files.

Circumventing copy protection would most likely fall under this forum's anti-warez policy and further discussion would not be allowed.
 
Well, it appears that once this thread has moved past the initial stage of obvious statements, it has entered a deeper, more technical stage.

At this point, I would like to note that by holding the mouse over the files, I have found that there CERTAINLY IS a difference between the files I downloaded and the original music files. I guess I'm just moving around too fast to notice such trivialities. The difference isn't something that I can detect in the coding easily, as I have little experience with that.
Though I don't yet understand the mechanism that incurs this discrepancy, the difference, whatever it is, causes the filename to appear in the little popup window that opens up when the mouse is held over the file.

It doesn't say whether or not the file is protected, however, but there is that noticeable difference from the original files, which do NOT show their filename in the little mouseover window. I suppose for now, I just need to find files that don't do that whenever I mouse over them.

I'm still somewhat dubious to the notion that it'll work. Of course, in all truthfulness, I don't really understand the workings of copyright protection and the main differences between FOT's capability to play mp3's and a normal audio media player.
 
The lack of filename is simply because the default music files have no artist, title, details etc filled in. Then again they were never meant for seperate distribution.

I can only say about xp but if you bring up the properties of the mp3 and check the advanced summary it'll tell you about the protection, duration, audio sample rate, no of chanels (stereo etc). Those are the differences you most probably should be looking at.
 
Odd thing is, I tried changing the bitrate and sample rate, finding that they don't change whether or not the mp3 is played by the game. Also, under where it states "Protection", the field is blank. There's no "Yes" or "No", as you would expect from these kinds of things.

I DID, however get one of my older mp3's to work. The only difference that I can ascertain is information having been entered into the "Genre" field that can't be removed for the non-working ones. Changed, yes, but removed, no. It always reverts to entering "Other" into the "Genre" field whenever the data is deleted.

I suppose I can try and use an mp3 conversion tool to try and turn these non-working mp3's into more general mp3 audio files instead of these more specific kinds of mp3 audio tracks.
I'm only ASSUMING, of course, that the non-working mp3 files have some kind of specificity that is particular to them

Other than that difference, the only other thing I can see is that the .mp3 extension on the original files are capitalized, which doesn't seem to make a difference when I used my old mp3s.

I remember browsing an audio editing forum site some time ago when I was trying to mod some other PC games. I don't remember the name, however. I believe that it might lead me to some useful audio tools for this kind of thing.
 
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