Radio and Gramophone questions

[Front Runner]

I have noticed some oddities while editing some of the MP3 files.

1. Sometimes the track (single track in Radio / Washington, not in events,) starts in the middle somewhere. Why doesn't it start at the beginning? (While in game.)

2. Some tracks seem to be playing at a faster speed making them sound like alvin and the chipmunks. What causes that? When I play the track through my editing program it sounds normal.

Some info. I am using Adobe Audition 2.0 which will do MP3, OGG, WAV etc etc.

I understand how the events folder and the events.ini work.
I thought that I understood how the "music" portion of the radio broadcast works, but now I am not so sure. I thought that one could put a "track" either mp3 or .ogg, into the Radio/(Station) folder and it would play whatever tracks are there until an event is triggered and then the event will play. When the event is finished the sound returns to the track that was playing when the event occured.

Can anyone help me better understand what is going on in the Radio/(Station) folders and how they interact?

Thanks in advance.

[fred8615]

I have noticed some oddities while editing some of the MP3 files.

1. Sometimes the track (single track in Radio / Washington, not in events,) starts in the middle somewhere. Why doesn't it start at the beginning? (While in game.)
I think it may be because tracks are actually "playing" even if the radio is off, or you're not tuned to that station. So depending on when you turn on your radio or go to that channel, you'll end up in the middle of the song.

2. Some tracks seem to be playing at a faster speed making them sound like alvin and the chipmunks. What causes that? When I play the track through my editing program it sounds normal.
This is a known bug, especially with saved games.

Some info. I am using Adobe Audition 2.0 which will do MP3, OGG, WAV etc etc.

I understand how the events folder and the events.ini work.
I thought that I understood how the "music" portion of the radio broadcast works, but now I am not so sure. I thought that one could put a "track" either mp3 or .ogg, into the Radio/(Station) folder and it would play whatever tracks are there until an event is triggered and then the event will play. When the event is finished the sound returns to the track that was playing when the event occured.

Can anyone help me better understand what is going on in the Radio/(Station) folders and how they interact?

Thanks in advance.
That's pretty much it. If you need something more specific, let me know.

[ReallyDedPoet]

Nice fred, I was wondering when you would show up :yep::up:


RDP

[fred8615]

Nice fred, I was wondering when you would show up :yep::up:


RDP
Geeez you're fast!!!

:o :o :o

[ReallyDedPoet]

http://www.gifanimations.com/Image/Animations/Cars/Fast_racer.gif


RDP

[Digital_Trucker]

I think it may be because tracks are actually "playing" even if the radio is off, or you're not tuned to that station. So depending on when you turn on your radio or go to that channel, you'll end up in the middle of the song.


I'm almost positive this is the case because of the CTDs that occur no matter whether you are listening to the radio or any particular station when an events media file is missing. I believe the game attempts to simulate "real life" radio listening (i.e. the possibility of a song or advertisement being in "mid stream" when you tune in a station).

[fred8615]

I'm almost positive this is the case because of the CTDs that occur no matter whether you are listening to the radio or any particular station when an events media file is missing. I believe the game attempts to simulate "real life" radio listening (i.e. the possibility of a song or advertisement being in "mid stream" when you tune in a station).
Now if it would just do that with "Events" instead of backlogging everything...:shifty:

[Von Manteuffel]

I think what happens is:

At the start of a mission, the game/radio "clock" which governs when items in "events.ini" files are played out begins to run. So, scripted programmes in events.ini files will play out when scheduled.

With "Random" tracks in the radio station folder(s), I believe the audio-player:

a) randomises all tracks in radio station folders into a playing order for the station for that mission, then
b) When that folder / station is selected in game ( and a scripted programme isn't scheduled ) starts to play the random tracks according to that order.

When you tune away from one station to another, the one you leave stops at that point, So if/when you go back to it, it picks up playing the track where you left it.

I have noticed that sometimes, if I have a track as a random track in the radio station folder, when I've tuned to it, it has been part way through. On other occasions I've hit the start of a track. It may be that there's a real-time clock running which dictates where in the " block" of sound which is the total tracks in a station folder, the station starts to play when you tune in to it.

i.e. At the start of a mission the tracks in a station folder are randomised and then treated by the program as a single composite track which it cues through in real time ( looping when it reaches the end ). When you tune in to the station you join at the real-time point in the cue-sequence. From then on, the cue-point freezes when you leave the station; so tuning in to a station makes it "active" and stops the automatic cueing through the sound in the folder. I'm told that would be one of the simplest ways to code the radio station part of SH4

It would take a lot of testing to ascertain exactly what is happening.

By the way, belated best wishes to everyone for the New Year.

[Front Runner]

Thanks for the replies.

One thing that I'm not clear on though, is, during testing, I discovered that the track will start to play in midstream during Sub School missions and Single Missions and War Patrols, (still testing this theory...)
In Career Mode, the track (I have only one rather long composite track of all of the news bulletins, etc. that are (semi colon REM'd out) of the events.ini file, (about 8 hours of real time,) the track starts at the beginning which is the news bulletin that Pearl Harbor has been attacked. This is not an event, but a composite track that I have constructed with Adobe Audition 2.0 and inserted into the Radio/Washington Folder (not in events.) The track is simply named composite.mp3.

In Sub School, Single Missions, War Patrols, (so far at least,) it seems to start the track at some random point, say right in the middle of Jack Benny's comedy bit or somewhere else, again randomly.

I am just trying to get a handle on the way that the program chooses where to start the track. Logically, one would think that the track would start at the beginning of a mission, at the beggining of the track ( or near enough to the beginning to support the theory that the track starts running as soon as the mission starts.)

I will continue testing and post the results of my observation. My next plan is to put one other short track in the Radio/Washington Folder to see if the short track will play first and then my composite, perhaps by naming the track 1composite.mp3 and 2composite.mp3.

I am a Radio person with a long background in Commercial FM radio and my desire here is to try to come up with a "playlist" of sorts that is not controlled by the events.ini file but plays in a correct order within the Radio/(Station) Folder. The reason is because I want to know "why" things work the way they work. Just Brain Exercise.

However, I believe that if I can come up with a clearer understanding of how SH4 plays tracks both in Radio and Gramophone, I can design my own radio show program to listen to while in transit from start to finish. It may be that the whole thing is just random and no control of this feature is possible other than through the events.ini folder.

I could develop a radio program to play, say at 2100 hours every night and encode that into my radio station as an event for the entire length of my patrol.

I'm just trying to add a bit of interactivity into the Radio Station feature.

Thanks again for your comments and replies and I will continue to post my findings.

[Von Manteuffel]

I think you'll have a better chance of success using the gramaphone. As far as I'm aware the gramaphone plays tracks in the order they appear in the file. SH4 randomises tracks in the radio station folder. I'm not sure whether it shuffles the tracks in the station folder, or simply chooses a different starting point in the list each time you fire up the game/mission.

Good luck with the testing.

[Front Runner]

I've placed a couple of radio noise mp3 files (short, about 3 sec. each) in to the folder Radio/Washington along with my composite.mp3

I've noticed that sometimes the short files will play a couple of times each until the composite file starts. I do think that the choice of which file to play is somewhat random.

I also did some effects work on the composite.mp3 to get a sweeping phase shift to emulate the phasing in and out of a radio signal received at a distance. It is very subtle and seems to add a bit of realism to the radio sound.

Does anyone know what exactly is the effect of setting the
radio realism=yes/no
in the radio.ini ?