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Aug 12, 2004, 8:17pm

Since I enter AW and started to build... something always bugged me : the
way the sound works. The is currently no way to put, like in a game, music
in your builds. There should be a "music" command. Let me explain.

The problem with the sound command is that the volume of the music will
change depending on your avatar's position.

The noise command is fine with that, but it doesn't support streaming mp3
files. The help files say "Noises are intended for providing short, quick
sound effects (e.g. a door opening) that uses should hear despite what other
sounds may currently be in effect nearby." What about a command like this
but for music ? Since AW is an online software, I think it is necessary that
this command allows streaming mp3, because people don't want to lose sound
quality by compressing their files too much.

I also found this on the page http://www.activeworlds.com/help/aw36/mp3.html
:

"MP3 SUPPORT.
Active Worlds 3.1 supports the use of sound files encoded in the MP3 file
format with the sound and noise commands.

Some people have misinterpreted support for the MP3 file format in Active
Worlds 3.1 as intended to support full-length CD-quality song files, or to
support "streaming" MP3 files.

Active Worlds 3.1 does not support streaming MP3, it simply supports the MP3
file format itself for sound files that are downloaded and played by the
browser, the same as WAV files. Furthermore, while in theory a full-length
CD-quality song could be used in Active Worlds, the download size of such
files (typically several megabytes) are still prohibitive and will prevent
most users on low-bandwidth connections from hearing them in a timely
fashion."

Now that we have the media command, this is not an argument...

And what about using the media command ? I thought of something and tested
it : I made an object called music.rwx and put the following into the action
field :

activate media url=www.example.com/music/mymusic.mp3 radius=9999 (so the
sound doesn't fade depending on the avatar's position) name=speaker

After this, I made few objects called "speaker" and put few of them randomly
in a specific area. At the beggining, I was sure the sound would stop as
soon as music.rwx would be out of the visibility range. But it worked : the
music continued to play. So I thought I finally discovered a solution to my
problem until I walked a little farther and the sound stopped. I think I
know why :

At the moment the sound was activated (when I clicked on music.rwx) , 3
objects around were called "speaker". So the music played on them. But as
soon as some new "speaker" objects appear, the browser doesn't seem to
associate them anymore with the media command I put on music.rwx. So when
all the "speaker" objects that were playing music when I activated the media
are out of range, the music stops, even if there's still some objects called
"speaker" around you.

But even if this issue was fixed, it wouldn't be practical since we'd need
to make a lot of "speaker" objects for the music to stay and this would
increase the cell data.

We need a command that will play the music with a constant volume, no matter
where is your avatar regarding the object, and that support streaming MP3s,
WAVEs and MIDIs.

Weizer

Aug 12, 2004, 9:23pm

There are a couple media command "radius" options. Be sure to use "fx=3d" too (which SHOULD be enabled by default, but it's not). All of AW's sound/noise/media commands are half-assedly implemented (like everything else), so until they are designed correctly and properly, we have to make due with all of these conflicting, inadequate commands.

http://tnlc.com/eep/aw/improve.html#audio for more info.

[View Quote]

Aug 12, 2004, 10:01pm

you have allot of complaints about this software eep...why don't you stop
using it? or just use it as is, and find some good in it. calling things
half assed isn't much of anything, you think you can do better? make your
own software, awi works hard day in, day out, despite what you may see
everyday, they work their asses off developing things for us, even during
other builds they are working on many things, new objects/avatars, software
updates, interactive experiences IE NewAW, and many many many other things,
just because they don't have your favorite thing, or what you would like to
see, you don't need to always say aw is bad.

-C P
[View Quote]

Aug 12, 2004, 10:17pm

Pssh, C P. If you would just click Eep's links, you would see that he's
doing more than critiquing the current features. He's also suggesting ways
to improve the software. No need to blow your top about it.

Aug 12, 2004, 10:20pm

Agreed. He has rights to entitle his own opinions, wether you like it or
not.


--

Signed,
TheMask

:: Owner of Delusional-Minds Hosting ::

Aug 12, 2004, 10:57pm

I always hated people who just critiscized and complained without giving
solutions... destructive people... but that's not Eep case. It's FAR from
being his case. I think he's the most constructive poster in these NGs. He
might be rude sometimes but I respect him a lot : he always has solution to
offer and he KNOWS what he is talking about. I know his website since 2
years and I really admire how hard this guy worked. I think you should take
a look at his website maybe you'll change your opinion about him...

Weizer

"c p" <chris101d at comcast.net> a écrit dans le message de
news:411c04e8$1 at server1.Activeworlds.com...
> you have allot of complaints about this software eep...why don't you stop
> using it? or just use it as is, and find some good in it. calling things
> half assed isn't much of anything, you think you can do better? make your
> own software, awi works hard day in, day out, despite what you may see
> everyday, they work their asses off developing things for us, even during
> other builds they are working on many things, new objects/avatars,
software
> updates, interactive experiences IE NewAW, and many many many other
things,
> just because they don't have your favorite thing, or what you would like
to
> see, you don't need to always say aw is bad.
>
> -C P
[View Quote]

Aug 12, 2004, 11:29pm

Agreed.

--
Legion
Chairman of Rockford Township, Phin County, Alphaworld

[View Quote]

Aug 13, 2004, 12:01am

agreed indeed, but still this isn't the place...awi doesn't read this...if
you read their website they said they don't monitor this News group, but
rather let users refine ideas, and then afterward submit them in the
suggestion box, or via email..
[View Quote]

Aug 13, 2004, 2:06am

It doesn't seem that Eep's post was in any way directed at AWI. He seems to
be just, as you say, refining ideas.

Aug 13, 2004, 4:09am

>"All of AW's sound/noise/media commands are half-assedly implemented (like
everything else), so until they are designed correctly and properly, we have
to make due with all of these conflicting, inadequate commands."

whatta??

Aug 13, 2004, 8:03am

www.dictionary.com

Seriously C P, let it go!! Sheesh lol ;P


[View Quote] >
> everything else), so until they are designed correctly and properly, we have
> to make due with all of these conflicting, inadequate commands."
>
> whatta??
>

Aug 13, 2004, 2:21pm

Lol, he's a stubborn little fellow. :)

Aug 13, 2004, 5:36pm

who you callin little, or is that a compliment like skinny :)
[View Quote]

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