A discussion on APB themes...

[CookiePuss 5373]

 

I've the instruments folder deleted I hate themes so much.

 

My hope is that an entire new sound bank gets added.

Anyone know if that's a thing that can be done? What the limitations might me?

[vsb 6170]

you say that like 90s ringtones were bad

[Salvick 248]

Creating new sound banks that doesn't require licensing is a huge work, you have to make these sound fit within the file size that the game and its sound editor requires while attempting to keep the best possible quality. I think that's the main reason why the current sound banks are kinda limited in regards of bit rate and file duration.

 

Then there's plenty of commercial sound banks that you could buy and license to use them but since the game would be allegedly making profits out of it these might be bond to some sort of royalty fees which is inconvenient. Add to that what I was just mentioned previously.

 

The thing with themes and songs created in-game is that these are streamed as events that play and reproduce the sounds in the client side, as you already know since you deleted your sound banks as you said. That's what allows custom themes to be streamed between players without consuming significant bandwidth since it is very important to keep the custom content within the bandwidth limits.

This makes me think that maybe LO could allow us to have some sort of APB Workshop to create user-made custom sound banks and share these between players.

 

I wonder if anyone ever tried to change the sounds library or these are hard encrypted?

[CookiePuss 5373]

42 minutes ago, Salvick said:

Creating new sound banks that doesn't require licensing is a huge work, you have to make these sound fit within the file size that the game and its sound editor requires while attempting to keep the best possible quality. I think that's the main reason why the current sound banks are kinda limited in regards of bit rate and file duration.

 

Then there's plenty of commercial sound banks that you could buy and license to use them but since the game would be allegedly making profits out of it these might be bond to some sort of royalty fees which is inconvenient. Add to that what I was just mentioned previously.

 

The thing with themes and songs created in-game is that these are streamed as events that play and reproduce the sounds in the client side, as you already know since you deleted your sound banks as you said. That's what allows custom themes to be streamed between players without consuming significant bandwidth since it is very important to keep the custom content within the bandwidth limits.

This makes me think that maybe LO could allow us to have some sort of APB Workshop to create user-made custom sound banks and share these between players.

 

I wonder if anyone ever tried to change the sounds library or these are hard encrypted?

You can change sounds iirc, but its a very tedious process.

(players can, I mean)

 

Edited February 25, 2020 by CookiePuss

[iRawwwN 282]

i still have a fond love for my nokia 3310 midi tunes

[PotatoeGirl 220]

Well, better get used to that because they aren't getting anywhere anytime soon.

Maybe they can add more stuff but changing the existing ones will just break every theme ever created. 

[NotZombieBiscuit 3146]

Except that with the limitations is where creativity has thrived. There have been some amazing unique sounding themes created from this.

[KnifuWaifu 499]

10 hours ago, NotZombieBiscuit said:

Except that with the limitations is where creativity has thrived. There have been some amazing unique sounding themes created from this.

This.

 

And on the other side there have been an onslaught of audio abominations created with the current sound banks too, so much that I would not want to see what horrible things horrible people would do with a whole new bank of sounds. 

 

Unless there was a huge revamp of the editor that included some sort of detection system to prevent ear no-no, I think it's best we just leave it alone and wait for that Mute Themes option.

[CookiePuss 5373]

10 hours ago, HawtGirl said:

Well, better get used to that because they aren't getting anywhere anytime soon.

Maybe they can add more stuff but changing the existing ones will just break every theme ever created. 

You are a game dev?

[PotatoeGirl 220]

11 minutes ago, CookiePuss said:

You are a game dev?

No but it is called common sense. Something that certain forum users don't have. 

[CookiePuss 5373]

4 minutes ago, HawtGirl said:

No but it is called common sense. Something that certain forum users don't have. 

 

 

Sorry guys, no new sounds for the theme maker.

[PotatoeGirl 220]

2 minutes ago, CookiePuss said:

 

 

Sorry guys, no new sounds for the theme maker.

Maybe read it more carefully. I didn't say there will be no new sounds. I said the old ones won't be replaced. 

[CookiePuss 5373]

Just now, HawtGirl said:

Maybe read it more carefully. I didn't say there will be no new sounds. I said the old ones won't be replaced. 

You can replace the sounds yourself... right now.

[PotatoeGirl 220]

1 minute ago, CookiePuss said:

You can replace the sounds yourself... right now.

If you do that, it is only client sided so no one else but you will be able to hear them changed, so who cares?

[CookiePuss 5373]

3 minutes ago, HawtGirl said:

If you do that, it is only client sided so no one else but you will be able to hear them changed, so who cares?

Well, at least you won't be telling people they can't be replaced.

[PotatoeGirl 220]

Just now, CookiePuss said:

Well, at least you won't be telling people they can't be replaced.

They can be replaced but it won't happen because that will break all themes that people already made. 

Why keep making me repeat myself?

[CookiePuss 5373]

15 minutes ago, HawtGirl said:

They can be replaced but it won't happen because that will break all themes that people already made. 

Why keep making me repeat myself?

...

 

I'm not.

 

Imagine this, any sound in the sound bank being replaced with a higher quality version of itself.

 

There... now you get it.

 

If they can add more on top of doing that... Hooray for us.

[PotatoeGirl 220]

1 hour ago, CookiePuss said:

...

 

I'm not.

 

Imagine this, any sound in the sound bank being replaced with a higher quality version of itself.

 

There... now you get it.

 

If they can add more on top of doing that... Hooray for us.

They are already with 512kbps bitrate and above. That is already better quality than most mp3 that you are listening to. 

[CookiePuss 5373]

3 hours ago, HawtGirl said:

They are already with 512kbps bitrate and above. That is already better quality than most mp3 that you are listening to. 

So you are telling me there is no reason themes cant sound as good as the mp3's I listen to.

Lets get on it then.

[PotatoeGirl 220]

9 minutes ago, CookiePuss said:

So you are telling me there is no reason themes cant sound as good as the mp3's I listen to.

Lets get on it then.

The sounds themselves are already better quality than mp3

The limitation comes from the number of sounds and channels that you can use when creating a theme and ofc skill to make it sound good. 

There is also no sound manipulation either other than volume slider.

Edited February 26, 2020 by HawtGirl

[CookiePuss 5373]

2 minutes ago, HawtGirl said:

The sounds themselves are already better quality than mp3

The limitation comes from the number of sounds and channels that you can use when creating a theme and ofc skill to make it sound good. 

I like this little dance we do, but I don't think there's anything else I can say.

[Salvick 248]

 

8 hours ago, CookiePuss said:

Well, at least you won't be telling people they can't be replaced.

I lol'd at this.

 

8 hours ago, HawtGirl said:

They can be replaced but it won't happen because that will break all themes that people already made. 

 

 

It doesn't if you just replace these with a better version, although almost every theme could need some tweaks since it will improve.

 

Regarding the actual bitrate of these sounds I don't know where you guys get that info, but that's interesting to know.

Also remember that many or mostly every "high quality" themes out there have been injected in the files from external sources.

 

[PotatoeGirl 220]

43 minutes ago, Salvick said:

It doesn't if you just replace these with a better version, although almost every theme could need some tweaks since it will improve.

That is why it isn't going to happen. if you have bought a theme it may sounds very different.

43 minutes ago, Salvick said:

Regarding the actual bitrate of these sounds I don't know where you guys get that info, but that's interesting to know.

You can find the sounds in the game folder. They aren't even encrypted.

43 minutes ago, Salvick said:

Also remember that many or mostly every "high quality" themes out there have been injected in the files from external sources.

The pattern is usually just taken from midis and recreated. You still have to choose which sounds to use to make it sound close enough. 

Edited February 26, 2020 by HawtGirl

[Salvick 248]

2 hours ago, HawtGirl said:

That is why it isn't going to happen. if you have bought a theme it may sounds very different.

You can find the sounds in the game folder. They aren't even encrypted.

The pattern is usually just taken from midis and recreated. You still have to choose which sounds to use to make it sound close enough. 

 

Yeah, I remember now, I even had these saved along other sound libraries I have in my drive. You can change these sounds to enhance quality of your bought themes indeed. Is possible and it is easy to do, but it is just time consuming and if anyone willing to do it is also a perfectionist it will take longer.

 

Personally I don't think it even worth the time unless someone wants to try it as a hobby to get some practice learning about sound banks.
 

[PotatoeGirl 220]

Just now, Salvick said:

 

Yeah, I remember now, I even had these saved along other sound libraries I have in my drive. You can change these sounds to enhance quality of your bought themes indeed. Is possible and it is easy to do, but it is just time consuming and if anyone willing to do it is also a perfectionist it will take longer.

 

Personally I don't think it even worth the time unless someone wants to try it as a hobby to get some practice learning about sound banks.
 

You can change them but you will be the only one who will be able to hear those changes. Everyone else will hear them in the way they are in their own game folder.