Author Topic: XM files  (Read 2414 times)

Nocturnus

  • Posts: 6
XM files
« on: 2 Mar '22 - 20:32 »
I can't play these XM files, can anybody check them?

Thanks.

Ian @ un4seen

  • Administrator
  • Posts: 26028
Re: XM files
« Reply #1 on: 3 Mar '22 - 13:05 »
Those files aren't recognised as XM files because the header's ID contains "Advanced Module:" instead of the usual "Extended Module:". I've never seen that before. I guess it's a customised version of the XM format. Do you know how they were created?

Nocturnus

  • Posts: 6
Re: XM files
« Reply #2 on: 3 Mar '22 - 14:15 »
I agree, I've never seen that before. I don't have much information, except that I extract them from a 2002 game called Pickman 3D

Thanks anyway for the answer :)

saga

  • Posts: 2744
Re: XM files
« Reply #3 on: 3 Mar '22 - 14:30 »
In addition to the strange file header, the sample data also appears to be completely missing, so it's probably stored in an external file (possibly shared between songs).

bekzii

  • Posts: 1
Re: XM files
« Reply #4 on: 2 Sep '22 - 05:00 »
Just checked with my own copy of the game - the sample data is indeed stored externally in a seperate folder
It's odd though since the external samples don't seem to be the original samples that were used, a good majority of them have different filenames and a good amount of them are MP3s  ??? (weird stuff, I doubt MP3s are a good format for music samples ...)

Anyway you would have some luck opening the files (with the fixed headers of course) and replacing each sample with their equivalent in the 'Samples' folder
Keep in mind that some samples also have their tuning wrong so you might have to correct those, best of luck on whatever you're trying to do ! :)

(Sorry for the necro, but I think this is worth replying with, feel free to scold me if you think otherwise :P)

Nocturnus

  • Posts: 6
Re: XM files
« Reply #5 on: 2 Sep '22 - 06:28 »
I gave up because it seems complicated. But you're right about that "Samples" folder. Thanks

PS. If Ian @ un4seen, saga, with a lot of experience can't fix these XM files, I have no chance.

saga

  • Posts: 2744
Re: XM files
« Reply #6 on: 2 Sep '22 - 09:53 »
Quote
weird stuff, I doubt MP3s are a good format for music samples
It definitely isn't the best, but there weren't many alternatives for lossy codecs in 2002. un4seen's MO3 file initially only supported MP3-compressed samples as well, with Vorbis being added as an option in later versions.

Quote
PS. If Ian @ un4seen, saga, with a lot of experience can't fix these XM files, I have no chance.
It's probably not impossible, but it would require a tool to be written to unpack the samples and splice them into the original files again, something I don't really have time for right now.