Author Topic: mo3 fileformat specs.  (Read 35387 times)

Kosm

  • Posts: 5
mo3 fileformat specs.
« on: 18 Feb '02 - 18:45 »
Hi,

Im wondering could we have mo3 fileformat's specs released to public? It would propably help mo3 become more popular format since its easier to include it to other players and fe. to demo's that dont use BASS.

Less reverse-engineering = better  ;D

Ian @ un4seen

  • Administrator
  • Posts: 26145
Re: mo3 fileformat specs.
« Reply #1 on: 18 Feb '02 - 21:04 »
The actual format structure itself is not all that complicated (fairly complicated, but not impossibly so ;D). The interpretation of the data inside the structures is the tricky bit, as it's quite a bit different to the standard MOD formats.

If I'm feeling brave, I may start writing some documentation describing it at some point, but in the meantime it'd be easy for any player to support MO3 via UNMO3. There's example source-code to use UNMO3 with BASSMOD on the MO3 page, which could be applied to any player.

Kosm

  • Posts: 5
Re: mo3 fileformat specs.
« Reply #2 on: 18 Feb '02 - 22:28 »
i will definately check that bassmod example. right now.  8)

KarLKoX

  • Guest
Re: mo3 fileformat specs.
« Reply #3 on: 30 Apr '02 - 09:31 »
I m on the starting block ! :p

greg

  • Posts: 8
Re: mo3 fileformat specs.
« Reply #4 on: 31 May '02 - 01:23 »
Put me down for wanting the mo3 specs also.     ;D

-gorjr

Hakan

  • Posts: 26
Re: mo3 fileformat specs.
« Reply #5 on: 31 May '02 - 08:11 »
Hehe, here's anotherone that would be very interested to see the specs, even if just a beta of a 10th of them... ;)

Y`golonac

  • Guest
Re: mo3 fileformat specs.
« Reply #6 on: 2 Jun '02 - 21:03 »
_o/ Me too! ;D

misterX

  • Guest
Re:mo3 fileformat specs.
« Reply #7 on: 1 Oct '03 - 09:46 »
YES YES! me too  ;D

i just started taking care of the lack of good trackers under win32+ by writing my own *g*
direct MO3 support could be a cool feature, so whats the specs?
something like XM.TXT (ya remember, in the FT2 directory?) would be great!

Larry Hastings

  • Guest
Re: mo3 fileformat specs.
« Reply #8 on: 31 Dec '03 - 06:50 »
[...] in the meantime it'd be easy for any player to support MO3 via UNMO3. There's example source-code to use UNMO3 with BASSMOD on the MO3 page, which could be applied to any player.

Perhaps, but it may not actually work with 1.8; see this thread:

http://www.un4seen.com/forum/?board=3;action=display;threadid=1888

Unfortunately there haven't been any releases since then.  (Hint, hint. :))


larry

Ian @ un4seen

  • Administrator
  • Posts: 26145
Re:mo3 fileformat specs.
« Reply #9 on: 3 Jan '04 - 12:19 »
Unfortunately there haven't been any releases since then.  (Hint, hint. :))

A Mac port is planned fairly soon (should be within a few months), so I think I'll wait 'til then for the next MO3 update :)

Klaus Pino Airoldi

  • Guest
NOTE
« Reply #10 on: 23 May '04 - 16:22 »
hello, big respect to the creators of MO3 :) well done guyzs!
but beside that i want to give a big note! about what your doing can be dangerous and work in the oposite way you wanted it to work!

its the same problem we have today with mp3's!
if you download a mp3 you know the quality!? you think you really know? i don't think so!
it says often 192 kbits but what if the mp3 was done by a cd which already was compressed in mp3' 128kbits?
or what if the mp3 files were created of ogg files! the sound quality will drop drop and nobody knows it!

mod files you can only be get mostly (for me) in the internet not on cd so you never know anymore if you visit a website what actually the quality was or is! is the mod i download know the real mod or was he reconverted of M03? you will never 100% know you have to invest time time time! then what about a collection of known mods when the CRC checksum changes? you will have endless duplicates of mods and will lose space time quality! i enjoyed mod files so often because the sound was really something other than ogg or mp3 not thats this now with m03 also but why the hell again a loosy compression????????????????????

and the other big problem is the size of mod files its easy to convert quick and thousands mod files into m03!
then you give this nice collection to a frend who wants to play it which his mod plugins on his old rare computer! what does he do he reconverts it again to mod! later on he give his mod collection maybe also away what does the next guy do? ???no shit again he wants m03 files :o)

you see it will get a big problem! mods will get lost forever ! you need for every mod a timestamp that he was created before the date of 2000!!

please think over what youre doing! the idear is great but i think its better to compress mod *.MDZ files are better!
or use monkey's audio compression ! nah don't take me to serious!

a real future project would be to create MP3 --> to M03 files that would the ultimate hack! which would saves again 90 % discspace.

Keep On The Good Work And Think Over The Details! WHich Are IMPORTANT!

Klaus Pino Airoldi

Torkell

  • Posts: 1168
Re:mo3 fileformat specs.
« Reply #11 on: 23 May '04 - 17:06 »
MO3 can use (I think) any command-line compresser that reads from stdin and writes to stdout. LAME (for MP3s) and OGGENC are merely examples - in theory you could use something like ADPCM or ATRAC if there's a codec for it on the pc (Ian, could you check this?). Certainly there is also a lossless codec built in to MO3 which alone will generally halve the file size.

MP3 to MO3 would not be easy - first, it's two different principles. Would you want to convert MP3 to MIDI (and we're talking something with lyrics as well)? Never mind that you'd have lots of problems working out how to split the sound up, and that MP3 will have killed some of the similarities (as well as some of the other bits of sound that the computer could use as hints). I did once see a MOD where someone had sampled a track into about 10 different parts and strung them together. It didn't work too well, and I would have preferred the original myself.

limestar

  • Guest
Re:mo3 fileformat specs.
« Reply #12 on: 23 Jun '04 - 09:59 »
Adding my name to the list of people wanting the file format spec here. We'd like to add .mo3 support to www.modarchive.com, but I need a file format spec for that...  it's absolutely out of the question to use external closed-source programs, and I don't really feel like digging the spec out of some example code which may / may not work.

BaYo

  • Guest
Re:mo3 fileformat specs.
« Reply #13 on: 2 Sep '04 - 16:21 »
MP3 --> to M03
 ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D Hahahahahaha
very very funny

anonymous

  • Guest
Re: mo3 fileformat specs.
« Reply #14 on: 18 May '05 - 17:37 »
Any news about Mo3 format specs? And source code?

none

  • Guest
Re: mo3 fileformat specs.
« Reply #15 on: 3 Nov '05 - 08:58 »
Any news about MO3 fileformat specs and open-source encoder/decoder/player?

nobodyr

  • Guest
Re: mo3 fileformat specs.
« Reply #16 on: 3 Nov '05 - 14:03 »
Any news?

Ian, are you there?

Ian @ un4seen

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  • Posts: 26145
Re: mo3 fileformat specs.
« Reply #17 on: 3 Nov '05 - 16:46 »
Yes, I'm here, but no, there's no news :)

I'm afraid I've not had time for the MO3 specs/etc... I've been occupied with BASS 2.2, and now with XMPlay 3.3. Maybe if I see some evidence that the specs would be put to some good use, it'll boost it's priority a bit ;)

raina

  • Posts: 1163
MilkyTracker MO3 support
« Reply #18 on: 7 Dec '05 - 10:58 »
Ian, I understand Kmuland contacted you some time ago but apparently the mail didn't get through your spam filter or you're simply a busy man. Anyways, you wanted some evidence, well how about this: Peter Barth would be willing to add MO3 support to his awesome MilkyTracker, if the MO3 specs were available. Since MilkyTracker practically IS the non-existent XMTracker people have been begging from you, I think it is a very good use. Being the closest thing to Ft2, that's not a bad start for a tracker. We discussed this on the MilkyTracker Forum, see here.

Ian @ un4seen

  • Administrator
  • Posts: 26145
Re: mo3 fileformat specs.
« Reply #19 on: 7 Dec '05 - 13:07 »
Those MilkyTracker forum links don't seem to be working at the moment? But anyway... I did get Kmuland's email, and I replied, stating that we could look into it in the new year, after XMPlay 3.3 and the Christmas stuff is out of the way :)

raina

  • Posts: 1163
Re: mo3 fileformat specs.
« Reply #20 on: 7 Dec '05 - 13:31 »
That's weird, works here. Maybe without the message ID? Ok so he just forgot to mention you replied. Well, now there's something to look forward to in 2006 besides getting one year older. ;)

Lau

  • Guest
Re: mo3 fileformat specs.
« Reply #21 on: 6 Jan '06 - 18:11 »
Hello Ian,

If the specification, I mean
- the header compression algo,
- the pattern packing algo,
- the 4 lossless samples compression algos
- the uncompressed header format
- some "proof of concept" source code under GPL
is written by some else than you,

-> do you see any problem to release it to public ?

Best Wishes for 2006 for everybody !

Lau

Kmuland

  • Guest
Re: mo3 fileformat specs.
« Reply #22 on: 7 Jan '06 - 18:39 »
Raina wrote
Quote
Ok so he just forgot to mention you replied. Well, now there's something to look forward to in 2006 besides getting one year older. Wink

sorry me pal ;) Ian replied my email.. yes-. I forgot mention.

BTW.. I wish this new year, as the greatest one for mod music.. with IanĀ“s MO3 specs released and implemented on our beloved trackers :)