PS2 Stella Deus, ADX headers, VGMToolbox, other questions by mikev at 3:57 PM EDT on August 23, 2014
Sorry if this is TL;DR but it is my first (real) post on any forum and I've been lurking here for a while so I've kinda built up a list of things. I really want to get involved in some way and I was thinking some of the below might be a start.
I'm considering working out the loop points for Stella Deus (PS2, mostly ADX) and resubmitting to joshw.info.
1. Is somebody else (that reads here, obv) already working on this or do they have it completed but not uploaded?
2. As for track filenames, I was going to rename them to match the OST (using the convention of track 99 for outtakes/unknowns). Is this acceptable or should I just leave them as-is?
3. As for the ADX loop points themselves, I was going to just update the headers directly. Is that fine?
4. Does there already exist a tool to calc the byte offsets from sample/other offsets and update the headers? I've already done this manually for one of the files as a test, but if there's a tool that can save a bit of time that'd be great. Although, I'm mainly asking this to lead into the next question...
5. VGMToolbox (r930) doesn't have anything for working with ADX headers, unless I'm missing it somewhere. Is that correct? Would it be alright if maybe I extended it to support them?
Don't the ADX files on psf2.joshw.info already loop properly and all when played with vgmstream? I extracted the files from the game years ago by simply copying them from the ISO and pasting them onto my hard drive and they played back without any problems that I could detect, and I even spent some time studying some of them because I looped the OST and used the ADX files for reference.
EDIT: Oh, also welcome to the forum, or welcome to posting anyway.
Thanks for the reply. I went back and looked at the joshw set.
bgm14,15,17-21.adx (battle themes) have loop points set. The rest do not. Instead, most of them have a "built-in" 2nd loop with an ending (usually a warm stop, sometimes a fade). For example, bgm05.adx.
What this means is that vgmstream with "loop normally" and loop count 2 will render 4 loops, 2 of which have the built-in ending, plus the beginning of the 5th loop as vgmstream fades out.
Maybe instead of setting loop points it would make more sense to just clear the loop-enable flag in the header.
Which way to loop -- naturally with the built-in ending, or artificially with loop points set -- is a subjective thing, so I guess I'll leave it be.
Good call about looping the OST. I might do the same for my copy.
If anyone is interested, here's the mapping of filename to OST track#/name. Track names taken from VGMdb except for 99s which are annotated in brackets.
Original,OST 4001.ss2,01 - Alchemy (The Theme of Man).ss2 4007.ss2,42 - Holy Spirit (Spirit Theme).ss2 4009.ss2,99 - Activity Time [alternate].ss2 bgm01.adx,99 - Alchemy (The Theme of Man) [extended].adx bgm02.adx,99 - Holy Spirit (Spirit Theme) [variation].adx bgm03.adx,03 - Situation Explanation.adx bgm04.adx,31 - Holy Kingdom.adx bgm05.adx,41 - Epilogue.adx bgm07.adx,02 - Name Entry.adx bgm08.adx,14 - Save - Load Screen.adx bgm09.adx,11 - World Map.adx bgm10.adx,12 - Shop.adx bgm11.adx,13 - Guild.adx bgm12.adx,39 - Decisive Battle.adx bgm13.adx,17 - Main Battle Music.adx bgm14.adx,28 - Disadvantageous Circumstance.adx bgm15.adx,07 - Activity Time.adx bgm16.adx,10 - Conspiracy.adx bgm17.adx,25 - A Turning Point.adx bgm18.adx,19 - A Formidable Foe.adx bgm19.adx,35 - The Four Elemental Spirits.adx bgm20.adx,36 - Ruins of the Forbidden.adx bgm21.adx,40 - March of Heroes.adx bgm22.adx,04 - Requiem.adx bgm23.adx,32 - Disciple of the Dark.adx bgm24.adx,18 - Everyday.adx bgm25.adx,05 - Energetic Music.adx bgm26.adx,09 - Danger.adx bgm28.adx,06 - The Supreme Ruler's Army.adx bgm29.adx,22 - Reminiscence of the Past Music.adx bgm30.adx,16 - A Cheerful Mood.adx bgm31.adx,15 - Tutorial.adx bgm32.adx,27 - An Oppressed Mood.adx bgm34.adx,38 - Highlands.adx bgm35.adx,21 - Heroine's Theme.adx bgm36.adx,23 - Prince of a Ruined Country.adx bgm37.adx,26 - Theme of the Religious Order.adx bgm38.adx,29 - While Feeling Doubt.adx bgm39.adx,34 - Nature.adx bgm40.adx,37 - Ancient God.adx bgm41.adx,33 - Vize.adx bgm42.adx,24 - Apostle of the Light.adx bgm43.adx,30 - Infiltration.adx bgm44.adx,99 - unknown.adx bgm45.adx,08 - Mission Clear.adx bgm46.adx,20 - Game Over.adx bgm47.adx,99 - Requiem [with ambiance].adx
Oh yeah, I forgot they have built-in endings. I can see why you'd want to do something about that.
I was planning on redoing my OST looping project since I lost it and have come up with a better method of doing it. I used crossfading before, now I just find a place where the waves are really similar at the beginning and end and copy-paste the section inbetween in again (the way I should have realized to do it in the first place). When I redo it I was planning on posting it at FFShrine anyway so I could give you the link here if you want me to spare you the work of doing it too. I promise I do my looping work very carefully!