Is there any way to directly use these files to directly play music in programs, or is it necessary to first convert to some kind of fully wave format ? I was just wondering, because if there was, then a great deal of space could be saved. Perhaps it is possible to convert .bmx files to other another type of audio file other than a wave format, which can then be played ? r. "The mere thought hadn''t even begun to speculate about the slightest possibility of traversing the eternal wasteland that is my mind..."

Buzz works kinda like a tracker, but uses a real-time modular environment instead of mere samples. Because of this, timbres similar to analog synths can be created realistically. However, this comes at a price. Real-time audio rendering can be quite heavy on the processor, and in a gaming environment you could probably put these CPU cycles to a better use. Besides which, I am not aware of any standalone Buzz players that could be used.

I''d recommend rendering to a .wav, then converting the .wav to a smaller format, such as .mp3, .wma or .ogg. Plugins for these formats are widely available, and so the choice between these three is really down to personal preference. .wma and .ogg both have produce higher quality output than .mp3, and possess no restrictive licensing ( .wma is free for Windows usage, but people tend not to like Microsoft formats. .ogg is completely free, but is still in an early stage of development. )

quote: All that said, Unreal Tournament's soundtrack was largely written in Buzz, so that says something about its viability as a platform, I suppose

All various MOD's actually. I guess it is feasible that it was originally written in Buzz then ported to MOD, but to me it sounds like it was all tracked.

Slightly different, but there is an open-source Buzz-esque program called Psycle. Due to it being open-source, I guess that it is more likely that there is a standalone player available. If not, it would be fairly easy to make your own. Still have the CPU usage problemo, so maybe Buzz->Wav->mp3/ogg/wma is the best choice.

Edited by - Colin Barry on October 30, 2001 4:22:16 AM

ok- d''oh. dumb=me I was thinking Buzz was used in making UT because of Skaven''s involvement (since he more or less switched over to Buzz) but in fact his contribution was made w. Impulse Tracker so my bad. . . other that, I have to say that the CPU usage problem is a *very* big one. When I use Buzz, it usually takes 80-90% of my 500mhz''s CPU cycles to get a professional sounding track.