Ok... well I have 3 version's of my Radio Soundtrack, WAV, MP3, and OGG.

I Use a BSA for all my custom content, I have it working with WAV, but my 26 song soundtrack is over 440mb in size, in and out of my BSA, and ... I don't know how compressing BSA's effect's Vegas accessing files.

So wav is to big, I know why, just don't care for it, I've seen MP3's working, but when pointing my song at the MP3 file, GECK didn't want to play it at all, and GECK wouldn't even load my OGG file... even though I see them in the NV BSA for music.

So........... idk....

If compressing doesn't have any true side effect's I wont mind releasing the update to my evolving mod (Release date is today btw for Alpha v4) but... Its still in Alpha and already over 400mb?

If compressing has adverse effect's then I need to figure out how to use MP3's, thats only about 72mb.

Even though I know OGG doesn't load, why is it there? A friend said something about the ogg telling the mp3 what to do? Not sure what he was talking about but eh... so even packing my BSA with MP3's and OGG's ..... well the OGG soundtrack is about the same size as the MP3's, so it would be close to a 4th of the size.

Any suggestions?

Just a quick note before school: I don't think BSA's are supposed to compress files at all, they simply put all the files together into one large file so you can't mess up the structure of it and 'break' your game.

They do compress. or at least have the option to.

Oh. In all my work in Fo3 I guess I never noticed a filesize difference when in BSA to when its not. I guess it just doesnt compress much?

I did get my radio signal dialog to play using an Mp3, but I think that was a freak occurance. I made a sound object, and tell the dialog line to play the sound object. The sound object is directed to an Mp3. But the weird thing is I cannot get that to work again, setting it up the exact same way. Only that one time it seemed to play the mp3 somehow. Generally it must be wave or ogg if dialog to work.

I also remember hearing something about how you cannot compress songs into a BSA or they wont work. Unfortunately I dont remember where I heard it, or any details, but thats why they have the songs in another folder outside of the BSA as well.

It does work, I went from 440mb to 404mb doing an all compression. I was told only ogg would ever work in a BSA, and the WAV works just fine compressed on my radio, just tested it.

I can have GECK pick mp3 just fine, only problem is I can't press play IN THE GECK to listen to it, which honestly is no big deal, I know which song is which, but if its not working in GECK I think its safe to assume its not working in game either.

Exactly, I'm not sure what the beef is with MP3, but they arent reliable to use.

Anyway lets get to trying to fix your problem, if I am able to help. So the issue is you can only get it to work with .wav files, which are too large? Can you get it to work with .ogg files if they aren't in the BSA? Packaging them up might be whats killing you there, like I said.

You don't exactly get BSA's so let me explain.

When working with a mod, you have file structures, mesh, textures, sound, fx, etc. Well all you do is take the same file structure you use to point geck in the right location, i.e. meshes > dungeons > vault > roomu > vgeardoor-X6.nif

So you package the BSA with the base file structures, the ones you need, them simply name your BSA the same name as your esm. So mines VaultX6, my BSA is VaultX6.

Remove the old file structure's and GECK look's towards the BSA. Now if you have a mix file structure and BSA, it still works, it looks at file structure first then BSA.

Now with OGG... GECK doesn't even open them, at least it opened MP3, it was just a silence tone when i tried to click play to test, OGG wont even load, period.

Well.... I have no point, For not a lot of content (we havent cluttered anything m no monster's, 1 NPC) and its over 400mb download X_X

All of that is the frikin music, [censored] it.

It erk's me, MP3 or even OGG for that matter is not hard, actually MP3 would be easier, you don't get much of a quality loss between MP3 and WAV

MP3 = Compressed
WAV = Un-Compressed

It's just... one of those small details that shouldn't be needed. If they were worried about the damn quality, they should have actually coded in Stereo MP3... I honestly don't know how much harder that is... seeing as how MP3 has been around since early to mid 90's ... Wav if I remember came after the fact.

It's one of those details that is so small, yet extremely annoying.

Thanks for the help Gunmaster.

I know what BSA's are. But you must realize what your saying. It's not simply the same files if they are in a BSA, since its compressing them. If the game uses a file thats not in a BSA, it just uses the file, if its in a BSA, it must uncompress it, then use the file, in realtime. So BSA compression can mess up the use of some files, like music for example.

Anywho, I always see music mods use .wav files because they are the only ones that ever work reliable, so I think thats just a thing you have to deal with with a mod that adds music. :shrug:

It's reliable cause they made it reliable to use with Fallout, but the same can be done with MP3. Let me give you an example of something. Have you heard of RPG Maker VX?

I made a game with that, very low level, low learning curve etc, but even a program as simple, less feature bearing then that had the ability to use and read ogg's, wav's, mp3's, and a few others, but those were the 3 I used / needed. Now GECK its self is a developers tool, a bigger game size doesn't mean its better, and the same is true with this.

Now I did realize the compression issue, it;s why I asked for confirmations. btw BSA doesn't use compression by default, you just have the option to do a compression and on which files. A BSA is just a container, think of it like when you use WinRar and you package something, and you have different levels of compression. Store which does none, and Best which does everything possible. A BSA by default is a container for decent file management, so I'm happy Bethesda was smart to use that from the start, I just wish I didn't need a 3rd party tool to create my own XD.

Also, if I used a compressing BSA, I'd rather compress a 4mb mp3 then a 40mb mp3, that's all the more it has to take out. If mp3 wasn't stable... it wouldn't be industry standard. I have an issue of releasing my mod which is still in Alpha, at 400mb ... Btw its not just a Radio Mod, its a Vault, Dungeon, Quest, NPC, Radio, possibly Companion, Story w/ Voice Actors.