Allow .FLAC files for the sound section

[GrapesOfWath]

Currently, the sound section supports MP3 and WAV files. This is good, as war3 supports both of those file types, however, MP3 files tend to be not great quality and they degrade over time, and while WAV quality isn't bad, the file sizes are enormous. FLAC is a good middle ground as it uses lossless compression, meaning the quality stays good, and the file size doesn't reach as huge numbers as WAV files do. War3 does also support FLACs of course, so it would be very hot and sexy of the powers that be to add FLAC support. Thanks fellas!
EDIT: you also are not able to cleanly loop an mp3

 

[Kyrbi0]

This seems reasonable, though I'm not in charge of how the site works, or even the Sound section.

It's a real shame that sound modding has never really been able to be supported better over the years (I keep meaning to run that 4th VA Contest...). Would that the Sound Editor could just import stuff & use it... Sigh.

 

[Pyrogasm]

There's no reason not to support FLAC, seems a silly oversight.

MP3 files ... degrade over time

What? How is that even possible with a digital file?

 

[GrapesOfWath]

There's no reason not to support FLAC, seems a silly oversight.


What? How is that even possible with a digital file?

a quick google search has revealed that somebody lied to me several years ago

but even still, mp3 suck FLAC #1 campeão mundo
EDIT: you also are not able to cleanly loop an mp3

 

[Dr Super Good]

MP3 files tend to be not great quality

Their quality depends on the bitrate used to encode them. High bit rates will result in near lossless (as good as imperceptible) audio.

and they degrade over time

Only if they are stored inappropriately, in a way that does not have sufficient error correction and detection. For all practical purposes they will not degrade over time. This risk affects all files and file formats as well, although some are more resistant to it than others.

If you meant with respect to playback time, as opposed to real time, then that is not the case as most MP3 encodings try to maintain a consistent quality throughout the stream.

War3 does also support FLACs of course, so it would be very hot and sexy of the powers that be to add FLAC support.

This is the main reason to add support for the format to the section. If Warcraft III supports resources of that format, then the resource sections for Warcraft III should also support that format.

you also are not able to cleanly loop an mp3

Warcraft III supports looping audio at all?! The only looping audio I recall literally just restarts the entire sound playback, instead of using loop points or other advanced audio features found in many games.

 

[GrapesOfWath]

Warcraft III supports looping audio at all?! The only looping audio I recall literally just restarts the entire sound playback, instead of using loop points or other advanced audio features found in many games.

I'm not talking about loop points in particular, but the looping of an entire sound. But yeah, if you try to loop an mp3 sound that way, you get a noticeable short pop of dead air that isn't there in a wav/flac because mp3s add a tiny bit of extra trailing space on the end of files