Media
OpenAudioMc supports multiple file formats for your sounds, these are:
- .MP3
- .FLAC
- .WEBM
- .WAV
- .OGG
- Google Drive Public Share Link
- DropBox Public Share Link
- SoundCloud
- YouTube
What to use when
| Source | Pros | Cons | Example usecase |
|---|---|---|---|
| Direct MP3 | - Fast - Reliable - Scalable - No strings attached |
- Requires webserver | Best for usecases where timing and reliability is important. (like Ride, Areas, etc etc) |
| Google Drive | - Easy to use - Easy to share - Free |
- Not particularly fast - Links can expire |
For quick and easy file hosting. (Event music, sound effects, etc etc) |
| DropBox | - Fast - Easy to use - Free |
- Url may need manual edits - Links may be blocked when used often |
For general purpose audio hosting. (Same as Direct MP3 but on a smaller scale) |
| SoundCloud | - Stupidly Simple | - Not particularly fast - Some artists prohibit the use of their songs |
Easy music sharing and playback. (Same as Direct MP3, but on a small scale) |
| YouTube | - Stupidly Simple - Reliable |
- Playback isn’t instant - Delay may cause timing issues |
Simple area music, sound effects, dialogue, etc etc |
Notes:
- Youtube videos need to be public and big videos might not work. It’s best to upload your own.
- Some soundcloud artists block their music from being played on third party sites like OpenAudioMc, if a soundcloud song fails to play, its most likely this. You are best off uploading it to your own account (but be sure to set it to public)
- GoogleDrive and DropBox share url’s have to be public and permanent. Please note the permanent part, since it’d be a shame if your music suddenly stops playing.
It is possible to add support for other sources as well. OpenAudioMc has a java api to add support for url manipulations. This means that there are add-on plugins like OpenAudioMc-Youtube to expand the feature set with an alternative youtube engine.
Random media and Playlists.
You might want to shake things up a little every once in a while by assigning random sounds to a region, command or whatever. You can simply do this by stringing multiple sources in a JSON array, so you’d enter something like ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oddp32TODKs","https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBCLsnxNd4Y"] instead of your singular source. The client will choose a random sound from the list when the media is requested to start.
Randomized media with looping tags will reselect their source every time they loop, functioning like a playlist.
Playback Options
The OpenAudioMc audio format is what’s being used throughout the network. It contains the source, and a UNIX timestamp for when the command was executed. This is defined by the plugin and does NOT get changed anywhere further on in the process.
Other optional metadata included:
fadeTime(number): Time for the sound to fade in (in MS)id(text): The ID that will be assigned to the sound. This can be used to stop one specific sound later.loop(true/false): Decide whether the sound should restart after finishing or not. This will mean that the sound will keep playing until manually stopped.pickUp(true/false): Decides if the sound should continue (AKA Sync) between sessions and playersexpirationTimeout(number): The amount of time (in seconds) a sound should be kept for. Setting it to 120 will mean that the client will hear the sound, even if it connected after it started.volume(number): A scaled volume level that will be used for the sound (so you can make sound effects quiet, etc)
All the optional tags should be included in the Play command as a JSON object with the spaces left out, so a fully decked out argment would look like
{fadeTime:1500,id:"station",loop:true,pickup:true,expirationTimeout:3600000,volume:50}