Background music in Descent 2

[jakee308]

Some of you out there probably know this but i'll mention it for those of us who are new to broadband internet.
i have modest broadband connection and I have an XM radio. As an XM subscriber, i can also get a streaming audio feed via internet. This is sent as wave audio (at least the wave volume control works on it). I tried it today while playing Descent 2.
It works! I get the xm music AND the game sound effects mixed together.
Now instead of listening to the old midi songs for background, i can listen to a commercial free music channel of my choosing. just turn down the midi volume to zero and adjust your win xp wave vol control and the volume in the game and you're all set!

(system is pent 4 3.2ghz w 1gb mem. don't know how a slower machine would do. sound card is onboard generic sound)

xm is now 14.95 per month but well worth it imo.
if sirius offers an online stream it probably works also.

yes, yes you computer gurus out there are nodding your heads and saying "Well duh, I thought everyone knew that!" Well i'd bet some folks didn't and instead of feeling smug and wise you ought to consider sharing some of your "everybody knows that" wisdom with the rest of us.

[MD-2389]

Or you could simply use a 3.5mm (standard headphone jack) audio cord (costs maybe a couple of dollars at your local Radio Shack) with two male connections to run from your audio source (be it XM, Sirus, whatever) to your line-in jack on your sound card (or in Jake's case, motherboard since he uses onboard audio). Then set "line-in" as your recording source in volume control and enjoy.

[jakee308]

it's jakee or jakee308 please.

look at what i wrote about.
i wasn't sure the audio stream from xm via the INTERNET was going to be in a format that would mix with the effects audio from the game. hooking up an xm radio like that is a pain due to the power supply, antenna and audio output/input wires. When you want to use the radio elsewhere, all those plugs gotta be pulled. even the newer ones still don't get very good reception with the onboard antenna, so you have to hook up the little external antenna. by using the internet, i don't have to plug ANYTHING IN OR OUT. That was my point. I guess you missed that.

[Sirius]

What, that you can play internet audio while playing games?

You're right, wow. O.o

[MD-2389]

No, what you missed is that the method I mentioned is an ALTERNATIVE. Particularly for those that are still on dial-down, which according to roid's unscientific poll is atleast 10% of the active board community. Furthermore, my method doesn't require you to run anything else in the background. Just run a cord to a device that is already nearby.

[jakee308]

sirius, are you serious (pun intended) or just razzing me because of my lack of internet savvy. i thought i'd post what i found because it made my day to be able to listen to a mix of music without burning a cd or having to plug/unplug cords while playing.
which is why i didn't try what md-2389 posted.
would that actually work? will a sound card mix the line in sound with any computer generated sound? i remember from dos/win3.1 days that you couldn't have two programs/inputs to your sound card as it could only work on one input at a time. i.e. 2 separate synth inputs = conflict.

md-2389, i get what you mean. it sounded as if you were saying that using the plugs was as easy and simpler.
i highly recommend getting ANY broadband connection you can afford. Even if you can't afford it, get one. you will never go back to 52k dial.
i believe the fcc changed some rules and now the pots companies are realizing that they have to offer cheap dsl as too many people are switching to dsl/cable.

i have to pay a premium for mine due to some circumstances i can't control. i have to squeeze out the money but i'd rather cut off an arm than go back to 52k.
i quit att and went to vonage as soon as i got my dsl working. using vonage and a cell phone is cheaper than what att was charging me.

[Sirius]

Um, probably a bit of both. I'm just surprised it's a big deal to you. I don't personally do that myself, since the music usually gets in the way of concentration in the game, but yeah, the possibility does seem obvious to me.

[jakee308]

from the day we are born we're learning things that are new to us but obvious to those who came before us.

that doesn't diminish the feeling you have when you discover something is possible that you didn't KNOW could be done.

yes like md-2389 i figured i could wire something up and that would work. i also thought that an audio stream SHOULD work but didn't know the type of audio encoding that it would be in. so when i tried it and it worked, i was tickled to death and in my glee wanted to share that FACT. i prefaced the post by saying "some of you out there probably know this" as i knew someone would. my post was for those who DIDN'T know or hadn't thought of it.
if 1 person learned something please post a reply to sirius.
i wasn't trying to be like "look how clever i am"
if there is one thing i know is that i know very little.
i agree the music can get in the way; if it's too loud but it fills in the silences. however over the years of playing the old themes are very boring.
sheesh, why do you think ipods are so hot? people want to have background music to their day to day. preferably the kind of music they want to hear.

you can put your own emoticons in a post? mind telling me how? love the head against the wall.

[arieligena]

I sometimes play radios from shoutcast.com in winamp, then start D2X-XL.

Otherwise choose a good playlist

[Sirius]

Yeah, I get your drift. I just realised I was probably in the group of people you were talking about. Problem is we don't know which little tricks aren't obvious to everyone.

Now those emoticons... well, if you want anything non-standard, you can either do what I did and go find it elsewhere (came off this page: http://www.gpforums.co.nz/misc.php?s=65 ... howsmilies - as you'll see there are nearly a hundred others there of varying quality), or you can get some guy who's really good at his stuff to draw one for you (emoticons aren't exactly complicated, they just take an art to make look right). I don't personally know anyone like that, but I can think of some people who I suspect do art of the sort.