Description
Describe the project you are working on:
A rhythm game (think Guitar Hero / Dance Dance Revolution / Audiosurf). There will be a feature where players will be able to play the game over their own songs.
Describe how this feature / enhancement will help your project:
As a developer, I have no issues sticking to OGG as preferred music format. It simplifies the task for licensing reasons and performance.
But, I would like users of my game to be able to easily import their own songs. And this is a different story. Asking them to convert their MP3 to OGG files can be a barrier. The in-game editor should be as easy as using an "open" command and locating the music file on the filesystem. It should work with whichever popular music formats (MP3, AAC...) are likely to be found.
Show a mock up screenshots/video or a flow diagram explaining how your proposal will work:
Describe implementation detail for your proposal (in code), if possible:
I am aware of the licensing issues that MP3 support brings around.
Offering audio codec modules in the form of standalone extensions could be a solution. The system could be extended to video codecs as well. Game that do not require licensed audio formats support may not need the extensions.
If this enhancement will not be used often, can it be worked around with a few lines of script?:
No. There is no additional audio codec support available at the moment.
Is there a reason why this should be core and not an add-on in the asset library?:
Competition (example : Unity) already support more formats out-of-the-box AFAIK. We also would need to have the API ready to support such extensions.