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File formats & specs

This page defines what contributors should aim to deliver. Exact requirements depend on the current Night of the Meteor audio import path (ScummVM fork, internal tools, etc.). Anything not yet confirmed with the programming / audio lead is marked below.

Summary checklist

Item Typical expectation Verify?
Final container WAV (PCM) and/or OGG Vorbis Yes — engine branch
Sample rate 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz (one project-wide choice) Yes
Bit depth 16-bit integer for WAV masters, or 24-bit if team asks Yes
Channels Mono for SFX; Stereo for music unless told otherwise Yes
Looping Seamless loops with documented bar/beat or sample points Yes
Naming sceneId_cueType_v##.ext or team schema Yes

PCM (WAV)

Use when: The team wants lossless sources for later mastering, or the importer requires WAV.

  • Export non-interleaved vs interleaved only if specified (usually interleaved stereo).
  • Avoid float WAV unless the pipeline explicitly supports it; 16-bit PCM is the safest default for compatibility.
  • Leave 1–2 seconds of silence tail only if the cue is not a loop; loops should be trimmed to the exact cycle.

Draft — pending tech verification

Confirm with the project’s audio or engine maintainer: accepted extensions (.wav only vs also .flac), sample rate lock, and whether metadata chunks (BWF bext, iXML) are preserved or stripped by the importer.

Compressed (OGG / etc.)

Use when: The shipped game should stay small and streaming is handled by the engine.

  • Use a consistent quality setting (e.g. Vorbis q5–q7) only after the team standardizes it.
  • Always keep a lossless archive copy (WAV/FLAC) for future remixes unless the brief says otherwise.

Draft — pending tech verification

Confirm whether the runtime uses OGG, MP3, or something else, and whether loop metadata (e.g. LOOPSTART / LOOPLENGTH in sample formats, or engine-specific loop tags) is required.

MIDI (if applicable)

Use when: The game plays music through a synthesizer or soundfont path.

  • Freeze program and bank assignments in documentation.
  • Avoid editorial sysex unless the playback stack supports it.
  • Export Type 0 or Type 1 per importer requirement.

Draft — pending tech verification

Many modern remakes use streamed audio only. Confirm whether MIDI is in scope at all before delivering .mid files.

Loop points

Looping adventure cues should:

  1. Loop cleanly—no click, no level jump, no reverb tail cut awkwardly unless designed as a hard loop.
  2. Document how you looped: “beats 5–36,” “samples 88200–396900,” or a screenshot of the DAW selection.
  3. Provide a one-shot version if the scene can also play the cue from the top without looping.

Loudness

Game mixes are not streaming-platform masters. Prefer:

  • Consistent perceived loudness across cues in the same scene or room.
  • Headroom so downstream SFX and voice do not fight the music.

Agree a reference (e.g. short-term LUFS range or “match this shipped cue”) with the music lead.

File naming

Use ASCII filenames where possible: A-Z, 0-9, _, -. Avoid spaces.

For cutscenes and scene cues, follow Cutscene and cue file naming (game, scene, pipeline stage, branch B##, version v##, optional export and tags).

For other assets, align with the brief. A simple illustrative pattern:

RM01_Day_AmbLoop_v02_stem_melody.wav
RM01_Day_AmbLoop_v02_mix.ogg

Include v02 style revision tokens so engineers do not guess which file is newest.

What not to send

  • MP3 as the only source unless explicitly allowed.
  • Proprietary project files as the only deliverable (.cpr, .logicx, etc.)—pair them with audio exports.
  • Huge uncompressed multitracks unless the team asked for them; use stems agreed in the brief.

Next steps