DirectSong generally - Guild Wars Forums

KeeWee · Oct 24, 2005, 03:07 AM // 03:07

Could someone post an Idiot's Guide to DirectSong's add-ons? I've looked at the threads on this and come out more puzzled than when I went in, and DirectSong's own site is useless for basic info.

It says you can buy (@US$5.99@):

1. Guild Wars Special Edition Soundtrack
2. Guild Wars Battle Pak One

And the Sorrows Furnace update is free.

Questions:

1. Are the first two cumulative with each other?
2. How do they relate to the soundtrack that came with the standard game in-box? Does the game engine contain codes that trigger specific tracks or do they just play at random?
3. Some threads refer to 'obtaining licences'. What's this all about?
4. If the game's in-built soundtrack works, shouldn't these add-ons? Or do you need special apps. to be able to play them?
5. How big are the downloads? Some of us have to buy a monthly ration of data. Are these downloads going to eat that up?
6. Don't they get just as boring as the in-game music after the first hundred or so repetitions?

Thanks

heist23 · Oct 24, 2005, 03:23 AM // 03:23

1. the Soundtrack and the Battle Pak 1 are separate products.
2. the standard soundtrack that game with the regular game plays only about 50% of the songs in the Official Soundtrack, thanks to the recent updates. they are played at random (or on a hidden playlist, i'm not completely sure.)
3. Licenses are required to play the music. 4 licenses are given per Pak.
4. thanks to a recent update, the Official Soundtrack now works with the game. the Paks work in-game, although the Furnace Pak works only in Grenth's Footprint and Sorrow's Furnace. The songs played are all at random.
5. This question is one i can't answer in detail. all i know is the Furnace Pak is a small download, about 5-7 MB total. estimated.
6. Heh, i don't really know. i still like the ingame music. sometimes i head to the Maguuma areas just to listen to the music.

koneko · Oct 24, 2005, 04:06 AM // 04:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by KeeWee

3. Some threads refer to 'obtaining licences'. What's this all about?

Silly anti-piracy stuff. It's basically to prevent you from copying and distributing the files (why would you, though?)

Quote:

Originally Posted by KeeWee

5. How big are the downloads? Some of us have to buy a monthly ration of data. Are these downloads going to eat that up?

Special Edition Soundtrack: ~60MB
Battle Pak One: ~55MB

Or so I'm told, at least.

Quote:

Originally Posted by KeeWee

6. Don't they get just as boring as the in-game music after the first hundred or so repetitions?

I would assume so. I turn off the in-game music and have a media player running in the background. *shrug*

KeeWee · Oct 24, 2005, 04:54 AM // 04:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by koneko

Silly anti-piracy stuff. It's basically to prevent you from copying and distributing the files (why would you, though?)

Special Edition Soundtrack: ~60MB
Battle Pak One: ~55MB

Or so I'm told, at least.

Sheesh! Can U use download managers on this? I've an unreliable connection and if there's no ability to resume downloads if it falls over after 100MB or so I'd say "Darn!" or something.

koneko · Oct 24, 2005, 11:08 AM // 11:08

http://www.directsong.com/support/

Quote:

Originally Posted by Direct Song

I really can't connect - what else can I do?

You can download a zip file of the various music packages at http://www.directsong.com/zip . Unzip, keeping the directory structure intact. It is important that all music be a subdirectory of DirectSong. Then run the "RegisterDirectSongDirectory.exe" program that is in the DirectSong directory which will mark the location of your files so Guild Wars can find them. Even after all that, you must click on the music files and listen to them in Windows Media Player in order to retrieve a license. Obviously this will only work for music that you have a license for - so you need to register to get a free Mini-Pak or purchase other music before it will play.

If you have a user friendly FTP client (like CuteFTP) you can also simply drag and drop files from the DirectSong subtree that is posted there to your hard drive. You will still need to run the "RegisterDirectSongDirectory.exe" program to tell Guild Wars where your files are located. NOTE: You may need to run this program twice!

Feed the address of the .zip archive of what you purchased into your download manager and follow the instructions. Again, I haven't done this, so I'm just going by what seems logical.

What Direct Song is doing is simply being a pain in the ass.

KeeWee · Oct 25, 2005, 12:14 AM // 00:14

Hello all.

Thanks for that.

So is this right? You download the extra music paks but the Game Engine plays them, as long as it knows where they are? So you don't have to set them running in Media Player before logging on? But YOU have to decide which pak to play and only that one plays? And if you want to change that you have to suspend GW and poke about in the entrails of your machine to switch them over? And whatever plays does so at random?

If that's so, it's all very disappointing and I don't think it's worth what DirectSong are charging.

If it ADDED new stuff to the existing playlist so the same old tunes don't keep coming around so often, that would be great. If it added stuff that was triggered by events in the game, like a theme for Devona or Cynn whenever they appeared or were the focus, that would be great - and very Wagnerian! If it added atmospheric music to what was actually happening on screen, like different battle music for different monsters or laments on the death of an ally, that would be terrific - but surely no more than should be easily possible with a bit of collaboration between DirectSong and the game programmers. Just to have it playing in a loop in the background is no different from having a CD of the music of one of the Lord of the Rings movies in your CD player as you play the game.

If I'm right I have to agree with koneko - these DirectSong paks are a great deal less than they could be and should be, and I'm going to wait to support with my cash someone who's going to do the job properly.

Mind you it seems I can't use them anyway. I never use Windows Media Player and have uninstalled it as I don't like anything on my machine that connects to the Net and uploads information about me behind my back. I still use deal old CD player, which does everything I want. I still don't understand this licencing business and it all sounds a bit farcical to me. If I purchase music (or it's available for free) I expect to be able to listen to it without having to go back for 'permission'.

Cheers.

koneko · Oct 25, 2005, 12:31 AM // 00:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by KeeWee

So you don't have to set them running in Media Player before logging on?

Nope. Windows Media Player exists as an intermediary between you <--> Direct Song for your licence.

Quote:

Originally Posted by KeeWee

But YOU have to decide which pak to play and only that one plays? And if you want to change that you have to suspend GW and poke about in the entrails of your machine to switch them over? And whatever plays does so at random?

I would assume that if you had both music "paks" installed, Guild Wars would merge the new songs with the default set and handle the random shuffling of all the songs automatically. Or songs may have some set trigger to play at some specified time/area. Again, don't quote me on this.

Quote:

Originally Posted by KeeWee

Mind you it seems I can't use them anyway. I never use Windows Media Player and have uninstalled it as I don't like anything on my machine that connects to the Net and uploads information about me behind my back. I still use deal old CD player, which does everything I want. I still don't understand this licencing business and it all sounds a bit farcical to me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management

Quote:

Originally Posted by KeeWee

If I purchase music (or it's available for free) I expect to be able to listen to it without having to go back for 'permission'.

Congrats, you have now joined the hundreds of thousands of people out there who strongly oppose the concept of DRM.

=HT=Ingram · Oct 25, 2005, 12:45 AM // 00:45

Its interesting to me on a system that is so open. Guildwars. that they decided to implament a system that is so secured only a fool would expose their system to it just for a few song additions... The windows DRM system locks down way too much to be trusted. I downloaded the files and was pleased to find that once I removed the DRM from the music it still worked. so I encourage others to do the same.

Basically I Made the CD then ripped the music back off without DRM (I recomend Audiograbber for this), and renamed them the exact same as the DRMed files on the DRMed computer. And it worked fine without having to put DRM on my windows 2000 main computer. I don't give a fig for my laptop so having DRM on it was no biggy. its easily removed by a restore... But on my main system its unacceptable to exist.

Why this surprised me was because Guildwars is such a open system. I mean can you think of even one other game in existance that you can purchase, put in your key once for account setup and Never need to again? and yet be able to play the game litereally ANYWHERE in the world? on any machine in the world? just by downloading the small client file and simpily logging into the system with username and password? I can't.

Guildwars is the most user friendly game in this way I have ever seen. they make this so easy, I was shocked at the need for DRM in the music paks. Even the free one was required to install DRM even though it was not charged for... Go figure.

I would have rather the game just have streamed them to our systems then having to go throguh all the fuss of getting it the way we did...

But... I'm happy mine works as I need it too... Thats all I care about...

KeeWee · Oct 26, 2005, 11:21 AM // 11:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by =HT=Ingram

Guildwars is the most user friendly game in this way I have ever seen. they make this so easy, I was shocked at the need for DRM in the music paks. Even the free one was required to install DRM even though it was not charged for... Go figure.

I would have rather the game just have streamed them to our systems then having to go throguh all the fuss of getting it the way we did...

I agree, though I don't understand this DRM business as I never download music anyway. I'd pay for music that integrated itself into the game, but not all this nonsense.

Given the size of the music pak files I guess they should be optional, and available for separate download by a multi-connection manager, but I can't help feeling this is just a bit of 'buy the T-shirt' customising.

heist23 · Nov 08, 2005, 07:28 AM // 07:28

well, i dislike the fact that DirectSong causes lockups when it's finding the file path for my SF pak. leaves me in the dust for a good 1-2 minutes...

Caelus The Fallen · Nov 08, 2005, 12:40 PM // 12:40

The lock up is a problem, very annoying.

On a different note, in my experience the playback isnt random; when I was in Wizards Folly for exmple, I always got the "Over the Shiverpeaks" theme playing; in my case this was obvious because the "Over the Shiverpeaks" track was corrupted at the end (noticable in Windows Media) and would crash GW when it reached the bad part of the track - simple delete and redownload of the track fixed this.
As for concerns of how "dull" the music is, i find the direct song stuff to be stronger than the origional music, but like all GW muic, it is very strongly themed, and can get quite "samey".

Oct 24, 2005, 03:07 AM // 03:07	#1
KeeWee Pre-Searing Cadet Join Date: Sep 2005 Profession: W/	DirectSong generally Could someone post an Idiot's Guide to DirectSong's add-ons? I've looked at the threads on this and come out more puzzled than when I went in, and DirectSong's own site is useless for basic info. It says you can buy (@US$5.99@): 1. Guild Wars Special Edition Soundtrack 2. Guild Wars Battle Pak One And the Sorrows Furnace update is free. Questions: 1. Are the first two cumulative with each other? 2. How do they relate to the soundtrack that came with the standard game in-box? Does the game engine contain codes that trigger specific tracks or do they just play at random? 3. Some threads refer to 'obtaining licences'. What's this all about? 4. If the game's in-built soundtrack works, shouldn't these add-ons? Or do you need special apps. to be able to play them? 5. How big are the downloads? Some of us have to buy a monthly ration of data. Are these downloads going to eat that up? 6. Don't they get just as boring as the in-game music after the first hundred or so repetitions? Thanks

Oct 25, 2005, 12:45 AM // 00:45	#8
=HT=Ingram Forge Runner Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Anchorage Alaska Guild: Haz Team [HT] Profession: R/W	Its interesting to me on a system that is so open. Guildwars. that they decided to implament a system that is so secured only a fool would expose their system to it just for a few song additions... The windows DRM system locks down way too much to be trusted. I downloaded the files and was pleased to find that once I removed the DRM from the music it still worked. so I encourage others to do the same. Basically I Made the CD then ripped the music back off without DRM (I recomend Audiograbber for this), and renamed them the exact same as the DRMed files on the DRMed computer. And it worked fine without having to put DRM on my windows 2000 main computer. I don't give a fig for my laptop so having DRM on it was no biggy. its easily removed by a restore... But on my main system its unacceptable to exist. Why this surprised me was because Guildwars is such a open system. I mean can you think of even one other game in existance that you can purchase, put in your key once for account setup and Never need to again? and yet be able to play the game litereally ANYWHERE in the world? on any machine in the world? just by downloading the small client file and simpily logging into the system with username and password? I can't. Guildwars is the most user friendly game in this way I have ever seen. they make this so easy, I was shocked at the need for DRM in the music paks. Even the free one was required to install DRM even though it was not charged for... Go figure. I would have rather the game just have streamed them to our systems then having to go throguh all the fuss of getting it the way we did... But... I'm happy mine works as I need it too... Thats all I care about... Last edited by =HT=Ingram; Oct 25, 2005 at 12:51 AM // 00:51..

Oct 24, 2005, 03:23 AM // 03:23	#2
heist23 Journeyman Join Date: Jul 2005 Profession: R/Mo	1. the Soundtrack and the Battle Pak 1 are separate products. 2. the standard soundtrack that game with the regular game plays only about 50% of the songs in the Official Soundtrack, thanks to the recent updates. they are played at random (or on a hidden playlist, i'm not completely sure.) 3. Licenses are required to play the music. 4 licenses are given per Pak. 4. thanks to a recent update, the Official Soundtrack now works with the game. the Paks work in-game, although the Furnace Pak works only in Grenth's Footprint and Sorrow's Furnace. The songs played are all at random. 5. This question is one i can't answer in detail. all i know is the Furnace Pak is a small download, about 5-7 MB total. estimated. 6. Heh, i don't really know. i still like the ingame music. sometimes i head to the Maguuma areas just to listen to the music.

Oct 25, 2005, 12:14 AM // 00:14	#6
KeeWee Pre-Searing Cadet Join Date: Sep 2005 Profession: W/	Hello all. Thanks for that. So is this right? You download the extra music paks but the Game Engine plays them, as long as it knows where they are? So you don't have to set them running in Media Player before logging on? But YOU have to decide which pak to play and only that one plays? And if you want to change that you have to suspend GW and poke about in the entrails of your machine to switch them over? And whatever plays does so at random? If that's so, it's all very disappointing and I don't think it's worth what DirectSong are charging. If it ADDED new stuff to the existing playlist so the same old tunes don't keep coming around so often, that would be great. If it added stuff that was triggered by events in the game, like a theme for Devona or Cynn whenever they appeared or were the focus, that would be great - and very Wagnerian! If it added atmospheric music to what was actually happening on screen, like different battle music for different monsters or laments on the death of an ally, that would be terrific - but surely no more than should be easily possible with a bit of collaboration between DirectSong and the game programmers. Just to have it playing in a loop in the background is no different from having a CD of the music of one of the Lord of the Rings movies in your CD player as you play the game. If I'm right I have to agree with koneko - these DirectSong paks are a great deal less than they could be and should be, and I'm going to wait to support with my cash someone who's going to do the job properly. Mind you it seems I can't use them anyway. I never use Windows Media Player and have uninstalled it as I don't like anything on my machine that connects to the Net and uploads information about me behind my back. I still use deal old CD player, which does everything I want. I still don't understand this licencing business and it all sounds a bit farcical to me. If I purchase music (or it's available for free) I expect to be able to listen to it without having to go back for 'permission'. Cheers.

Nov 08, 2005, 07:28 AM // 07:28	#10
heist23 Journeyman Join Date: Jul 2005 Profession: R/Mo	well, i dislike the fact that DirectSong causes lockups when it's finding the file path for my SF pak. leaves me in the dust for a good 1-2 minutes...

Nov 08, 2005, 12:40 PM // 12:40	#11
Caelus The Fallen Krytan Explorer Join Date: May 2005 Location: Glasgow Guild: Voice of the Darkness Profession: E/Mo	The lock up is a problem, very annoying. On a different note, in my experience the playback isnt random; when I was in Wizards Folly for exmple, I always got the "Over the Shiverpeaks" theme playing; in my case this was obvious because the "Over the Shiverpeaks" track was corrupted at the end (noticable in Windows Media) and would crash GW when it reached the bad part of the track - simple delete and redownload of the track fixed this. As for concerns of how "dull" the music is, i find the direct song stuff to be stronger than the origional music, but like all GW muic, it is very strongly themed, and can get quite "samey".