Mod Archive Forums

Community => The Lobby => Topic started by: fuzion.mixer01 on July 05, 2020, 15:49:49

Title: Surround in .mod?
Post by: fuzion.mixer01 on July 05, 2020, 15:49:49

I'm confused as to how this author managed to execute surround pan in this module.

https://modarchive.org/index.php?request=view_by_moduleid&query=32325

Also, there's a command "?91" (as shown in the attachment) that activates the surround when played back on OpenMPT. This could be the S91 command from .it.

Does this mean that there was actually a way to hack panning controls in .mods? That's pretty cool, ngl.

Title: Re: Surround in .mod?
Post by: Saga Musix on July 05, 2020, 19:43:54

ModPlug Tracker (and maybe some others but that's rather unlikely) used 7-bit panning with surround command 8A4 for MOD files, much like the X command in the S3M format. However, it was much more common to have 8-bit panning (without surround) in MOD files, like FT2 did it, so OpenMPT uses 8-bit panning these days.
If OpenMPT detects that a MOD file uses 7-bit panning, it will convert it to 8-bit panning on import and converts command 8A4 to its IT/S3M equivalent S91 (but since that command does not exist in MOD files it is shown as a questionmark).

Most players will most likely assume 8-bit panning and not do the same conversion from 7-bit panning as OpenMPT does, so it's not a good idea to rely on this hack.