User profile for user: Bill Strohm
Bill Strohm Author
User level: Level 3
564 points

Missing Sound in Video Game... QuickTime Can't open "AIFC" Files

Recently bought "Alida," whose sound files are in AIFC format. Understand this is a common Mac sound file format, but for some reason no sounds show up in the game, and if I open QuickTime player and double-click any of the ".aifc" sound files stored in the game folder, QT returns the error message "The movie could not be opened." Clicking "OK" sends me another message stating that QuickTime needs another component to play the movie. Clicking "OK" there sends me to this page:
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/resources/components.html?os=OSX&ctype=73646563&c subtype=696d6134

Unfortunately, on that page are 11 different codecs, none of which address ".aifc" files. I've looked up the AIFC file format information on Google, and there is a lot, but no pointers to the correct codec for a Mac. Can anyone suggest what I need? My version of QuickTime is 7.6.4 (Pro).

PowerMac Dual 2.7 GHz G5, Mac OS X (10.4.11), Desktop G3 (1997) upgraded CPU, RAM, Hard Disks

Posted on Jul 10, 2010 4:53 PM

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User profile for user: Bill Strohm
Bill Strohm Author
User level: Level 3
564 points

Jul 10, 2010 5:43 PM in response to BDAqua

BDAqua,

Thanks for your response. The sub-message under "This movie can not be played" was "An invalid track was found in the movie." This error message is repeated for all of the ".aif" (AIFC according to "Get Info") files if an attempt is made to open them in QT. Strangely enough, there are some movies not identified with any suffix at all which QT can play (with sound) by double-clicking in Finder. Could the "invalid track" be something the game uses to call the file?

Why would I convert a sound file to the same format?
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User profile for user: BDAqua
BDAqua
User level: Level 10
250,259 points

Jul 10, 2010 6:22 PM in response to Bill Strohm

Could the "invalid track" be something the game uses to call the file?


There are lots of tricks like that that Games use as a sort of protection, even skewing files so as to make only their application know how to read them... not sure on this of course.

Why would I convert a sound file to the same format?


One thing about "Standards"... there are as many interpretations of them as there are companies. There are likely more than one kind of .aifc files. I'm thinking the Game itself is only going be looking for "certain_file.aifc" so it would have to be at least named that, though converting it to .aiff or even .mp3 might work if the extension was renamed to .aifc.

To just play them outside the Game converting it to anything should work.

There's also a know bugabo with certain .aifc files...

With the development of the Mac OS X operating system, Apple created a new type of AIFF which is, in effect, an alternative little-endian byte order format.

Because the AIFF architecture has no provision for alternative byte order, Apple used the existing AIFF-C compression architecture, and created a "pseudo-compressed" codec called sowt (twos spelled backwards). The only difference between a standard AIFF file and an AIFF-C/sowt file is the byte order; there is no compression involved at all.[3]

Apple uses this new little-endian AIFF type as its standard on Mac OS X. >When a file is imported to or exported from iTunes in "AIFF" format, it is actually AIFF-C/sowt that is being used. When audio from an audio CD disc is imported by dragging to the Mac OS X Desktop, the resulting file is also an AIFF-C/sowt. In all cases, Apple refers to the files simply as "AIFF", and uses the ".aiff" extension.

For the vast majority of users this technical situation is completely unnoticeable and irrelevant. The sound quality of standard AIFF and AIFF-C/sowt are identical, and the data can be converted back and forth without loss. Users of older audio applications, however, may find that an AIFF-C/sowt file will not play, or will prompt the user to convert the format on opening, or will play as static.

All traditional AIFF and AIFF-C files continue to work normally on Mac OS X (including on the new Intel-based hardware), and many third-party audio applications as well as hardware continue to use the standard AIFF big-endian byte order.

Note: As of Mac OS X version 10.4.9, the system will sometimes incorrectly display the AIFC icon for files with the .aif extension, whether or not the actual file format is AIFF or AIFF-C. This can be verified by opening the files in a hex editor and checking the FORM chunk's form type. This can sometimes happen when exporting files from QuickTime, and frequently happens when sending and receiving files between Windows and Mac computers or extracting files from an archive.


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

EDIT: Get HexEdit and open that file for a look...

http://hexedit.sourceforge.net/

Message was edited by: BDAqua
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User profile for user: Bill Strohm
Bill Strohm Author
User level: Level 3
564 points

Jul 10, 2010 9:50 PM in response to BDAqua

BDAqua,

I appreciate you taking the time to answer again. Yes, I read the Wiki article. The bottom line, though, is that it doesn't help much. I took your advice and opened one of the .aif files in HexEdit. The Type/Creator in the header is "AIFF/TVOD." In its right column, HexEdit shows "FORM.K..AIFCFVER," whatever that means. If HexEdit says in the header it is "AIFF," and in the right column it says it's "AIFCFVER," what is it? Compressed or uncompressed? Apple-compatible or not? The QuickTime Preferences menu item, under "Advanced," afer clicking on "MIME," shows a listing of audio files that QuickTime (v 7.6.4) can handle. AIFF is the first one, and acceptable extensions are listed as aiff, aif, aifc, and cdda. So QT should be able to play the files...???
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User profile for user: Bill Strohm
Bill Strohm Author
User level: Level 3
564 points

Jul 11, 2010 9:37 AM in response to BDAqua

BDAqua,

Yep, have done both... same response. E-mailed Coz Russo, the Aussie who wrote the program. His response was "This is an aged product, and as such is not tested with current operating systems."

Could this have anything to do with all that "little endian" jazz I read about? I don't understand it, but is there a converter that can change the .aifc format to an alternate type? The game was written in 2003 for Mac OS X 10.2.1. My QT version is 7.6.4, and the "Minimum Requirement" for QT is "QuickTime 5 or greater." Has Apple changed QuickTime since then, with respect to its ability to play .aifc files of vintage 2003?

Do you know what an "invalid track" is?
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User profile for user: Bill Strohm
Bill Strohm Author
User level: Level 3
564 points

Jul 11, 2010 9:35 PM in response to BDAqua

BDAqua,

I downloaded Sound Converter (thanks) and dragged a couple of the smaller .aif files onto it after specifying that I wanted the app to output .aifc format. The results consistently allowed QuickTime Player to play the converted sounds. Unfortunately Alida is still silent. Also unfortunately the real test would be to convert some of the larger files. I noticed that the converted files were MUCH larger than the originals. For instance, a 96 KB file enlarged to 404 KB, and a 140 KB file enlarged to 564 KB. I'm guessing that the original formats are actually compressed .aifc files, but compressed with some codec that is not decompressing when the file is called by the game app.

Do you still think this is an "endian" problem? If so, who is in charge of the Bureau of Endian Affairs?
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User profile for user: Bill Strohm
Bill Strohm Author
User level: Level 3
564 points

Jul 11, 2010 10:08 PM in response to Bill Strohm

I just received a reply from Cos Russo, as follows:

"The reason why sound files are not playing is quicktime. Apple and quicktime are notorious for non-backward compatibility, so I would say apple has dropped some codec formats.

The sound plays when it is part of a cut scene because it is part of the mov file.

There is not much that can be done - Windows give users the opportunity to play games in previous os modes, but apple do not.

You could try and install the recommended quicktime version on your mac, but I would advise doing this with a system that is sacrificial."

Does he mean that the .mov file somehow calls the .aifc file? Why wouldn't the .mov file be carrying the sound itself rather than calling a separate file? Don't understand. Or does he mean that those .mov files that DO have sound play because they already contain the sound?
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User profile for user: Bill Strohm
Bill Strohm Author
User level: Level 3
564 points

Sep 21, 2010 4:26 PM in response to BDAqua

I did some online research which indicated that the codec used for those audio files is IMA 4:1. My research also indicated that Apple supposedly included that codec in all versions of QT from v 2.1 through 7. This appears not to be true, or else Tiger does not play nicely with that codec.

On my PowerMac G5, If I open the QuickTime Player v 6.0.3, the Classic OS subsystem automatically opens. If I then use this older version of QuickTime to open any of the ".aif" files in the Alida folder, they play perfectly. Since v 6.0.3 was the latest version of QT prior to QT 7.0, I conclude that QT 7.0 dropped the IMA 4:1 codec, contrary to the information shown on two web pages as kept through QT 7..

I have stated my problem in my "Cocoa/Forge" forum thread, and have received some replies, but the issue is still unresolved. My approach there was to ask if "Perian" QuickTime components for the Mac could be updated to add the IMA 4:1 codec to its list of components, since I have the current version installed on my computer and it is compatible. My impression is that the response was "well, maybe... it depends."

Under "More details" in the "Get Info" function for the Alida app, the option is given to open Alida in Classic. If I check that option, Classic and Alida will open when Alida is double-clicked, and the sounds which were missing at the beginning of Alida under OS X are all there. However, once the introduction is passed, and the first "interactive" scene is next, the program quits back to the Mac OS X Finder. At that point if Classic is not stopped, the cursor will freeze and I have to reboot. (Alida was written for OS X, after all!)

The latest response from "cocoaforge" is a promise to look at OS X 10.4 in a week or two. So this matter is still in work but unresolved.
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User profile for user: BDAqua
BDAqua
User level: Level 10
250,259 points

Sep 21, 2010 5:07 PM in response to Bill Strohm

Hi Bill,

SoundApp can play or convert files dropped onto it in a variety of formats. In addition, it supports Play Lists which are lists of sound files that can be saved for later usage. Files in a Play List can be played or converted as a group or individually. SoundApp supports a randomized shuffle playback mode and repeated playback of Play Lists.

The following sound file formats are supported:

* SoundCap (including Huffman-compressed) and Studio Session Instruments,
* SoundEdit (including stereo, MACE-3 and MACE-6),
* AIFF, AIFF-C (8-, 12-, 16-, 24- and 32-bit, MACE-3, MACE-6, IMA 4:1, µ-law and and QuickTime codecs),
* System sound and 'snd ' resource (including MACE-3, MACE-6, IMA 4:1 and µ-law),
* QuickTime MooV (soundtracks only, including MIDI movies),
* Sun Audio .au and NeXT .snd (including µ-law, a-law, 8-, 16-, 24- and 32-bit linear, 32- and 64-bit floating point, G.721 ADPCM and G.723 ADPCM),
* Windows WAVE (including MPEG Layer III, GSM-, IMA- and MS ADPCM-compressed, µ-law and a-law, 8-, 16- and 32-bit linear),
* MPEG audio (layers I, II and III, requires a PowerPC processor for playback),
* Iomega RecordIT,
* CD audio,
* Sound Blaster VOC (including 8-, 16-bit and stereo),
* Atari AVR (including stereo and 8- and 16-bit),
* many varieties of MODs,
* ScreamTracker 3 module (S3M),
* Multitracker module (MTM),
* Impulse Tracker module (IT) (except those with compressed instruments; requires a PowerPC processor),
* MIDI (type 0, 1 and 2, including GS and XG),
* Amiga IFF/8SVX (including stereo and compressed),
* Sound Designer
* Sound Designer II (include split stereo),
* IRCAM (8-, 16-bit and 32-bit floating point),
* Ensoniq PARIS,
* Psion Series 3 and EPOC 32 (Psion Series 5) sound,
* Nomad II voice (preliminary support),
* DVI ADPCM and
* raw GSM.

http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~franke/SoundApp/

MPlayer does...

QT variant of IMA ADPCM encoder

http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/news.html

Easy Video Recorder for Mac supports the below audio codecs:

* MACE 3:1
* MACE 6:1
* QDesign Music 2
* Qualcomm PureVoice
* ALaw 2:1
* 32-bit Float Pointing
* 64-bit Float Pointing
* IMA 4:1
* 24-bit Integer
* 32-bit Integer
* uLaw 2:1

http://www.video-recorder.net/faq.html
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User profile for user: Bill Strohm
Bill Strohm Author
User level: Level 3
564 points

Sep 22, 2010 9:42 AM in response to BDAqua

BDAqua,

Wow, that's a huge amount of information... thanks. But maybe I haven't described accurately my issue. It's not that I need to be able to play these files; I can do that using Classic and QT v 6.0.3. It's that I need a QT Component such as found in "~Library/QuickTime" or "System/Library/QuickTime," or a modified QuickTime Framework, so that "Alida" can find and use the decoder it needs (IMA 4:1) to play its audio files, *while playing the game.*

I think the problem is that although the IMA 4:1 codec may in fact be located in QT somewhere, the QT/OS interaction is not allowing the game to find it. But it can, if I open Alida in Classic.

Unfortunately the game will play in Classic only long enough to verify that the audio is there, and then it quits to the desktop. And the game was written for Mac OS X, but in 10.4.11, although the video plays perfectly, the audio is missing.
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Missing Sound in Video Game... QuickTime Can't open "AIFC" Files

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