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[Pete301]

Hey Guys,

Can anyone here tell me the pros for ADPCM as a compression format for use in games. As far as I am aware, it is very lossy, doesn't compress as well as Vorbis or other standard (psychoacoustic based) compression formats. The only good I find in it is that it can be streamed because it is an extremely simple format.

Does anyone use ADPCM for sound effects and why?

[groovyone]

ADPCM starts to distort higher frequencies unless you use a high final sample rate.

OGG Vorbis is better quality and is good for replicating high frequencies but has a higher CPU hit than ADPCM. Good for Speech, Music and not so frequent or larger sound effects.

I've used ADPCM a lot in various games depending on the sound. You can A/B a sound when compressed with ADPCM and if adjusting the final sample frequency doesn't improve the sound, either - re-author by filtering or limiting the high frequencies more. ADPCM is a reasonably good compromise between compression and speed. Anything you pitch down a lot use raw wav or ogg.