Hi all,
It took us some while to get a new release out - sorry for that! But now for the good news:
OpenMPT 1.18 has been released to the public today, and that includes two major improvements for you jazz lovers:
- All Jazz Jackrabbit 1 PSM files play perfectly now, as you would hear them in the game - including surround channels! Of course, the PSM files from other games like Epic Pinball or Extreme Pinball play perfectly now as well!
- Finally: Support for Jazz Jackrabbit 2 J2B files is there! The loader is practically the same as the one in foo_dumb, so it gives very accurate results.

Now you can finally forget all those crappy S3M conversions of PSM files or those incomplete pre-releases of the JJ2 soundtrack. OpenMPT is the easier solution. :>

Greets,
-saga

Newspost'd. Great work!

Sweet!

Great job, loading/playing the files works flawless for me!

Made my whole day

pity that it isn't a player, only a tracker

You're the second person saying this and I can only quote myself here:
You can simply save the files as IT files in OpenMPT – load the file and hit the save button, no additional work is necessary. IT files can be played with many popular module players, for example XMPlay. Another solution is using foobar2k with the foo_dumb plugin, which has support for both formats - but that only works if you want to use fb2k of course.

Plays all the JJ2 music fine, sadly theres a lot of other j2b files it doesn't play too well, but this was intended for the JJ2 music only ?

You have done a great job anyway so thanks very much.

Originally Posted by Speeza

Plays all the JJ2 music fine, sadly theres a lot of other j2b files it doesn't play too well, but this was intended for the JJ2 music only ?

I am not aware of any other game using the J2B format. Where can I get more J2B files? I have just those from a very early version of the game and those from TSF.

Originally Posted by Jojo

I am not aware of any other game using the J2B format. Where can I get more J2B files? I have just those from a very early version of the game and those from TSF.

http://mods.jazz2online.com/search/j2b/

Ok, so those are all conversion of existing files. The Galaxy Sound System certainly plays some things differently that the original trackers and does not support all features of f.e. the IT format, so I dunno if I can actually do much about the conversion here. Just listen to the original modules. :-P Or are there any very obvious cases where the ingame playback is quite different from OpenMPT's playback?

OK, I see now that there are still a few things to do in the instrument part of J2B files, which were not used at all by any of the original ingame files. Expect this to be implemented in the next version.

Thanks very much Jojo, well appreciated.

Originally Posted by Jojo

Or are there any very obvious cases where the ingame playback is quite different from OpenMPT's playback?

One example I've found where an incorrect playback can be clearly noticed is "The voice of death." (Voice_of.j2b). It sounds like it has something to do with the note cuts (which should be fades).

Yes, note off events and envelopes are not supported yet, and they were not used in the game at all.
Does anyone have the old version of mod2j2b which outputs J2B files in the old format (DEADBABE signature)? I need that for deciphering the old instrument format.

http://www.dutchfurs.com/~haze/blog/...9kMmoyYi56aXA=

?

Nope, that's the new version (DEADBEAF signature) :\ The old version must be floating around somewhere, as some of those custom J2Bs are still in the old format (for example _almages.j2b)

http://www.jazz2online.com/junk/mod2j2b.zip seems to be slightly older, and has a different filesize, perhaps that's the one.

You're da man, that's it!

Ok, I have spent some nice evenings with reverse-engineering the instrument format and I think I got everything working now. So the next version of OpenMPT should also play those custom J2B files.

Originally Posted by Jojo

Ok, I have spent some nice evenings with reverse-engineering the instrument format and I think I got everything working now. So the next version of OpenMPT should also play those custom J2B files.

Once again well appreciated, thanks.

OpenMPT 1.18.03.00 has just been released and should now also play custom J2B files perfectly.

Originally Posted by Jojo

OpenMPT 1.18.03.00 has just been released and should now also play custom J2B files perfectly.

Comments:

Old versions (in my case 1.17.02.48, and a few other i cant remember) still say that 1.17.02.53 is the newest version

Saving .j2b's as mp3 does not quite work properly (although it didnt in 1.18.00.00 and i forgot to bring it up)
MPT incorrectly reads some songs endpoint, and therefore cuts the track early. This is most noticable (that ive seen, having converted near every j2b in existance) with dang.j2b and carrotus .j2b. Dangs original track length is 2:17 but is saved as 1:12, and Carrotus's original is 1:51 while saving at 1:22

(Can anyone else confirm the validity of this error, or is it local in my case?)

As for fixing support on custom .j2b's, the reading and quality is improved, but certain tracks still experience unexpected clipping.

Overall id give this a 9/10 and a definate dl recommend

EDIT
After some investigations it would appear that dang's length would be in the looping, (as mine is looped twice) and carrotus's would be in that for some reason mine has a 30 second outro that in not in the j2b for whatever reason, somehow a different version?

Still, a confimirrmation/ deny would be of interest to me.

I am still requesting i can open and save .j2b files.

Originally Posted by FawFul

I am still requesting i can open and save .j2b files.

That will certainly not happen, as it's a niche format and you can use mod2j2b if you really want to have J2B files. Afterall, J2B is not a stand-alone format - It's just a converted format (there is no tracker to generate j2b files natively), so it doesn't make sense to support it. And afterall, you can just throw your MOD/S3M/XM/IT files at Jazz2 and it will play them without conversion.

Old versions (in my case 1.17.02.48, and a few other i cant remember) still say that 1.17.02.53 is the newest version

The updater has been removed and is not maintained anymore.

MPT incorrectly reads some songs endpoint, and therefore cuts the track early. This is most noticable (that ive seen, having converted near every j2b in existance) with dang.j2b and carrotus .j2b. Dangs original track length is 2:17 but is saved as 1:12, and Carrotus's original is 1:51 while saving at 1:22

You're wrong here. You most likely compare MPT's output to the tracks from Lori Central, right? I can only say it again that those files are pre-releases and do differ from the final versions.
Even if the order list in dang.j2b was read incorrectly (which I am 100% sure it isn't), there is still a pattern jump command in the last pattern which would jump to pattern 2 in any case.

As for fixing support on custom .j2b's, the reading and quality is improved, but certain tracks still experience unexpected clipping.

Define clipping and give proper examples, please.
I know that the Galaxy Sound System (the thing which plays the music in Jazz2) has several flaws and doesn't interpret all MOD effects like a standard player would do it. OpenMPT does of course not emulate those bugs and output will sound like in any proper module player (read: as the modules which were converted to J2B were intended to sound).

Originally Posted by Jojo

That will certainly not happen, as it's a niche format and you can use mod2j2b if you really want to have J2B files. Afterall, J2B is not a stand-alone format - It's just a converted format (there is no tracker to generate j2b files natively), so it doesn't make sense to support it. And afterall, you can just throw your MOD/S3M/XM/IT files at Jazz2 and it will play them without conversion.

Sorry, i was confused with PSM files. I also thought Mod2j2b screws up the converting instead of j2b2it convertor. So i was wrong. Mod2j2b works perfectly. I actually meant if there is ever going to be a PSM file save ability.

Originally Posted by FawFul

I actually meant if there is ever going to be a PSM file save ability.

Also negative, I'm afraid - PSM is just a niche container format like J2B is (though it is used by a few more Epic games). However, just like there's mod2j2b for J2B files, there's also CONVERT.EXE for PSM files.

As long there is a convertor there is no need of course, perhaps you can show me where i can download that?

Originally Posted by FawFul

perhaps you can show me where i can download that?

For example here.

Originally Posted by Jojo

1. )The updater has been removed and is not maintained anymore.


2. )You're wrong here. You most likely compare MPT's output to the tracks from Lori Central, right? I can only say it again that those files are pre-releases and do differ from the final versions.
Even if the order list in dang.j2b was read incorrectly (which I am 100% sure it isn't), there is still a pattern jump command in the last pattern which would jump to pattern 2 in any case.


3. ) Define clipping and give proper examples, please.
I know that the Galaxy Sound System (the thing which plays the music in Jazz2) has several flaws and doesn't interpret all MOD effects like a standard player would do it. OpenMPT does of course not emulate those bugs and output will sound like in any proper module player (read: as the modules which were converted to J2B were intended to sound).

1.) Okay, fair enough
2.) Until you said that, I'd never noticed that they were indeed from lori central.
3.) I actually discovered since this that my Itunes has a few corrupted files and isn't reading properly anymore, in Windows Media Player they're perfect, Sorry for the hassle Jojo.

Just wanted to let you all know that OpenMPT 1.19.02.00 fixes some very small, maybe even inaudible (in most cases anyway) issues that I found with some J2B files with empty sample slots.