VBDec

[Silent]

What up? Are you ready for the best Audio ASI Ever? Are you sick of TC mods and conversion mods badly messing and converting the audio wrong? Well guess what, we've got a great mod for you! VBDec, the first actual ASI plug-in for Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City! What does it do? Well this plucky little plug-in enables playback of the PlayStation 2 .VB audio format on these games, NOT CONVERTED, NATIVE, untouched audio, so now you can finally get the full quality of these files without doing the conversions all by yourself or hoping that someone else hasn't messed things up and badly converted to MP3 or something. How about an added bonus? Well now the "MP3 Player" slot can also playback these files! Finally you can use stream audio from the PlayStation 2 versions of Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories exactly how Rockstar intended, with no quality loss!

"I use it on every installation so I can fight with the best sound" -Ash

VBDec, by @Silent and @Sergeanur (...and @Ash_735, WHAT UP!?)

So, how do you use it?

• Download VBDec from HERE
• Download Audio Samples from HERE
• Extract the following:
  • vbdec.asi to "mss" folder
  • audio-samples.asi to root directory of game
  • audio-samples.ini to "audio" folder (pick the correct one from "III" or "VC" directories in the downloaded package!)
  • Set up what files you want to replace with VB's inside the audio-samples.ini file, for example:
    • AUDIO\HEAD.WAV will be changed to AUDIO\HEAD.VB
    • AUDIO\WILD.ADF will be changed to AUDIO\WILD.VB
• Save the audio-samples.ini file, and THAT'S IT, your game will now playback the VB files in place of the originals

NOTE: The default settings for VBDec is 32000Hz/Stereo, if you choose a file with different properties you will have to do an additional .ini file for that VB's properties placed in the same location as the VB, example:

audio\VCPR.ini:

[VB]
sample_rate=16000
stereo=1 ; 1 - Stereo, 0 - Mono

 

PS: A side effect of this plug-in allows Grand Theft Auto III to use the ADF files from Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.

 

Edited June 16, 2018 by Silent

[Daitojo97]

FIRST!

Silent!

This is awesome!

[Ryadica926]

ah yeah! so you released it, good job!

[Mr.Arrow]

God bless Silent !

Edited February 10, 2017 by Mr.Arrow

[Ash_735]

And as a friendly reminder, this also decodes .VAG files too, so PS2 sfx can be extracted from their archives and those of you savvy enough to script things, you won't have to convert the audio anymore, just provide an ini for each file. We tested this with script audio from LCS and VCS.

[Gravarty]

Finally i can enjoy the real "The Exchange" cutscene audio without any conversion

[The Rockstar Gamer 108]

Love your mods Silent! You're a born modder man.

[El Dorado]

Outstanding

 

But, you know, the question that must be asked - San Andreas? I would guess it's not needed?

[Ash_735]

But, you know, the question that must be asked - San Andreas? I would guess it's not needed?

San Andreas PC doesn't use Miles Sound System like GTA3 and VC do, that is how we were able to do this as an ACTUAL ASI by assigning VB as an additional codec for the sound engine to decode.

[Vadim M.]

Good stuff!

Edited February 10, 2017 by Vadim M.

[dkluin]

Great.

[inadequate]

Great work @Silent. Now apart from TXD Workshop, goodbye to MFAudio v1.1 too.

[gts.]

Can I use every PS2 audio for GTA III and GTA VC without any problem? I mean, nothing is different between PS2 and PC apart from some mission lines (GTA III), background songs (GTA VC) and missing songs in radio stations (GTA III/ GTA VC)?

[Ash_735]

Can I use every PS2 audio for GTA III and GTA VC without any problem? I mean, nothing is different between PS2 and PC apart from some mission lines (GTA III), background songs (GTA VC) and missing songs in radio stations (GTA III/ GTA VC)?

As long as you change the audio-samples.ini to reflect the changes, sure, you can use all VB files, in fact, for Vice City, I'd recommend it.

[gts.]

As long as you change the audio-samples.ini to reflect the changes, sure, you can use all VB files, in fact, for Vice City, I'd recommend it.

Nice. Now since you're the master of audio quality files, how I will know the rate for every file? Do I need Audacity? Will be a pain in the ass?

[Ash_735]

Nice. Now since you're the master of audio quality files, how I will know the rate for every file? Do I need Audacity? Will be a pain in the ass?

Majority will be the default 32000Hz/Stereo, these include most Radio Stations, All Cutscenes, Ambience, that's why we felt it was best to have that as a default setting. Stuff that will require an ini and would be 16000Hz will be things like POLICE (III/VC), CHAT (III), KCHAT (VC), VCPR (VC), basically if the settings are wrong the file WILL still play, it'll just sound too fast.

 

For mission script VAG's, I haven't checked III/VC but both stories games (LCS/VCS) have these at 12000Hz Mono.

[gts.]

That's great, then it's time to open my PS2 III/VC discs and import the audio files to PC versions.

[Jitterdoomer]

What about sound files so that I will replace the current VC's sound files from PC with PS2's because I prefer the police chatter from PS2 than on the PC version.

[inadequate]

You can, only create a INI with 16000Hz settings and will work, as Ash said.

 

EDIT:

Nevermind.

 

 

What about sound files so that I will replace the current VC's sound files from PC with PS2's because I prefer the police chatter from PS2 than on the PC version.

You can extract PS2 radio chatter in their VAG's but you'll need a script if you want the game to use them instead of the ones inside SFX.

Edited February 10, 2017 by Inadequate

[gts.]

If I put the ASIs and INIs into modloader NOT the PS2 VB files, will work too?

Edited February 10, 2017 by gts.

[Ash_735]

What about sound files so that I will replace the current VC's sound files from PC with PS2's because I prefer the police chatter from PS2 than on the PC version.

You can extract PS2 radio chatter in their VAG's but you'll need a script if you want the game to use them instead of the ones inside SFX.

 

 

If I put the ASIs and INIs into modloader NOT the PS2 VB files, will work too?

No, they NEED to be in the same place as their partnered VB's with the same name. Edited February 10, 2017 by Ash_735

[Marty McFly]

Bad script

0/10

 

What sample rates are supported?

Edited February 10, 2017 by Marty McFly

[Jitterdoomer]

Bad script

0/10

 

What sample rates are supported?

Any sample rates This mod really helps with the projects such as LCLF, VCLF, and PS2 to PC Conversion for San Andreas. What I need now is the European version of GTA3 to extract the .vag file that includes the "overused puta" lines in that version. Anyway Silent, are you going to make these PS2 audio files moddable?

[gts.]

Well, after some time I have some files ready for my Vice City installation but some sounds still missing, are they stored in the SFX files? How or what do I need to open a SFX file from III or VC?

 

EDIT:

Any sample rates This mod really helps with the projects such as LCLF, VCLF, and PS2 to PC Conversion for San Andreas. What I need now is the European version of GTA3 to extract the .vag file that includes the "overused puta" lines in that version. Anyway Silent, are you going to make these PS2 audio files moddable?

I have it and isn't inside any SFX, is it a VB file.

Edited February 11, 2017 by gts.

[inadequate]

Well, I tested every audio file while I was making the ini settings for both of my game installations. On GTA3 the frequency for CHAT.VB should be 16000Hz *ONLY for CHAT.VB*, every other VB file is the same as default, 32000Hz. On GTA Vice City the frequency for KCHAT.VB, POLICE.VB and VCPR.VB should be 16000Hz *ONLY for KCHAT.VB, POLICE.VB and VCPR.VB*, every other VB file is the same as default, 32000Hz. Now I want to convert the SFX files (like the police radio/chatter) but I don't have idea how to start, also which script for SFX files I need?

Edited February 11, 2017 by Inadequate

[Claude_Lib]

Looks amazing. Two questions:

1) How does it handle broken VBs like Asuka's A8_PS.VB? When I try to convert it with MFaudio, it always hangs up. Ash says that's because the file doesn't have a finish label or something. Basically, the file plays infinitely.

2) I assume it just sets interleave at 2000, right? Because I personally never saw a file that uses different one.

3 (Yes, so what? They keep coming up as I write) Why not use one single INI file that describes parameters for all files instead of having them pile up in /audio/ folder?

4) Is there no way to get rid of it altogether? I mean, the PS2 game somehow knows how to play every file, correct sample rate and frequency, so there should already be all needed information somewhere, maybe inside the files themselves, I don't know.

Edited February 11, 2017 by Claude_Lib

[DEALUX]

Hmmm. The quality of PS2 audio is questionable. From my testing, I remember most of the files are 4-bit ADPCM (below 44.1 KHz) which isn't particularly great. III and Vice City on PC (might be Steam only) appear to have remastered cutscene audio too, and III for instance apparently has 4-bit 44.1 KHz ADPCM, which is better. Vice City has MP3 files for cutscenes with the same sampling rate as PS2 but how can you really compare PS2 4-bit ADPCM to 112 kbps MP3? Not sure. If anything, perceptually, the remastered PC audio should sound better because it was mixed better. It's kinda subjective.

 

BTW, I first assumed this mod was for the SFX stuff, which I find much more important if the PS2 sound effects are indeed better in some way. The radio station stuff is kinda garbage on PS2 as well (I did my best attempt at remastering the Vice City stations in lossless because none of the versions have good quality audio) and the rest is not necessarily better but we should discuss this further.

 

I think KCHAT and VCPR sound best on Xbox even though it's just 64 kbps WMA (which is passable given that most of the recordings are just voices) because the sampling rate is higher (44.1 KHz). I think I can hear a bit more high-end on the Xbox WMAs which makes them sound better but only slightly.

[Ash_735]

1) How does it handle broken VBs like Asuka's A8_PS.VB? When I try to convert it with MFaudio, it always hangs up. Ash says that's because the file doesn't have a finish label or something. Basically, the file plays infinitely.

A8_PS.VB works just fine here, ends where it should, etc.

 

2) I assume it just sets interleave at 2000, right? Because I personally never saw a file that uses different one.

Yes, all GTA games uses 2000 interleave, so we didn't feel the need to make that an option.

 

3 (Yes, so what? They keep coming up as I write) Why not use one single INI file that describes parameters for all files instead of having them pile up in /audio/ folder?

It's just easier this way for people to keep track which settings go for which file, this isn't JUST from the audio folder but also for the custom tracks folder (and possibly ModLoader).

 

4) Is there no way to get rid of it altogether? I mean, the PS2 game somehow knows how to play every file, correct sample rate and frequency, so there should already be all needed information somewhere, maybe inside the files themselves, I don't know.

There is no information at all inside the VB's, they are headerless, that's why no matter what audio program you use you HAVE to define them, when researching the files usually use .VH to denote header information, but those are missing from the PS2 GTA and most likely got incorporated into the main "EXE" to be hardcoded instead.

 

 

Hmmm. The quality of PS2 audio is questionable.

That's your opinion, and really, with this, you can do your mod even easier as you can change what audio extension is loaded, no more having to mess with hardcoded values. For me, PS2 "MUSIC" folder is higher quality than MP3 on PC, especially on Vice City, not to mention the obvious note of having the full soundtrack in the most complete form by Rockstar.

 

One thing people seem to be attacking us about over this is how we set up the ini's but you know why we did that? To give you guys the damn choice! With these INI's you can have the game use whatever audio format you want, from the newly added VB, to full WAV mixes you make yourself, etc.

 

And yes, in regards to PS2 SFX, as stated, they CAN be played and used with these games now, the codec they use is also included in VBDec. BUT, these games will still use SFX.SDT/SFX.RAW and there is no way to pack .VAG's into them, so, someone needs to do a mod that will make the game use external files for SFX, sh*t, maybe even ModLoader might be able to do this once it's told to look for .VAG's?

[ermaccer]

Any chance of getting Manhunt PS2 .MIBs work in PC release instead of .RIB files? The game also uses Miles Sound System.

[Marsi4eg]

Do I need to put audio_samples.asi to the root only or it will work from inside of 'scripts' folder?

Can't detect a difference in sound, what ps2 audio files sound really different from pc ones? (GTA3)