hey, something that bothers me quite some time now, is that if you use .ogg soundtracks for a game in combination with the media_ functions you will HAVE TO INSTALL the so called directshow .ogg filter on the players system.
note: this filter is in the \gstudio\media folder and is free to redistribute.

when you use an installer you can make it optional (or even force the player to install, wich is not nice).

as my latest game showed, a few problems arise:

-customers dont want to install the .ogg filter for a couple of reasons
a) they think its spyware
b) they think its some kind of virus
c) they fear its a driver screwing up the system (indeed it is some kind of driver and automatically shows up in the traybar once you use media_ within the engine)
d) the fear they cant uninstall the thing (wich is for the average user quite nasty)

-some customers just DONT READ the info that briefly tells them what it is and that they need it to hear music in the game

-on windows vista this .ogg filter installation causes a crash

this leads to a problem where people who dowload the demo either think the game is crap cause they have no music or they dont install the demo cause they fear some bad software comes with it.


so if you seriously want to sell some game you have a few choices now:
-you could purchase a license to use .mp3
-you use some crappy .mid music
-you purchase one .dll library like fmod, or bass wich is insanely expensive ~2000$ for an indie developer
-you load the .ogg in the memory where its uncompressed and play it with the snd_ commands (this is not really an option)


if i recall right there is a .dll from triplex somewhere, wich offers a streamplay function but as i tested it in an early beta of my game it turned out to be buggy, at least 20% of the testers had nasty crashes.

so, what now? does anyone has an idea how to overcome the problem described above?
i think its vital for anyone who wants to make games that should sell to somehow solve this.

how do you adress this issue in your games, fellow developers?

maybe this is an idea for a plugin? i would even be willing to pay for (reasonable price tag of cause, not in the three zero area like the available
librarys).

please discuss, thanks & greetings!

edit: a lot of people who downloaded my demo, did indeed tell me they dont have any music, even though i prechecked the 'install filter' setting in the installer and had a little text tell them they need it...