Legacy GM How do I "hide" individual audio files when I create a compressed application for the project?

pixeltroid

Member
I am using Gamemaker 1.4 and whenever I create a compressed application to distribute on itch and gamejolt, all the games audio files can be accessed from the final package.

I've seen that in many packages that I've downloaded from gamejams and itch, there's only an executable file and a file saying data.win (which I assume holds all the games assets). Individual audio files are not seen in the open. That is what I want.

So...how do I "hide" individual audio files when creating a compressed application?

Any help would be appreciated!
 

FoxyOfJungle

Kazan Games
If you put all the sound effects and music in audio groups, they were in an "audiogroup.dat" file, I think it's a cool way to do that.
I don't remember if in GMS 1.4 it already existed, but maybe so..
 
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Yal

🐧 *penguin noises*
GMC Elder
OGG files (and anything else marked as "streamed - uncompress on load") are stored separately, audio groups are bundled together in special audiogroup files.

There's no built-in way to store audio in a special folder, but YellowAfterlife made an extension that does this for you: https://yellowafterlife.itch.io/gamemaker-reroute-audio


The one thing you could do if you absolutely don't want to rely on external tools is to change all your audio files into Included Files, those end up in a folder named "datafiles" when you export the project. But then you lose out on audio grouping, color coding, and need to manually load all the audio before you can use them.
 

pixeltroid

Member
OGG files (and anything else marked as "streamed - uncompress on load") are stored separately, audio groups are bundled together in special audiogroup files.

There's no built-in way to store audio in a special folder, but YellowAfterlife made an extension that does this for you: https://yellowafterlife.itch.io/gamemaker-reroute-audio


The one thing you could do if you absolutely don't want to rely on external tools is to change all your audio files into Included Files, those end up in a folder named "datafiles" when you export the project. But then you lose out on audio grouping, color coding, and need to manually load all the audio before you can use them.
Ok. And what should the sounds be set as? Uncompressed? Compressed - Not streamed? Compressed - Uncompress on load? or Compressed - Streamed?

1599334479542.png

And if there's no audiogrouping, how do I load the audio? The manual only talks about loading an audiogroup.
 

Yal

🐧 *penguin noises*
GMC Elder
Ok. And what should the sounds be set as? Uncompressed? Compressed - Not streamed? Compressed - Uncompress on load? or Compressed - Streamed?

View attachment 34116

And if there's no audiogrouping, how do I load the audio? The manual only talks about loading an audiogroup.
"Uncompressed - Not Streamed" (note that this will convert everything to WAV so it takes up at least 10x more disk space)

Load an audiogroup at the start of the game; once the group loads you'll be able to play sounds from them. (If an audiogroup isn't loaded and you try to play sounds from it, nothing happens). So basically you can keep running the game like normal, but you need to manually load your audio groups at the start.
 
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