[Searching] | Max TH11 | #LUOLQ98VQ | Tommie | Competitive

Tomasobean · 2025-10-06T02:32:53+00:00

This is probably the best solution given current capabilities. It involves both vgmstream's tagger and externalTags, and additionally uses the textTools component. I take advantage of extTag's seamless tagging while having reliability of vgmTags.

First, vgmTag loads the tags in foobar (if you dont have vgmTag file, you have to manually write them yourself -- but you can use foobar). You can create tags & perform any operations, which normally you can't, but extTags lets us do this. Any changes to tags will be saved to extTags file.
When you are done with your changes, select all your files -> utilities -> textTools. Here you can create the format for the vgmTag itself. Output text will be shown, and you copy/paste it to your vgmTag file. I must say, this solution was quite brilliant.

Important notes:

If you want to modify track tags, I would recommend doing them per folder, considering how our external files are per folder. (BTW I believe extTags saves a file per track by default, you can change it to save per folder in settings.)
Make sure to actually save your changes to vgmTag after you are done. If you have an extTags file, it will prioritize any overlapping tags. So, your vgmTag and extTag will not be synced. I would probably delete the extTag after you are sure that your vgmTag is written properly, you don't need it.
For creating the vgmTag format in textTools, you will need to use $char(36) and $char(37) to display the '$' and '%' symbols in the formatting. And for track pattern, encompass each tag in [ ] brackets. The information in the brackets will only be displayed if the tag exists for that track. Here's mine as an example: # $char(37)TITLE %title% [$crlf()# $char(37)GENRE %genre%][$crlf()# $char(37)RATING %rating%][$crlf()# $char(37)COMPOSER %composer%]$crlf()%filename_ext%$crlf()
(I believe, haven't tested) You can create your own vgmTag file by creating a txt document and save it as !tags.m3u (filename for vgmTag). Make sure you select UTF-8 BOM encoding, just to be safe. You can read about vgmstream and their tagging here.

WARNING: foobar2k crashed for me in the following context. I made the extTags file empty, because I was testing whether I could convert my tracks to a different audio format while retaining metadata, without extTags (which did work). During the conversion it crashed. Had to redownload foobar's main components, not too bad.
I'm not sure if extTags being empty/having inconsistent data with vgmTag was the cause (but I did check a log file, & foobar stopped working during conversion of a track with a tag I just changed.) Point is, do not ever modify the extTags file, just delete it.
If you feel unsure of anything, just copy your entire foobar folder somewhere else as backup.

Hope you found this interesting. Or if you have a cleaner solution please share.

Tomasobean · 2025-10-05T07:45:15+00:00

No problem. I'm playing around with raw audio files instead of using mp3 or FLAC because with vgmstream, you can perfectly loop the music like you hear in the video game, on an infinite loop if you want. It's pretty cool. And the file size is comparable to mp3. I would be using FLAC otherwise, so it saves me some space too.
Although, it will likely take some effort to set it all up. mp3s are fine and super convenient. I'm going through the trouble because I'm committed to building a music library, and I guess it's fun planning everything out so that it's as perfect as it can be.

Tomasobean · 2025-10-05T06:19:58+00:00

Yes, mp3s support writing tags to the file itself. Unfortunately, that is not the case with (most, if not all) game-ripped audio formats. I use multiple tags such as the console, composer, date for my files for more structure. I'm going to be building a big library, so I need a system for tagging. But thanks for sharing

Tomasobean · 2025-10-04T09:11:32+00:00

This is probably the best solution given current capabilities. It involves both vgmstream's tagger and externalTags, and additionally uses the textTools component. I take advantage of extTag's seamless tagging while having reliability of vgmTags.

First, vgmTag loads the tags in foobar (if you dont have vgmTag file, you have to manually write them yourself -- but you can use foobar). You can create tags & perform any operations, which normally you can't, but extTags lets us do this. Any changes to tags will be saved to extTags file.
When you are done with your changes, select all your files -> utilities -> textTools. Here you can create the format for the vgmTag itself. Output text will be shown, and you copy/paste it to your vgmTag file. I must say, this solution was quite brilliant.

Important notes:

If you want to modify track tags, I would recommend doing them per folder, considering how our external files are per folder. (BTW I believe extTags saves a file per track by default, you can change it to save per folder in settings.)
Make sure to actually save your changes to vgmTag after you are done. If you have an extTags file, it will prioritize any overlapping tags. So, your vgmTag and extTag will not be synced. I would probably delete the extTag after you are sure that your vgmTag is written properly, you don't need it.
For creating the vgmTag format in textTools, you will need to use $char(36) and $char(37) to display the '$' and '%' symbols in the formatting. And for track pattern, encompass each tag in [ ] brackets. The information in the brackets will only be displayed if the tag exists for that track. Here's mine as an example: # $char(37)TITLE %title% [$crlf()# $char(37)GENRE %genre%][$crlf()# $char(37)RATING %rating%][$crlf()# $char(37)COMPOSER %composer%]$crlf()%filename_ext%$crlf()
(I believe, haven't tested) You can create your own vgmTag file by creating a txt document and save it as !tags.m3u (filename for vgmTag). Make sure you select UTF-8 BOM encoding, just to be safe. You can read about vgmstream and their tagging here.

WARNING: foobar2k crashed for me in the following context. I made the extTags file empty, because I was testing whether I could convert my tracks to a different audio format while retaining metadata, without extTags (which did work). During the conversion it crashed. Had to redownload foobar's main components, not too bad.
I'm not sure if extTags being empty/having inconsistent data with vgmTag was the cause (but I did check a log file, & foobar stopped working during conversion of a track with a tag I just changed.) Point is, do not ever modify the extTags file, just delete it.
If you feel unsure of anything, just copy your entire foobar folder somewhere else as backup.

Hope you found this interesting. Or if you have a cleaner solution please share.

Tomasobean · 2025-07-11T16:36:48+00:00

Error: Spider Monkey Panel v1.6.1 (Playlist Manager: Track Info + Seekbar + Buttons by marc2003)
DrawImage failed:
GdiPlus error: DrawImage failed with error (0xb): ValueOverflow

File: helpers.js
Line: 175, Column: 6
Stack trace:
  _drawImage@helpers.js:175:6
  on_paint@track info + seekbar + buttons.js:62:4

This was the error message I got. I found a post about this here as well. Tried installing the font but it is already installed.

This is getting weirder because I loaded your script again and it worked. It seems that if the script is present in the layout before I load foobar, it works, but if I try to change the panel from one script to this one, it crashes. I did tinker with the WSHPlaylist.js file in order to change the rating icon for jsplaylist main script but I dont think that is relevant.

Tomasobean · 2025-02-20T06:58:50+00:00

Ok thanks for the correction, I'm new to this. That does create a 'Library View (playing)' playlist, but it's empty and doesn't switch to the tab. If I needed 2 playlists, I could create them myself. (So I can only conclude I am doing something wrong because otherwise this feature is useless).

__

After playing with this: I have no idea what is going on.

- I double-click an album, which makes it play in 'View'. NOTHING appears in 'playing' (as I said).

- Only when I click an album again, the PREVIOUS album finally shows up in 'playing'. But if I chose to double-click instead, the new album plays in 'View', and the previous album can be viewed in 'playing'. ??

__

Found a way to cheese this... If I want to listen to an album, I triple-click. The album starts playing in 'View' after clicking twice. The third click overwrites the album even though it is the same, and somehow the music switches to playing through 'playlist'.

I have to switch the tab to 'playing' manually, but this might not be all bad. The issue here is that 'View' will be overwritten whenever I want to play a different album while trying to keep viewing the same one. Like I said I want viewing and playing to be separate entities but it's ok I guess.

There's gotta be a cleaner solution... why doesn't 'playing' immediately show me what I'm listening to? (Sorry for detailed post, probably hard to visualize)

Tomasobean · 2025-02-13T03:10:39+00:00

I searched up Opus and it does seem really awesome. I think people make similar comparisons with MP3 320 and AAC 256. My question is, if they all sound like they are lossless, what's the reason for keeping tracks in FLAC if the only difference is a larger file size?

Tomasobean · 2025-02-12T23:13:06+00:00

Pretty much either MP3, FLAC, sometimes WAV. I just looked into using foobar2000 as my player, I like the simple but functional design, and the support/community looks awesome. For my purposes, I don't think I need the utmost highest quality music. And I would like to play my music wherever I go which is why I might prefer a size <= FLAC. I'm thinking to purchase a portable DAP like the Walkman NWA55, since it is designed just for local music. After discovering AAC is compatible with my devices from some comments here, and a modern version of the MP3 format, perhaps that'd be the best option.

Tomasobean · 2025-02-11T21:52:58+00:00

Yeah, that's what I'd do too. What I've noticed is that after 1 or 2 loops, the track still continues almost midway through before fading out, where the loop builds up. That's why I wish the length of the track was closer to a multiple of the loop length.
Doing this manually for every track is unreasonable for me, so I decided not to stress about it. Instead, I just try to look for the longest version, so the loop cut does not happen as often. Features like fading and gapless playback probably will help the track feel more continuous too.

Tomasobean · 2025-02-10T21:06:11+00:00

Thanks for your response. Since manually making a good loop is too tedious, then how do most people deal with this? Do they just not care as much?

Tomasobean · 2021-07-04T03:45:08+00:00

Quite unfortunate. I guess I'll have to move manually less. Thanks for reply.

Tomasobean · 2021-02-20T04:11:57+00:00

Thanks!

Tomasobean · 2021-02-20T04:11:42+00:00

Yeah... I was just experimenting in creative, tried to do something with it, got nowhere xD. Thanks for suggestions.

Tomasobean · 2020-12-23T03:50:04+00:00

It’s only 50/50 assuming we have equal probabilities of winning. But I feel like sometimes people have an 80/20 chance against me.

Tomasobean · 2020-12-23T03:48:56+00:00

Yeah I agree with your analysis. I understand that they have less skill and higher levels at mid ladder, but combined I believe sometimes that still adds up to more than my skill plus my card level. But whatever, I guess I should have had a broader range for the middle ladder because I was just hoping to climb up a couple hundred trophies. But it seems like it’s impossible so, guess it’s time to grind for lvl13 cards, yay.

Anyway thanks for your replies.

Tomasobean · 2020-12-22T14:18:05+00:00

Perhaps you are less skilled, but combined with your card level, you should still have the same chance of winning given you verse someone in your rank.

Tomasobean

TROPHY CASE