What is mptm?

[Relabsoluness]

For people who wish to know what mptm file format is exactly, here's a short answer:

At the time of writing mptm is essentially nothing but an extended IT -- just like the 'normal' IT-files that MPT/OpenMPT produces. Note however that it's on experimental status.

[Sam_Zen]

I will note that. But what are the extensions so far ?

[Saga Musix]

Tuning.

[fluor]

how about an option for including VST instruments etc INSIDE the file format? this way I can archive my songs correctly instead of missing instruments when I dig up the files 4 years after.

[LPChip]

how about an option for including VST instruments etc INSIDE the file format? this way I can archive my songs correctly instead of missing instruments when I dig up the files 4 years after.

Unfortunatelly, its not possible to include VST or VSTi's inside a song due to the nature on how they're installed.

You can zip your .IT file together with the plugins so you know which plugins you used for that song if you decide to play your tune after 4 years, but an automated add system simply is impossible. Also it would be very unwise to do that, because some plugins cannot be distributed like that, especially the commercial plugins that have a huge library of >3 gig. You would then be adding the entire library and spreading an illegal VSTi to others where you might have a licensekey, but others haven't.

Really, this issue has been brought up a few times now, and it just is impossible.

[Sam_Zen]

So including VST plugins is very difficult. Then I wonder : what other aspects should be useful to the .mptm format ?

Jojo mentions tuning, that's a good one, but what else ? Expansion of codes ?

By the way, I don't consider plugins as part of a tracker file, but as part of the application.

I think the first problem comes from all kind of install procedures of the plugins, while at the end, it's just a .DLL file, added in the proper directory.

So maybe it's time for OMPT to come, as default, with an extra package of free or open source VST dll's.
In this way a receiver could be certain to play the file correctly with OMPT because the composer used one of these.

But other plugins are possible too.
Many topics here about, next to .wav, importing a .mp3 as sample (or .ogg, at my concern).
Well, maybe it's possible to write a plugin for that.

[bvanoudtshoorn]

Personally, the features I'd like to see in MPTM are:

- XML (or at least human-readable) file format
- Real automation (with drawable splines)
- Time signature changes within tracks
- Instrument and channel grouping
- Complete prev/curr/next pattern transparency of movement

Note that these are all existing feature requests, and all but the last couldn't be achieved without moving away from an IT-like format, as far as I'm aware.

[Saga Musix]

Jojo mentions tuning, that's a good one, but what else ? Expansion of codes ?

In the future, that would be mainly getting rid of MPT's extension to the XM and IT format, so those would be "valid" files and all extensions that have ever been made to those formats would only be available in MPTM...

[fluor]

I think the "commercial plugin" point of view is strongly overrated. A lot of people use open-source plugins. What I see now is that the scene seem to only use the mp3-format, thus destroying the transfer of important knowledge from experienced musicians to newbies.

is there a way to make OpenMTP generate a list of all files involved in a track, so I can zip it? Just a listing of files should be enough. Not that you need to export a full library of 3gb when only like 2 VST/DirectX plugins are involved.

[Saga Musix]

You should know yourself what plugins you use
You can go through the plugin list, one by one, and click the "select..." button. in the window that pops up, you can see the path of the VST(i).

[Harbinger]

Personally i'd like to use .mptm as an exclusive file type for MPT, with the devs adding whatever features they wish, like bvan's requests and others'.

[Saga Musix]

What else should it be?

[Sam_Zen]

Maybe .mptm should mean a compatible format with other tracker apps.
But I support Harbingers exclusive idea. One gets a bonus when using OMPT.

[Saga Musix]

MPTM will be an own format in the first place, but there's nothing wrong with other apps supporting the format.

[cha0s]

It's great to see some movement on this project after so long... I haven't used it in years but I LOVE this app.

I'm going to be taking a look at the code pretty soon and seeing if there's any patches I can submit. One goal will be to add .ogg support for samples. (Or perhaps a modular framework for including future/other formats if one doesn't exist)