Any information on OSS and AHX files?

Kitsune_Phoenix · January 12, 2015, 20:28:14

I recently downloaded a bunch of modules from Neurodancer, and noticed a few files that weren't MODs:

Two AHX files, which I could not open with ANY software

Two FTMs, which were not FamiTracker modules despite their file extension (not important at this time)

And two OSS files. These ones intrigue me, because despite my having any associations were able to be opened in OpenMPT, and when I do, they are classified as Fasttracker modules. However, they are using normal samples without any instruments, and instead instrument-by-instrument panning the channels are all locked at the Amiga panning values; 64, 192, 192 and 64 (which repeats)

So I have a few questions;
1) Why does OpenMPT not come with an OSS association if it can open them just find?
2) Why does OpenMPT not have an option to enable/disable Amiga Panning on certain FastTracker modules?
3) Does anybody on here know what an AHX is and/or how I can open it?

Saga Musix · January 12, 2015, 21:38:42

AHX can for example be edited with HivelyTracker. And no, don't even ask about integrating AHX/THX support. They are synthesized (not sample-based) formats.

Quote1) Why does OpenMPT not come with an OSS association if it can open them just find?

Because there is no module format with that "official" extension that OpenMPT could open. They are most likely renamed files. You can find out the real format of the file in the Song Properties dialog. Remember: OpenMPT does not care at all about file extensions. For what it's worth, you could rename the from foo.oss to foo.awesomeextension and it would still work.

Quote2) Why does OpenMPT not have an option to enable/disable Amiga Panning on certain FastTracker modules?

Because they are not FastTracker modules. As OpenMPT just have 5 natively editable formats, all other formats are converted into whatever format matches the closest. The only format that is actually converted to XM is MED, so your OSS files are most likely OctaMED files. OctaMED is an Amiga format, hence the channel panning.

Kitsune_Phoenix · January 12, 2015, 22:26:46

Oh. Well then, that actually clears it up quite a bit. Still confused about those "FTM" files though, because again, while they share the extension they're not even loosely related to FamiTracker modules. I am gonna do more experimenting. Meanwhile, you can check them out yourself on http://amp.dascene.net/detail.php?detail=modules&view=5313

Saga Musix · January 13, 2015, 06:40:06

You shouldn't assume that a file extension is exclusive to a single program, to begin with. There is no global "registry" in which a program developer have to register file extensions in, and as such, there are many file extensions that are used by more than one program (.MOD being another one of those that is shared by several different kinds of programs). I have no idea what kind of module format FTM is, though, and a quick search didn't bring up any documentation. Since it appears to be an Amiga format, maybe xmp-delix / Deliplayer plays it.

Oh, and those OSS files are indeed OctaMED (or rather Octamed Soundstudio, I guess?) files. AMP sometimes has a weird naming convention...

Kitsune_Phoenix · March 12, 2015, 10:20:36

This reply is a little late, but you should probably tweak OpenMPT to default to ImpulseTracker whenever somebody tries to open an OctaMED track (since it has both channel panning and patterns of different sizes), and also to add an OctaMED file association to the installer package.

Saga Musix · March 12, 2015, 12:27:35

Quote from: Kitsune_Phoenix on March 12, 2015, 10:20:36
and also to add an OctaMED file association to the installer package.

"Which of the many?"
As far as I am aware the official file extension is and always has been ".med", which OpenMPT already existers. Sites like ModLand like to come up with their own extensions to distinguish between formats which share the same extension (e.g. MED v1 - v3 turn in to .mmd1, .mmd2 etc), but I think that's just silly. If you follow their naming conventions, you can always use Windows' "open with" feature to permanently assign those extensions to OpenMPT.

Kitsune_Phoenix · March 12, 2015, 18:12:00

True...? The problem though is that when I do that, Windows does not natively classify them as OpenMPT modules afterwards, and opening them causes a new instance of OpenMPT to start up.

Saga Musix · March 12, 2015, 19:10:31

You'll have to change a few values in the registry for that to work. In HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, locate the .oss (or whatever extension you want to fix), remove all the sub folders which might exist, and double-click the "(Standard)" entry in the folder and give it the value "OpenMPTFile" (without the quotes). After that, you might have to log out and log in again.