Learning XNA 3.0

Audio on the Zune

Another key difference when developing for the Zune versus Windows or the Xbox 360 is in the audio department. With Windows and Xbox 360 games, developers can use the Microsoft Cross-Platform Audio Creation Tool (XACT) to create wave and sound banks and to edit audio properties such as volume, pitch, and looping. The Zune does not support XACT, but in recognition of this, the XNA team has added to the XNA Framework 3.0 a simplified sound API that makes playing audio on the Zune possible.

You can play two types of sounds in games created for the Zune: sounds and effects that you place in your game project, and songs that you have loaded on the Zune itself. First, let's go over how to play sounds and effects within your game project. Chapter 5 of this book covered audio in depth, including use of the simplified audio API. This section will offer a very brief review of the concepts covered there.

When developing for the Zune, you use the content pipeline to load sound files from the content folder of the game solution, just as you would when developing for the PC or the Xbox 360. The XNA Framework 3.0 simplified sound API supports the .wav, .wma, and .mp3 file types. To play a sound file in XNA on the Zune, you'll need to add a supported audio file to the content folder of your solution using the Solution Explorer. Create a subfolder called Audio under the Content node within Solution Explorer by right-clicking the Content node and selecting Add → New Folder.

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