Music and Sound
Music
Music is MIDI. Put the files in the world's midi/ folder. Each map's tune is chosen by its root
name: a section of that name in music.ini names the file, and with no section the game looks for
midi/<root>.mid. The script changes the tune with MUSIC, which loops unless its
flag says once, and /midi file plays any file once for testing.
ReBreather plays MIDI through its own built-in synthesiser on every platform, so a tune sounds the same on
Windows and Linux and no longer depends on whatever the player's system has installed. (A Windows player can still
switch to the system synthesiser with MidiBackend=mci in the [Audio] section of their
settings file.) Write for the General MIDI instrument set and it will sound as you intended.
Sound effects
Sounds are WAV files in sfx/. The mixer takes PCM at 8, 16, 24 or 32 bits and 32-bit float, mono
or stereo, at any sample rate from 100 Hz up, so there is no need to convert. The old convention of 11 kHz, 8-bit
mono still works and keeps a world small to download. The script plays one with SOUND file (loop
with mode 1), and /wav file tests one from the chat line.
Monsters name their growl and pain sounds in their table row and items name the sound they make when used; leave either blank and the game picks one of its stock sounds.
Sound themes
A theme is a looping ambience plus random one-shots: wind with the occasional crow, a tavern with the clink
of glasses. Define them in +THEMES: a number, a name, the looping sound, then any number of
seconds=sound columns, each firing about every so many seconds. Maps carry a theme in their last
column, links carry one too, and the script switches with THEME n. /theme 3 previews
theme 3 and /theme 0 goes back to the nearest link's.
Volume
Players set music and effect volume with /volume. Mix your sounds so that nothing is startling
at the default level.