WAV
Waveform Audio File Format is an audio format with a .wav
file extension, used by all of Valve's engines. It is required for lipsynced dialogue and looped sounds without a custom audio backend.
GoldSrc supports uncompressed 8-bit or 16-bit PCM, although lip-synched audio must be 8-bit. It supports sample rates of 11025 Hz or 22050 Hz; other sample rates can sometimes be used, but they will be resampled to 22050 Hz before playback (unless MetaAudio is used, which also increase audio quality).
Source supports uncompressed 8-bit and 16-bit PCM, as well as compressed 4-bit Microsoft ADPCM. It supports sample rates at 11025 Hz, 22050 Hz, and 44100 Hz; files at other sample rates, such as 32000 Hz and 48000 Hz, will not play.
![Icon-Bug.png](/w/images/thumb/b/b4/Icon-Bug.png/10px-Icon-Bug.png)
![Warning.png](/w/images/thumb/c/cb/Warning.png/10px-Warning.png)
![Source](/w/images/thumb/1/10/Icon-Source.png/16px-Icon-Source.png)
![Source](/w/images/thumb/1/10/Icon-Source.png/16px-Icon-Source.png)
![Confirm.png](/w/images/thumb/2/2e/Confirm.png/10px-Confirm.png)
![Source 2](/w/images/thumb/5/52/Icon-Source_2.png/16px-Icon-Source_2.png)
![Source](/w/images/thumb/1/10/Icon-Source.png/16px-Icon-Source.png)
![GoldSrc](/w/images/thumb/6/61/Gldsrc_icon.png/16px-Gldsrc_icon.png)
It supposedly supports arbitrary sample rates for MP3s; is this the case for WAVs as well?
Bit rates
WAV files have a consistent bitrate depending upon their sample rate, bit depth, and channel count. The following tables indicate what bitrates files will be at supported sample rates.
![Tip.png](/w/images/thumb/4/45/Tip.png/9px-Tip.png)
Mono sounds (1 channel)
Stereo sounds (2 channels) (not in )
Sample Rate | 16-bit PCM | 8-bit PCM | 4-bit ADPCM | Quality |
---|---|---|---|---|
11025 Hz | 352.8 kbps | 176.4 kbps | 88.2 kbps | AM radio |
22050 Hz | 705.6 kbps | 352.8 kbps | 176.4 kbps | |
44100 Hz | 1411.2 kbps | 705.6 kbps | 352.8 kbps | CD quality |
![Tip.png](/w/images/thumb/4/45/Tip.png/9px-Tip.png)
![Source](/w/images/thumb/1/10/Icon-Source.png/16px-Icon-Source.png)
![Source 2](/w/images/thumb/5/52/Icon-Source_2.png/16px-Icon-Source_2.png)