[HOW TO] Awesome Soundsets Vol. 0 Soundset Mod Shell

smeagolheart

Hi.

This is a Mod Shell that can be used to add your own soundsets with subtitles to BGEE, BG2EE and IWDEE.

This Mod Shell comes with one example soundset set up called "Ajantis" and a Blank template that you can adjust to what you need.

The instructions below describe how to add a soundset for Ajantis. Because an Ajantis soundset is already included with this mod you can look at the game files and compare the written steps to how it actually looks in the mod.

Here's what you'd need to know to add your own soundsets:

1. Gather the soundfiles and decide on a name. This will determine how the soundset will show up in game (for example: "Ajantis")
2. Create a folder in the SND folder of this Mod Shell called "Ajantis". In that new folder, create a folder called "sounds" and put your sound files in that folder.
3. In the ./SND/Ajantis folder, you must place a file called "Ajantis.tra".
* This file must be in a specific order to correctly display subtitles in game. I've included a template, blank.tra with this mod.
* This file is in a specific order and is documented with comments. You may view blank.tra and Ajantis.tra for comparison purposes of what it looks like before and after.
- If you choose NOT to include a sound for a particular event you must still make a blank entry that references an empty string. This way no sound will play in game and no text will be displayed but the mod will install correctly. I find it better for a character to say nothing at all rather than say the wrong lines for a particular event.

For example this would leave your guy without a sound for Battle Cry1:
@0 = ~~

4. Edit your mod's .TP2 file to account for your soundset "Ajantis".
* The first section of the included TP2 file automates copying your sound files and initializes variables needed to put the sounds and subs in the game. This section need not be changed (unless you are changing the mod name - see step 5).

* Scroll down to about row 225 or search for s9_soundsetBEGIN to find the section that adds soundsets. The TP2 included with this has an entry for Ajantis and a commented one for "blank".

* The entries for each soundset is mostly the same with only the first two lines needing to change to whatever your soundset name is ("Ajantis") to whatever you are adding. To add an entry for "Spongebob" you could copy the block for Ajantis and change the two instances of Ajantis to Spongebob.

		BEGIN ~Spongebob~                                                    // Ajantis changed to Spongebob
			OUTER_SPRINT soundName ~Spongebob~           // Ajantis changed to Spongebob
			LAUNCH_ACTION_FUNCTION s9copy END	           // this line is the same everytime
			INCLUDE ~S9SoundsetsVol0/baf/core.tpa~          // this line is the same everytime

5. If you change the path from S9SoundsetsVol0 to another name you must search and replace ALL instances of S9SoundsetsVol0 with your new path name in the following files:
.\BAF\core.tpa
setup-(yourmodname).tp2

6. That's it! Install the mod and choose your soundset. Soon adding soundsets with subtitles will be a snap.


If you have any questions please contact myself or another helpful forum member at:
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/37760/how-to-awesome-soundsets-vol-0-soundset-mod-shell#latest

Mark aka Smeagolheart
12/14/14



Version 1.1 18 Dec 2014
- Revised Blank.TPA (thanks to amyae@forums.baldursgate.com)
- Added checks for each version of the game (BGEE, BG2EE, and IWDEE) so that ONLY sound files WITH subtitles are copied for that game (unfortunately this increased the header section of the TP2)
- Added checks to ONLY copy over sound files if they exist.
- Added Support for # file extension for IWDEE
- Revised Readme.txt instructions
- Renamed Mod

Version 1.0 Initial Release 14 Dec 2014

smeagolheart

Feel free to discuss or ask questions here and I'll get back to you.

lolien

I just have time to look inside this and it's truly Awsome!

I worked on something alike, but the most i could reach so far, that i rename my sound files to Custom... ... and edit the custom slots strings with DLTCEP. Otherwise the text appeared, but the sound remained silence.

Big Thanks, i'm excited to try this out!

smeagolheart

@lolien

this should work for you, there are not so many things to change for each new set and it adds and removes each one via weidu. With the work you've done, it should be not so different.

See my mod here for example of it.

I intend to add more "Awesome Soundsets Volumes" but wanted to release this to help people make their own too.

I am excited too

smeagolheart

Updated OP.

I changed the IWDEE list of sounds because Select_rare 4 isn't playing the sound in IWDEE (even though it was displays the text).

I'm not sure if there's a way to get it play "47 SELECT_RARE4".

It would help to know where the file extensions come from in the game files.

I've seen this:
http://www.baldursgatemods.com/forums/index.php?topic=745.0
but there's no mention of where this data (matching the extension to what the game reads) is pulled from.

Charsnd.2da references sndslots.ids but there's no extensions list in that file, only numbers that must be translated somewhere to the file name- I know not where.

Anyway,
The problem seems to be BG2 doesn't have a select rare 4 sound. BG1 does, but I'm using that as "38 SELECT_ACTION7" and IWD does, but they use a different naming scheme.

I'm not sure what to do about that yet so in the meantime, I'm leaving it off.

amyae

While working on a custom soundset, I got annoyed at having to switch back and forth between the soundset reference list and the TRA file, so I made some edits. Basically this just adds commented-out notes to each line as a reminder for what each sound file is for.

Rename the attachment from blank.txt to blank.tra.

smeagolheart

not sure off top of my head if it will error on a TRA with comments, it worked fine? If so I can put that in the download...

amyae

I didn't get any errors during installation, and the text strings showed up in-game when I tried it.

smeagolheart

I put your comments in the mod and posted to SHS because changing the attachment wasn't working.

That should help lol, I've been referring back and forth and it does get old.

Thanks @Amyae

smeagolheart

I've been testing the sounds in game. I noticed that a soundset for in dungeon ( XXXXXXXp.wav In Dungeon(e.g. "Careful not to step in any") played in IWDEE when I went to the caravan orc cave.

I'm not sure what to make of that. According to sndslot.ids that is "23 AREA_DUNGEON".

Where I'm confused is there is no row for 23 in IWDEE charsnd.2da. Tere's no way to set subs for those sounds because there's no row to do that. I don't even know if I can add a row to charsnd.2da that it would even work then.

Personally, I can live without the "in forest", "in city", "in dungeon" sounds, especially since none of the default soundsets have them either.

I'm also going back through my soundsets and making sure the NOPQR sounds are not going to be copied over.

smeagolheart

I think I figured out what I'm missing and I'm not sure why I forgot about it

csound.2da has the sound file extensions for each game. Once I get home I will take a look at that and compare it between the three versions (unless someone wants to post them here in an attachment then I could do it sooner .

I have a feeling the "in forest", "in city", "at night" sounds are listed *but* since they aren't listed in charsnd.2da they won't get subtitles.

It's probably best to just to make sure those sound files aren't copied over unless you want them to go off with no subtitles.

amyae

Is it possible to have the mod create the lang/en_us/sounds folder if it doesn't exist already? This is probably a rare issue (I had restored my lang folder from a backup and forgot I hadn't backed up the sounds folder), but it took me a while to figure out what was wrong.

smeagolheart

I've been cross-referencing IWDEE vs BG1EE vs BG2EE references to try to firmly grasp the differences between the three games. I've compared sndslot.idses, charsnd.2da and csound.2da to get the full picture and then I've been wrapping my head around the differences.

It is pretty confusing and messy.

There is much overlap but each game is slightly different.

Between the 3 games, subtitles are possible for 33 sounds. IWDEE supports the most sounds with subtitles.

Other supported sounds may play but subtitles will not show up most notably the "in the forest/city/dungeon" type sounds will play but subtitles aren't possible for those afaik (they aren't listed in any of the charsnd.2das).

If you want to be confused, look at the stuff in the attachment.

smeagolheart

Hmm I think this is the bottom line for subs:

IWDEE only
------
*0.wav
*_.wav
*#.wav
*w.wav

IWDEE and BG2EE only (not BG1EE)
-----
*s.wav
*t.wav
*u.wav
*v.wav

The ones that are not for that game may play the sound but not display the subs with the sounds.

smeagolheart

I updated the template with the newer, cleaner code I've been working on now that I've figured out more things about this. Link is in original post. Please uninstall the old version and use the new version since I renamed the mod folder (sorry:) OCD

Blank.TRA has changed to account for the # sound (IWDEE).

Here's the changelog:
Version 1.1 18 Dec 2014
- Revised Blank.TPA (thanks to @amyae @forums.baldursgate.com)
- Added checks for each version of the game (BGEE, BG2EE, and IWDEE) to ONLY copy sound files WITH subtitles
- Added checks to ONLY copy over sound files if they exist.
- Added Support for # file extension for IWDEE
- Revised Readme.txt instructions


Now I'll get back to working on sound packs. I've been working on the following:

Awesome Soundsets Vol. 0 - This Mod Shell
Awesome Soundsets Vol. 1 - BG1 NPC soundsets
Awesome Soundsets Vol. 2 - IWD2 NPC Soundsets
Awesome Soundsets Vol. 3 - Planescape Torment NPC Soundsets
Awesome Soundsets Vol. 4+ - Other Soundsets

I hope to be able to put them out soon... Should be this week.

Darius777

Greetings! I was hoping someone could help me out. I've done a custom soundset based on the Cheshire Cat in American McGee's Alice. I have all of the sound files completed as directed. For some reason, I cannot get it to run. I have no idea what I'm doing incorrectly, or if I have the files in the correct places. Will attach them. Thanks in advance for any assistance! I added the .txt just to get them to attach.

smeagolheart

@Darius777

Hey on

BEGIN ~ajantis~
	OUTER_SPRINT soundName ~ajantis~      	LAUNCH_ACTION_FUNCTION s9copy END
	INCLUDE ~S9SoundsetsVol0/baf/core.tpa~

/*  sample:

BEGIN ~Darius~                  									// Need to change "Blank" to whatever your guy is
	OUTER_SPRINT soundName ~Darius~    						// Need to change "Blank" to whatever your guy is
	LAUNCH_ACTION_FUNCTION s9copy END						    // stays the same
	INCLUDE ~S9SoundsetsVol0/baf/core.tpa~					// stays the same

*/

The /* denotes comments, so your section is totally commented out where you are adding the Darius soundset.

Also note the path: S9SoundsetsVol0, so for it to find the files, make sure your darius sound files are in this folder and not a folder called darius or something. Or change that to Darius and put them there.

So for it to work, you'd have to go to something like this remove all this:

BEGIN ~ajantis~
	OUTER_SPRINT soundName ~ajantis~      	LAUNCH_ACTION_FUNCTION s9copy END
	INCLUDE ~S9SoundsetsVol0/baf/core.tpa~

and change this by removing the "/* sample" and the trailing "*/"

BEGIN ~Darius~ 
	OUTER_SPRINT soundName ~Darius~ 
	LAUNCH_ACTION_FUNCTION s9copy END	
	INCLUDE ~S9SoundsetsVol0/baf/core.tpa~

In your other file, the tp2, you've changed @23 to [DariusXXX], I'm pretty sure this is different from the template as all the others are one letter/or symbols...

Darius777

Smeagolheart - Thank you so much for the assist. I am still having a bit of an issue, though. I have gotten the installation to work successfully (at least it says that it does.) However, when I actually am in BG I:EE, I imported my character, and when it came time to choose the soundset, the 'Darius' set was not there, only the defaults. I'll reattach my current files - maybe you could tell me what I've done wrong? I also admit I'm not certain where each file needs to be. Like assuming my install directory is C:\\BI\Baldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition\ where does everything go? This is where I have things now:

C:\\BI\Baldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition\S9SoundsetsVol0\Darius.tra
C:\\BI\Baldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition\S9SoundsetsVol0\Setup-S9Soundsets.tp2
C:\\BI\Baldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition\S9SoundsetsVol0.exe

I also have my Darius sounds in:

C:\\BI\Baldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition\S9Soundsets0\SND\Darius
and an extra copy of them in:
C:\\BI\Baldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition\S9Soundsets0\

Thanks!

smeagolheart

@Darius777

The TRA looks okay now. I changed the path on the tp2, have a look. I renamed it to setup-darius, so you would have to copy and rename setup-s9soundsetvolume0.exe to setup-s9darius.exe (matching name of the tp2).

One other place you must change something is in core.baf, open that up and change one place to reflect the path..

In that file, in the baf folder,

There are two places like this:
LOAD_TRA ~S9SoundsetsVol7/SND/%soundName%/%soundName%.tra~

Do a search and replace S9SoundsetsVol7 with Darius so that that line would change to

LOAD_TRA ~Darius/SND/%soundName%/%soundName%.tra~

And again at the bottom there line should be changed to;
LOAD_TRA ~Darius/languages/english/setup.tra~

Darius777

I swear to God you likely think I'm an idiot by now. To begin, I have core.tra in the BAF folder, but no core.baf. The core.tra has one line you mentioned, but not the other. I did rename the program to Setup-Darius.exe and used your Setup-Darius.tp2 that was attached to your reply. The install said it was successful, but again, doesn't appear on the sound list. I am so sorry to keep bothering you, it's just driving me insane.

smeagolheart

@Darius777

Yeah in the BAF folder is core.tpa that has the path you will have to change. Suggest using notepad++ with the weidu highlighers from spellhold studios website (http://www.shsforums.net/files/file/1048-weidu-highlighter-for-notepad/) by @argent77

makes it easier to read code.

So from the mod folder (Darius)
in SND there should be a folder called Darius which contains a sounds folder with all the Dariusa.wav, etc other sound files.
(darius/snd/darius)

You have to edit the setup-darius to replace all instances of S9SoundsetsVol0 to darius.

You have to edit core.tpa in the baf folder to change the path from S9SoundsetsVol0 to darius in two places one at at the top and one at the bottom.

And that's should do it.


If you still can't get it, suggest zipping up everyting you have and uploading to http://www.zippyshare.com/ or something and providing a link and I'll take a look.

Darius777

Smeagolheart -

First of all, I want to apologize for going silent. I've got some nasty medical conditions and it took me out for awhile. Secondly, thank you for being so patient and assisting me. I still have no idea what I am doing wrong. I have zipped up the entire 'Darius' folder (which is currently in my BG:EE main folder) and uploaded it to Zippyshare as you suggested. Once again, thank you for your continued help, and I hope that I'll end up with a few cool soundsets to share with everyone when all is said and done. Here is the link:

http://www87.zippyshare.com/v/Y4sggr5Z/file.html

Hope to hear back from you soon.

- Tommy

Darius777

Good News! I am a complete idiot!

I have been tweaking around with this since I posted last, and I finally figured out what my mistake was! What I had done was:

In the Baldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition folder, I created a folder named 'Darius'
In that folder, I placed the template you provided.
I then went into the SND folder, and created a new folder named Darius.
I put my sound files in that folder... which was wrong. I apparently somehow missed that there needed to be a 'sounds' folder in the 'Darius/SND/Darius/' folder, and that my sounds were to go in there. So all of the files were edited properly, but the sounds themselves were in the wrong place. So. Problem solved!

Now I just need to work on cleaning it all up so I can post the voice set so others can use it if they wish.

Smeagolheart, thank you again for your incredible patience and assistance. You are the best.

- T

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

smeagolheart

I would think it has something to do with the paths being different on Ipad as compared to computer? You could try updating Weidu as well. There have been at least one update to weidu since I made these things, might be they added more compatibility/or bugfixes

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

smeagolheart

@subtledoctor they are in wav format, some are the protected wav files that shipped with the game with no alterations, some are not protected.

Sushiandre

Hello I'm new about modding games but I tried to create my personal subtitle '.tra' as for the mod shell's guide. With one of them (magnus.tra) everything goes well but with the other (ele.tra) when I change the Soundset for the Player in game, BG chash drammatically. I tried to understand where I make mistakes but i can't find evident errors in the second one respect the first. Can you help me? Thanks for time

AstroBryGuy

The ele sound set has several sounds with single letter filename references, e.g. [8], [9], [z]. That might be it.

Sushiandre

Thanks for the help. I Fixed it but It still doesn't work, I really don't know why..

smeagolheart

The two things I'd suggest checking are 1) your wav files - are they valid files, do they play and 2) make sure the file names match in the text files match up to the actual file names.

I'm not sure the exact wav format off top of my head I'd suggest checking against ones that are known working. Believe the shipped sound files are all mono - but I think stereo works - not sure the bitrate.

Also, if you are trying in BGEE there's the selection sound bug that causes most sounds to not work. This still has not been patched or fixed​ and has been referenced many times in this thread.