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Area maps, editing

chimericchimeric Member Posts: 1,163
in General Modding
I know area editing is a whole separate field, and I don't really need the ins and outs of it, but there is a small change in an area I'd like to do, so I'm looking for information on how. What I want is to repaint, in an editor, a little bit of the scenery. The side of a house. Nothing else is going to change about the area - the actors, the lighting map, entrances, all will stay the same. Just this cosmetic touch. So how would I go about exporting-importing for this, in Near Infinity?

Comments

  • LavaDelVortelLavaDelVortel Member Posts: 2,700
    If you want to work only with .tis (the tilset) you need to export only that one file (with Near Infinity, DLTCEP may cause some glitches with newest Beamdog tis+prvz): export them as bmp, use GIMP or Photoshop to edit it and then use Near Infinity to convert bmp to tis+prvz.
  • chimericchimeric Member Posts: 1,163
    I'm going to look for those functions, thanks. And where do I put the edited files? In override?
  • LavaDelVortelLavaDelVortel Member Posts: 2,700
    You always put modified files in override. No matter if that's tis, are, bam, itm or anything else.
  • chimericchimeric Member Posts: 1,163
    All right! Good to hear I don't need to do anything special with them. Say, you seem to know a thing or two about area editing. You know how to change music that plays in an area to a custom tune?
  • LavaDelVortelLavaDelVortel Member Posts: 2,700
    Not sure how it's now, but I think that the song list was limited, with a certain number of slots. If it's still that way I would recommend adding no songs, but use custom ambient sounds with a global area of effect and with "looping" option on. But that will mean no different song for battle, etc.
  • elminsterelminster Member, Developer Posts: 16,315
    edited January 2017
    There is a new (well new for BG anyways) script action that you can use as well. SetMusic

    An example would be

    SetMusic(DAY,OH4000)

    which will set the day song of the current area to OH4000.MUS.

    It's another option, though its one that is mainly there for if you want the music to play under a given set of circumstances.
  • AstroBryGuyAstroBryGuy Member Posts: 3,437
    @elminster - Do you know if the actual files in the MUS playlist still have to be ACM? Or does the EE engine support .ogg files like it does for sound files?
  • AstroBryGuyAstroBryGuy Member Posts: 3,437
    edited January 2017
    LavaDelVortel said:

    Not sure how it's now, but I think that the song list was limited, with a certain number of slots. If it's still that way I would recommend adding no songs, but use custom ambient sounds with a global area of effect and with "looping" option on. But that will mean no different song for battle, etc.

    I think the 99 song limitation is gone, like with ToBEx.

    @chimeric - Once you've added the song to SONGLIST.2DA, you can play it with script action PlaySong(I:Song*).

    Keep in mind that a MUS file is actually a playlist. The actual music is stored in acm format sound files (the song is chopped into segments so that it can either loop or fade-out as needed) in a folder the same name as the MUS file.

    http://gibberlings3.net/iesdp/file_formats/ie_formats/mus.htm

    Here's a tutorial on how to use the AddMusic function in WeiDU to add your custom song to SONGLIST.2DA.

    http://forums.pocketplane.net/index.php?topic=56.0
  • argent77argent77 Member Posts: 3,433
    @AstroBryGuy The Ogg Vorbis format appears to be supported for music. Simply rename the file extension from .ogg to .acm .
  • LavaDelVortelLavaDelVortel Member Posts: 2,700
    Uhm, but don't you have to "bind" specific song with specific slot anyway? If so, it may result in overriding songs from other mods.
  • AstroBryGuyAstroBryGuy Member Posts: 3,437
    edited January 2017
    argent77 said:

    @AstroBryGuy The Ogg Vorbis format appears to be supported for music. Simply rename the file extension from .ogg to .acm .

    Sweet! The only version of wav2acm I can find for Macs is PowerPC. :confounded:
    LavaDelVortel said:

    Uhm, but don't you have to "bind" specific song with specific slot anyway? If so, it may result in overriding songs from other mods.

    WeiDU's ADD_MUSIC function will append the song to the bottom of SONGLIST.2DA and return the index number of the added song. If you put a dummy number in your scripts (something huge), then you can REPLACE_TEXTUALLY the dummy number with the returned index in your mod-added scripts.
    Post edited by AstroBryGuy on
  • chimericchimeric Member Posts: 1,163
    edited January 2017
    I don't know about all that, but the SetMusic action from Elminster, if it works, seems like a perfect fit. Does it set the music permanently or do I have to do it every time from inside the area BCS?

    Thanks, @AstroBryGuy - I'll have a look at the MUS method. But ACM files, apparently, are split up so the tune can fade out. How many parts does it need to be broken in? For the standard music we hear, it seems that it can stop and fade practically any time, quickly, but the tunes are sometimes a minute or two long. Does it mean I have to make 50 mini-tunes for one custom tune's playlist!?
  • AstroBryGuyAstroBryGuy Member Posts: 3,437
    chimeric said:

    I don't know about all that, but the SetMusic action from Elminster, if it works, seems like a perfect fit. Does it set the music permanently or do I have to do it every time from inside the area BCS?

    Thanks, @AstroBryGuy - I'll have a look at the MUS method. But ACM files, apparently, are split up so the tune can fade out. How many parts does it need to be broken in? For the standard music we hear, it seems that it can stop and fade practically any time, quickly, but the tunes are sometimes a minute or two long. Does it mean I have to make 50 mini-tunes for one custom tune's playlist!?

    It depends if you want a "fade out" effect or not. Some songs, for example combat music, are chopped into a few dozen files, with multiple fade-out options, depending on where in the music combat happens to end. On the other hand, the tavern and day/night/dungeon background music songs don't have fade-out effects, so they are just a single .ACM file each.
  • chimericchimeric Member Posts: 1,163
    Yes, now that I think of it. Well, that makes the job a bit easier.
  • chimericchimeric Member Posts: 1,163
    Another question about music. Is it possible to have several tunes for, say, Day in an area, played randomly?
  • AstroBryGuyAstroBryGuy Member Posts: 3,437
    Not in the ARE file. It only has one Day and one Night song.

    http://gibberlings3.net/iesdp/file_formats/ie_formats/are_v1.htm#formAREAV1_0_Song_entries

    You could script something to change the song randomly via the SetMusic command @elminster mentioned above.
  • chimericchimeric Member Posts: 1,163
    Does the SetMusic command change the music permanently?
  • fluke13fluke13 Member Posts: 399
    That ADD_MUSIC function is great, you don't need to append anything to songlist.ids right?
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