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Here's how to add custom sound sets

dibdib Member Posts: 384
Don't know if this has been addressed yet, but if so I'll post now and apologize later.

So after about a day of tinkering about with my game I finally figured out how to add custom sound sets.
After you've put your correctly named sound set in the sounds folder (Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition\Data\00766\lang\en_US\sounds (replace en_US with your language if not using English)) you need to edit a file called CHARSND.2da.

I would recommend using DLTCEP (just google it) to do this. In the editor press the 'Edit'-menu and select 'Tables'.
From that screen press 'Load Table' and look for CHARSND.

After you open it place the marker at the last column and then press the 'Add column'-button. Name the column the same as your soundset and under it you add the string references you want the sound to have.

Unless you want to actually add new ones for your soundset I would recommend changing them all to 30 which is completely blank. You must do this because keeping it to the default -1 will result in your sounds not being played.
And there you go!

If anything was unclear, just ask.

Example of the 2da-table after I added my custom sound set F_MONK1:

image


IF YOU'RE STILL HAVING TROUBLE CHECK OUT THIS MUCH MORE THOROUGH TUTORIAL BY @Luigirules:
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/comment/281810/#Comment_281810
Post edited by dib on
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Comments

  • XantarrXantarr Member Posts: 16
    edited November 2012
    This is very good, thank you. What I'm wondering though is how do I add my own strings for my custom soundset? I've been sitting here toying with it, trying to figure it out. Of course I could just edit some other soundset, but I'm not too sure if I want to do that, just yet. I'd prefer to just add new strings if I could only figure out how.

    EDIT: I figured it out, for anyone curious. All you have to do is right click the string you'd like to edit and then type in whatever you like. It automatically creates a new string and references that.
  • CuvCuv Member, Developer Posts: 2,535
    In order to do that you will have to write them into the tlk file. WeiDU can easily do it.
  • CorianderCoriander Member Posts: 1,667
    These are the columns from SNDSLOT.IDS

    9 BATTLE_CRY1
    6 LEADER
    7 TIRED
    8 BORED
    20 HURT
    26 SELECT_COMMON1
    27 SELECT_COMMON2
    28 SELECT_COMMON3
    32 SELECT_ACTION1
    33 SELECT_ACTION2
    34 SELECT_ACTION3
    18 DAMAGE
    19 DYING
    10 BATTLE_CRY2
    11 BATTLE_CRY3
    63 SELECT_RARE1
    64 SELECT_RARE2
    65 CRITICAL_HIT
    66 CRITICAL_MISS
    67 TARGET_IMMUNE
    68 INVENTORY_FULL
    69 PICKED_POCKET
    70 EXISTANCE1
    71 EXISTANCE2
    72 EXISTANCE3
  • theJoshFrosttheJoshFrost Member Posts: 171
    I.... hope they just patch the problem of the custom sounds not playing right. I'm awfully lazy.
  • CuvCuv Member, Developer Posts: 2,535
    Custom sounds are much easier to use than this. Will post shortly here http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/8317/how-to-customize-your-game/p1 I will try to give the simpliest way for you @theJoshFrost :D
  • XantarrXantarr Member Posts: 16
    @Cuv What you posted on http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/8317/how-to-customize-your-game/p1 regarding custom soundsets does not work.
  • XantarrXantarr Member Posts: 16
    @dib So it is all peaches and cream, using the way you've described, except that I am having trouble saving it once I'm finished. It reads "Error while writing file!"
  • CuvCuv Member, Developer Posts: 2,535
    @Xantarr It works perfectly. You sure you got the correct folder? Here are FEMALE2 sounds renamed to FEMALE7. Using them now with my PC. https://dl.dropbox.com/u/90870688/FEMALE7.7z
  • GuboGubo Member Posts: 77
    I have around like 30 soundsets, making it around 3000 files. Would I have to each one for them all to work properly?
  • CuvCuv Member, Developer Posts: 2,535
    Likely you would have to do what @dib has above and create a new entry for most of them. I am still not sure of the soundset limit for naming. I know the number of characters in the file name is still 8 max.
  • dibdib Member Posts: 384
    @Xantarr When trying to save the 2da? Not sure what could have gone wrong... If you used DLTCEP, did you uncheck "Read only" in the settings? You could actually edit the 2da-file with a text editor, like notepad, as long as you just extract it into the override folder, but it might look like a mess when you open it.

    @Gubo Yeah, but if you change "Default value" to 30 instead of -1, you can just keep adding columns until you've added as many as you want and then just change the value of the top cell in every column to your respective sound set names. As long as you're ok with not having any text strings appear when your characters speak.
  • SilverstarSilverstar Member Posts: 2,207
    So where exactly do I find this charsnd.2da file? Looked all over with no luck.
  • GuboGubo Member Posts: 77
    Thanks @dib. I tried them out and the couple ones that I used worked, but like you said, without text strings, which is fine by me. I'll just wait till some of my favorite ones get worked on by someone more editing savvy than me.
  • dibdib Member Posts: 384
    @Silverstar If you haven't extracted it, it's in a bif archive. You need to use some tool, like DLTCEP, to extract it to the override folder.
  • SilverstarSilverstar Member Posts: 2,207
    Ah righty. I did find the .bif file you're refering to, annoyed me no end cause it was so similar, heh. Thank you.
  • faceless1963faceless1963 Member Posts: 143
    is it possible to change sounds for npc like gorion or immoen? and if, can u please tell me how :)
  • LuigirulesLuigirules Member Posts: 419
    I need help writing my own subtitles. Can someone write up a quick step-by-step guide on how to do it? Thanks.
  • CuvCuv Member, Developer Posts: 2,535
    I have create a mod that will do this and hopefully help people out
    http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/9969/customization-mod

    The game likes to crash on hasty edits of the CHARSND.2da. I have included one that will work and has about 10 blank entries for people to add in their custom sounds easily.
  • OperativeNLOperativeNL Member Posts: 146

    I need help writing my own subtitles. Can someone write up a quick step-by-step guide on how to do it? Thanks.

    I'd like to know this aswell...

  • junk11junk11 Member Posts: 117
    edited December 2012
    to add subtitles you need to first add new dialog line into dialog.tlk (it will give you a string number),
    then use Charsnd.2da to link the line with your sound set
    eg. make change those 30s in OP to your desire dialog number,
    each column is linked to SNDSLOT.IDS like 9 on the far left equal to BATTLE_CRY1 (its just like excel)
    ,and you have all the info you need above

    however, if you do this manually, you may need to change it every time after each update.
    don't try to overwrite the new dialog.tlk (if it gets updated) with a pre-update edited dialog.tlk.
    because they might change some text/typo or even add some new entries...

    NOTE: all can be done use tools like DLTCEP, NearInfinity
  • OperativeNLOperativeNL Member Posts: 146
    junk11 said:

    to add subtitles you need to first add new dialog line into dialog.tlk (it will give you a string number),
    then use Charsnd.2da to link the line with your sound set
    eg. make change those 30s in OP to your desire dialog number,
    each column is linked to SNDSLOT.IDS like 9 on the far left equal to BATTLE_CRY1 (its just like excel)
    ,and you have all the info you need above

    however, if you do this manually, you may need to change it every time after each update.
    don't try to overwrite the new dialog.tlk (if it gets updated) with a pre-update edited dialog.tlk.
    because they might change some text/typo or even add some new entries...

    NOTE: all can be done use tools like DLTCEP, NearInfinity

    Okay I don't really get all of this because I'm not familiar with editing the files themselves other than setting the value for my soundset to 30 as described by OP. But good to know it can be done, somehow. I won't do it now because I don't care enough about it to learn it now and then re-do it after every patch, I'll just play without charname's subtitles for now.

  • ChippyChippy Member Posts: 241
    Just thought someone might be able to identify the problem I have - I've followed the instructions and can identify what everything is and what it does, and have saves the 2da file to the installation directory, but no joy - my character just repeats the same command. The only thing I get from DLTCEP is that it can't find the dialogTLK file and is ignoring strings, so I might have fluffed up the setup?. I didn't think that would effect it though as I added the column and saved the file.
  • CuvCuv Member, Developer Posts: 2,535
    You can grab the customization mod I have here: http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/9969/customization-mod#latest
    And just use the installer - comment out all the other stuff. This patches to the dialog.tlk and has a shiny new CHARSND.2da with lots of blank entries to mess around with.
  • ChippyChippy Member Posts: 241
    I sussed out the problem I was having (alongside Cuv's modding tool) and realised that after changing anything I had to reload the soundset > by going to character record, etc. But as mentioned in the customization mod's readme, attack sounds do not seem to be playing (mine played once before going silent) which seems to be the same for all characters.
  • TiaxRulesAllTiaxRulesAll Member Posts: 198
    cant wait till this is patched in to be easy... and maybe with a few new features.
  • SilverstarSilverstar Member Posts: 2,207
    edited December 2012
    So I've messed around a bit with that tool using BGII for my experiments as I'd rather not accidently mess up EE's files (yet...) and have gotten a basic understanding of it. I've come to the realization though that the soundsets I've made myself doesn't need subtitles, I only want them working... which I imagine a patch will take care of for me.

    I would very much like to change one of Jaheira's selection lines (the really annoying one, you know which one!) into basically either of the other ones, but I'm not sure which to rename to what. Anyone know?
  • dibdib Member Posts: 384
    @Chippy To edit dialog.tlk with DLTCEP you need to go to the folder where you installed DLTCEP and open a file called chitem.ini with any text editor. Then change the value of 'Language' to the language you use in BGEE (for english it would look like this: "Language=en_US").
  • CuvCuv Member, Developer Posts: 2,535
    @Silverstar For Jaheira you would need to edit her CRE file for the particular sound instance. Change it to the string you want then put it in the override. Yes, there is always the chance you can accidentally mess something up.
  • FishFish Member Posts: 38
    The only way I was able to get custom sounds to play were to replace existing soundsets (MALE1, etc.) Has anyone had any luck in getting custom sets to work? I can get dialogs to work thanks to @Cuv but the sounds in game play are silent. They play fine (and are listed) in the customize sounds screen.
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