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[Mods] Awesome Soundsets Mods Master Thread. Custom Soundsets for BGEE, BG2EE and IWDEE

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  • smeagolheartsmeagolheart Member Posts: 7,963
    edited March 2016
    Dukinson said:
    @smeagolheart and anyone else that might know:

    I've been working on a soundset and played a game with it to test it out.  However, I could not get the sound "W" or "reaction to party member death" to work when someone died.  I also happened to note that none of the stock soundsets have a "W" sound.  Does this sound even work? Is it just me?
    It is true that certain games have different sounds activated.   Icewind Dale has the most possible combinations.

    I have a grid here that kind of clears things up.  Find my comparisons.xls in docs/IWD vs BGEE vs BG2EE comparison/ for a full breakdown..

    Under W sound has these notes:
    "Subtitles in IWDEE, but not BG1EE and BG2EE.  Sound should play in BG1EE or BG2EE but no subs."

    This is due to the way the engines are different.





    lolien
  • DukinsonDukinson Member Posts: 46
    edited March 2016
    @Swifty_Magee
    BG2EE.  I was doing the quick way of dropping the wav files in the "sounds" directory.  Is that why? I don't have subtitles for this soundset yet.  I just followed the directions here: http://www.baldursgatemods.com/forums/index.php?topic=745.0

    I felt like there was a reason why mods like this one and others exist which have more complicated methods of adding soundsets.  The only other thing I would add is that I didn't have all the acknowledge and selected sounds filled in yet, just 25 or so.


  • Swifty_MageeSwifty_Magee Member Posts: 229
    edited March 2016
    @Dukinson
    If you're just dropping wav files in a "sounds" directory, they should be playing.  You don't need to have a full soundset for the sound files to play in-game, so the 25 or so you have right now should work fine.

    Are the other 24 files playing in the game correctly?  If they are and the only sound file that is NOT playing is the "w" sound file, than it seems like that one may be corrupted.  I would try to get another copy of that sound file and try it out.  If you have BG1EE and/or IWDEE, I would try your custom soundset in those games to see if they all work correctly in a game other than BG2EE.  When I create a soundset, I always test it out in IWDEE because as @smeagolheart said, Icewind Dale uses the most amount of sound files from a soundset.  The 2.0 patch might fix these issues, but we'll have to wait and see.

    If you like, you can place the "w" sound file and the other sound files in a zip and upload them to the forum.  I could then see if the files play on my PC and Infinity Engine games.  That way we would know if the problem is the sound files or some setting on your end.

    Also, if you manage to find the solution to your problem and then decide to add in subtitles, I highly recommend this mod.  You can add subtitles in without the Awesome Soundset mod, but it's way harder, requires an external modding program, and can actually screw up things with other mods (I know all this firsthand).
    lolien
  • DukinsonDukinson Member Posts: 46
    edited March 2016
    What's odd is that it works fine with the "play" button in character generation.  Also all of the sounds appear to work normally in game when prompted.  I hesitate to upload any of the sounds before I complete this project but here it is.

    Post edited by Dukinson on
  • smeagolheartsmeagolheart Member Posts: 7,963
    Dukinson said:
    @Swifty_Magee
    BG2EE.  I was doing the quick way of dropping the wav files in the "sounds" directory.  Is that why? I don't have subtitles for this soundset yet.  I just followed the directions here: http://www.baldursgatemods.com/forums/index.php?topic=745.0

    I felt like there was a reason why mods like this one and others exist which have more complicated methods of adding soundsets.  The only other thing I would add is that I didn't have all the acknowledge and selected sounds filled in yet, just 25 or so.
    this more complicated way I put out there allows subtitles to be played along with the sounds.   I really like that since it matches the built in ones in game, they don't stick out as "MOD".   To me that's important.

    You can just put them in and play them sure.  I've done a lot of research and made this method as straightforward as I can for others to pick out this shell and just have to change a couple places and you can make your own like that.

    This topic was made to address this way, but sure we can help with general questions, be as detailed as you'd like and as @Swifty_Magee says feel free to upload and we can look at the files and see if they are compatible or something else is going on.
    Swifty_Mageelolien
  • Swifty_MageeSwifty_Magee Member Posts: 229
    edited March 2016
    @Dukinson
    Okay, so I downloaded your sound file (and if that voice is who I think it is, I'm looking forward to the end product :) ), and it seems like the problem isn't just yours.  I placed your file in a "sounds" folder and started Icewind Dale EE.  Like you said, the sound file plays in-game at the soundset selection menu, but not during play.  I then tested out my personal soundsets by letting party members die against the beetles at the start up inn.  No one reacted to party member death.

    I then set the party to default game soundsets, and again, no reactions to death.  Now this is all pretty confusing, since I swear I've heard party member death reactions before in all three Enhanced Edition games, especially in IWDEE since it's so combat-heavy.

    What could be happening is that the "w" states could play randomly and I'm just unlucky with getting the dialogue...though I let people die for a good 15 minutes and didn't get anything.  What is more likely the case is that this is a game bug that I just haven't paid any attention to.  Again, I'm fairly sure that I have heard the "w" states before while playing, so I don't know why I'm not hearing them now.  I must admit, however, that when one of my party dies, I'm pretty speedy with that quick load!

    My advice right now is to finish your soundset and include the "w" sound file, even if it may not play most of the time, if at all.  This may be a bug that doesn't occur 100% of the time, or it could fix itself after the incoming patch is dropped.  No need to exclude the sound file right now, at least in my opinion.

    What I may do later on in the week is uninstall one of the Enhanced Edition games, run CCleaner to get rid of any old or broken registries, and install the game again...maybe in a different directory on my hard drive.  If this is only happening with a couple of users, it could be an issue where uninstalling/re-installing to a different location fixes the problem.  It'd be great if anyone else who is experiencing this issue posts and confirms that it's happening to more than just the two of us.

    All in all, this might just be an engine bug that's unfixable on the player's end.  I just looked into the 2.0 change log and I know one of the Infinity Engine improvements is that party members will take some action if a banter fails to initialize.  Hopefully something like failed character state initialization falls onto that engine fix.
    lolienJuliusBorisov
  • smeagolheartsmeagolheart Member Posts: 7,963
    sounds like might end up being something to report in the bugs forum
  • DukinsonDukinson Member Posts: 46
    I actually mentioned this several days ago in the 2.0 forum.  It didn't get a response but maybe someone read it.  Perhaps I should post it in the bugs forum as well.
    Swifty_MageeJuliusBorisovlolien
  • DukinsonDukinson Member Posts: 46
    edited March 2016
    @smeagolheart
    If I wanted to make a complete soundset to work with BG1,2, IWD1 and 2, do I need to format it into separate td2s and tras?

    Also do I need to have the files named in the formats normally required by the different games even if it's the same sound? IE: XXXXXXXz.wav Critical Hit Given for bg2 and separate one for xxxxx41.wav : Critical hit 1 for IWD2 (even if they're the same exact sound file).

    I'm hoping to put this all into a single "sound" folder and have it install universally into whichever game one is playing rather than create a separate install for each game.
  • smeagolheartsmeagolheart Member Posts: 7,963
    Hey @Dukinson that is how it works. One single installer for all three games. It only installs the sounds if it can play it.
    lolien
  • DukinsonDukinson Member Posts: 46
    @smeagolheart
    So what you're saying is that a bg1 soundset directory wont be completely compatible with bg2. The "U" and "V" sounds in bg1 are two extra rare selects that don't exist in bg2. If I set those two sounds to "rare selects 3 and 4" and place them in the directory, someone installing them into bg2 will have those two rare select sounds playing when acknowledgements 6 and 7 are prompted.

    Am I understanding correctly?
    lolien
  • smeagolheartsmeagolheart Member Posts: 7,963
    edited March 2016
    If you put it as a rare select and that sound doesn't play in a particular game, it won't install that sound (and also won't play.)

    If someone installs the soundset in a game that supports the additional sound it will install and play.
    lolien
  • Swifty_MageeSwifty_Magee Member Posts: 229
    edited April 2016
    Time for the big 2.0...version of my soundset pack. It took longer than expected and features too many changes to list here; seriously, check the change log in the readme file if you're curious. My goal with this version was to go back through every single soundset - now at 74 entries - and try to get the best possible soundset out of all the files available to me.

    All of the very first soundsets I created back in 2014 have been either re-edited or redone in some substantial way. For instance, every soundset now has been filled out, as the earliest ones I made only had about 25 files instead of 33. Many of the oldest ones have had sound files replaced for those that are (hopefully) better fits.

    Each tra file has been checked and re-checked for typos and errors. I found a few tra entries that weren't written correctly and may not have played in-game in my previous versions. Now, every soundset should install and play successfully.

    In addition to all that, every single soundset has had it's volume normalized and universally amplified, meaning that they all are finally at the same volume. This is something I've been meaning to do forever and finally got around to doing it after I got more familiar with Audacity.

    As for the new stuff, I've added a Guybrush Threepwood soundset composed from the game Curse of Monkey Island, which turned out well. I noticed a few more Curse of Monkey island sound files, so I might add those sometime in the future.

    The big part of version 2.0 that took the most time, however, is the World of Warcraft soundsets I've added, 26 in total. Each one is a male and female set for each playable race in the game. They were composed of WoW emotes I found around the net, and I have to say these are probably the most interesting and funny soundsets I've made so far.

    The only minor downside are the "being hit" and "death" sound files, which I took from various NPC death sounds as I couldn't find death sounds for the player races. The ones I included sound close enough and are from the actual game, but they aren't the official sound clips for the races themselves. If anyone knows how I could get the proper sound files, posting a link or uploading a zip would be much appreciated.

    In regards to the subtitles, I tried to be as accurate as I can and correctly type out all the WoW references. What resulted is me going constantly to a WoW wiki and looking up what the characters are saying, and how to spell them all correctly. I now know far more about World of Warcraft than I ever wanted to. It was worth it for these sets though. If you don't have any inclination of using them, at least check out the tra files one day when you're bored...some funny one-liners in there, especially the "bored" entries.

    I'm probably going to be taking a break for a bit unless inspiration hits me; maybe add another soundset to put the pack at 75, a good, round number! I'll most likely be playing Siege of Dragonspear for a while, which will hopefully be compatible with the Soundset Mod. As usual, though, if you happen to find any errors or if you have any suggestions on how the soundsets could be made better, feel free to post here or PM me.


    Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/cod0idhzdurqaq9/Swifty Magee's Soundsets 2.0.7z?dl=0 Version 2.1 linked in my next post.
    Post edited by Swifty_Magee on
    smeagolheartlolienJuliusBorisov
  • smeagolheartsmeagolheart Member Posts: 7,963
    Awesome @Swifty_Magee , just in time for "Siege" too.

    You may have noticed I am a big fan of the Monkey Island voices as well with my Awesome Soundsets Volume 4 being all Monkey Island soundsets http://www.shsforums.net/files/file/1108-awesome-soundsets-vol-4/ yet my Guybrush there is from Monkey Island 1 and 2 and not from "Curse" if I recall correctly. At any rate the more the merrier! People should definitely check this out.
    Swifty_MageelolienJuliusBorisov
  • Swifty_MageeSwifty_Magee Member Posts: 229
    Wanted to upload a quick update to my pack, now at 2.1, that simply increases the volume of the soundsets a bit. I was playing BGEE with the new 2.0 patch today and noticed all the NPCs sounded noticeably louder than my character. So I went through Audacity and turned it up a little on all the soundsets.

    To me all my soundsets seem to be at the same level of the game NPCs now, but if anyone thinks the volume is still off, just let me know.

    Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/lt3o0riy8a18h13/Swifty Magee's Soundsets 2.1.7z?dl=0
    TyonlolienJuliusBorisov
  • Swifty_MageeSwifty_Magee Member Posts: 229
    edited April 2016
    Unfortunately, it looks like the subtitles for custom soundsets aren't working right with Siege of Dragonspear. Everything is okay when playing BGEE 2.0 and BGEE2 2.0, but things get weird as soon as you install SoD. The voice clips play, but the subtitles will be from various text bits in the game. The game's default soundsets and subtitles still work, however.

    Seems like pretty much any WeiDU mod is somewhat incompatible with SoD right now. Hopefully a new version of WeiDU comes out sooner than later.

    EDIT: Seems like if you have the Beamdog version of Siege of Dragonspear, your WeiDU mods might work correctly. So if you got SoD directly from Beamdog, your soundsets might work as intended. If you got SoD from Steam or GOG, everything may be a bit fudged.
    lolienJuliusBorisov
  • ButtercheeseButtercheese Member Posts: 3,766
    I simply copied over my "sounds" folder to my SoD install, tho I guess then you don't get any subtitles at all for the custom soundsets.
  • Swifty_MageeSwifty_Magee Member Posts: 229
    @Buttercheese
    Yeah, the actual sound files play fine, but the subtitles will be incorrect. There may not even be a problem if you are using the Beamdog version. I'm using the Steam version, though, where all the content of SoD is placed in a zip file, which seems to be causing a lot of the problems. Apparently it's the same with the GOG version, too.
    AlrighterBabberButtercheeselolien
  • AlrighterBabberAlrighterBabber Member Posts: 4
    edited April 2016
    Uploading a Xena soundset for Swifty to check my error as I'm rubbish!!
    Swifty_Magee
  • Swifty_MageeSwifty_Magee Member Posts: 229
    edited April 2016
    @AlrighterBabber , I found the error, which was a missing "/" on line 25 of the Ares.tra file (the "Critical Hit Given" line). Seems like you accidentally deleted that, but I corrected it and uploaded a working version of the soundset. Your Ares soundset should install fine now.
    AlrighterBabberlolien
  • AlrighterBabberAlrighterBabber Member Posts: 4
    edited April 2016
    Hi @Swifty_Magee, thanks so much for everything!!

    I knew the Ares error was going to be something simple, nice spotting on that forward slash.

    I've now got everything working, I've got a save with it all working and I owe you a bit more than a pint!

    It's probably the wrong thread, but I've attached the portraits I use in game to (just so you have the full 'kit')

    Thanks again Swifty for being a genius and very, very patient with me, it's appreciated!
    Swifty_MageelolienJuliusBorisov
  • Swifty_MageeSwifty_Magee Member Posts: 229
    edited April 2016
    @AlrighterBabber , no problem at all! I'm just glad we got it all sorted out and you can continue your IWDEE Let's Play without the garbled text.

    And thanks for the portraits! If you ever start a new game and want to choose from an insanely huge amount of portraits, try my IWDEE Portrait Pack (https://www.dropbox.com/s/500snxyr98cj4zg/IWDEE Portrait Pack 3-05-2016.7z?dl=0). Around 4000 portraits covering a large amount of classes and races, some not even in the game. You can also download version 2.1 of my soundset pack to play with: https://www.dropbox.com/s/lt3o0riy8a18h13/Swifty Magee's Soundsets 2.1.7z?dl=0

    If you ever need anymore help, hit me back either on this thread or the Steam thread.
    smeagolheartlolien
  • Swifty_MageeSwifty_Magee Member Posts: 229
    edited April 2016
    @smeagolheart , you may want to check out this thread: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/50441/modmerge-merge-your-steam-gog-zip-based-dlc-into-something-weidu-nearinfinity-dltcep-can-use#latest

    I was looking for a way to install Awesome Soundsets without having the subtitle problem, and I thought Modmerge was the solution. I tried it, and while it worked with my other gameplay mods, I couldn't install Awesome soundsets. It gave me installation errors, which I posted on that thread.

    There may be an issue with the Awesome Soundset mod being incompatible with the Beamdog versions of the Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale games. Check a few posts into that thread; a user said he can't install Awesome Soundsets on his Beamdog copy. He blames patch 2.0, but I was able to install soundsets on that patch, so I'm not sure what the issue is. I did install my soundsets on the Steam version of BGEE, though.

    EDIT: Yeah, there definitely seems like there are some issues with the Awesome Soundset mod and the Beamdog versions of the games. If you don't want to check that thread, this is what I get when trying to install any soundset (tried installing the Ajantis soundset in Vol 0 in this example)...

    Installing BG1Ajan Sound Files...
    Copying 1 file...
    (x18)
    loading 1 tra file
    Appending to files column-wise...
    Cannot append column-wise because there are 48 lines in CHARSND.2da but I was only given 28 things to append
    Stopping installation because of error.
    Stopping installation because of error.

    ERROR: Failure("cannot append column-wise to CHARSND.2da")


    I only get these installation messages after using the Modmerge program, but that program essentially unpacks Beamdog-version data to your Baldur's Gate EE main directory.
    Post edited by Swifty_Magee on
    lolien
  • ThelsThels Member Posts: 1,416
    I'm the user Swifty refers to.

    To clarify, the problem is that SoD updated the CHARSND.2da file. On the Beamdog version, if SoD is installed, it tries to update this new CHARSND.2da file, which is incompatible, hence it won't install.

    On Steam, it does work, because the SoD files are tugged away inside a Zip file, and you're actually patching the old pre-SoD files. This causes all kinds of problems, especially string related (hence the subtitle issues that Swifty is referring to earlier.

    If you run the modmerge tool, the Steam/GoG SoD installation is modified to resemble the Beamdog installation, so mods can properly be installed. Of course, that means that the new SoD CHARSND.2da file is now present, which the installer can't handle.

    The modmerge tool is still the way to go forward here, but the mod (and perhaps Weidu itself), needs to be updated to be able to patch this new file.
    Swifty_Mageelolien
  • smeagolheartsmeagolheart Member Posts: 7,963
    Haven't had a chance to investigate this and I haven't yet purchased dragonspear. I did update my bg1 and 2 ees with the patch but have not yet tried to reload the mod(s).

    I do have the beamdog version.

    It might be something that we need weidu updated to work out the kinks like this.
    lolien
  • ThelsThels Member Posts: 1,416
    @smeagolheart: The important thing to keep in mind is that, as long as you can get things working on the Beamdog version, people should be able to get it to work on the Steam and GoG versions.

    They do not require separate versions of your mod. They merely need to install the modmerge once before installing their mods.

    How exactly to get your mod working with the SoD version of CHARSND.2da, I have no clue, but hopefully you can figure it out, or others can help you.
    Swifty_Mageelolien
  • smeagolheartsmeagolheart Member Posts: 7,963
    @Swifty_Magee @Thels

    I installed Vol2 (IWD voicesets) on BGEE and BGEE2 Beamdog versions of games no problems and subtitles worked in game.

    I think I saw you mention the subtitles weren't showing correctly with zipped version, it would be because the dialogue.tlk isn't being referenced correctly. Normally, weidu adds a pointer to a location of a new stored string and puts the dialogue.tlk in the override folder. With a zipped dialogue.tlk and the modmerge workaround must not be handling this correctly.



  • ThelsThels Member Posts: 1,416
    @smeagolheart: Do you have SoD installed?

    The reason subtitles didn't work initially for Swifty, was because the SoD expansion is stored in a zip file on Steam/Gog. Your mod patches the default dialog.tlk, but the game uses the dialog.tlk inside the .zip file.

    The modmerge tool extracts this zip file, and merges it with the base files, making the installation similar to the Beamdog version. All Steam/GoG users with SoD need to run the modmerge tool before installing any mods.

    Unfortunately, in your mod's case, that's not the only problem. SoD changes the format of CHARSND.2da, and your mod doesn't know how to deal with that.
    Swifty_Mageelolien
  • Swifty_MageeSwifty_Magee Member Posts: 229
    So it looks like the Awesome Soundset mod works fine on all versions until you get Siege of Dragonspear through Steam or GOG and use Modmerge to install mods. That's the issue; Modmerge uses the CHARSND.2da that comes with the SoD zip, and the Awesome Soundset can't reference that specific CHARSND. I think that's why I get the error message "Cannot append column-wise because there are 48 lines in CHARSND.2da but I was only given 28 things to append" when trying to install.

    I don't know a lot about codding, but it seems there needs to be some revisions on the Awesome Soundset's end to accept the dialog.tlk and/or the CHARSND.2da that is found in the SoD zip. The Awesome Soundset needs to check the altered versions of those two files when they are extracted to BGEE's main directory after using Modmerge.
    lolien
  • ThelsThels Member Posts: 1,416

    So it looks like the Awesome Soundset mod works fine on all versions until you get Siege of Dragonspear through Steam or GOG and use Modmerge to install mods.

    Incorrect!

    Can you please stop spreading out misinformation that the problem is related to the modmerge utility, as the modmerge utility has nothing to do with it, else it wouldn't bug with the Beamdog version.

    The mod works fine on a 2.0 without SoD installation.

    The mod does not work on a SoD installation, as SoD updates the CHARSND.2da file. That currently seems to be the only problem.

    (Steam and GoG users with SoD need to use the modmerge tool to get mods to work properly, but that is unrelated to the problem with this mod, and should be left out to not confuse anyone.)
    lolienillathidProont
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