Adding Music

How is it done?

from Sins Forums

Hey. I like the SoaSE music and all, but I would like to add some of my own to it as well. I've got a folder in with the rest of the music for my own, and I have SoundMusic.sounddata up, but I'm not sure how to change it to add the other music, or even if it's possible. I know it's possible to modify sounds as a whole, but I havn't seen anything done musically. Anybody able to help?

The music, by the way, is in .mp3 format, as opposed to the Sins sounds which are all in .ogg. I'm assuming I'll have to change the music files to match the Sins files, but I don't know where to go from there.

modding
4,293 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

As far as .mp3 - .ogg conversion goes, refer to this thread for programs that can do it. All music needs to be .ogg as far as I know.

I just modded my music and sounds yesterday, and I didn't acutally alter SoundMusic.sounddata at all. If I am going to use 'Opening Theme.ogg' as an example, I just created a Sound folder in my mod directory, renamed my custom theme to 'Opening Theme.ogg', and dropped it into my mod's Sound folder. Worked like a charm.

This is a rather simple way of doing it; I haven't looked into the more advanced aspects just yet (haven't needed to), but this is a simple way of getting your own music ingame.

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

Check out Audacity for converting to .ogg format.

As for adding to the soundmusic.sounddata file, you add to it same as to any other list file in SoaSe:

-sound files go into the Sound folder of your mod

-append the new entries at the end of the soundmusic.sounddata file

-make sure you increase the count number at the top of the file to match the new number of entries

-make sure you leave at least one blank line at the end of the .soundata file

As for how the new entries should be formatted, simply copy/paste the existing entries and change the relevant information, in this case the music file name and make sure you have the emotion level and emotion range settings matched with the musical theme (action, peaceful, etc.) - best bet is to examine how the existing battle, trouble, quiet etc. themes are set up.

Good luck!

The Political Machine 2024
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

Awesome, thanks folks. I'll go ahead and report my progress here when I get on that later.

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

Alright, I'm working on implementing my music without over-riding other stuff. But how does the game determine the action/emotion level/range? It doesn't appear to have any major effect on how often the song is played, because all but two of the battle/quiet I listened to for contrast I regularly hear, while the two odd ones out were similar to many others I hear all the time.

 

Any thoughts on how to determine this stuff?

 

Edit; I'm noticing a few songs that I've never heard in game, as any race. Is there any particular reason for the rarity or lack of being available, or is it just coincidence? Thus far I've not heard Battle 3-4 in game, nor Tec 3-4. There are probably more, as I've not checked out Advent/Vasari things yet.

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

I think level of action is also taken into account, ie. how big the fracas is. But I have no idea how the specific values are calculated or how the tracks are selected otherwise. Maybe they're random.