Importing, converting and using/triggering sounds

SolarisSolaris Join Date: 2003-05-11 Member: 16213Members
Hi there. It's me. Again.
I'm really not sure if I'm just too stupid to find the information or all those modding tools and work flows are really really badly documented - if at all. Pretty much every time I wanted to try something in my test map that was beyond simple geometry and placing pre-made stuff, I have to come to the forums and open yet another thread. As fun the tools are to use, all these bumps in the road are very frustrating.

But back on topic:
I have 3 sound files, all in MP3 format. Now I want to use them in a map and have no clue where to start. I'm pretty sure I have to convert them into some special format. On the wiki page for the Builder I found the info "soundsrc - Converts/Packs .fdp to FMOD format/library". So I convert my sounds into .fdp format and then have builder convert them into another format? I can't find information on the .fdp audio format anywhere :/

Can anybody please explain to me, step-by-step, who to get my sound files into a state where I can use them in my map?
And then I'd like to know how I can use the sounds to achieve the following:
#1: a continous looping sounds (background ambience)
#2: a sound that is triggered by something (let's use the "metal detector" as an example)
#3: a sound that has no range restriction and is not affected by walls etc. between the source and the players (sound of an earthquake, a global radio transmission, etc.)

Hope somebody of you has some sage knowledge that he can share with me :)
Thank you

Comments

  • HypergripHypergrip Suspect Germany Join Date: 2002-11-23 Member: 9689Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
    edited May 2013
    I'd be interested in this, too.

    I downloaded the FMOD Studio from their website and tried to open \Steam\SteamApps\common\natural selection 2\assets\soundsrc\NS2.fpd but it crashes at 10% >_<
    Since .fdp is "FMOD Designer Project" I decided to download the legacy FMOD Designer and try it again, but it throws error messages like crazy (the first one 30+ times):

    http://i.imgur.com/mw6As2G.png
    http://i.imgur.com/eMgC1JF.png

    I'll read a couple of tutorials about FMOD Designer and see if I can somehow create a .fdp this way. In theory, putting that text.fdp in the /source/soundsrc/ folder and running builder should give me something to use in my map... I'll report back how it turnes out when I had the time to try it.

    btw: Since the sound creation process is not only useful for us mappers, maybe the modding subforum might be the better place for this?

    edit: BBCode broken?
  • HypergripHypergrip Suspect Germany Join Date: 2002-11-23 Member: 9689Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
    I created a simple test .fdp containing a single simple event.
    Using builder to convert doesn't seem to work at all, it seems to start the conversion twice at the same time and both processes keep on running ad infinitum (stopped it after 20min).
    So I used the build option of FMOD designer. It created the .fev and .fsb files within 1 second.
    I can open the .fev in the editor and it correctly lists my folder and file name, but throws and error when trying to play it:
    Error: Sound 'sound/ns2_co_deimos.fev/sfx/test_sfx_01' couldn't be loaded (FSB mismatches the FEV it was compiled with, the stream/sample mode it was meant to be created with was different, or the FEV was built for a different platform. )

    Looks weird to me, becaue both files were created by the same process so they should match (at least I think they should).
    I don't see anything suspecious in the build protocol:
    #
    # ns2_co_deimos.txt
    # Generated by FMOD Designer v4.44.13
    #

    #
    # Events
    #

    Name            : /sfx/test_sfx_01
    Index           : /EVENTGROUP_NS2_CO_DEIMOS_SFX/EVENT_NS2_CO_DEIMOS_SFX_TEST_SFX_01
    Id              : EVENTID_NS2_CO_DEIMOS_SFX_TEST_SFX_01 = 0
    GUID            : EVENTGUID_NS2_CO_DEIMOS_SFX_TEST_SFX_01 = {2e746c4a-a734-4f55-883d-1aefae3f9ed7}
    Notes           :
    Max. playbacks  : 1
    DSP Effects     : none
    Category        : master


    #
    # Groups
    #

    Name            : /sfx
    Index           : /EVENTGROUP_NS2_CO_DEIMOS_SFX
    Numerical Index : /0
    Notes           :


    #
    # Categories
    #

    Name            : /master
    Index           : /EVENTCATEGORY_NS2_CO_DEIMOS_MASTER
    Numerical Index : /-1
    Notes           :

    Name            : /music
    Index           : /EVENTCATEGORY_NS2_CO_DEIMOS_MASTER/EVENTCATEGORY_NS2_CO_DEIMOS_MASTER_MUSIC
    Numerical Index : /0
    Notes           :



    #
    # Reverbs
    #



    #
    # Music Cues
    #



    #
    # Music Parameters
    #

    message log
    Cleaning project 'ns2_co_deimos'...

    Deleting file G:\ns2_co_deimos\output\sound\ns2_co_deimos.fev...

    Deleting file G:\ns2_co_deimos\output\sound\ns2_co_deimos.txt...

    Deleting file G:\ns2_co_deimos\output\sound\ns2_co_deimos.fsb...

    Done.

    Building project 'ns2_co_deimos'...

    Building project G:\ns2_co_deimos\output\sound\ns2_co_deimos.fev...

    Unique sound defs 1/1

    Retrieving sound file info...

    Retrieving reverb info...

    FEV file written ok

    Unique Envelope Points: 0 of 0

    Unique Strings: 57 characters of 57

    Building programmer report G:\ns2_co_deimos\output\sound\ns2_co_deimos.txt...

    Caching sound file details for ''...

    20226__Koops__Festival_Crowd_01.wav

    Building 'ns2_co_deimos.fsb'

    Encoded G:\ns2_co_deimos\source\soundsrc\20226__Koops__Festival_Crowd_01.wav

    Writing FSB...

    Finished building FSB

    Summary of build:

    SUCCESS: G:/ns2_co_deimos/output/sound/ns2_co_deimos.fev

    SUCCESS: G:/ns2_co_deimos/output/sound/ns2_co_deimos.txt

    SUCCESS: ns2_co_deimos.fsb

    and there were no errors during the build process.
  • JimWestJimWest Join Date: 2010-01-03 Member: 69865Members, Reinforced - Silver
    edited May 2013
    Wrong fmod version!
    Read my post you need 4.38 (youll find the download link in my old post)
  • HypergripHypergrip Suspect Germany Join Date: 2002-11-23 Member: 9689Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
    JimWest said:
    Wrong fmod version!
    Read my post you need 4.38 (youll find the download link in my old post)
    Thanks, that did the trick. Kinda sad how a subversion can cause incompatibility. (And one more reason for documentation. If you need a legacy version of a legacy program the info should be somewhere easy to find, imho...)
  • SolarisSolaris Join Date: 2003-05-11 Member: 16213Members

    Thank you both for your contributions. I now have an ambience sound looping in the background. However I still have questions remaining, mostly how to get a sound to be "non-directional". I mean a sound that has no source you can pinpoint by turning your character left and right. It should just play with the stereo settings provided by the original sound file as long as you are in range of the sound.

  • DarkSeraphDarkSeraph Join Date: 2004-06-07 Member: 29174Members
    Solaris said:

    Thank you both for your contributions. I now have an ambience sound looping in the background. However I still have questions remaining, mostly how to get a sound to be "non-directional". I mean a sound that has no source you can pinpoint by turning your character left and right. It should just play with the stereo settings provided by the original sound file as long as you are in range of the sound.

    I don't think the mapping entity will let you do this. I guess the concept is that if the sound exists something should be creating the sound, and therefore should emanate from a central point. The closest you can get with the current entity is turning the range up but volume down for subtle ambiance. I believe sound range is not affected by walls, and you'll note that the entity has a trigger range or I think you can use one of the many logic entities in EEM to force trigger it.

    Now through a mod you should be able to play a sound straight to the player's speakers - like the level up sound in Combat.
  • SolarisSolaris Join Date: 2003-05-11 Member: 16213Members
    I'm in over my head trying to get all that mapping stuff working, I really don't think I could dive into "real" modding just to put some audio stuff into a concept map :/
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