Screamer Tutorials
by EssGee
Introduction
This tute will cover some specific uses of Screamer for
fixing sound in wads. The program is best used in
conjunction with Wadmerger. I am not going to cover
installation, as that is thoroughly explained in the manual
that comes with the program. However you should note that
you must download and install the Java environment to run
the program.
What Screamer won't do. It will not create a sounds.txt from
your current wad.
What it can do: It allows you to create a new sounds.txt and
output new .sam and .sfx files (sound files) for your wad.
You can use it to create a new sounds.txt file for a single
object or for a complete wad. It will allow you to add
custom samples to an object.
What's the point of doing this? Some of it is creative such
as adding custom sounds, but often it is used as a
corrective measure for wads with messed up sounds. There is
also a huge buildup of unwanted sounds that get assigned to
wads through objects being brought into a wad then being
deleted. The average level probably uses 120 -160 sound
samples, but wads often end up with 200 or more sounds
associated with the wad during the building of the wad, as
objects are added and deleted. When you compile your TR4
level file with tomb2pc.exe all these samples get added to
the TR4 file. That can be mean about 2-3 Mb of unwanted
rubbish being added to your TR4! My tip here is do all your
experimental work with new objects in a test wad and
project. Only add objects to your level wad when you are
satisfied that they are working properly.
Getting
started
Understanding sound samples in TRLE:
In TRLE game sound samples are wav files in the format PCM
22,050 Hz 16-bit mono.
You have a huge set of standard TR4 sounds to choose from in
your Samples folder. You can add custom samples to this set
of sounds. I recommend if you create new samples you stick
to the 8-letter naming convention for the file and keep the
sample smaller than about 70 kb otherwise it probably won't
trigger in game.
In the TR4 wad format there are 370 sound banks available
(0-369). Think of these as channels on an audio mixing desk.
These audio banks or channels are set with a predetermined
name and number. With each of these sound banks you can
associate (assign a sample) a sound sample or samples to it.
Unlike the Sound banks themselves which are not changeable,
you can change the samples that are assigned to each Sound
Bank.
e.g. Sound bank 0 - LARA_FEET: foot01 foot02 foot03 foot04
This means that the four different Lara footstep sounds are
assigned (associated) to Sound bank channel 0 - LARA_FEET.
So these 4 samples will trigger alternately when Lara walks.
They will trigger where a sound trigger for Sound bank 0 has
been set in the Anim Commands of the Lara wad object. You
can view this in the Anim commands window of Wadmerger's
Animation Editor.
Opening Screamer
When the Screamer program window opens you are presented
with 4 menus at the top. Below this are two frames. The left
hand frame contains the list of 370 sound banks. You can
scroll down through the entire list. The right hand frame
contains all the sound properties and settings required to
associate a sound sample and sound bank to a wad.
Let's work through the different fields.
ID: The Sound bank ID. This corresponds with the
sound bank list. Nothing to do here.
Sample: this is the name of the sample that is
assigned to the current sound bank you are viewing. Notice
if you click on a different item in the list, the properties
change. If you are adding a custom sample to a sound bank
this is where you would enter its name.
Volume: This sets how loudly your sound sample will
play in game.
Chance: This sets how regularly a sample will be
played. In most cases you'll want this set as blank (or
default100 - same thing). E.g. it will play 100% of the the
times it is triggered. If Chance was set at 95, the sample
would play about 95% of the times it triggered.
Pitch: this changes the pitch of the sample. A
negative value will make the sample sound deeper and slower,
a positive value will make the sample play faster and sound
higher in pitch.
Radius: This is the distance away from Lara that a
sample will be heard.
P V R N: Disregard these buttons, Their exact
function has not been described.
Looped: This is only applied to samples that are
played continuously like the waterfall loop.
Wad Name: This is where you enter the name of your
wad.
Associations: This is where you enter a 2-letter
shorthand name for your wad.
Add: Press this button to add a Sound Bank to your
wad. (Note:Side panel is Green when associated).
Delete: Press this button to delete a sound bank from
your wad. (Note: Side panel is Red when not associated).
Associations panel: This displays the shorthand wad
names that are currently associated with the sound bank.
Example 1: Single object wad
Adding
sounds to a door
Scenario: You have a single silent door object in a
wad (let's call it testdoor.was) and wish to add sounds to
it when it opens and closes.
1. Open your testdoor wad in Wadmerger. Click on your door
and open the Animation Editor. On the Sound drop down menu
go> Add Sounds. Scroll down the list to TR4 64 -
DOOR_GENERAL and tick the check box and click Add Selected
button.
2. Using the Current Animation drop down list to view the
different animations - Select the 'Door opening' animation
(you'll be able to see this as it goes through the
animation) and open the Anim Commands button (The button
with 0011 etc). In the first window select 'play a sound'
from the drop down list. In the second window put '4' for
the frame number you want the sound to start triggering. In
the third window select '64 - DOOR GENERAL' and in the
fourth window select 'Always'. Now click the 'Add' button.
Repeat this step for the door closing animation. Now save
your wad. You have now set the DOOR GENERAL sound bank to
trigger whatever sample is associated with it on Frame 4 of
both the opening and closing door animations. By default,
that is the sample gen_door.
3. Open Screamer. When Screamer opens, it automatically
loads a default sounds.txt. (Don't save over this - always
use the Save As function)
4. In the Wad Name field replace the word 'default' with
'testdoor'; in Associations field, replace Df with Td (It
can be anything - I've chosen this for testdoor. Note: the
letter combination: first letter uppercase, second letter
lowercase).
5. Go to associations Drop down menu and choose 'Clear all
except'. A message in the bottom panel tells you all
associations have been cleared except Td. There are
temporarily no sounds associated with your wad.
6. From the Sound Bank list scroll down to no.64:
DOOR_GENERAL and click on it. This brings up the properties
for sound bank 64. You can see that the sample assigned to
this sound bank is gen_door. We'll leave it and the other
settings as they are.
7. Click the Add button to add Sound Bank 64 to your
sounds.txt. We're using this sound for both opening and
closing the door so there's no other sound banks needed.
Look at the Chance value. If it is not a blank field or a
value of 100, change it to 100. This is to ensure that the
sample plays every time the door is opened and closed.
8. Go to the Task Drop Down menu and select 'output wad'.
Now look in the Output folder where Screamer is installed.
You'll find two new files created here: testdoor.sam and
testdoor.sfx. Copy them and paste them over the same named
files that were created with the testdoors wad.
9. You are finished with Screamer for now, so using the
'Save As.' function, save your custom sounds.txt file (for
future reference) to a folder with your testdoors wad.
Example 2: Fixing sounds on an entire level wad
Scenario: You have built an level wad that you are
using with your level. At some point your sounds have gotten
messed up. Classic examples of this are: rolllingballs,
levers and underwater switches with no sound; enemies that
make underwater gurgling sounds then they shoot at Lara;
Lara's gun sounds go strange or are missing.
Cause of problem: Usually caused by too many samples
in the wad, by an object being added to the wad that has a
sound sample that isn't in your Samples folder, or an object
that has TR3 or TR2 sound banks assigned to it.
Solution: There is no simple fix for this. You have
to get rid of the excess samples and/or Sound banks that are
causing the problem. So you must create a new sounds.txt for
your wad. Screamer performs the same function as pcwadsfx by
creating a new sounds.txt and outputting new sam and sfx
files for your wad. It just does it a lot more cleanly and
and makes editing the sounds.txt file a lot easier.
Preparation: You need to do some homework first. So
get yourself a pen and paper and get ready to start writing
lots of numbers. You need to make a list of all the Sound
banks that should be associated with your wad.
How do you know which Sound banks should be associated with
your wad? Let's put them into 4 categories:
1. The default General sounds that are used by all levels -
this is Lara's sounds and basic environment sounds.
2. Sounds associated with enemies.
3. Sounds associated with other moveables (traps, levers,
animating objects).
4. Sound banks that are hardcoded in the TR4 game engine (eg
rollingball rumble, vehicle movement).
This procedure may take about an hour, but don't be scared
off - it is well worth the effort, as it will restore sounds
correctly to your wad as well as reducing the size your TR4
output.
So begin by opening up your wad in Wadmerger. (First save a
backup of your level wad, was, sam, sfx and swd files in a
safe location).
1. The General sounds we'll deal with in Screamer shortly.
2. Enemies sounds. Select your first enemy and open it in
the Animation Editor. Select animation 0 in the Current
Animations drop down list. Open the Anim Commands window
(button with 0101 etc).
Click on one of the lines of sound instructions (If there
are no instruction lines in the window, you may have to
select another animation). Now click on the arrow of the
Sound Bank field (second field from the right). This will
display a list of all the sound banks used for this enemy.
Write them all down. E.g Baddy 2 - 95, 254, 258 64... Repeat
this process for all the enemies in your wad.
3. Other moveables sounds. Work down the list of your wad
items for all your traps, doing the same as you have done
for the enemies, listing all sound banks that are associated
with the item. As an aid I have created a list of commonly
used items and the relevant sounds that need to be
associated with them. (Note: this is not a complete list ,
but I will add to it as necessary). Check through your wad
and/or the list to see which objects you are using in your
level and write the relevant sound banks down in your list.
Note: If you discover any enemies or objects that use sound
banks from TR2 or TR3 (e.g.TR3Sound205) you may need to
modify these otherwise they can cause problems in large
wads. (See separate Tutorial - Changing Sound banks and
samples).
4. Hard-coded sounds. There are some sounds that are
hard-coded and these need to be added to your sounds.txt
directly using Screamer.
You're done with Wadmerger, so now open up Screamer. Let's
assume your level wad is called 'mylevel'. You can
substitute the real name of your level wherever this appears
in the tutorial.
5. Open Screamer. When Screamer opens, it automatically
loads a default sounds.txt. (Don't save over this - always
use the Save As function for your sounds.txt)
6. In the Wad Name field replace the word 'default' with
'mylevel' (don't include the quote marks); in Associations
field, replace Df with Ml (It can be anything - I've chosen
this for 'mylevel'. Note: the letter combination: first
letter uppercase, second letter lowercase).
7. Go to associations Drop down menu and choose 'Clear all
non G & T'. A message in the bottom panel tells you All
association data for all sounds has been cleared except 'g'
and 't'. There are temporarily only the standard game sounds
associated with your wad.
8. Now using the list you just compiled, work through the
list by clicking on each Sound Bank number in your list to
select it, and then click the Add button, to add it to your
wad. Repeat this process until all the sound banks that you
have listed have been added.
9. You may also need to add any hard-coded sounds that are
not on your list. This may include Rollingball sounds, or
Vehicle sounds. Add them now.
10. You are now at a point where you could stop, but there
is also the opportunity to be a bit creative and fine tune
any of your sounds. It's a bit hard to list all
possibilities but if any of your sounds are playing
intermittently then change their Chance value to 100 so they
play all the time. If any of your sounds seem too loud you
could adjust the volume of that sound bank. If you would
like a sound to be heard further away from its source than
it is now then increase the Radius of the sound to achieve
this effect. If you want to replace a standard sound sample
with a custom sound sample you could do this by replacing
the name in the Sample field.
11. Now do a Save As.. for your sounds.txt file in a unique
folder to keep for reference, in case you need to do any
other alterations to it later. You can open up this
sounds.txt file with Screamer at a later date, if necessary.
12. Finally, go to the Task Drop Down menu and select
'output wad'. Now look in the Output folder where Screamer
is installed. You'll find two new files created here:
mylevel.sam and mylevel.sfx. Copy them and paste them over
the same named files that were created with your mylevel
wad. Now place your five wad files (was, wad, sam, sfx, swd)
in your Graphics/Wads folder and compile your TR4. If you've
done everything right, all your sounds should play
correctly. You may also notice that your TR4 file size is
significantly smaller (like about 2-3 Mb). Now play through
your level, paying attention to hear if all sounds that you
would expect to be playing are doing so when you expect them
to play. There is always a chance that you missed something
on your first attempt. If so, go back to your lists and
double check what's missing from the offending item. Add the
needed Sound Bank as you did for all others, resave your
sounds.txt file and go Task > output wad again, replacing
the current sam and sfx files of your level, with the new
ones you have just generated in the Screamer/Output Folder.
Changing
Sound Banks and Samples
I'd call this Screamer tute an Advanced Tutorial. Hopefully
it is useful to you.
This tute assumes you have understood the preliminary
Screamer Tutorials and are now looking to modify Sound banks
and sound samples.
Modifying Sound Banks
This is only necessary with moveables that have TR2 or TR3
sound banks associated with them. (Note: Some builders have
used these objects without too much problem. I have found
that by the object adding extra TR2 or TR3 sound banks to
the wad structure, that sound problems do arise, especially
with large wads.) So consider this a recommended rather than
essential method for sound-fixing.
Scenario: You have an enemy that uses four TR3 sound
banks and samples.
Solution: The sample can retain it's name. Just
ensure that it is the same sample format as TR4 - PCM 22,050
Hz 16-bit mono. The Sound banks can be replaced with TR4
sound banks and the TR3 sound samples can be assigned to the
TR4 sound banks.
Method: Save your object as a single object wad using
Wadmerger. Let's call it 'mydog' wad.
Open the object in Wadmerger's Animation Editor.
Open an animation from the Current Animations list and also
that has sound instuctions in it. Open the Anim Commands
window (button with 01010 etc) to see the sound
instructions. Click on the Sound bank field arrow to show
the complete list of Sound banks used. Write these down.
Using the Add Sounds button to open the Add sound window,
now select suitable sound banks to substitute for the TR3
Sound Banks. For example, if you had a TR3 Hound in the Dog
slot and it had four TR3 Sounds associated with it, you
could choose four TR4 Dog Sound Banks as the substitute
banks (E.g. 175_Dog Howl, 176_Dog Hit Ground, 180_Dog Bite,
181_Dog Death).
Make a reference table list so you don't get confused. You
want to list your four TR3 sound Banks, the four TR4 Sound
banks that will replace them and the TR3 Samples that they
use. (Remembering that a single Sound bank may have several
sound samples assigned to it).
Open Wadmerger's Sound Manager and click on each of your
four Sound banks to establish which samples are associated
with each Sound Bank. Use the Dropdown arrow on the Sound
sample field to see if more than one sample is assigned to a
Sound Bank.
Returning to Wadmerger's Animation Editor, Use the Anim
Commands window to replace (Change button) each TR3 sound
instruction with your chosen TR4 Sound Bank. Work through
every animation doing this. Save your wad.
Now open Screamer
1. When Screamer opens, it automatically loads a default
sounds.txt. (Don't save over this - always use the Save As
function).
2. In the Wad Name field replace the word 'default' with
'mydog'; in Associations field, replace Df with Dg (It can
be anything - I've chosen this for 'Mydog'. Note: the letter
combination: first letter uppercase, second letter
lowercase).
3. Go to Associations Drop down menu and choose 'Clear all
except'. A message in the bottom panel tells you all
associations have been cleared except Dg. There are
temporarily no sounds associated with your wad.
4. From the Sound Bank list scroll down to no.175_DOG HOWL
and click on it. This brings up the properties for sound
bank 175. You can see that the sample name assigned to this
sound bank is dog_hwl. Change this to the sample that is in
your table/list. - It might be something like TR3Sound205_0.
If there is more than one sample to be assigned, simply
leave a space and add the next one on the same line of the
Sample field.
5. Click the Add button to add Sound Bank 175 to your
sounds.txt. Look at the Chance value. If it is not a blank
field or a value of 100, change it to 100. This is to ensure
that the sample plays every time. If there is more than one
sample you will need to adjust the Chance Value to create a
random selection of which sample is played. Repeat this
procedure for Sound Banks 176, 180 and 181.
6. Go to the Task Drop Down menu and select 'output wad'.
Now look in the Output folder where Screamer is installed.
You'll find two new files created here: mydog.sam and
mydog.sfx. Copy them and paste them over the same named
files that were created with the 'mydog' wad. Use Wadmerger
to add the enemy to a test wad and see if the sounds work
correctly. If all has gone well - your dog will perform the
correct sounds in game.
7. You are finished with Screamer for now, so using the
'Save As.' function, save your custom sounds.txt file (for
future reference) to a folder with your mydog wad.
Changing
Samples
Using the above tutorial it is easy enough to imagine that
custom samples can be substituted for standard sounds for
just about anything. Simply save the sound sample in your
TRLE Samples Folder in the correct format - PCM 22,050 Hz
16-bit mono. Then replace the Sample Field name for the
relevant Sound Bank with your custom sample name. Then
Output your wad and replace the Sam and Sfx files as
previously described.
Reference
Sound bank list for Commonly used Wad Items.
Rollingball - 122, 147
Pushable object - 11, 63
Teethspikes - 343
Darts spit - 325
Large flame emitters - 368
Small fires - 150
Shatter object - 347, 366
Wraith 184
Library Switch/ Old switch - 241
Trapdoor open/close - 161, 162
Underwater switch - 61
Big Lever switch - 328, 337, 338
Push button click switch - 369
Wall lever - 269
Falling block - 66, 67
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