The NGLE Manual
Getting
Sounds to work in V130 Projects
By AkyV
Using „Convert to v130” button in WADMerger lets you use all
of the old-generation TR sounds (TR1, 2, 3, 4, 5) and some
special sounds in your game. (It’s an NGLE-specific feature
and irreversible after saving WAD.) – So you don’t need to
put non-TR4 old-gen sounds on a TR4 sound slot to play them
in the game.
(Don’t use SFX_Example.bat any more if you want to use
WADMerger Sound Manager. And, if you want to use some
non-TR4 old-gen or special sounds, then you need Sound
Manager.)
Global map
If your WAD is “version 130” then you can identify these
sounds on a so-called “global map”. This map has 4099 sound
slots:
global map slot____original game slot
from________to___from__________to___type
0___________369__0___________369__TR4 (TRLE, NGLE)
370_________499__0___________129__hard (reserved)
500_________524__0___________24___src (cust_env)
525_________601__0___________76___cust_anim
602_________857__0___________255__TR1
858_________1227_0___________369__TR2
1228________1597_0___________369__TR3
1598________4098_0___________2500_TR5
The explanation of the map is easy: for example, if you want
to use TR3 sound slot#0 then it’s slot#1228 on the map, TR3
sound slot#1 is slot#1229 on the map etc.
Type names
If you play a sound from the map and you use Diagnostic
command in script for sounds then you’ll see this kind of
text on the screen: 1416 (TR3: 188). It means: “you can just
hear the sound(s) from global map sound slot#1416, i.e. the
original TR3 sound slot#188”.
Hard, src and cust_anim types are specific slots. (I don’t
know the details. For example, maybe “hard” means “hardcoded
sounds”?) – Reserved and cust_env are alternative names you
can see in WADMerger.
Sound manager windows
If your WAD is v130 then you can use more windows than one
in Sound Manager of WADMerger: one for each old-gen game and
one for the special sounds. (The window of TR2 is a bit
inaccurate: as you see, the list starts from TR2_2 instead
of TR2_0. So, for example, if you see 1148-TR2_292 Play
Sound AnimCommand at some animation of some object then it
means this is global map slot#1148, i.e. TR2 sound
slot#290.)
Adding non-TR4 sounds to your WAD
FIRST METHOD (with objects added)
1. Click the icon Settings (“wrench”) of WADMerger. Add the
location of NGLE folder Samples, main.sfx of TR2 game and
main.sfx of TR3 game.
2. Load your WAD into the left (destination) window of
WADMerger.
3. Adjust destination WAD to be v130.
4. Load the non-TR4 level file that has the object that uses
that sound into the right (source) window of WADMerger. (So
a PHD, TR2 etc. level file and not a WAD file!)
5. Copy that object from source into the destination. (Be
careful: non-TR4 object slot names and TR4 object slot names
are not always the same.)
6. Save the destination WAD.
7. The sound file(s) of the sound slot will be put into
Sound\Samples folder of the game.
The names of the files are easy to understand. For example,
the four files of TR3 sound slot#17 are:
TR3 Sound 17-0.wav
TR3 Sound 17-1.wav
TR3 Sound 17-2.wav
TR3 Sound 17-3.wav
8. WADMerger may show some inappropriate data about this
operation now. To correct it, load the saved WAD again.
SECOND METHOD (without objects added)
When you have the destination and the source files loaded in
WADMerger, too, then open a window in Sound Manager. – For
example, TR3 window if you have a TR3 level loaded.
In this window you can see now the name of the level file at
the sounds slots of the objects of that level. If you want
to have one of those sound slots in destination then mark
that small square at that slot manually.
The WAV will get to Samples when you save the WAD.
Notes:
1. In the proper Sound Manager window (i.e, for example, in
TR3 window if this sound slot is from TR3) we can see after
the operation: every sound slot of this copied object is
marked.
Putting the cursor line on any marked slot here we can see
the parameters of this slot in small windows under the big
window. – We must know about these parameters:
a, The sound name in one of the small window and in the
Samples folder are not the same maybe. – For example:
TR3 Sound 025-0.wav
TR3 Sound 25-0.wav
You have to correct it (in Samples).
b, If you want to adjust these parameters, the WADMerger
will always reset them if you save the changes and load this
WAD. So this is what would also happen now. And this is a
problem because when you put a non-TR4 sound slot into your
WAD then that sound slot has bad parameters sometimes. (For
example: wrong pitch.)
2. Unfortunately, my experience is TR5 sound slots won’t
work on global map. So, I think, the only way to play a TR5
sound from not a TR4 slot is if you use an ImportFile script
command or if you play that sound (converted into an audio
format) in an audio slot.
Adding non-TR4 sounds to an object
It won’t work if you want to add a non-TR4 sound slot to any
frame of any animation of any object.
But we can use some tricky solutions to avoid this problem.
– For example:
1. Copy an animation with that sound into the problematic
animation slot, then in this new slot, form the animation.
2. Correct the frame number in AnimCommand panel to put that
sound to another frame.
Deleting non-TR4 sounds from an object
If you want to delete a non-TR4 sound from a frame of an
animation of your object then delete the Play Sound
AnimCommand that plays that sound.
Notes:
1. As for the bugs, I'm not sure it's safe to delete all the
Play Sound AnimCommands of an object that play the same
non-TR4 sound slot.
2. If one of the small windows of AnimCommand panel (the one
just above the Change button) doesn’t contain a non-TR4
sound slot for the chosen Play Sound AnimCommand (whose
purpose to play that sound slot) then you won’t hear
anything when the animation would play that Play Sound
AnimCommand. So you’d better delete that AnimCommand.
(If you save your WAD with a useless AnimCommand like this
then you may get an error message when you load that WAD
next time.)
Deleting non-TR4 sounds from the WAD
When you want to delete a non-TR4 sound slot from your WAD,
then delete all the objects from the WAD that have that
sound slot. - But don’t do these or else some of your
non-TR4 sound files get messed up:
a, Unmarking a sound slot manually in a non-TR4 Sound
Manager window.
b, Deleting the sound file(s) of the non-TR4 slot from
Samples.
Variant sound sources
Don’t want to use an object with variant sound sources. (For
example, if you want to use an object with TR1 and TR4 sound
slots.)
Malfunction
Even if you follow the rules you may encounter some
malfunction: some of your non-TR4 sound files got messed up
when you using this problematic sound with an object.
(Messing-up, for example, if you can hear something else and
not the proper sound file. So, for example, a bad pitch is
not a messing-up now.)
You have this method to correct the problem:
See at all sound slots of the problematic objects if slot
number in Sound Manager big window and its WAV number under
it in the small window are the same. (For example: TR3_35
slot must have a WAV with number 35.)
If they all are then delete this problematic object from the
WAD. (Check after that: this slot must be unmarked. If it’s
not then unmark it manually.) Save WAD and close WADMerger.
Delete all these sound files from Samples. – After that, you
can add this object to your WAD again.
If some of them aren’t then delete this problematic object
from the WAD. (Check after that: this slot must be unmarked.
If it’s not then unmark it manually.) Search the good slot
for that sound file and unmark that slot manually. (For
example, if TR3_35 has 33.wav then you also have to unmark
TR3_33 slot now.) Save WAD and close WADMerger. Delete all
these sound files from Samples. – After that, you can add
this object to your WAD again.
Notes:
1. If we encounter this problem again and again, then let’s
forget about that problematic object. (Seeing how
complicated to prevent this malfunction and the prevention
is how unsure, maybe you'd better use a backup WAD.)
If you want that object everyway then copy the object not
from a level file but a WAD and not into the WAD of your
level but a temporary WAD. Then delete all the Play Sound
AnimCommands of the object in the temporary WAD then copy
the object from this WAD to the WAD of your level. Then in
your WAD add TR4 sound slots to the object and then any
frame of any animation of the object.
2. Maybe you get an error message with some other object
name when unmarking manually. In these cases the correcting
operation must also be done about that object.
3. Of the non-TR4 sound slots I think only TR3 sound slots
work always (?) properly with an object.
4. Using non-TR4 sound slots I've never encountered any case
when TR4 sound slots have got messed up because of non-TR4
sound slots.
Direct using
You can play sounds of global map directly - i.e. if it
plays with not working of an object but activating a
trigger. (So that’s why it’s worth having a non-TR4 sound
slot in your WAD without an object having it in your WAD. –
Of course you can also play directly the sounds that are
added to some object.)
This trigger is a FLIPEFFECT:
Sound. Play <&>sound (single playback) of global sound map
(v130)
The value of & is a global map slot.
Notes:
1. If you don’t want to use objects with non-TR4 sound slots
because it’s too messy, then it’s worth adding these slots
(with “without objects” method) to the WAD to play them
directly.
2. You can use these sound slots at the objects if you
export this FLIPEFFECT as an AnimCommand. (But don't forget:
it's not the "classic" "sounds at object" thing. So sounds
that are playing by FLIPEFFECTs always have the same volume,
independently of the distance between Lara and the sound
source. I mean you can adjust this volume, but in a
complicated way, by variables.)
Additional things
1. Maybe whatever we do, some additional programs (for
example Tomb Raider 3D Viewer) won’t be able to use our
WAD/level file if we use v130 in that WAD.
2. Of course, we know the names of TR4 sound slots. (For
example, from here: drop down menu of NGLE/Effects/Sounds.)
If we want to know what were the original purposes of TR1,
TR2 and TR3 slots then let’s see some TXT files in TRViewer
folders. (I’m afraid I don’t know similar thing for TR5
slots.)
3. Maybe you have a source WAD file from somebody else with
an object that has non-TR4 sound slots. (See for example the
frogman in Harpoon Gun demo project). In these cases you’ll
do with the object the same things as you do with any other
object. Except: you have to copy the non-TR4 sound files
(attached to demo project) of the frogman into Samples.
4. If you have a source WAD like I said just before but
there are nowhere the needed sounds then you can get these
sounds manually:
- with TR2WAD: TR1 and TR5
- with TombRipper: TR2 and TR3.
If it’s hard to identify TombRipper WAV numbers then put the
list of these numbers beside the proper TRViewer list. – For
example, these are the beginnings of TombRipper and TRViewer
lists at TR3:
TombRipper_______TRViewer_____________________so this is the
number of the slot
trsnd001.wav_____0000 -- Lara footstep____________TR3_0
(first sound of the slot)
trsnd002.wav_____0000 -- Lara footstep____________TR3_0
(second sound of the slot)
trsnd003.wav_____0000 -- Lara footstep____________TR3_0
(third sound of the slot)
trsnd004.wav_____0000 -- Lara footstep____________TR3_0
(fourth sound of the slot)
trsnd005.wav_____0001 -- Lara grunt______________TR3_1
trsnd006.wav_____0002 -- Lara "no"_______________TR3_2
trsnd007.wav_____0003 -- Lara sliding_____________TR3_3
trsnd008.wav_____0004 -- Lara landing on feet______TR3_4
trsnd009.wav_____0005 -- Lara "hut" (stepping up)___TR3_5
5. We can use some tricks with that FLIPEFFECT. – For
example:
SHATTER objects always have the same (hardcoded) sound when
they shatter: HIT_ROCK (ID: 327) TR4 sound slot. Its sound
file (hit_rock.wav) is good when Lara shoots at an
argillaceous vase but is not good if Lara shoots at a glass
window. - So, it’s a solution if you replace hit_rock.wav in
HIT_ROCK slot by a “breaking glass” WAV (with
SFX_Example.bat type method).
But what if Lara shoots at two kinds of SHATTERs in the same
level: an argillaceous vase and a glass window? In this case
you need one WAV for vase and another one WAV for glass:
first of all, you’ll unmark HIT_ROCK slot in that WAD. Then
you’ll place a FLIPEFFECT (in HEAVY mode) on the square of
the vase with a sound slot that has a hit_rock.wav-like
sound file, and place a FLIPEFFECT (in HEAVY mode) on the
square of the window with a sound slot that has a breaking
glass WAV-like sound file.
6. This description is made by TRNG 1.2.2.6
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