Arma 2 Sound Modding 101.

[Mark XIII]

I've started this thread because we as a community need somewhere to discuss sound creation for Armed Assault 2.

Ok, just afew things.

This is just a starting point for hopefully busting myths and helping each other with the holy grail that is creating sound addons. Of course if people wish to post guides example videos etc they are more than welcome.

This is NOT Hardware Troubleshooting for sound problems thread

This is NOT here to bash/flame BIS.

ADDED:

OH58 Template (10 sounds in WAV format and 1 template config)
http://www.filefront.com/14088933/OH...ig_template.7z

A2 Soundtrack Template 1.0
http://www.filefront.com/14289229/Re..._Soundtrack.7z

This IS for people interested in sound creation, modders, and newcomers alike are welcome here to ask any questions, as well as other addon makers (Modellers etc) to request sound for their future addons.

It seems to me this sort of thing has been needed for along time coming, I got bored of waiting for someone to start a thread, so here I am. I'm not a unique snowflake so I'm not gonna be able to answer/fix eveything but the point being is...the ball is now rolling. Its up to you guys to add to it too..

Ok men, attach your mics, load up your software and put on your cans...We're going in

[Alex72]

Great post mate. Hopefully it will get filled with guidelines, ideas and everything else useful. I have been working with sounds for many years and was on the go with ArmA, but things came between plus i had a hard time understanding the configs. This time around it looks more bright as i got first hand help by my good mate Mark up there ^ plus seeing that much more help generally being made available in our community is really inspiring.

Looking forward to this thread being filled up. And big ups to all you great addon makers that has and will take some time to help others like myself. Who knows, this time around i might be able to create something and give a little back.

Regards
Alex

[Yokhanan]

Agreed. Hopefully this thread will not only put the exclamation mark on our stressing the importance for high quality sounds and a superb sound engine, but will also serve as the sound modification developer's "university" so to speak. This will then allow not only for the communities best sound mod developers to work together, but also pass the knowledge down to the prospective up-and-comers who want to do the same, but just don't know where to start and/or how to get and deliver the best quality possible.

Great idea!

Woogie-woogie,



HIFI FX CREW
Graphics & Documentation Development

[Mark XIII]

I'd love to do a guide but I started by using FAMM 1.4's config as a template then we got andersson to do all the config work for HiFi. So really, I'm not really the person to make a guide.

To me sound is art, art requires inspiration. My inspiration comes from hearing my sounds ingame, then moving on to the next set of sound. I took the shortest route for my own inspiration. From my point of view, I see no wrong in requesting to use someones config as a template. You can learn alot about the sound engine from your 1st few attempts at changing sounds, then later you get interested in what the config offers you in extra sound parameters. The bad thing about this is you never really learn the 'process' of actually creating a config from scratch. Kju's mST will help alot of us build things up, but still at least for me doesn't explain the 'process', classes, inheritance etc.

Maybe that will come now we have a thread...

I will be posting some information, basically what little I've discovered or learnt from others during my time within the community. I shall also try and flesh out the 1st post abit when I have time.

[Mark XIII]

Ok, what do you need to make a sound addon...

A notepad 'like' text editor (not notepad though)
http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/download.php


Sample Editor for working on / capturing your sounds
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Then possibly a WAV to WSS convertor..for putting the sounds into BIS supported format
http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/BI_Tools

For compiling your addon a PBO extraction/archive application
http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=412


Finally something to create server/private keys (to stop HAXXORS)
http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/DSCreateKey

O, you may also want to binerize your addon too, in which case
http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Binarize

Your next step is to look at this...
http://dev-heaven.net/projects/kmp-mst/boards


This was done very quickly, I'm sure it could be worked on further and more links added.

[.kju [PvPscene]]

Here is the link to the modularSoundTemplate (mST).

Edit: too late. Nice work Mark!

---------- Post added at 20:38 ---------- Previous post was at 20:31 ----------

Eliteness of mikero is another great and starters pbo creation and extracting tool. Download dll too!

---------- Post added at 20:39 ---------- Previous post was at 20:38 ----------

For getting better understanding and saving time:
CMB: DevelopmentSetup
CMB: SimplifyTesting

[tpM]

Here is a nice & small WSS converter I'm using.

[Mark XIII]

I've heard that WSS convertor is great for big batch jobs

I use this one
http://www.ofpec.com/ed_depot/index....page=0&cat=xyz

I'd also recommend abit of soundproofing too

---------- Post added at 08:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:57 PM ----------

Ok a note on what the sound engine supports based on my experiences.

.Ogg format is supported, as far as I know good sample rates are achievable ie, 196kbs @16bit.
Personally, I don't use this format for ingame sounds, it does make editing and quick testing possible since there is NO conversion necessary but I find the low end suffers at higher volumes. BUT that is just my opinion, not fact.

Wav. (Wss) is supported, (wav needs to be converted to wss with one of the converting tools listed above before packing to test ingame, this can take time..) quality is not an issue as long as the source is good. the game supports 22khz & 44khz @16bit, I cannot confirm any higher or lower resolutions or bitrates at this time.

A note on sample size..
It is important to remember how many things can be going on in this game at once (you seen the 1700 AI vid right ) so you must take this into account when making larger scale sound addons. I know TangoRomeo uses Ogg's to keep the size of his addons down, I personally convert my sounds down to 22khz once ready for packing into the game. As far as I'm aware you can mix the formats up and the game will be fine, as long as you stick to whats supported.

[Binkowski]

Nice guide here Mark.

[nikita320106]

as i know in config if you write as
....sound[]={"/my_sound/..../my_ak_sound.wav" 1,1,1000}....
then you don't need convert .wav to .wss