Sound Sage Advice Sought

[Acierocolotl]

I am in the midst of assembling some new uax files containing new sounds for the monsters and players (my podcast buddies have volunteered for this duty). I have a new equivalent of KF_EnemiesFinalSnd.uax as well.

I could host the games and just replace the EnemiesFinal uax file I suppose, but I'd also have to direct people to do that as well or face several dozen megabyte downloads. So if I can, I'd rather do all this as cleanly as possible, and I suspect that calls for a mod. I have only just begun poking through the various .uc files but I have no great familiarity with the mechanics here.

And so, humbly, I must ask: is it going to be an easy mod to use a customized selection of sounds? Or is somebody willing to pitch in? I'd be quite grateful.

 

[zYnthetic]

You'd have to write a CheckReplacement mutator to replace the actors responsible for playing the sounds you want to change. For anyone else's future reference, this is the model all sound mods would need to follow. You're not changing the sounds themselves but rather what sounds should play, which is controlled by the actor playing them.

 

[Acierocolotl]

With respect, you're about three or four steps ahead of my understanding here.

I've been poking through the .uc files but in a really slipshod manner as I'm not sure quite what I'm looking for yet (and haven't taken to grepping through them either). But in short, I have replacement sound .uax archives: KF_EnemiesFinalSnd, KF_Trader, KF_MaleVoiceOne and Two; KF_EnemiesFinalSnd makes reference to my own sound archives for each monster so there's no risk of overwrites there.

Ideally, I'd like to rename all the above-named KF_ uax files to, say, Fplus_ and then have a mod that takes care of the heavy lifting, so I can pass a mod and a sound pack to anybody and have them slot that all in neatly. Assuming I'm capable of coding but have little working knowledge of modding in Killing Floor (hence why I'm near-grovelling here), how would I go about the next steps?

 

[Gartley]

Ok, firstly, do not overwrite any of the core files, this just causes what is called a version mismatch.

Quick and Dirty Mod Assets 101

Packages are saved with an unique identifier (think hash). A version control essentially.

When a client joins the server the client looks at the server packages list and sees what it needs.

If it sees it already has the assets, it skips it. BUT if it's being told it needs a different version this is what can cause the mismatch and the client is dropped from the server.

It then downloads need assets from the server or a fast redirect server.

It saves them in the cache, a folder within the main KF one that is used for temporary storage of new assets and that can be overwritten as needed.

It can not (nor should not) overwrite any of the files outside of the cache.

The best way to replace something is the write a mutator with the check replacement function like zYnthetic suggested. Forum member Benjamin has written some good tutorials to help you get started with mutators. [Tutorial] Creating a Basic Mutator. Be sure to also check out the coding and genereal modding forums. I often stumble upon what I'm looking for in there.

Good luck with the project.

 

[Acierocolotl]

Thanks Gartley. The script reference was quite handy.

It's taken me awhile to get my voice actors all squared away but I've moved into the next part of the problem, which is pretty code-heavy. I'll summarize it here in the hopes it doesn't give forum mods the hives for being too much code and too little sound.

I have replacement audio files for the trader, player voices, and all the monsters. I could, by using CheckReplacement, easily swap out the monsters for modified versions of my own that use my own audio files, but I'm a bit stymied at the trader and player aspects of this and it doesn't seem so practical to have a great many files that had only one line or two tweaked.

What I'd like to do is capture calls to PlaySound and redirect to my own .uax files as appropriate. CheckReplacement won't suffice as the sounds themselves are not actors, as near as I can surmise. I'm just at a loss how I'd get this to work reasonably.