C&C TD - how to add new Soundtracks ?

[XxSARGExX]

hey guys.I am new at this forum and my english is not the best.But C&C is one of my favourite game series.

 

Ok here my question :

I have start to create my own Campaign. I allready know how to use the XCC editor and so on... but only a new campaign is not enaugth ...

i want to add new soundtracks into the player (SCORE.MIX).i tried many ways and dont get it.i know that i must use the XCC Mix editor and have to save it as TD file.

Can some one explain me how i can add complet new soundtracks into the game - step by step and in words that anybody will understand?

thx for any help .

 

 

Greetings from Germany

[Nyerguds]

Adding music is normally not possible, but I hacked it in with my 1.06 patch

 

 

You'll probably start with an MP3 file or something. First, you need to convert that to WAV, in the correct format. I use RAD Video Tools for that. In the RAD file browser, you just select the file, and press the "Convert a file" button. You get this screen:

 

Use the options as shown above to convert to WAV.

 

Now, to convert the WAV to AUD, you need XCC Mixer. With the left file browser in XCC Mixer, browse to the location where your WAV file is. With the right one (you may need to pull that one open first) you go to where you want the AUD file to be created. This can be the same folder, of course.

 

Note that you can NOT use the Copy To function if the other side has a mix file opened.

 

Now, you got your actual file. As I said, adding music is something I added into the game myself; in the original C&C you couldn't do it. This means that this method of adding music won't work on the DOS version, or the original C&C95 v1.03/1.04/1.05

 

Use XCC Mixer to extract THEMES.INI from UPDATEC.MIX (you can use the same Copy method for that, by the way). That contains the music list and settings. You can also extract RULES.INI from UPDATEC.MIX, if you want to configure which tracks it uses for the title screen, map screens, score screen etc. The RULES.INI doesn't contain much else though, at this moment.

 

 

At the top of the THEMES.INI file you will see the list of all themes. Add a new number to the end of that list, with the name of your AUD file, without the ".AUD" part.

 

Note: the AUD file can only be 8 characters long, plus the .AUD extension. So, "12345678.AUD" is the maximum filename length. You can't use spaces in the filename.

 

After adding your AUD file to the end of the [Themes] list, go to the bottom of the THEMES.INI file, make a copy of the theme info section of one of the existing tracks, and adapt it to your new theme.

 

Basic format, as explained in themes.ini:

[pre]

; Note that a "Name=" tag can be added to give a custom name instead of a

; Name ID, so you can add music without any need to modify the strings file.

[AIRSTRIK]

NameID=627          ; Name ID number in the strings file

FirstMission=0      : First mission on which this theme appears in the playlist

Length=200          ; Length of the theme, in seconds

ShowInPlaylist=Yes  ; Show this theme in the playlist?

HasAlternate=No      ; Does a .var remix of this theme exist?

AlternateLength=0    ; Length of the .var version, in seconds[/pre]

 

This shows how it works:

 

 

You can just leave the files in the game folder to make it work. No need to put them in a .mix file. I don't think themes.ini and rules.ini will work when you put them inside an sc*.mix file anyway. The only way to make them work from a mix file is to use the mod launching system... but I won't explain that here unless you ask me about it.

[DarkVen9109]

Oh yeah. May I hear that "war's never been so much fun" theme of yours?

[XxSARGExX]

ah it worked . thx for your help.

 

but i have another question.if i want to change some standart unit sounds. Did i only have to replace the soundfiles ? or is theire more to do ?

[Nyerguds]

Oh yeah. May I hear that "war's never been so much fun" theme of yours?

 

Amiga - Cannon Fodder CD32 Movie (HD)

 

 

 

but i have another question.if i want to change some standart unit sounds. Did i only have to replace the soundfiles ? or is theire more to do ?

Yeah, just replacing the sound files should do. If they don't work when you just put them in the game folder, you have to put them in a mix file with a name starting with "sc" (like how sc-001 and sc-000 add the covert operations and dinosaur missions. Anything starting with "sc" works though, it doesn't need to be "sc-###". For example, "scorpion.mix" would work fine). Again, DOS 8.3 length name format, meaning a filename of maximum 8 characters with a maximum 3 character extension (in this case, ".mix").

 

Note: if you make mix files, always make them with "XCC Mix Editor", not with "XCC Mixer". It should be in the xcc installation folder. XCC Mix Editor can actually make C&C1 mixfiles. XCC Mixer can't. If you use XCC Mix Editor, make sure you change the mixfile type to Tiberian Dawn before putting any files into it, or their name won't be saved correctly.

[XxSARGExX]

yes i know that i have read some other posts before i started my work.

 

thx again for your qucik reply.i will replace the soundfiles now (20.12.2012 23:20 CET)

 

 

[Nyerguds]

They'll need to be .aud format too, of course. But I already explained how to convert them

[XxSARGExX]

all worked now my units have talk sounds from Tiberian sun and red alert 1

 

thx for your help

[DarkVen9109]

Dude!! It just struck me down

[Nyerguds]

Funniest game intro ever

[DarkVen9109]

WAHAHA funny for me but as for my cousins so corny to their taste. I was LOL-ing in the vid. Especially at the part where getting hit by a toy gattling gun relentlessly. Thanks for sharing this now I know how it sounded like. I thought some kind of a "Face the Enemy"-like tune at first.

[Nyerguds]

Well, it was literally the first custom track ever truly added to C&C95

(besides the Nod score and map themes and the Credits theme, but those don't count because they're made by Frank Klepacki, and don't show up in the tracks list anyway)

[DarkVen9109]

Where did you used this custom track of yours? Score theme or something?

[Nyerguds]

What? I just added "War's Never Been So Much Fun" to test custom NAMES read from the ini, so it was only ever added as test, and since it was a test of the NAME, it just showed up in the play list.

 

As I've said numerous times, I will never add media into the patch that aren't created by Westwood or WW employees with the intent to be used in C&C1.