Radiator Posted April 23, 2010 Share Posted April 23, 2010 BlackHawkDown - The wait is over. Yes people, it's ready for release. But before I do, I would like to thank Davros for the many nights trying to help me work out a way around some of the many problems I had. Also, thanks to all of the testers at EBDA, and to Warhammer for cleaning up some of the loose ends that I was running out of time to finish. Thanks also to all of the people at GhostRecon.net for the help you gave me: even though I didn't ask you a lot of questions or post a lot of posts, I did read all of your posts and downloaded a lot of your missions and got a lot of ideas from them. Thanks. I would also like to talk about the making of BlackHawkDown. Well it's taken a little over a year, on and off to finish it. I would get into it and finish a lot of it, but get stuck on a problem and stop, have a week or so to think of a way around what I was trying to achieve, work it out and back to the map to work on the next problem. Plus I had some time off for some cancer treatments and a lot of checkups. But yes a whole year, I started with the map and I wanted it to be a big map and it is, so it took a lot longer to finish then I thought. Also, it was a challenge, trying to make the story line ( one of my favorite movies BLACKHAWKDOWN ) fit in to the map, with the limited props we have. I also had to take a lot of props out, a lot of detail out and nearly all of the sounds as well, after spending months placing them on the map. The reason for this was the mission scripting - there was so much going on in the mission script, that the game started to lag. So removing over 500 small props I found a balance for the lag which is about 50 to 70 FPM. This is the most scripting I have ever done, with over 4000 lines of scripting which includes 5 different timers, the cars, heli's, the Ai's, wall explosion, usable keypads and computers. Plus you can call for air strikes, artillery, weapon upgrades and a lot of scripting for backup scripting. This means if for some reason the main scripting stops, one of the many backups will kick in, so the story line still runs. I guess the hardest thing was the timing, making everything look real, the best I could. For example, the heli's (at the beginning), making them fly, land and crash like a real heli. The heli's that fire off their missiles and hitting their targets and their sounds. And in the underground bunker making the defcon lights and the sounds of the computers run in time. There are a lot of new props or old ones that have been renewed - there's the lights: they consist of four different types:- (1) non-destructible - you shoot them and the light doesn't break. (2) flickers - you shoot them and the light doesn't break but the light flickers. (3) on and off lights - they can be turned on or off. (4) security light - a rotating red light that can be turned on or off. There's also switches, doors, control panels and some of Davros' props: mines, artillery, barriers and a see through box. The last thing that makes the map is the custom sounds - adding music, background sounds that change through the mission, random gun shooting, heli speech, security clearance and so on. This is a TVT mission and can be played as one player to see how alI the missions run. The missions are - hamburger hill - siege - tdm - rvsa - satellite intel takeover and the main mission TVTM there are two types of this. I couldn't get the heli's to work without crashing the game, At one part I did get the heli's to work on a dedicated server, but all the other vehicles ( eg.cars ) stopped working. Since the cars were the main vehicles for the mission I decided to stop work on the heli's. So I have added two main missions (1) TVTM - this is played on a non dedicated server and has the heli's inserted in it ( YOU MUST PLAY ) and (2) TVTM_D this is for dedicated servers and has no heli insert. OK enough talk about the making of BlackHawkDown. I hope you enjoy it. Radiator BLACKHAWKDOWN SOMALIA - EAST AFRICA - 1993 Over 300.000 civilians die of starvation.The most powerful of all the warlords, Mohamed Farrah Aidid, rules the capital - Mogadishu. He seizes all international food shipments. Hunger is his weapon. In late August, America's Elite Soldiers, Delta Force, Army Rangers and the 160th SOAR are sent to Mogadishu to remove Aidid and to restore order. The events of 1993 shocked the world. The mass loss of lives and the public outcry from the Somalian people, forced President Clinton on 1:00 pm, June 18th, 1995 to order an inquest on the events of that devastating day. Two weeks later, all officers from the Major General, the Captain, down to the Cook, were stood down pending the outcome of the inquest. NINE YEARS LATER, the inquest released a 5000 page report. The findings found that there was one piece of evidence that could incriminate Major General William F. Garrison. Which left the new President Bush's hands tied to intervene. On December 23rd 2004 the trial of Major General William F. Garrison started at 12:00 pm. There were 400 interviews, 3000 pieces of evidence and this continues to the PRESENT DAY. A soldier has just been called up to testify. The Judge turns to the soldier and says, "Well Sergeant, Congratulations on the Purple Heart." The Soldier replies, "Thank you, your Honour." The Judge continues, "All we need, is for you to tell us what happened that day from the beginning." The soldier pauses, then says "Well Sir, it's like this....................................................." And that's all I am going to tell you about the mission, apart from your options and the must do's. At the start of the mission you can rearm your weapons, you have a choice of walking, running, jumping in heli that comes back to take more troops in, there are 3 different heli flights or taking a ride in one of 23 pickup vehicles to Mogadishu. There are 7 different entry points to the city. One is a usable key pad entry. Once in,if you find the crashed BlackHawk you must stay in the zone until the time counts down. You must stay with the crashed BlackHawk crew-member until he has been evacucated, if you're a ghost, or stay with him until he is at Mohamed Farrah Aidid's headquaters then assassinate him, if you are a rebel. You get points for every BlackHawk crew-member rescued (ghosts) and points for every BlackHawk crew-member killed (rebels). After you find the working phone you must remember the password ( It's a sound so it's spoken to you) and then you must press the right access panel in the underground security room. If not the game will end. Once the adat locations are found, you have 2 options. (1) Blow all the adats by hand or (2) climb the tower to a security control computer, this computer will powerup all the key pads for you to unlock and open all the doors (The key pads and the computers are usable by pressing your use key). In the undergound computer room you can call for one air strike. (A MUST SEE).you have 3 choices, adat 1 2 or 3, If one adat is blow up by hand, then the computer for that adat shuts down. You get points for destroying the adat (ghost) and points if an adat is not destroyed (rebels). Once all 3 adats are destroyed you must stay out of the rebels car park: air strikes blow the car park up. At the end, the more ghosts make it home, the more points your team gets (ghosts) and the more ghost die, the more points the rebels get. There's a sinbin in the game - this means you have 2 lives, on the second death you can not respawn until all of your teammates are dead or if the remaining alive teammates finish the task they're on, ie.once a crashed BlackHawk crew-member is evacucated then everyone is respawned and restored with 2 lives. There's a lot more that I have forgotten, but you get the idea. The download Because of the sounds in this game and the usable key pads and computers, you have to add some folders in to your Local\English folder. They are sound and string This is a one off mod and will not alter any of the original graw game and will not have to be deleted, if you remove the mission (blackhawkdown.bundle). These file are needed if other have custom sounds in there missions. once you download the files/folders you should have the files in these locations Local\English\sound\settings Local\English\sound\custom_sounds Local\English\sound\sound_rego_1 Local\English\string\mission and blackhawkdown.bundle in to your customlevels folder I have posted on the wiki about adding custom sounds, and I see no-one has registered, please give it a go, it will make your missions more enjoyable. I will also add on the wiki how to add and setup the usable key pads and computers. For all the boys that will open the map up in the editor, you must remove the pickup_loy_vehicle from loy_01 to loy_23 or there will be cars everywhere. where are two maps (1) tdm, siege etc.. (world) and (2) the main mission ( world_tvtm) One last thing this is a team V team missions, so I know a lot of you play Coop missions, but please give it a go and use this mission as a guide of your missions. Play the TVTM mission and play it as a Ghost if there is only one playing. This is a very big map and a very big mission script, so some of you with slow computers will have to lower your graphics to low. P.S. I am in the making of a coop mission of this map too. Download Here -DOWNLOAD HAVE FUN Rad... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davros Posted April 23, 2010 Share Posted April 23, 2010 Rad, you did it you crazy ###### ("...with over 4000 lines of scripting...")! Well done. This mission is a true labour of love and to me is a work of art. Hats off to you. I hope the GR teams take the time to explore and apreciate the subtleties of the mission and the setting. Congratulations and thanks for sticking at it so we can all enjoy your work. You've really eared that beer and I am sure the Mrs. will be glad to have you back again. Enjoy the long weekend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wombat50 Posted April 23, 2010 Share Posted April 23, 2010 Very impressive Radiator! :thumbsup: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnTC02 Posted April 23, 2010 Share Posted April 23, 2010 Well, what can I say Rad, this is awesome work you have done a great job overcoming all the problems you had but you persevered and got it finished. If you can post a screenshot I will add it to the download entry. DOWNLOAD ENTRY ADDED Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TAW_Zero Posted April 23, 2010 Share Posted April 23, 2010 effin great ive been waitin to play this for ever glad u didnt give up on this and cant wait to play the coop version later Zero Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rahnman Posted April 23, 2010 Share Posted April 23, 2010 I ran through the tvt version. This is fantastic work!! I love the new sound effects, especially the occasional gunshot that makes you think you are being fired on. Our coop squad will play through it sometime in the next week. Of course, we cannot wait for the Coop mission! Thanks Rad!! Rahn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocky Posted April 23, 2010 Share Posted April 23, 2010 This is GREAT! Very atmospheric, very nice job on that. The download does not have a readme, so I created one for all those people who end up downloading it without reading the instructions on the download page, or get it somewhere else. Hope this is ok with you Rad.. This is a Team v Team mod where the teams battle to take control of the crash site. Once you download the files/folders you should put the files in these locations. If there is no Local/English folder then create it and then put the folders from the download in there, as shown below... Local\English\sound\settings.xml Local\English\sound\custom_sounds.xml Local\English\sound\sound_rego_1.xml Local\English\strings\mission.xml and blackhawkdown.bundle in to your customlevels folder If you need help with installation or playing this mod, visit the GhostRecon.net forums.[/code] I am totally looking forward to a co-op mission on this map!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocky Posted April 23, 2010 Share Posted April 23, 2010 Download Entry updated with Radiators awesome promo movie, and a couple of screenshots. Download file updated with readme.txt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Radiator Posted April 23, 2010 Author Share Posted April 23, 2010 I read your post and suddenly remembered that I actually a wife! So I ran round the house to find her, but the house was empty. No beds, no fridge, no clothes just my computer in one room. But that's OK as long as the map's finished. LOL Dav, All is OK. She's said, "Thank god I don't have to hear that damn song again." I don't know want will happen when she finds out what COOP means. For the Coop side of things, just give me some time, I have to remove some lines in the scripting, to convert it in to a one sided game (Coop) and with 4000 lines, I can see some late nights. Thanks Rocky and John for adding the map to the downloads and the screen shots, I just got the pm and I see that you already have added them. I didn't think of a readme, thanks Rocky Did you find your names in the map? The funny thing is, which Dav knows, when I added or changed something in the map, I tested it, so I changed the mission name so I would remember what test I was up to. eg. BlackHackDown200 then BlackHackDown202 and so on. I had a play last night, and saw a typo in the mission, My last test was 3471 and I still missed it. It will not affect the mission, just with3471 tests you think I would have it 100% right. No-one is perfect, I guess! Rad... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thales100 Posted April 24, 2010 Share Posted April 24, 2010 No beds, no fridge, no clothes just my computer in one room. Doesnt sound bad at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aragorn777 Posted April 24, 2010 Share Posted April 24, 2010 Man, this sounds AWESOME!!! Is it only for Pc? I just joined cuz I'm a console user from the ubi soft gr forums and found your site mentioned there. Thx P.S. I freak'n love GRAW2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnzioB Posted April 24, 2010 Share Posted April 24, 2010 A week away from my PC and I come seeing some new missions. Cool. Then I read the write-up / mission description .... Damn dude. Thanks for all the hard work. I am sure you whave or will get the the appreciation of the entire GRAW site. I can not wait for the download to complete so I can check this out. Will play Tvt until Coop game is up. BTW Tell the wife you are HERO and should worship you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brettzies Posted April 25, 2010 Share Posted April 25, 2010 (edited) Congrats on getting it done. Looking forward to the sp/coop portion as well. I created a patch to my weapon pack that makes it compatbile with this mission. Assuming anyone is running the weapon pack the correct way, you should just be able to pick the mission from the list and run without crashing. All it does it make all the sounds work together and replaces any weapons that cause the pack to crash with ones that do not. BlackHawkDown compatible Patch - FileFront Link 84k I'm not quite sure how that patch will work in multi player since it is not a bundle but some extra files that replace conflicts. Most likely anti-cheat will have to be disabled. ps. Rocky, if you read this, can I have access to modifiy the first post in the weapon pack thread again? I want to add the patch to the list of downloads. Thanks. Your pm won't let me send you one. Edited April 26, 2010 by Brettzies Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocky Posted April 25, 2010 Share Posted April 25, 2010 Congrats on getting it done. Looking forward to the sp/coop portion as well. I created a patch to my weapon pack that makes it compatbile with this mission. Assuming anyone is running the weapon pack the correct way, you should just be able to pick the mission from the list and run without crashing. All it does it make all the sounds work together and replaces any weapons that cause the pack to crash with ones that do not. BlackHawkDown compatible Patch - FileFront Link 84k I'm not quite sure how that patch will work in multi player since it is not a bundle but some extra files that replace conflicts. Most likely anti-cheat will have to be disabled. ps. Rocky, if you read this, can I have access to modifiy the first post in the weapon pack thread again? I want to add the patch to the list of downloads. Thanks. Your pm won't let me send you one. I've added it to your download entry (over 20,000 downloads now!), and will edit your first post in a sec (it'll be quicker than trying to figure out how to get you access lol). Sorry PM box was full. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Radiator Posted April 25, 2010 Author Share Posted April 25, 2010 (edited) Congrats on getting it done. Looking forward to the sp/coop portion as well. I created a patch to my weapon pack that makes it compatbile with this mission. Assuming anyone is running the weapon pack the correct way, you should just be able to pick the mission from the list and run without crashing. All it does it make all the sounds work together and replaces any weapons that cause the pack to crash with ones that do not. BlackHawkDown compatible Patch - FileFront Link 84k I'm not quite sure how that patch will work in multi player since it is not a bundle but some extra files that replace conflicts. Most likely anti-cheat will have to be disabled. ps. Rocky, if you read this, can I have access to modifiy the first post in the weapon pack thread again? I want to add the patch to the list of downloads. Thanks. Your pm won't let me send you one. PLEASE DO NOT DOWNLOAD BRETTZIES PATCH Hi Brettzies, Thanks mate. But I just had a quick look at your patch, and it's not right. You made the rad_custom_sounds.xml look at all of my missions only and no-one else, the problem is if someone else makes a new mission with sounds in it, they will crash. And the way you have it know, is you will be sending out a new patch's every week if someone makes a new mission. ( like John and Boigie ) You need to make your settings.xml to point at my settings.xml, then my settings will point at all the new sounds that everyone makes in there missions. This way everyone can play there new missions with new sounds in it with your mod (bp_weapon_pack) and if they decide to play there mission with out your mod then can and still have sounds. So all you need in your sound folder is ..\Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2\Local\bp_weapons_pack_v2.06.ots\sound bp_banks.xml settings.xml Inside the setting.xml file you need to change <xi:include href="rad_custom_sounds.xml#xpointer(/custom_sounds/wavebanks/*)"/> <xi:include href="rad_custom_sounds.xml#xpointer(/custom_sounds/soundbanks/*)"/> TO <xi:include href="data\sound\custom_sounds.xml#xpointer(/custom_sounds/wavebanks/*)"/> <xi:include href="data\sound\custom_sounds.xml#xpointer(/custom_sounds/soundbanks/*)"/> and you need to add both yours and my lines to the bottom of the list, in the <wavebanks> and <soundbanks> Why we have to do this is ,so the game will load the original sounds first then yours and the custom sounds last. It's more for the custom sounds then your sounds, it's because of the narcom sound group. for some reason it stops that group of sounds playing?? Give this a go, it should work. Rad... EDIT : this didn't work, and I tryed 4 different ways. maybe you might know, ( try removing data\sound and see if that works - <xi:include href="custom_sounds.xml#xpointer(/custom_sounds/wavebanks/*)"/> ) It's 1 in the morning, getting late, try tomorrow. Rad.. Edited April 25, 2010 by Radiator Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocky Posted April 25, 2010 Share Posted April 25, 2010 Can one of you drop me a PM once this is ironed out and I'll update all the download links accordingly, thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brettzies Posted April 25, 2010 Share Posted April 25, 2010 PLEASE DO NOT DOWNLOAD BRETTZIES PATCH I understand your concern, but I kind of wish you hadn't written that line, and I hope you can remove it because the patch works perfectly without changing the original mission bundle at all. I wrote the patch only to work with this particular mission, so you are correct, that if someone added sounds or funky mission stuff with another custom bundle, I would have to make another patch. But that's no reason not to use the patch now. Installing this patch does not even affect the way your mission or anyone else's works in stock Graw2. It only runs if you are using my weapons pack, otherwise, the sounds and mission remain the way you set them up. I do not like to overwrite people's work or have them modify their own stuff just to work with mine. It gets very complex, that's one reason I stopped using the "english" dir as the directory of choice for modding. Too much stuff gets jumbled in there and then it's hard to debug. If someone wants to stop using my mod and they've installed it correctly, all they have to do is run the normal Graw icon, they shouldn't even have to edit the context.xml since a custom xml is provided, nor should they have to remove any files. This way it is seperate from anything else anyone releases. Usually missions will work fine with my pack, but occassionally there are problems, in which case, I am willing to adjust my mod if it isn't too time consuming. In terms of the sounds, I only changed the name of the xml so that I could identify it more easily in case I have to add a bunch of these in the future. It's still pointing to custom_sounds/wavebanks/* If someone releases their own mission with new sounds and doesn't even have yours, but also calls it custom_sounds.xml, there will be a conflict if I tried to add them both with the same name. Also, my mod does not look in the english folder, so that is a big problem right there trying to have a global place for new sounds. It can be made to do that for sure, but then it completely stops people from running stock Graw2 without having to delete stuff or at worst re-install the game. Anyway, despiste all this, rest assured your mission works fine if people install it like you've outlined. If people want to use my pack with it, they do have to use my patch. I don't know if there is a clean way to allow for future missions with custom sounds without having to edit some xmls, mostly because you can't garauntee where people are going to put their stuff. Could be english/sounds, could be superMission5xfinal/sounds. Would be nice if it were so simple, and maybe there's a way, but sounds have always been a burden with GRAW and bundles. In other words, adding patches to my pack is inevitable, but it should not effect anything other then my mod. I really don't know if there's any getting around "someone" having to modify some file when new things are created. Even adding to the settings.xml is a problem because someone would have to make sure everything is correct and who's to say everyone will conform to a standard or have the latest stuff from everyone. Given the nature of how mods(not missions) work in Graw2, I can't see this changing where it's easy to just add stuff without conflicts. I'll look into it a bit, but I don't think it's gonna work. However, don't let that stop you from doing cool things. Some mods or missions are just gonna break stuff as they get more complex and less "stock." Essentially, adding anything to the english dir makes a mod. I thought custom sounds for missions didn't need to modify the settings.xml. Ironically though, the sounds aren't even the main reason I had to patch to work with this mission. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brettzies Posted April 25, 2010 Share Posted April 25, 2010 (edited) Ok, been looking at the xmls a little bit. I think I see what you are tyring to do here. custom_sounds.xml contains 100 pre rego(registered) sound xmls and sound_rego_1.xml is your particular register of sounds. So me adding rad_ in front of the rego entries really freaked you out. Currently, this doesn't effect the way your mission/mod works with or without my patch installed, but I can see how it would throw you off and not work with other mission sounds. This made me start to think though, if I make my sounds into a mission bundle, they might just work in conjunction with a mod bundle. My problem in the past is that I can never get sounds to play if they are bundled as a mod. If this does work, it would allow for my mod to run without having to change the language directory, meaning, your global settings.xml should work with it. It would still need an entry in the settings.xml(as opposed to none) - so there could always be conflicts there, people overwriting stuff, etc. However, I am going to see if I can get it to work your way because it sounds cool(no pun intended). The sounds not working in a bundle has always bothered me about my mod. Just to reiterated though, the current patch does not change how your stock Graw2 mission or anyone else's would work. Edited April 26, 2010 by Brettzies Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brettzies Posted April 26, 2010 Share Posted April 26, 2010 (edited) More sounds stuff, sorry if this is hijacking the thread. This took some trial and error: 1) I removed my entry from the sound/settings.xml and used your default one as well as your custom_sounds.xml 2) made a sound_rego_12.xml that looks like this: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?> <sound_rego_12 xmlns:xi="x"> <wavebanks> <xi:include href="..\sound\bp_banks.xml#xpointer(/bp_banks/wavebanks/*)"/> </wavebanks> <soundbanks> <xi:include href="..\sound\bp_banks.xml#xpointer(/bp_banks/soundbanks/*)"/> </soundbanks> </sound_rego_12> 3) modified bp_banks.xml to get rid of the toinclude tags and added <bp_banks xmlns:xi="x"> and </bp_banks> to enclose the whole thing. So, that works. All weapon sounds play and custom level sounds play, took some time to get my stuff right, but it works. I have to admit, it's a nice solution you came up with if people can follow it. However...I still have the same problem I've always had. Each time I bundle the mod, the sounds no longer play. I have tried it several different ways: 1) as a complete bundle, no xmls outside in english or otherwise 2) a comp bundle such as your mission, ie mod.bundle with a few xmls in english/sound 3) a comp bundle with the sounds as a "custom_level" bundle None of those worked. The only thing that seems to work is if I leave the actual sound files(.wavs) out of the bundle. Only thing I can think of is maybe the .wavs need to be actual real .bank file, but it works as a non-bundle so I don't get it. Essentially, it's exactly the same as it always has been, just using different xmls to point at things. However, using your method does allow for easily exapansion without having to do anything other then add another rego xml. I've adjusted my patch to reflect this and am using rego_12 for my sounds. Not sure what else I can do, but at least it follows your format and still works. Also, the original patch worked fine too, but perhaps this method will allow people to just dump say, sound_rego_4.xml in my bp_weapons_pack_v2.05/sound and still work. Of course, that's just for sound, other issues may arise such as weapons I've removed from my mod being placed in the level. In any case, I've made my patch conform to the standard. ps, I used rego_12 because I wasn't sure how many were used up yet and I like that number : ) Plus I wanted to see what would happen without regos in between. Edited April 26, 2010 by Brettzies Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rahnman Posted April 26, 2010 Share Posted April 26, 2010 Um, I'm confused. Would you people please speak ENGLISH!! So are we back to square one with just placing the new sound folder in the local directory?? I never would have thought that adding new sounds would create such a difficulty. Still, I think that they are more than worth it. Here's my take on the issue for whatever it is worth. I don't see this map being put on any of the TvT servers as part of the regular rotation. Many really good maps have been made by others before this one and they never get used. Also, any additions to the English folder will automatically get flagged by the game's anti-cheat. So if a server admin wants to put this map on his rotation, he will have to disable his anti-cheat. For TvT play that is simply not going to happen for obvious reasons. This map will be used by clans when they want to get together and play against each other. They can then lock out their servers and turn off their anti-cheats. So there is no problem there. I can tell you for certain that the TAW clan will be doing just that. The real action for this map is going to be on the coop side. I don't really see a problem here at all. Some coop servers turn on their anti-cheat and others do not. As a server admin I can tell you that we (TAW) do not, and neither does AGB. We find that the anti-cheat often flags players who are not actually cheating and boots them unnecessarily. Since we want people to stay in our servers we simply do not turn the anti-cheat on. And really, this isn't a problem when you are just playing against bots. Therefore, all a coop server admin would have to do to put the future coop mission on his server would be to take this step. Problem solved. I see no problem with using the override files to put the sound folders in. You can simply paste the folders into the English folder, Brettzie's override folder and my override folder. Our clan is old hat at doing this type of thing since we like to tweak our settings (my reticle color changes weekly,lol). If you want to play on TvT servers you simply rename your local folder and you're good. I don't pretend to know what complications would ensue if John and Bogie start using their own sounds but we can cross that bridge if we get there. Well, that's my 2 cents. Cheers, Rahn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brettzies Posted April 26, 2010 Share Posted April 26, 2010 (edited) So are we back to square one with just placing the new sound folder in the local directory?? I never would have thought that adding new sounds would create such a difficulty. Still, I think that they are more than worth it. Here's my take on the issue for whatever it is worth. Yes and no. Using Radiator's sound structure of rego xmls makes it easy to add sounds while only having to add xmls and not change the custom_sounds.xml or settings.xml. Assuming everyone keeps those files unchanged, it's just a matter of making sure your sound_rego_##.xml is pointing to your stuff correctly. I didn't understand what he was doing at first, but now that I see it, it does work very nicely. The only problem I have is I can't get my sounds to play if I bundle them. So, people can either run from local/bp_... or put everything in local/english. My sound xmls are the same as Radiator's now. It's not really a big issue, but it does mean I have to include these xmls with my mod if people want to use it with this mission or others using the same sound setup. The whole sounds not playing with a mod bundle(not a mission bundle) has driven me nuts, I've never been able to figure out why it works in directory state, but not bundled state. Update: Bundle Blues Well, I figured something out, but I'm not sure it's a good thing or a bad thing. The "official" Graw2 patch.bundle(not to be confused with my weapon pack patch for this mission causing all the hoopla) seems to override mod.bundles(those in the mods dir) with regard to sound and movies. As a test, I added my entire mod to the patch.bundle. It worked. All the sounds played correctly. The only thing that didn't play was the intro movie, but all Graw2 movies are outside of local anyway. As another test, I added only Radiator's custom_sounds.xml and settings.xml to the patch.bundle and then made my mod a bundle. This didn't work, none of my weapons had any sound. If I include the rest of the xmls and my wav files, it works, but then why not just put all of my mod in the patch.bundle at that point. Modifiying the official patch.bundle to get it to do what I want sort of defeats the purpose of having a mod.bundle in the first place. Apologies for going on and on about this, but I have always wanted to know why custom weapon sounds wouldn't work when bundled and liked the idea of the mod just being one or two files, instead of a folder full of them. Easier for people to install and figure out. I think I finally know or at least have a clue. I'm pretty sure there's no way around this, even if there is, at this point, I'm not sure it's worth figuring out. Adding to the official patch.bundle is an intersting idea as a method of modding. I think if I had discovered this ages ago I might have done it, because it would still work with over-ride folders. The big disadvantage to this would be going back to stock Graw2 means keeping the original patch.bundle around. Not a big deal if you know what you're doing, but given how many people have trouble just unzipping a file and that the name has to be exactly patch.bundle, could also be room for headaches. I'm still debating whether or not I want to release a version like that. Probably not, but it's an interesting discovery. Ultimately, I think the over-ride folder method, a la Graw1 is the most consistent way of modding. Edited April 26, 2010 by Brettzies Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rahnman Posted April 26, 2010 Share Posted April 26, 2010 Well, let us know what you decide to do. Whatever it is I would like follow suit with my mod so that things may remain consistent. So ....... Rad ....... how about that coop map?! Later, Rahn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rahnman Posted April 26, 2010 Share Posted April 26, 2010 OK, I've finally gotten around to looking at the files and understand what you are talking about. I have been able to run the mission with my mod with no problems because I did not incorporate any new sounds into it. I think that it will be easiest to just add rad's folders into the override folder, so I don't see the need to make any patches for my mod. Brettzie, I tried pasting rad's folders into your override folder and the game crashed. I can only assume that this is because of a conflict in the settings.xml since doing things this way will cause rad's settings.xml to override yours. I tried to download the patch which you had posted to see if it works but you must have taken it down. I can see how it would be best to try and find a way to add sounds without having to modify the settings.xml. It seems that it would be much easier to just add the sounds to another file and add a pointer. Of course, this is beyond my abilities, so just let me know what you come up with. Also, I was wondering which software you use to compare two xml files. I am often faced with trying to find differences in one file vs. another and this can be very tiring and time consuming. Do you have any suggestions? I was thinking of combining your settings.xml and rad's into one and seeing if the mission would run but trying to identify differences between the two files w/o a program to help me makes me tired just thinking of it. Later, Rahn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brettzies Posted April 26, 2010 Share Posted April 26, 2010 (edited) OK, I've finally gotten around to looking at the files and understand what you are talking about. I have been able to run the mission with my mod with no problems because I did not incorporate any new sounds into it. I think that it will be easiest to just add rad's folders into the override folder, so I don't see the need to make any patches for my mod. Brettzie, I tried pasting rad's folders into your override folder and the game crashed. I can only assume that this is because of a conflict in the settings.xml since doing things this way will cause rad's settings.xml to override yours. I tried to download the patch which you had posted to see if it works but you must have taken it down. I can see how it would be best to try and find a way to add sounds without having to modify the settings.xml. It seems that it would be much easier to just add the sounds to another file and add a pointer. Of course, this is beyond my abilities, so just let me know what you come up with. Also, I was wondering which software you use to compare two xml files. I am often faced with trying to find differences in one file vs. another and this can be very tiring and time consuming. Do you have any suggestions? I was thinking of combining your settings.xml and rad's into one and seeing if the mission would run but trying to identify differences between the two files w/o a program to help me makes me tired just thinking of it. Later, Rahn The weapon pack patch is up, just not on the main page of my weapon thread because I can no longer edit that. I have to wait for Rocky to do it. However, any posts that I made about it in this thread and the last page of mine have the the correct link to it. Sound is only one conflict with my mod, which is easily solved with Radiator's method of xmls. The main conflict which requires the patch as well is that several weapons I had to remove to make mp work are placed in the level. A very long time ago I had to rename all the crye stuff to mrc to get the icons to show up correctly. The only level which would crash was the training grounds because it places a "crye" at the GL table. That's why I include that level in my mod to fix the entry. There are many cryes placed in this mission, renaming them in the level rules would fix that crash...but, for mp I took crye's out of my mod, so it may appear to work in sp, but would crash in mp. To fix this, I just replaced any weapons in the level that cause conflicts with my mod, with weapons that do not. As for comparing, sometimes I just open and look at them. If I know they are dense and similar you can use a program called Examine Difference or ExamDiff, can't remember which. It's pretty useful. I'm pretty much just using Radiator's xmls now with sound_rego_12.xml being my pointer and bp_banks.xml being the actual sound. Edited April 26, 2010 by Brettzies Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnTC02 Posted April 26, 2010 Share Posted April 26, 2010 (edited) Brettzies, Rocky maybe busy so if you need your first post updated in your weapon thread then just let me know which download link to use and I can do it for you. *UPDATE* The link in the weapon thread has been updated with the latest patch. Edited April 26, 2010 by JohnTC02 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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