Sound File Location in Folder?

[#neverforget_herberthoover_1930]

Before anyone tells me to download the audio patch, I already did. This is something different.

I want to replace an audio file with a different one, and can't find out where all of the game audio is stored. Where in the game folder is the audio stored, and how would I go about replacing a file?

[ELiN0R]

You have to extract the sounds with RAS-maker. There are x_data, x_level1 etc files that contain sounds and graphics and all that stuff.
Then you have to replace the extracted sound you want to. Just leave it at the directory you extracted to. This file will override the one contained in RAS file.

It's funny how steam censoring the word RASmaker lol if I don't write it as RAS-maker

[#neverforget_herberthoover_1930]

Originally posted by ♓PATRiZZA 🍕 VAMPiZZA♓:

You have to extract the sounds with RAS-maker. There are x_data, x_level1 etc files that contain sounds and graphics and all that stuff.
Then you have to replace the extracted sound you want to. Just leave it at the directory you extracted to. This file will override the one contained in RAS file.

It's funny how steam censoring the word RASmaker lol if I don't write it as RAS-maker

Can you link me a RAS-viewing program? I don't want to risk downloading the wrong thing and getting a virus. Everything I google looks really shady.

[darkje]

There is no RAS viewer with a graphical user interface. Ras-maker that comes with the soundpatch is the official tool for it, it came with the original CD version. The files you need are ras-maker.exe and rl.dll.

It is a command prompt tool, so you have to be able to deal with that.
- open a command prompt
- type the drive letter[enter] your game is on, if it's not on C:
- type 'cd steam\steamapps\common\max payne[enter]' or whatever the path to your game is.
- type 'ras-maker -x x_data.ras[enter]' (the - sign in ras-maker should not be there)
- repeat that for x_music.ras and x_english.ras.

now the sounds are extracted and you can browse them with your windows explorer.

- in your game directory make a new folder and move the 3 ras files you unpacked there.
- you will see a data folder in your game directory, in the subfolder [data\database\sounds\...] and music are the sound files. (about 1300 .wav)

you can change the files you want and even play the game in extracted state.

screenshot to clarify
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1258107688

[ELiN0R]

The easiest way to extract a file is just to drag and drop the file to the exe, instead of the command prompt.

[#neverforget_herberthoover_1930]

does it matter what audio format I replace a file with? Such as an .mp3?

[#neverforget_herberthoover_1930]

Also, I moved all of the files around like you demonstrated, but get an error that crashes the game as soon as the launch cutscene ends. It reads "Exception in enginelnit: X_SharedDB: Weapons "empty" and "empty" had same ID'.

[darkje]

1st question: yea it should be .wav files, and not even all of those work i'm afraid. The soundfix converted them to 8bit 22khz sounds, only because that was the first format I found was working at the time, back in 2007.

Usually the error means that there are files that are the same, in the .ras and unpacked parts, maybe it can be solved by unpacking all ras files, and moving them away after that (no guarantee). If it worked you get a data folder in your max payne dir, and should have no ras files left there. I'm not really a modmaker, but i do know that error is pretty common.

[#neverforget_herberthoover_1930]

Thanks for the info so far. I have two new question now. Should ras files auto delete themselves when I export them through cmd? Also, whenever I extract the data ras file, that's the only one that appears as a regular folder when I'm done exporting it through cmd. Whenever I try something such as music or english, nothing happens. They show as being extracted in cmd, but don't appear anywhere when they're done.

[darkje]

No the RAS files are not deleted after unpacking, they just remain in the Max Payne directory. I always find it best to manually move them to a separate folder, but it should not be needed, extracted data should override the RAS files, so the move is really only to make sure the extracted files get used.

Everything gets extracted in the 'data' directory in your Max Payne folder, in there there are a lot of subfolders containing the game data, so music would be in 'data\database\music' and sounds in 'data\database\sounds'

[#neverforget_herberthoover_1930]

I moved the RAS files out of the game folder, but now the game doesn't get past the first loading screen for the menu. The error says it can't find level 1 among other things. I don't think the extracted files are being used. It there a way to tell the game to use the extracted files?

[darkje]

You should only move the ones you extracted, so x_data, x_music and x_english. The other three are the level data so they should remain unless you also extracted those. They are called x_level1 to 3.

If there are no ras files the data folder is always used, a simple way to try would be to change for example the soundtrack you get when starting a new game. That is \data\database\sounds\ingame\misc\intro.wav (the part where the cop cars are called to aesir plaza and max is on the roof saying 'they are all dead...'

[#neverforget_herberthoover_1930]

So I got the game working after extracting the respective files like we've been discussing, and i've even replaced the exact sound I wanted replaced. However in-game now, whenever I interact with the object, no sound plays. The audio file in quesiton is a .wav and is only 340 KB. I even tried chaning the file name then changing the script for the level to pull from the exact file for that action, but it still didn't work. What am I missing?

[darkje]

Hard to tell... it just doesn't play? Or is it distorted?

maybe you can find something in the documentation of the max-fx tools:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xhcZ5aJwWU6rsmAiitrPXCaxbi4n7UCK/view?usp=sharing

something else:
All wavs must be 8 or 16-bit; stereo or mono; 11025, 22050 or 44100 Hz

the game engine is a bit weird that way, some sounds that play fine in media player needed to be converted by the soundpatch to be audible in the game... so it's kind of picky about the format of the wavs

when the sound issues started and I made the soundpatch, i used goldwave to try and find a format that always played, that format was "PCM
unsigned 8bit, stereo", very old post about that:
http://forums.3drealms.com/vb/showthread.php?t=27985

haha I keep editing, but some things to try could be to use indirectsound.dll from the fixitall patch or sox from the old soundpatch.
the proper sox command would be:
SoX input.wav -u -b output.wav (input and output ofc. need to be replaced by your own filenames)
* assuming the sound is in the same directory as sox is.
-u is for unsigned, -b for byte format(8bits) if you feel experimental you could try -w instead of -b , - w being word(16bits)

[#neverforget_herberthoover_1930]

Is there a program for converting sound files to those parameters? I've been using Audacity to edit the file, but it seems kind if limited as to what can be converted.

[darkje]

goldwave, or commandline sox.exe from the soundpatch archive, or try what happens when you put dsound.dll from the fixitall in you mp directory.

can i ask what it is you are modding :) just out of curiosity?