Is there a way to rewrite code that runs music for levels?

[VVanTuz2OO2]

Master Levels, No Rest For The Living, and The Plutonia Experiment all have their own unique soundtrack by now composed by community members and there are SC-55 and Remixed HD versions of those songs. But in this release only placeholder songs are played in the levels, just like the original release. Yeah, I know, that's not official soundtracks on contract like Hulshult's are. But it is a real deal that those levels will feel more unique and interesting to play with new soundtrack alone. Plutonia just isn't that interesting when you play it with that placeholder Doom 1 music, after hours playing with that same music during Doom 1 playthrough.

In TNT: Evilition's case it's actually worse. Because while yes, Plutonia have the placeholder soundtrack it's all been recorded already. In case of TNT it's original music was not played by Andrew Hulshult, and in case you chose the remastered soundtrack, only non-TNT placeholder songs in that camplaign will be remixed, the rest will be the original soundtrack. Which is not a nice thing if you want to see a whole picture. Previous 12 levels you were listened to original clunky midis, but next you hear a reused song in full HD. Feels weird, huh?

Console reads it that there are O_E1M1.ogg (the original music) and H_E1M1.ogg (Andrew Hulshult), so I checked and yeah, there are no doubles the level just written to read exact file matching the original release. But I think Nightdive is a little busy to fix things like that, so is it possible to do it myself, hypothetically? This is not exactly a source-port, since it is a Kex Engine, so can I do this or that is beyond possible.

If there are mods in the library that's not exactly going to work with me. First off, let's say there is a plutmidi mod out there, but launching doesn't count it as launching The Plutonia Experiment in the game, thus far as I reach end, it will not count the achievement for completing it.

Any suggestions, argues, thoughts?

UPD: with a help of Seamus I have resolved the issue in it's full glory.
Here's the guide on installing soundtracks
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3364213192

[OutSIdeOfTheBoX (chrisvig71)]

i don't know exactly how to help you myself and i thought i would just ignore this thread since i didn't know ho to help, but i just for fun and curiousity tried to copy paste your post into chatgpt, just because i never used it and i wantedto know how much can be useful, and it acutally turned out to be VERY useful, so i do not take any responsability or merit, but if you want you can check there if you can find any useful answer, or ai is just useless...

[VVanTuz2OO2]

Originally posted by chrisvig71:

i don't know exactly how to help you myself and i thought i would just ignore this thread since i didn't know ho to help, but i just for fun and curiousity tried to copy paste your post into chatgpt, just because i never used it and i wantedto know how much can be useful, and it acutally turned out to be VERY useful, so i do not take any responsability or merit, but if you want you can check there if you can find any useful answer, or ai is just useless...

That's funny. I'm just curious if some olds would respond. I will copy this to Doomworld but for now i'm a little lazy. Tomorrow I will take it to Doomworld.

[Space Detective]

The remaster has complete technical support for what you're asking for; dynamically replacing arbitrary MIDI tracks with arbitrary recordings, though whether Nightdive/id/Microsoft might get Hulshult to do remixes of the Evilution OST is another matter. I wouldn't hold my breath.

I can't really help with the last point about mods though, not really informed enough about whether the way the mod browser works allows for that. In the case of the community MIDI packs for the official campaigns, they should be fine if they were given a proper GAMEDEF lump when uploaded, though.

[VVanTuz2OO2]

Originally posted by Space Detective:

The remaster has complete technical support for what you're asking for; dynamically replacing arbitrary MIDI tracks with arbitrary recordings

How then? Changing files deletes the originals and if I change those to play new tracks, a lot of problems rises. Like Plutonia midi pack has a track specifically for each individual levels, where in original there a lot of doubles. If there is a way to change map data for music, that would THE perfect solution, it's just that i know how that works in source-ports but I never did so in KEX.

Originally posted by Space Detective:

though whether [them] might get Hulshult to do remixes of the Evilution OST is another matter. I wouldn't hold my breath..

No, i'm not asking that for them, and I know it's not going to happen. JD Herrera and DAR already made that job, i'm just curious on how to get those covers into the game itself.

Originally posted by Space Detective:

I can't really help with the last point about mods though, not really informed enough about whether the way the mod browser works allows for that. In the case of the community MIDI packs for the official campaigns, they should be fine if they were given a proper GAMEDEF lump when uploaded, though.

I wrote about it rather straightforward. There are mods that are the same main caimpaigns with slight changes. These changes could be the music alone. But since that a mod and "not" the main campaign, as it counts only if it's launched vanilla from the menu, any campaign specific statistics will not be recorded, which is my point here, that mod browser to change the music isn't just an option for those reasons. Especially with Plutonia. And also a lot of violations, since it is not going to be released by the author itself.

[Seamus]

What you're listing should be possible for at least some wads.

If you open extras.wad in the rerelease folder with slade, there's a file called TRAKINFO with definitions for music for a bunch of the wads. It's what dictates the file names in extras.wad for the music to play for SC55 vs remix.

Down at the bottom there's entries for Sigil and TNT at the very least.

Might be able to add new tracks and edit trakinfo to reflect it for the maps that are included in that file.

Actually adding new levels outside what's in the file I don't think would be end-user possible. At least not easily.

Oh, and for the love of god, keep a backup of extras.wad after you do any edits in case the game patches because a verify will completely overwrite it.

[Space Detective]

Originally posted by Seamus:

What you're listing should be possible for at least some wads.

If you open extras.wad in the rerelease folder with slade, there's a file called TRAKINFO with definitions for music for a bunch of the wads. It's what dictates the file names in extras.wad for the music to play for SC55 vs remix.

Down at the bottom there's entries for Sigil and TNT at the very least.

Might be able to add new tracks and edit trakinfo to reflect it for the maps that are included in that file.

Actually adding new levels outside what's in the file I don't think would be end-user possible. At least not easily.

Oh, and for the love of god, keep a backup of extras.wad after you do any edits in case the game patches because a verify will completely overwrite it.

Do note that doing this will break multiplayer though; it hashes important files, and only lets you play with people with the same hashes.

[Seamus]

Oh no.

The jank multiplayer won't work.

[VVanTuz2OO2]

Originally posted by Seamus:

Do note that doing this will break multiplayer though; it hashes important files, and only lets you play with people with the same hashes.

It's bad, but since there are no achievements for multiplayer and I do use zdaemon and zandronum that's fortunately will not be a big bug to me.

[VVanTuz2OO2]

Originally posted by Seamus:

What you're listing should be possible for at least some wads.

If you open extras.wad in the rerelease folder with slade, there's a file called TRAKINFO with definitions for music for a bunch of the wads. It's what dictates the file names in extras.wad for the music to play for SC55 vs remix.

Down at the bottom there's entries for Sigil and TNT at the very least.

Might be able to add new tracks and edit trakinfo to reflect it for the maps that are included in that file.

Actually adding new levels outside what's in the file I don't think would be end-user possible. At least not easily.

Oh, and for the love of god, keep a backup of extras.wad after you do any edits in case the game patches because a verify will completely overwrite it.

That is some very helpful information. I will go and do it, and will report of the results.

If results are successful, I will make a guide on the game, providing both the packs and the files to change.

Thank you.

[VVanTuz2OO2]

I've got news.

Originally posted by Seamus:

If you open extras.wad in the rerelease folder with slade, there's a file called TRAKINFO

DAR's music is now played during TNT:Eviltuion in the DOOM + DOOM II remaster.

In TRAKINFO section below remixes there was info on O_TNT01, for example. But since there is no remaster, the alternative is the same O_TNT01. So I added H_TNT01 (as the rest of them) to be matched and rewritten those absent lumps.

The results are perfect.

However.

Originally posted by Space Detective:

Do note that doing this will break multiplayer though; it hashes important files, and only lets you play with people with the same hashes.

While during this procedure hashes remained untouched, it was not possible to set Plutonia, No Rest For The Living and Master Levels music into motion. Simply speaking KEX engine while trying to use modern source-port technologies have made the code readable and changable, they made it specifically as Vanilla as possible. Reading of music here is exactly on hashes, which means it checks for a sum, not for a name, how it would work in source ports with changing respective D_RUNNIN with another one of the same name.

I found a command line hashlump <name of the lump inside any wads that remaster reads, including extras.wad> that literally checks that hash sum of exact lump. I used O_TNT01 for example and yes it turned out the hashes are for the files themselves and not for the distinct maps. So there is probably a string of code that specifies the role of this exact hash. So also those hashes override other command line: playsong <song lump name>. So playing the song is "possible" but I think it is because of those hashes overriding the chosen song to play that they block the command to do so. I tried with newly put O_PLUT01.ogg, which didn't worked because of that theoretically.

BUUUUUUT...

I've tried to look up deeper into the IWADS themselves, and those are completely not vanilla. they have UMAPINFO. Which has the specific music command. So I try that. Let's See what happens.

UPD; IT"S JUST WORKS!

[Seamus]

Nice. Glad my poking around in extras.wad to fix a bug in the launch version came in handy for someone else. Lol

[VVanTuz2OO2]

Originally posted by Seamus:

Nice. Glad my poking around in extras.wad to fix a bug in the launch version came in handy for someone else. Lol

it is literally the fix everybody expects. And it will be done in 3 days. Put into Google Drive and then into the Steam Guides. Probably should write about that in Doomworld.

And I will credit you as co-operative as you actually hinted me into extras.wad. I never would have checked.

[Seamus]

All I fixed was a couple maps having the wrong music in the launch version of extras.wad. One of the patches fixed it so it doesn't need to be done anymore.

[VVanTuz2OO2]

Originally posted by Seamus:

All I fixed was a couple maps having the wrong music in the launch version of extras.wad. One of the patches fixed it so it doesn't need to be done anymore.

if my fix get spotted they might release it as an update lol

don't think that will actually happen. but damn, sounds like something needs fixing

[VVanTuz2OO2]

An update on the topic.

If music was forced to play through UMAPINFO, it will not be changed by choosing midi\remastered soundtrack in the options

Also changing at least one map with that option will case an entire wad to play .mus with opl2 emulator instead of Andrew's remakes or pre-recorded original soundtrack.

So if I will make a mod, I will provide two versions: for "faithfull midi experience" and one containing only remastered tracks. For exception of TNT which has the hash system working and there is an option now between original and remastered soundtracks.