Sound Effect Creation Guide

[Swingfire]

The main Endless Sky wiki does not cover how to properly create new sound effects, so I thought I would cover it in detail.

Step 1
Install an advanced audio manipulation program like Audacity.
This will allow you to edit your sound files and make them compatible with the game engine.

Step 2
Download or create your sound effect.
For now, the file extension or format doesn't matter, just find the sound effect you want and download it to your computer.

Step 3
Open your sound file with Audacity.
(Or whatever sound manipulation program you have installed)

Step 4
Crop your audio to your satisfaction.
Delete any unwanted parts of your audio, such as silences or pauses.
Make any other necessary changes to your audio.

Step 5
Convert your audio file to Mono-Channel (mono).
In audacity, you can do this by finding the drop-down menu labelled with your file name, usually located to the left of the waveform display, and clicking on 'Split Stereo to Mono' or 'Mono', and then deleting one of the layers so that there is only one waveform display.

Step 6
Set your Hertz rate to 44100 Hz.
In Audacity, there is a drop-down menu in the bottom-left corner labelled 'Project Rate (Hz):' that you can use to set the rate to 44100.

Step 7
Export your file as a 16-bit PCM .wav file.
This is where the file extension comes into play. it must be .wav.
In Audacity, click 'File' in the upper left, then click 'Export Audio'.
In the pop-up dialog, change the "Save as type:" option to "WAV (Microsoft) signed 16-bit PCM".
Name your file, browse to the save location, and click 'Save'.

Step 8
Double check your work.
Close audacity, and right click on the newly exported file.
Click 'Properties'
Click 'Details'
Check and make sure the 'Bit Rate' is 705kbps.
Check and make sure the file is in .wav format.
If everything checks out, the audio file should be 100% compatible with Endless Sky.

Have any questions? feel free to ask.

[DarkHoodness]

*later* Thanks so much for making this guide - I tried to swap out some of the sounds to better ones from different games (such as FTL: Faster Than Light) but couldn't work out why my replacements weren't working. Turns out I was saving them as 32-bit PCM rather than 16 bit. :)

If it isn't already, why not submit this as a real guide for Endless Sky rather than just a forum post? It'd make it easier for people to find. :)

[Mythic]

Originally posted by DarkHoodness:

If it isn't already, why not submit this as a real guide for Endless Sky rather than just a forum post? It'd make it easier for people to find. :)

truth ^ good guide you should definitely make it into a true game guide.

[Amazinite]

"Dec 25, 2015 @ 12:06am"
Where has this been?

[Aweega]

Anyone know how you could add music? I think in long term, i'd want to create a changing music code. (I figure this would have to be done to base game hardcoded files and not just a simple change. )

[Amazinite]

Originally posted by FriendlyNeighbour:

Anyone know how you could add music? I think in long term, i'd want to create a changing music code. (I figure this would have to be done to base game hardcoded files and not just a simple change. )

As of right now, you would need to code something in the source to allow music to play without an in game source. I messed around with the idea by making a dubstep cannon that played music when fired, but if you leave the system or shoot again then it will either end the music or repeat it.

[Disiuze]

Huh, maybe bumping old topics is a good thing sometimes.
*proceeds to bumb the everliving bump of out pre-Apr posts*

[Swingfire]

I finally got around to publishing this as a guide. Here's a link for anyone who's interested.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=774903151

[Disiuze]

Originally posted by Swingfire:

I finally got around to publishing this as a guide. Here's a link for anyone who's interested.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=774903151

Noice.

[Avior]

MICHAEL ADD THIS TO THE WIKI PLZ

[Ker]

Good modding resource 10/10

[Husker_85]

While this is going; let's open up a discussion on creating sounds. For the people out there who have made some that work, what is your preferred sound source? Auto-vocalization (talking into microphone), internet sourcing, or the vanilla game files?

[Aweega]

Originally posted by FallenCat:

While this is going; let's open up a discussion on creating sounds. For the people out there who have made some that work, what is your preferred sound source? Auto-vocalization (talking into microphone), internet sourcing, or the vanilla game files?

If you're kinda new and are interested in experimenting with an easy to use resource: http://www.bfxr.net/

[DarkHoodness]

My favoured source of sound files is from other games with paid sound designers. :) I poached some sounds from FTL: Faster Than Light (by recording it with Stereo Mix), various Valve games (it used to be really easy to extract files from these games with GFCScape) and Worms: Armageddon.

Made Endless Sky sound better for myself and therefore more fun, although it obviously means I can't distribute my sound mod. It was also fun to remix and edit the sounds to make them fit better into Endless Sky.

[Ker]

I have actual professional sound engineers i can hit up. Im not afraid of treating art like a commodity. I buy the rights or the unlicensed work and redistribute.