How to Create Your Own Soundmod

In this guide I will guide you step by step how to create your own sounds for Dying Light and how to make them work.

Introduction & Installation Guide

For practical purposes I will divide this guide into two segments; how to create your own sound files and integration of said sound files into the game.

Things you should mind before proceeding:
- make sure you keep everything organized and remember from which .csb file your selected .fsb files come from
- create a backup of the original, untouched .csb files
- play with VAC Secure turned on at your own risk as it is unknown whether or not you would receive a ban for using modified sound files


Either if you start by creating sounds by yourself or mixing sounds together from various games to create a new sound is up to you, as well as just downloading sounds from the internet to create a meme sound mod, but what’s necessary for everyone is:

- render the audio file in .ogg

You can either use an internet converter or use an editing software, for example Sony Vegas Pro. I’d recommend using an editing software because internet converters usually mess up the quality of the file.

- make sure the audio file is approximately the size of the original audio file
Whether your modified audio file is longer or shorter than the original doesn't matter, as long as you’re close to the approximate original file size since, if that’s not the case, errors during reimportation can occur. If that’s a reoccurring issue, I recommend using Audacity to render the file twice as Audacity creates smaller audio files than, for instance, Vegas Pro.


First of all, to reimport you need to transform the .ogg files into .fsb files and for that you’ll need Dying Light Developer Tools. If you can not see it in your library, click on “GAMES” above the list of owned games and select “TOOLS”. Search for Dying Light Developer Tools and install it if necessary.

Now, before you launch the Developer Tools, go to:
(your drive):\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Dying Light Developer Tools\DW\Data
Create a folder with the name “Sounds”. Then drag all of your .ogg audio files in there and launch the software. Select a random project or create one just so you can access the tools the software provides. When you've loaded in, select “Validate and Build” and click on “Validate All”. After that is done, visit “Validate and Build” again and click on “Create Audio Bank”. Now that you’re done, close the software and don’t save any progress as you have not done any changes to the template map.

Go to “(your drive):\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Dying Light Developer Tools\FSB\out” and drag out the .fsb files into any folder of your choice as long as it is on the desktop.

Now that you have the right files, all you need is QuickBMS and the appropriate files to import the .fsb files into their designated .csb file. If you don’t have QuickBMS and the custom files appropriate for Dying Light and reimportation, I have provided a download link below.

Assuming you've downloaded QuickBMS at this point, you should have the extracted folder on your desktop for an organized overview. There should be the .csb file(s), your .fsb file(s) and the QuickBMS folder on your desktop. Now, open the QuickBMS folder and run “reimport2.bat” which will open a command prompt window. Follow these steps in order:
1. select dying_light.bms
2. select .csb file
3. select .fsb file or a folder which contains multiple .fsb files belonging to the selected .csb file
Example: in step 2 you've selected all_in_maps_1.csb so in step 3, you will need to select the folder called all_in_maps_1.

When you’ve completed these steps, repeat them in case you've got multiple .csb files.

Now, visit "(your drive):\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Dying Light\DW\Data" and drag all of your modified .csb files in there. If, for any reason, there happens to be that the original .csb files are still in there, either overwrite them or store them somewhere safe.

Your work is now done here!
For any questions comment below and I will attempt my best to provide you with an answer to your question(s) as fast as possible. I hope this helped you and that you will have a pleasant experience in Dying Light with your own implementations.

Special thanks to Bub for making this possible by creating/providing the Dying Light .bms scripts for QuickBMS.


-⠀do not use the same .csb file over and over as you can corrupt the file from reimporting .fsb files repeatedly
-⠀make sure you keep a copy of your .fsb files as Steam will replace the modified .csb files after each new Dying Light update
-⠀in case you're unable to import .fsb files into VGMGUI, rename "vgmstream_cli.exe" to "test.exe"

Links

VGMGUI: https://www.dropbox.com/s/y96wpvn8gi9bgxb/VGMGUI.7z?dl=0
QuickBMS: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9iw6x63ihalj4bb/QuickBMS.7z?dl=0

Video tutorial:

YouTube™ Video: 𝗗𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗟𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 | How to Use Soundmods 

Views: 923

𝗗𝗼𝘄𝗻𝗹𝗼𝗮𝗱 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀 𝗤𝘂𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗕𝗠𝗦: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9iw6x63ihalj4bb/QuickBMS.7z?dl=0 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗛𝗮𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗦𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗺𝗼𝗱: https://www.nexusmods.com/dyinglight/mods/442/ 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗛𝗮𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄:...

I have created this video tutorial in order to help people who have difficulty following the instructions of the reimport process.

[AlkaSeltzer]

You absolute LEGEND. Now I've finally been able to replace that one song that blasts across half of Old Town (you know the one...) with something a tad more quiet and hauntingly atmospheric. Even back during my first playthrough I was dreading going too far north in the map because I knew that damn song would start up again . You really don't know what you've done for my sanity, lmao. THANK YOU

[catnip]

I love you

[raynira]

@Kaffitoz: Inside the Music_3.csb file at D:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Dying Light\DW\Data . You need a program to extract the contents and once you do, the files you're looking for go by the name of "dw_nighthunternearintro.fsb" and "dw_nighthunternear.fsb".

[catnip]

Where is the Night hunter near theme on the game files? :(

[raynira]

@Achtung Spy: Yes.

[Achtung Spy]

Shall I use this method to replace music in game? For example ambient or chase music to any other.

[raynira]

@I shit my fucking pants Correct, enjoy your customized gaming experience and becoming deaf in roughly 50 to 60 years.

[Backshot Billionaire]

So according to this guide i can dropkick a zombie and when they land and die they scream out an earrape yoda death sound? If so thank you!

[raynira]

@Fantazilite Indeed, though I do not see a reason as to why soundmods should get removed in the first place as they do not give the player an advantage over others, assuming that's the reason they got removed in the first place.

[Fantazilite]

Unfortunately it's guides like these that usually make things so popular they end up getting removed. Let's hope this one doesn't turn out that way.