Is it possible to create NEW Sound Sets?

I originally posted this in the official war3 mapmaking forums, but that places is kind of dead. :-) Besides, this place seems much more comfortable with more technical procedures like I'll need. It's been a long time since I posted here, and I'm due for a return anyway. :)

I'm looking to create a new sound set for my campaign (unit sound set, meaning the set of sounds the unit uses when selected and given orders). Because of the size of my campaign, I can't replace any "unused" sounds because there won't be any unused. Even if there is a map that doesn't use one of the unit sound sets, another map in the campaign will, and if the user loads that map after loading the one with the replaced sound without quitting the game first, the replaced sound will play in the new map, which is a problem.

I also can't simulate unit sound sets with triggers because then the unit portrait wouldn't play a talk animation. Using a transition would overwrite other unit portrait events such as clicking a new unit before the first one is done talking.

I read about attaching sounds to the models, but unless I misunderstood, that will only work for death, walk, and combat sounds, not unit speech.

I thought the solution might lie in editing "unitacksounds.slk" and importing with the import manager, overwriting the original file, but that only seems to be the file that specifies the sounds within each sound set, not the file that defines them.

I did an extensive search on the Internet for this topic, this site included, but mostly found suggestions to replace other sound files, or topics that were written around when Frozen Throne came out (and the WE has been updated quite a bit since then).

I'd appreciate any indication anybody can give that this is even possible, even if you aren't sure how it's done.

There is unfortunately still no way I know of to add custom soundsets to the game, so the only thing I can suggest is overwriting an existing soundset. Surely you aren't using all all of them (although I can understand if you don't want to overwrite one of those creep soundsets which only have 6 or so sounds).

Would it be possible to owervrite a soundset that is used in another map, then in that map import the original soundset to override the custom one? This seems like a rather convoluted solution but if you only need it for a very few soundest, it should be doable.

Also,
Wow! :)

The thought occurred to me to try that. Since I'm doing a campaign instead of a map, I have two sets of imported files (the campaign editor, and the import manager in each individual map). Hopefully I can import modified sounds into three maps, overwriting unused originals, and then import the originals to override the originals using the campaign editor.

If I'm lucky, the campaign editor will make the game re-load the originals when loading a map that doesn't use my custom sounds after having used a map that dues, thus avoiding the problem of imported sounds from one of the three maps overwriting the default sounds when a new map is loaded after the map with the modified sounds without first exiting the game.

If I'm unlucky, I'll need to import the originals into each map (other than the three that use the modified sounds) overwriting the originals to force the game to load the "new" old files over the previously modified files.

The problem with both approaches, which I was hoping to avoid, was increasing my file-size and load times (which is already annoyingly long with all my imported files). The second approach would increase the file-size much more that the first. And of course it will be a pain to modify every single map to import sounds and specify the file paths, but at this point I've gone through each individual map to fix this problem or that so many times that I ought to be used to it by now. :-)

Every sound set that is used in the single-player campaign is used in my campaign. There are a few sound sets that weren't used in the single player campaign, but one of my design goals is to ensure that the campaign could be expanded upon without "removing" other features of the editor, and removing these unused sound sets (like Uther, or Chaos Warlord) would get in the way of that. If it comes down to it, I'd rather keep them in place and increase file sizes and load times.


Yep I've been poking my head around here for quite a while, even if I only bothered to make threads twice now (I preferred the official forums because they're, well, official, but that forum is pretty much due for deletion at this point). I remember back when Studio Rain was a major feature of this place. Good stuff.

Thanks for the response. Now it looks like my work is cut out for me.

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Edit, oh hey, you're one of the dudes who did "The Spirit of Vengeance." I love that cinematic. It's the beast I've ever seen done with the World Editor. I was bummed when it stopped working, even with the update, but then I found out that I just needed to move it so the full file path wasn't 50 characters. :) I actually watched it again before posting the question.

Bad news: apparently, loading the original sound into either the campaign editor or the import manager of a map that doesn't use my custom sound doesn't work. The game will still play the custom sound on maps that aren't supposed to use it. Looks like my compromise will have to be overwriting the unused campaign sounds in each individual map that uses custom sounds, but leaving the unused sound sets in place for the campaign as a whole.

I've attached my custom sound set file.
It seems that the game has some problems when activating 3d sounds in Warcraft's settings (maybe my wav files do not have the required format).
It generates the unit sound set UglyCleric automatically.
Don't forget to increase the SLK's entry number when you're adding some more entries!

Still cannot do it right. Deleted the sounds list of FootmanPissed for example or added some other unit's pissed sounds to it, so I assume that the wav format is valid and the entry already exists.

Imported via import manager on the path UI\SoundInfo\UnitAckSounds.slk and placed my footman. The footman, however, makes the same noises when clicked.

I use War3Slk by Magos. It automatically changes the SLK's entry count.

Maybe it's because I've added it to my custom MPQ and not to any map file (via import manager).
I'm using a custom exe file (modification).

So the modified .slk only works with a custom mod, not just a regular .w3m or .w3x or .w3n file? I'm still new to .slk files, and everything I posted about it in the last few weeks I've all learned within the last few weeks :) Speaking of things I learned, I did find ONE way to add new sounds without overtiring old ones.

I noticed the other day, that the Pig Farm has no sound effect when clicked, but also fails to make a clicking sound effect. I looked it up in the Object Editor and saw it used the PigFarm Soundset, so I looked that one up in UnitAckSounds.slk. According to the .slk, the Pig Farm should have been using the sound "Buildings\Orc\PigFarm\PigFarmWhat1.wav". Interestingly, there is no such sound in the game, but creating a new sound and importing it to that filename and path, I was able to get a building using the PigFarm soundset to make a new sound without overriding any old sounds!

This has limited applications though, because surely there can't be many Soundsets that are already defined but have no associated sound files. I considered looking up Medivh, who uses the "Medivh" soundset and yet has no sounds when clicked or ordered, but when I looked for that soundset in UnitAckSounds.slk, I found that there were no entries there. The term"Medivh" never appears in the file (so if the name doesn't appear in the file, the soundsets must be defined somewhere else, and this file only lists the sounds within each pre-defined soundset).

I wonder, just how many soundsets in UnitAckSounds have files specified that don't exist in the game though? Surely the Pig Farm isn't alone.

I got curious. This list may not be exhaustive, but these are the files I found that are referenced but don't exist:

=====================

Buildings\Orc\OrcLumbermill\OrcLumberMill.wav (OrcLumberMill)
Buildings\Orc\PigFarm\PigFarmWhat1.wav (PigFarm)
Buildings\Other\DraeneiHut0\DraeneiHutWhat1.wav (DraeneiHut)
Buildings\Other\SacrificialAltar\SacrificialAltarWhat1.wav (SacrificialAltar)

HeroRanger
Units\Human\HeroRanger\HeroRangerWhat1.wav
Units\Human\HeroRanger\HeroRangerWhat2.wav
Units\Human\HeroRanger\HeroRangerWhat3.wav
Units\Human\HeroRanger\HeroRangerWhat4.wav
Units\Human\HeroRanger\HeroRangerWhat5.wav
Units\Human\HeroRanger\HeroRangerPissed1.wav
Units\Human\HeroRanger\HeroRangerPissed2.wav
Units\Human\HeroRanger\HeroRangerPissed3.wav
Units\Human\HeroRanger\HeroRangerPissed4.wav
Units\Human\HeroRanger\HeroRangerPissed5.wav
Units\Human\HeroRanger\HeroRangerPissed6.wav
Units\Human\HeroRanger\HeroRangerYesAttack1.wav
Units\Human\HeroRanger\HeroRangerYesAttack2.wav
Units\Human\HeroRanger\HeroRangerYesAttack3.wav
Units\Human\HeroRanger\HeroRangerYes1.wav
Units\Human\HeroRanger\HeroRangerYes2.wav
Units\Human\HeroRanger\HeroRangerYes3.wav
Units\Human\HeroRanger\HeroRangerYes4.wav
Units\Human\HeroRanger\HeroRangerYes5.wav
Units\Human\HeroRanger\HeroRangerYes6.wav
Units\Human\HeroRanger\HeroRangerReady1.wav
Units\Human\HeroRanger\HeroRangerWarcry1.wav

\Units\Creeps\HeroTinkerFactory\PocketFactoryWhat.wav
(Yes, it starts with "\Units" rather than "Units". Dunno what's up with that, and there's already "birth" and "launch" sounds for the pocket factory.)

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The following soundsets don't appear to be used by any units I can find, but do have associated sounds in the game:
BearDen (BarrowDen is a different sound set)
GargoyleSpire
MaievLater (the only difference from Maiev is that the "Illidan is out there somewhere" quote is removed).

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Other oddities I've noticed:

"Bristleback" and "RazorMane" appear to be identical.

"ForestTroll" and "ForestTrollShadowPriest" appear to be identical.

"Gnoll" and "GnollKing" appear to be identical.

"HeroMountainKing" and "HeroAvatarMountainKing" appear to be identical.

"Proudmoore" is identical to "HeroPaladin" except that it skips over the first 3 pissed quotes and removes a what and yesattack quote to use them as ready and warcry quotes. It seems like a very strange way to go about changing up his soundset for a unit the player never controls anyway.

"SludgeMonster" is identical to "WaterElemental" except that SludgeMonster has a what sound double as a ready sound, while WaterElemental has no ready sound.

"Assassin" and "Watcher" both borrow a small number of sounds from "Archer."

"IceTroll" and "IceTrollShadowPriest" appear to be identical with the exception that "IceTrollShadowPriest" has a 5th "pissed" quote that "IceTroll" doesn't. There is no file for this pissed quote, so clicking the unit to the point of pissing him off 5 times results in a "blank" click that the IceTroll doesn't suffer from. Of course you could use this as an opportunity to add a new sound.

DoomGuard uses (a small portion of) Wendigo sounds instead of having its own sounds. Zombie uses different sounds, also from the Wendigo sounds.

"ChaosGrunt" appears to have reduced the number of sounds used from "Grunt" with no apparent reason as to why or which sounds got axed. It has no pissed or warcry sounds.

"KotoBeast" is the same as "KotoBeastNoRider" except that the riderless version omits the pissed quote "Here comes the beast again" (the only quote where the rider speaks).

"ShamanX" is identical to "Shaman" but removes all references to "warchief", "the horde" and for some reason, rain. Other references to thunder and lightning remain.

"Nerubian" is the same as "CryptFiend", but it uses the first 3 what sounds as its ready sound. This is the only, or one of the few soundsets with multiple ready sounds. It lacks pissed and warcry sounds.

"Revenant" uses a fraction of "Gargoyle" the sounds, and has a gargoyle what sound as its ready sound.

"Skeleton" appears identical to "SkeletonArcher". They both use what sounds as their ready sounds.

"BloodElfWorker" and "BloodElfEngineer" are the same, but BloodElfWorker has no quotes refering to being an engineer specifically.

"OgreOneHead" is the same as "Ogre" but of couse using only quotes from one of the two heads.

There is a soundset for "SheepRandomSounds". Not sure what's up with that, but it does use the regular sheep sounds.

Draenei Chieftain's Hut doesn't use the "DraeneiChieftainHut" soundset o_O

"HighElfSwordsMan" and "Priest" are identical except that the Swordsman removes all references to magic, leaving all the references to the Light.
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"Medivh" does not appear in the .slk file because it is not a valid soundset! You cannot set a unit to the Medivh soundset, and when you modify Medivh's soundset, you see that it defaults to NONE rather than Medivh which it starts as. The same goes for the following Soundsets (may not be a complete list):
Medivh
HumanMage
GrainWarehouse
HealingWard
SentryWard
StasisTotem
FountainOfLifeDefiled
FountainOfLifeBlood
PlagueCloud
BookOfSummoning
DemonGate
Frostmourne
GranaryInfected
Warlock
owl
HornOfCenarius
GoblinLandMine
CentaurTent
ForestTrollHut0
ForestTrollHut1
FurbolgHut
GnollHut
HarpyNest
IceTrollHut0
IceTrollHut1
MurlocHut0
MurlocHut1
NerubianZiggurat
TaurenTent
TaurenTent2
Tent
ChaosSpaceOrc
Zergling :-(
CircleOfPower
CityBuilding0
CityBuilding1
CityBuildinga
CityBuildingb
CityBuildingc
CityBuildingd
CityBuildinge
CityBuildingf
CityBuilding2
CityBuilding3
CityBuilding4
CityBuilding5
CityBuilding6
CityBuilding7
CityBuilding8
CityBuilding9


I did this mainly out of curiosity, but it seams that the HeroRanger is the way to go for creating a complete new soundset. Unfortunately it only works for one soundset. If you're looking for a building, Sacrificial Altar, Pig Farm, Draenei Hut, and OrcLumberMill are available.


(By the way, I also posted this in the official forum here: http://forums.battle.net/thread.html...911&sid=3000#5 )

Hello, I don't know if you're still interested in creating new soundsets or if you already know this, but I recently discovered why my modified "unitacksounds.slk" never worked.
Let me start, originally when I modified it, I exported it from the war3x.mpq, then I imported it to the same mpq, then when I tried to use WorldEditor, my new soundsets weren't there.
While doing some experiments yesterday (Yes, yesterday, I actually read this entry of yours a few days ago while searching for a way to create new sound sets and I discovered your suggestion of using the HeroArcher set, which proved useful), I discovered that what you need to modify is the "unitacksounds.slk" found not in the war3.mpq or war3x.mpq, but the one found in the war3patch.mpq
I tried creating a new soundset for Paladin Arthas using his already-there voices, but taking out any reference of him being a prince (I wanted a young paladin soundset, which I called Arthas2) and I also give Grom Hellscream a ready sound using one his pissed sounds (I still don't know why so many campaign characters don't have a ready sound). When I imported the "unitacksounds.slk" back to the war3patch.mpq, I opened World Editor and I searched for my new soundsets, Arthas2 was there and I tested it along with Grom Hellscream, Arthas2 worked perfectly and when Hellscream was revived he said is new ready sound.
I still haven't tried using outside custom sounds, but creating and importing new soundsets into an mpq is, in fact, possible.
Again, I don't know if you are still interested in this information or if you already know it, but you're last post about soundsets proved really useful to me and I wanted to give something in return.
I hope I helped you a bit!