Sound Replacement

[Jordan]

Has anyone ever considered/tried replacing the sound effects used in Ultima7? I only ask because every time I walk, sail or fly near a beach the white-noise emanating from the ocean waves brings pain to my ears and doth cause me to question my love of FM synthesis.

Are there any technical limitations that would prevent someone embarking on such a project?

[TdI]

I was thinking the same thing a short time ago. The sound of the ocean waves is horrible and it seems alot louder than the other sounds.

The other thing I was wondering about was if it where possible to replace a sound with more different sounds. For example, there is only one sound for opening gumps. I thought it where cool if you could have a "wood-creaking-sound" when opening a crate, a "key in lock-sound" when opening a chest, a "drawer sound" when opening drawers, etc.

In general it would be interesting if it where possible to give U7 a sound-overhaul. I'd also like to see the "thunder" sound actually sound like like thunder, and not like "bzzt".

Some people may protest, but if you can improve the graphics, why not also improve the sound?

[Malignant Manor]

I believe you can since you can extract all of the individual sound tracks. You can disable the sound of the waves by editing the shape in ES and I think you can also edit shape_info.txt to do the same (probably a lot faster this way). To make a sound when double clicking an object you need to edit the usecode.

[Jordan]

I was also thinking it would be nice to have multiple sounds for the same event - so there might be 5 or 10 different sounds for a sword. Even the nicest digital effect sounds terrible when it's repeated over and over again.

[DK]

Should be great to play Ultima7 with "real" digital SFX and MT32 OGG encoded music!

As starting point, we can modify the Sound Pack with better wave files; I'll try something later.

Meanwhile, any advice about quality?
The wav file in Sound Pack are 16bit, 22Khz, mono.
- The mono format because it's better for panning and positional effect (?).
- 16bit and 22Khz because (if I recall correctly) is the internal format of Exult mixer.

Finally, is there some list to get the sound name for the various wav files? There are about 127 wav files, and some are very short, so is very difficult - by ear - recognize the sound.
Or, is there a simple way to recognize sound from usecode function?

For the multiple sounds, I think is possible name the same sound variation group with a different suffix but same number (ex. 01a, 01b, 02c, etc.) and every time pick up a variation randomly.

[marzo]

For the multiple sounds, I think is possible name the same sound variation group with a different suffix but same number

It *could* be, in the future, but *is not* right now. *Some* types of SFX events can already have multiple sounds, specifiable through a "shape_data.txt" file in patch dir; hit/gump sounds are not among those.

[DK]

Ok, this is my first attemp to give realistic digital SFX to Ultima 7 world.
Here's my modified Sound Pack for Black Gate: sqsfxbg.flx (4,39MB).

Just put it into "data" subdirectory of Exult and eventually - if you are not using Sound Pack - edit exult.cfg.

Code: Select all

   
   ...
   
    sqsfxbg.flx
    

The new sounds to check in Trinsic, are:
- open door
- close door
- fountain
- turn on lamp
- some birds

A great source of samples can be the The Freesound Project, and, eventually we can ask in the forum for missing samples or for help to create /record them.

The first step for this project is create the reference list, where indicate the required sounds effect.
Help/suggestion is very appreciated.

[DK]

It *could* be, in the future, but *is not* right now. *Some* types of SFX events can already have multiple sounds, specifiable through a "shape_data.txt" file in patch dir; hit/gump sounds are not among those.

thanks Marzo, I'll check.
However I'm thinking for a very simple function; when the play function find the "grouped sound" it pick one randomly.

Something like this:

Code: Select all

void playsfx(String soundname[], int totalsfx)
if (totalsfx>1) {
   playsfx = random(totalsfx);
} else playsfx=0;
play_sound(soundname[playsfx]);
}

[Dominus]

DK, please name the pack differently, for example dksfxbg.flx. This way different soundpacks are easily distinguishable. My own pack was also differently named, but never got beyond being an unofficial pack since it used sfx from UO and U9

[dag]

"My own pack was also differently named, but never got beyond being an unofficial pack since it used sfx from UO and U9 "

Which is sad: it was real good!
Why can't we see it on the download page? Is it because of legal matters..?

(I believe it was there once, because - if I'm not completely wrong - I remember experimenting with it some time ago, trying to compare many sounds to adlib and roland)

[DK]

DK, please name the pack differently, for example dksfxbg.flx. This way different soundpacks are easily distinguishable.

of course I'll rename the pack, but this version is only an example (and posted only on this the forum); I've patched the pack I'm using (sqsfxbg.flx), that's the name, and the "pack" is far from final
However, I cannot edit the post, so...

My own pack was also differently named, but never got beyond being an unofficial pack since it used sfx from UO and U9

interesting, where is it? I'd like to try.
So, at last, a digital pack for U7 exist - but...I think cannot official published, right?
Can we try to asking EA for the rights? Almost impossible, eh?
Or, if you have already done this work, do you think we can cooperate to substitute the sounds with a freeware/open-source version, so we can realease the digital pack?

[Dominus]

phew, I think everywhere I had it is no longer online
My pack was mixture of the adlib sfx recorded by JM and U9 and a very few own sfx. Atm I'm not at home (at least for another week) and then only for a few days. Maybe I'll put it online somewhere then. Maybe earlier since I noticed that I have all the files here with me on my laptop
I could zip it up with my expack file list so you could spare yourself the hassle of expacking.
You are more than welcome to do what you like with the pack but the chances of me doing anything with the sounds is very low. I can hardly find the time to do anything and listening to sounds and finetuning them is way beyond me nowadays. This takes patience, time and enough quietness to listen to them. Also I did hack my pack to sound right at tmes and since then Simon Quinn and Marzo corrected some (many) spots where exult now plays the correct music where it didn't when I made the pack (around 5 years ago).
Also it is quite useless bbecause of the copyrights. The ripped sfx from u9 is clearly a breach of copyrights that cannot be fixed

[Jordan]

I was really looking forward to taking this project on myself, so I've done so any way. Most importantly, that damn ocean sound is replaced and subdued 21 effects replaced so far:

http://exult.info/forum/viewtopic.php?p=151063#p151063

[Dominus]

to not clutter Jordan's realsfx thread with other stuff, I'll write here.
I uploaded my old pack to badongo:
http://www.badongo.com/file/3858553
This is only a zip with the wave files and the expack scripts for both BG and SI. Just keep in mind these files are mostly not ok to put in any other pack since they are probably not free to use. It has been six years and more since I worked on this so I'm really not sure where I got which file from, so better don't ask me about it. Enjoy.

[DK]

Thanks Dominus, very good, and this can be very useful for building a new pack; not using the same sound but finding similare free sound.

[SB-X]

Hey Dominus! I was wondering where your sound packs went. Thanks.
Here it is in flex form, for BG and SI:
drbgsfx.flx (6.82MB)
drsisfx.flx (7.59MB)

[Dominus]

Thanks SB-X for hosting it. ATM I'm a little short of my own hosting space and again timme, real life... whatever