Mapmaking Audio woes

Wargrim

Trying to add proper Audio to a custom map is currently an excercise in frustration - because some key things are simply not documented. If some developer could explain how to do it right, that would be extremely helpful.

Specifically:

1. How to properly use Audio Regions?

• There does not seem to be any documentation on this online, not even older one for CoH.
• Extracting existing maps from their SGA Archives allows you to see the painted Audio Regions in action, however simply painting some from existing presets into your custom map does not seem to work. Aparently, some sort of trigger event or something is needed to be set up so some actual sound gets played.

2. How to set Music for the Level?

• There are some legacy tutorials / threads for CoH avaiable online, however they do not seem to work.
• Official maps extracted from their SGA Archives have no music path in their .info or .options file and also show no evidence/hints that i am aware off on how to set up custom maps to play music.
• The most obvious way would be to use the music option under scenario options. However, if you click that all you get is an empty list.

3. How to properly use Action Markers to play location specific audio?

• There are some legacy tutorials / threads for CoH avaiable online, however they do not seem to work anymore. Specifically, sound_attach does not exist anymore as an action for an Action Marker.
• Extracting existing maps from their SGA Archives allows you to find that Action Markers can use the audio_event action to play location specific sound, however just like for the music options, there is no useable dropdown list of sounds or anything like that. You seem to have to enter specific sound names and/or have some sort of trigger events start the sound. Neither do i know how to find out the name of available sound bits, nor how to properly trigger them.

4. Why do some entities emit sound in Editor, but not in Game?

• This is noteable for example with Power Cores / Turrets / Shield Gens. Also with projectiles. In Editor, they emit a loud clear sound, Ingame they have no sound or are very silent. ( With Options -> FX volume on maximum. )
• How and where can one set up the range and base volume for entity based sounds?

@Kat_RE : If you could poke someone in the know to fill our knowledge gaps, that would be deeply appreciated!

Skemooo

my upcoming map uses the magic bridges from single player into mulitplayer i notice the same thing.. after much testing of all possible scar function calls for audio fx play i concluded that its a bug with custom game mode not being able to play certain SFX files.. for example the magic bridges SFX file name is "t02sfx_env_cubus_c_bridge_16x30_a_a_formation" this doesnt play with any of the scar function calls .. (i even ported a vaniall MP map as custom and as soon as it loads as custom the SFX sounds for shield gen turrents and cores is off)

however the same functions play this file "t01mus_stinger_campaign_environmental_danger_large_play" which is a stinger... as @Wargrim mentioned the SFX files are not playing in custom games for turrent shield gen and core.. if they fix that all the SFX issues for custom games gets addressed.. I believe this issue occurred during last patch..

Wargrim

@Skemooo Interesting that you even got some SCAR scripting parts to work - i thought SCAR was generally disabled for custom maps? Out of curiosity, have you tried triggering visual effects via SCAR? And more on topic, what did you use to get some sounds to play?

Skemooo

@Wargrim i used Music_PlayStinger("t01mus_stinger_campaign_environmental_danger_medium_play") to check if i can call audio from scar this works.. but if i pass the SFX t02sfx_env_cubus_c_bridge_16x30_a_a_formation it doesnt play in game ... however as you mentioned in worldeditor same "t02sfx_env_cubus_c_bridge_16x30_a_a_formation" can be used to create a audio event that can be triggered and it plays fine inside worldeditor..

I hang out in discord (cataclaw's DOW III discord ) link --> https://discord.gg/PPdsEhz you can find me in worldeitor channel..
i also lookedup the code for Music_PlayStinger - > it uses Sound_Play2D().. so i tried that and these Sound_Play3D(), Sound_PlayOnSquad(), Util_PlayMusic() functions,..
they all work on the first file but dont play SFX file..

Scar scripting isnt disabled.. infact the double drop gates in mortis vale is coded in scar.... i picked from that and studied the scar calls in SP missions and modifed it so it works on MP and tested it with a friend it works in MP.. so i started a map design around magic bridges from M12 in SP..Ill release the map in few days to workshop you can check out the full code from there..

Wargrim

Thank you!