Sounds as .wav or .mp3?

[Blizzardicus]

I've been looking into the issue I've been having with the Blizzard effect only looking like a gentle snowfall. Well, while looking in the Blizzard.txt file in the Caesar IV\Data\Graphics\sfx directory I've noticed the following line...

Emitter:SoundFilename=audio\sounds\misc\blizzard.w av
It's the third line from the bottom of the file. According to this, if I'm correct in my assumption, when a blizzard is activated by the script element Weather, I should be hearing a sound file by that name, blizzard.wav. At least that's what the text file states. But, looking in the \audio\sounds\misc directory, I don't see a blizzard.wav file. Only a blizzard.mp3 file. Should we have another file with the .wav extension or is the text file pointing to an unavailable file and actually should state blizzard.mp3?

I've also noticed the lines in the sandstorm.txt file...

Emitter:UseWind=1
Emitter:WindMultiplier=500.0
Should/could those be in the Blizzard.txt file as well? As I stated in another post, when I call a blizzard in my script, all I get is slowly falling snow with no wind direction and no sound. To me anyway, a blizzard should have some howling winds. If not, it's only a heavy snowfall.

So to sum up this post in a two-part question.

Should the .wav listed in the Blizzard.txt file really be .mp3 or is the .wav file missing and could the Wind lines be added to the Blizzard.txt file to give a more realistic blizzard effect?

Blizzardicus

[Blizzardicus]

Is this a stumper question? Maybe someone from TM can answer this one. Hopefully.:o

[Keith]

I would try making a WAV file from the MP3 file and put it in the audio folder indicated.

My guess is that it should be listed as a mp3 in the txt file, but putting a WAV file in the folder should make it work.

I have converted the blizzard.mp3 file to a blizzard.wav file. It's a lot larger than the original mp3 file but that's the way WAV formatted files are. Give it a try.

[Blizzardicus]

That's the way I was headed but thought I'd get some input from TM. I'll give it a try and hope for the best. You're file wasn't needed but saved me from doing the conversion, Thx. Will post later to give results.

[Blizzardicus]

First off, thx to Keith for the blizzard.wav file.:) That was what was needed to get sound from the blizzard effect since changing the .wav to .mp3 in the text file didn't activate the sound file. But the text file still needed to be revamped to LOOK like a blizzard, instead of just a simple flurry. Well, I believe I have it figured out and now I have a full-blown blizzard with lots of snow, sound and also wind (so all the snow doesn't fall straight down!). Just wish I could get the effect to last longer.:(

Updated blizzard.txt. Put it the Caesar IV\Data\Graphics\sfx directory. Backup the original first.

You can get the blizzard.wav file from an earlier post from Keith in this thread.

[Hieronymus]

Good work Blizzardicus! I will definitely try this one out.

As for making it last longer, I'm wondering how easy it would be to trigger two one-off back-to-back storms...

[Blizzardicus]

Thx Heironymus. I saw where the sandstorms had wind AND sound so that's what prompted me to check out the blizzard event, or lack there of I should say. Like was stated in another thread somewhere on here, the reason the blizzard effect may have been downgraded (if it was) was to combat the crash issue with the weather effects. But I noticed that the text file for the blizzard effect didn't change from the initial release of C4 when the 1.2 patch was put out. Only the ability to disable weather sfx.

But anyhoots, seeing as how the Nature events happen at a small random percent ( like 3 out of 100 times or whatever it's scripted at, 1%, 2%, 3%, etc), that might be kind of hard to do unless there is some way of polling the event and turning it into a variable that can be called over and over. Without me knowing the language that TM used for the game, I would be at a lose on that one. Maybe one of the C# people who post here can give us some insight into how that could be achieved. Reading text is one thing, but writing code is another beast all together. Here's hoping for some outside assistance on this one. I'm certain someone on here would know how to do it.

[Hieronymus]

The way to do one-off weather events is to use:

game.TriggerWeatherEffect(mStormEventID);

where in this case:

private Int32 mStormEventID = IDMaker.FromString("BLIZZARD");

The tricky bit would be to trigger the 2nd blizzard at the right time (so that it appears as one long blizzard rather than two events). I will have a look at this one because it may be possible, given a bit of trial and error.

[Hieronymus]

OK, here's what I found. Sadly, there doesn't seem to be a way (that I can think of anyway :) ) of getting 2 back-to-back blizzards appearing as one seamless storm. It appears that the first storm must end before the second can begin. If you try to trigger the second blizzard before the first ends, it is ignored.

So what happens is that the first blizzard ends, the snow melts, the sun comes out momentarily - and then the second kicks in.

It also works best if any accompanying message is sent as a warning rather than a "significant" message (as is usual). That's because the blizzard won't start until the message is acknowledged - which tends to throw out the timing.

Incidentally - love the improved blizzard effects :D

[Blizzardicus]

Thx. And everyone, please feel free to include these files if you have need of a more realistic blizzard effect in ANY scenario you make.

~Blizzardicus