Marvel Mods

There are four simple things to bear in mind when dealing with the sound files of the game.

First. The formats are different for every base version of the game (PS2 and PSP use ZSNDPS2; PC uses ZSNDPC and X-Box and X360 rely on ZSNDXBOX; I am not currently aware of the Wii's sound format). This affects both the structure of the ENM/ENS (for PS2) or ZSM/ZSS (for everything else) files and the format of the actual soundbytes stored within. Right-o.

Second. There are several useful tools you can rely on to get the sound out. The PS2/PSP sounds can be procured with the program MF Audio (http://members.lycos.co.uk/ripperoo/gta3/utilities/) with a bit of help using your hex editor of choice:

QuoteThe header lists all the files within - the filenames, mostly. A'ight? This tells us the order, sort of. But how to find actual FILES in there? Find the separator between the data, right? Right. The separator in the PSP version is about 30 bytes of emptyness [hex code 00] preceded by hex code [07]. Sometimes less than 30, but the first offset with viable sound the program (MF Audio, remember?) finds for you, look at that in a hex editor and poof, you got the separator code.

To get sound in MF Audio, utilize a hex editor to look for these progressions and note the offsets. Then, round the offset UP to the next multiple of ten (i.e. the last symbol in the offset should be a zero, otherwise you'll only get static), switch to MONO mode (1 channel) and press "play". The sound of the PSP version is stored at two freqs - 16500 Hz for the heroes and 11025 Hz for everything else. If the play mode shuts off immediately, means you rounded up too few, so add 10 (i.e. if the offset 6660C0 in omega1_v.zss gives you a shutoff, enter 6660D0 -- that's Wyatt saying he'll pick us up, BTW).

The PC and, hopefully, the X-Box sounds can be procured via the Game Extractor (http://www.watto.org/extract) tool (even the shareware version). It finds the offsets on its own, but just in case, here is the breakdown:

QuoteIn other news, I now have the hex codes for the separators in the soundfiles in the PC version. Hex code [80 80 90] followed by 10 bytes worth of [00]. The first symbol after the [00] will be on an offset with the last digit being zero - and it is the start of the soundbyte. Not that it helps anyone on the matter of extracting sounds (as they still sound like total *bleep*), but it MIGHT prove useful in the matter of reinserting new stuff. Time will tell, methinks, as well as further experimentation.

Third. The order. The PC and X-Box versions list the filenames in the start of the ZSS/ZSM file; judging from that and the order of the sounds in the PS2/PSP files, they are always alphabetical. The tags on the soundfiles within the ZSS/ZSM files go as follows:

QuoteThe _V file:
CANTGO - "I can't go there!" lines. Numbered in order, the ones labeled ALT have the same line, but delivered differently.
CMDATTACKANY - as the name implies, this is what the char says when you activate aggressive attack mode without a target highlighted.
CMDATTACKTARGET - same thing, but with a target highlighted.
CMDFOLLOW - the regroup/follow me command.
EPITAPH - what the character says when dying. Note that Ronin dies quietly :D
ISEEYOU - "Look sir, droids!" Enemy sighting phrases. Ronin's are rather bloody. Hawk's are funny. "Look, NEW TARGETS!"
LEVELUP - pretty obvious, no?
LOWHEALTH - Also obvious.
NOPOWER - "I have no power to do that" stuff.
NOWORK - "Not gonna happen" stuff. Can't remember where does this appear, really.
RESPAFFIRM - "Yes" to commands, also - char becoming active phrase.
TAUNTKD - taunting someone who got killed. Black Widow's are a blast.
THROWTAUNT - taunting someone who got thrown. Not all chars have those, apparently, and no-one can best Iron Man's "I can fly. Can you?"
TOOHEAVY - obviously, when you try to lift something beyond this chars' capability. Hawk's is funny, again.
VICTORY - gloating over when all enemies in AI range are dead. These are all good unclean fun :D
XTREME - the yells and calls done during the Xtreme Attacks.

The _M File:
DEATH - the sounds of the character dying.
JUMP - the sounds of the character jumping up.
LAND - and landing too
LIFT - the sounds of the character lifting stuff
PAIN - getting hurt
THROW - throwing stuff
SPECIAL, DRAW, HOLSTER - various weapon sounds
PXX - power sounds, they come with tags that are tied in to effect file names that they are supposed to accompany.

Fourth. Redundancy. Unfortunately, the PC version seems to have them hardwired in some form - meaning you can't rename a file and use it for someone else's. If you will, however, retarget the herostat.engb reference (which seems to be the ONLY thing that defines which voicefile a character uses), it will work normally. Weird, huh?

P.S. The X_ files are generic ones. X_common.ZSM lists the various generic effect sounds and X_voice.zss holds all the generic voices, including the announcer and the battlecries of characters leaving the team selection menu (<character name>_break.WAV).

EDIT: Yeah, slight appendix: The PC version's OFFSETS to find the files at can be found in the jumble preceding the filename in the listing in the header. As with all other offsets in this game's files, it is reversed (i.e. 0xc49 becomes [49][0c]). Since the X-Boxes use a similar compression, we have to assume it will work the same way for them. So, *adding* a file to them is theoretically possible now. We're just slightly stoppered on what format to save it as.

Update: the X-Box. The common garden variety X-Box Alchemy engine relies on the Box's native ADPCM compression format. Which is good and bad. The good is, it also features a full header akin to the one the PC version uses. It is also of much higher quality than the PSP/PS2 version, which was the only one from which clear sound extraction was possible to date. There are dozens of XBADPCM codecs on the Interweb which may allow you to rip the musick and enjoy its sounds; or make a custom Deadpool voiceset for Freedom Force or, say, Baldur's Gate 2.
The extraction can be handled via the previously mentioned Game Extractor tool. Cheers.

The good news is, the Box version ALSO has the PSP exclusives voices; which means we at least get the correct filenames to use (which may very well be what I've been doing wrong all this time with the reinsertion); which will re-warrant my trying to do the "loose file" trick again. Bad news, of course, is that the Box files aren't directly compatible with the PC version. Bummer.

That, and I'm developing a huge migraine because I have this MASSIVE amount of homework to be given in in less than 24 hours -- and I got classes to attend today (yay for preemptive passing of last English exam for this semester!) and even have to sleep sometimes.

Here is the news: the X-Box ADPCM decoding tools have proved most useful. While, technically, the XBADPCM format is eerily SIMILAR to what we get from the PC version's files (especially if you compare HOW it sounds when treated in the same way, via slapping on a simple RIFF WAV header), it is LARGER, and therefore of somewhat higher quality. Wow.
They also easily translate into clear sound, so I can now tell you that the files labeled 6_STAT are the taunts for when you win in Multiplayer Arcade mode (Deadpool gloats most unkindly, I'll have you know).

However, when subjected to said tools, the PC version's sound dumps do not produce a result any better than I've had before. Bummer. At least I now know that they are (supposed to be) actually 22050 Hz 8 bit mono sounds, just like the Box's, because they are the correct time length when decoded with that setting.

The loose file idea (putting the dumped WAVs into aptly named subfolders in the game dir, named according to the headers) failed miserably, the game still doesn't think they pass. At least it doesn't crash. I gotta try inserting some of the Box's sound data in there sometime, it very well might work.

Quote from: Noelemahc on December 07, 2006, 05:03AM
Here is the news: the X-Box ADPCM decoding tools have proved most useful. While, technically, the XBADPCM format is eerily SIMILAR to what we get from the PC version's files (especially if you compare HOW it sounds when treated in the same way, via slapping on a simple RIFF WAV header), it is LARGER, and therefore of somewhat higher quality. Wow.
They also easily translate into clear sound, so I can now tell you that the files labeled 6_STAT are the taunts for when you win in Multiplayer Arcade mode (Deadpool gloats most unkindly, I'll have you know).

However, when subjected to said tools, the PC version's sound dumps do not produce a result any better than I've had before. Bummer. At least I now know that they are (supposed to be) actually 22050 Hz 8 bit mono sounds, just like the Box's, because they are the correct time length when decoded with that setting.

The loose file idea (putting the dumped WAVs into aptly named subfolders in the game dir, named according to the headers) failed miserably, the game still doesn't think they pass. At least it doesn't crash. I gotta try inserting some of the Box's sound data in there sometime, it very well might work.

Does MUA's PSP version use the same format as XML2's? Because, a year or so ago, the only part of XML2's PSP characters that I could get working was the sounds. And all I did was insert them into the proper folders.

Also, is it at all possible that the XBox version contains the models for the PSP characters?

One final question, are all of Swordsman's files contained in the PC version? If not, is it possible his files can be extracted from the PSP or XBox version and he can be added to npcstat?

I don't really know, as I don't have the XML2 PSP files. I have to assume they're different, because putting them into the correct folders doesn't work - it causes the game to crash.

No, it does not contain them. I've scanned it all.

Of course not. His files are ONLY in the PSP version, they're not even in the PS2 one. Which leads us back to the main problem.

Fun-filled fact: the files husim_m.zsm/husim_v.zss contain sounds and voices for... You guessed it right, The Hulk's Comic Mission :D
Voiced by the same guy who does Banner; getting the Hulk's voice via remodulation. Of course.
I haven't scanned all of it yet, but the idea so far is that it takes places on the Omega Base map and the villain seems to be... I don't actually know who it is. The code in the filename says "DB", but the PC version doesn't like to clear-text stuff, so I'll have to rip it out of the PSP or Box versions and check who that actually is.
It's made in the same vein as all others, beginning with a flashback to the characters origins (and it IS funny how Banner and Hulk switch places to trade different opinions on the subject).

So when they next tell you Hulk ain't in... You know you can laugh in their face and say that he was, as we have solid proof :D

Further Hulk goodness: DB actually stands for Dr. Banner. Judging from the script, it is a rampage mission... NO enemy, just Hulk and a lot of soldiers puny humans.

X_VOICE.zss also features the whole set (of file that should be in it) for him - the leaving-selection-menu battlecries ("Hulk never back down from fight!") and the announcer call. Wowie. All of this feels a lot like the Hulk GOT made, but then was cropped out (badly) of every version. This would also explain why the PC version didn't mind having 26 selectable slots without any hacking :D

xml2 psp voices.zip - 0.21MB (http://www.zshare.net/download/xml2-psp-voices-zip.html)


Ironman and Colossus XML2 Voices files from PSP version.
No zss files.

Thanks, I'm gonna try using these. I'll get back to you about it soon as I can.
(For reference: the files that MUA stores in the ZSS files are ALL packed into X_VOICE.ZSS in XML2 on every platform, which makes transferring stuff from XML2PC to MUAPC VERY uncomfortable -- but not impossible)

Hi, I hope that somebody can help me here since is a topic about the sound.

I am using the Look at me I'm trying to advertise so ban me now of game extractor, and I want to extrac the sounds from the ZSS/ZSM files of the PC version of MUA. After the extraction and the wav files appear on the "extract" folder it is not posible reproduce them with any sound program  :-\ winamp freezes and windows player said that the format it is not valid. Do I need plugin for hear it or is imposible extract correctly from the zss  ???

Thanks.

Read my project notes carefully :D They aren't real WAVs. If you append a WAV header to them (so that WinAMP or WMP would recognize them as actual WAVs), they will give out a seemingly random burst of static. Heavy manipulation revealed to me that they are encoded in an unidentifiable form of ADPCM compression for which I can find no decompressor or player. So far.

I guess I ll have to figure out another way to rip them  :P. Thanks for the reply.  8)

Well, after read a lot of times your first post and a lot of tries and google search a figured this, I know that have the sound samples on wav it is probably not useful for moding, to be honest I dont know about that I just wanted the sounds  for one of my personal projects.

Here is how I converted the sound to wav

Download this program http://www.xentec.be/download/download.html (http://www.xentec.be/download/download.html) Vox Studio

1.- Extract the pseudo wavs with Game Extractor from the ZSM/ZSS files.
2.- Execute Vox Studio and go to Convert ->Batch Convert....
3.- Put the following info as I show.

(http://dcvsmarvel.scruffydragon.com/images/voxconf.png)

4.- Test on WMP.

Again I dont know if this is useful for what you do :S but if helps on something here it is.

Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you! I can't say how grateful I am for this! This will allow me to convert the PSP sounds into the PC version's format and they will finally be usable!
(It's official - you're my hero!)

Thanks , If the Pc To PsP can be make, i will convert Colossus and Mk voices :)

I though you used the PS2 voices okay? The side-effect of the compression the PSP version uses is that you CANNOT make sound it any better than it does on the PS2 version, because its native format uses 16700 Hz sound, which is way weaker than the 22050 Hz the non-Sony versions use. Then again, nobody knows what the PS3 uses...

Alright, time for a smallish update: I've started work on getting Hawkeye's voice back into the game. Aside from the small issue that the PSP version has WAY more sounds than the PC one (and as I do not really know the name tags for them as the PS2/PSP format does not STORE them), it's going... goingy. I've converted all the sounds to the proper format (I checked it by mimicking the procedures I did when I was seeking out how to decode them, and believe you me, it sounds as awful as it should) and am now seeking logic in how the ZSS/ZSM header is formed and how to get the sounds to work.

Good news is, there IS a logic to the header. Bad news? I am yet to get any real results. The game still thinks the (makeshift thrown-together on the base of Colossus' ZSMs) sounds aren't there, which bugs me incessantly.

EDIT: Okay, so the Wiki @ Xentax (link (http://wiki.xentax.com)) holds all the necessary data on how the header is formed. Goody. I feel slightly worried by the prospect of facing a hash check in there.

Quote from: Noelemahc on December 12, 2006, 01:05PM
I though you used the PS2 voices okay? The side-effect of the compression the PSP version uses is that you CANNOT make sound it any better than it does on the PS2 version, because its native format uses 16700 Hz sound, which is way weaker than the 22050 Hz the non-Sony versions use. Then again, nobody knows what the PS3 uses...

Colos en mk sounds from ps2 aren't final sounds, bad quality and some sounds are missing But it is better than no voices at all.

Oh. Still, I do not know how to pack files into that format. It is completely different from the one used in the PC version, so I wouldn't even know where to look. Sorry.

Anti-update: the Xentax Wiki is right, those portions separating the hexes listing the number of entries per section and the offsets to section starts do feel a lot like hashes. Which means that until we (I?) figure out how they're calculated or what they are if not hashes, the project is at a standstill as the game blatantly refuses to see the file. Which explains, in a way, why you can't just rename someone else's voice file and use that - the game shall initiate a hash check and the hash won't match up with the different filename. Poof, no sound.
Makes me want to find and gut whoever invented this format of storage.

QuoteBecause, a year or so ago, the only part of XML2's PSP characters that I could get working was the sounds. And all I did was insert them into the proper folders.

Tried it out with the files Piccolo provided. Didn't work. Granted, the game doesn't CTD, but it's only another sign that XML2 was better adapted to the PC environment than MUA was. The sound is still not working. So, all hope is now on the manipulation of files. Yesh.

Okay, people (and especially nba2k!), here's what I know about the ZSM/ZSS format (based in part on the data from Xentax (http://wiki.xentax.com/)):
{for purposes of simplification, let's say that everything within square brackets is a hex number in a single byte, like so: [7c][4a], etc.}

They are of Little Endian order (which means that an offset of 1234 hex will be recorded as [34][12]).
The first 100 bytes make up the header data. They consist of the following:

Bytes 0x0 to 0x7 - file type (I've seen this be ZSNDPC, ZSNDXBOX and ZSDNPS2, if the string is less than 8 symbols, the superfluous ones will be filled up with spaces - that is, [20].
Bytes 0x8 to 0xb - file size. This is the total file size in bytes, in hex, and a multiple of 8. Sometimes it is off by quite a few bytes in either way (and NOT a multiple of 8), yet miraculously works in-game. This probably has to mean something, but for the purposes of our study, let's assume that it should always equal the file size or be rounded UP from the file size to the nearest multiple of 8.
Bytes 0xc to 0xf - distance from offset 0x10 (including that offset) to the start of the actual sound data (or, rather, the last byte just before that). The Xentax Wiki calls this "directory length", you'll now learn why.
Bytes 0x10 to 0x63, the remainder of the header, is split up into seven twelve-byte sections (that would be 0x10 to 0x1b; 0x1c to 0x27 and so on). Each of those, in turn, is split into three four-byte subsections (for group 0x10 to 0x1b that would be 0x10 to 0x13, 0x14 to 0x17 and 0x18 to 0x1b). Each twelve-byte group is devoted to a section of the file, like a subdirectory of sorts.
The first four bytes of each twelve-byte group lists the amount of entries this twelve-byte section (directory?) covers. If the ZSS houses, say, X sound files, the first group shall claim it has lots more than the others (I do not know why, or how and what it counts -- for some files it is X+2, for others, it is heaps more), the second and third groups will have X listed in that part; the others will have all zeroes in that part of their listing.
The second four bytes of each group are an offset to a seemingly random string of symbols the Xentax Wiki suspects to be a hash check for that section. Obviously, for the first group it will always be offset 100d (0x64).
The third four bytes of each group refer to the offset to the start of the section's actual data.

For directories 4 to 7 the first four bytes are always all zeroes, and the second and third always equal the numbers at offset 0xc. I have no idea why, but that's the way it works. Sheesh.

Now, on actual data.

Directory 1 houses seemingly random numbers as 'files'. Each 'file' is a 24-byte entry, with the following format:
First two bytes are the entry number. They start from zero and move on until the number before the one named in the header's 'amount of entries in directory' entry for this directory (which makes the total equal to the number listed in the header -- as entry zero obviously get counted too).
Then comes a seemingly meaningless fixed set of symbols: [00][10][7f][00][1f][00][00][7f][00][7f], and then come twelve zero bytes. This part is identical for every file in MUA.

The hash in this section is always 8 times Y long, where Y is the amount of entries the header lists for this directory. This comes off as a confusing matter for the obvious reason that Y is not in any way related to X, the amount of actual SOUND FILES the archive stores.

Directory 2 stores the file properties. Here, the hash is almost the same, as it is always 8 times X bytes long, where X is the amount of sound files stored in the archive. Yet, there is no discernible pattern to it (i.e. how or why does it look like that).
Each 'file' in this directory is 24 bytes long, the first two bytes being the number in hex, like in the previous one, followed by two zero bytes. Then come two more bytes, housing [22][56] for every entry -- it's 22050, the frequency of the sound for the PC and X-Box versions, in hex (and little endian order, of course). The remaining 18 bytes are zeroes.

Directory 3 lists the file names and locations. The hash for this section is identical in size to the one for the previous one.
The entires are all 76 bytes long, and are in the following format:
First four bytes -- offset to this file's start. Always a multiple of 16 (the listed offset always has a zero for its last digit).
Second four bytes -- length of this file.
Third four bytes -- the format code. This corresponds to the WAVE FMT table, I think, as the X-Box version lists [01] for every entry (which stands for its ADPCM format) and the PC one lists  [6a] for it (which I'm yet to find in any table I've looked at so far -- anyone know any tables for the WAV format tags?). Suffice to say, that in the PC version is ALWAYS should be [6a][00][00][00] if we want to keep the same sound format. One of these days I got to try what will happen if I use 01 instead of 6a...
Anyway, the remaining 64 bytes of each entry are devoted to storing the filename (with its extension). According to shared_sounds.XMLB, only the start of a filename matters -- the numbers don't mean anything for real, nor are fixed in any place other than the hashes.

Once this section ends, there is an indeterminate amount of zeroed bytes until the sound data starts. It would appear that the zeroes don't mean duck since the game only cares for the offsets in the header to find the stuff (or, in this case, the offsets in section three to the file data).

The files are headerless WAVs in their own silly exotic format which VOX Studio 3 identifies as a VoIP sound format utilized by the cards manufactured by BiCOM - a 4-bit, 22050 Hz ADPCM subtype, to be exact.
Once a file ends, unless it is the last file of the archive, the distance to the next file is padded with zeroes till the next multiple of 16 (well, 10 in hex). BUT if the padding ends up being less than 10 (in decimal) bytes, it gets padded until the multiple of 16 AFTER that. Why - beats me, but no pad is smaller than 10 bytes because of it. The only case in which it won't get padded is if, by a stroke of luck, the byte right after the end of this file is on an offset that is a multiple of 16. Convoluted, yes, but still.


Okay, we can extract and convert the files OUT of this format all fine, obviously. Even convert them INTO this format... But how, in the name of all that's (un)holy, do we build our own ZSS/ZSMs and make custom voicepacks for custom characters? By hand? Shooor, via a hex editor. But the game will refuse to recognize the file -- trust me, I've tried already.
How is the hash formed? Is that the key? Does it include the filename of the archive as an overencryptor or not? Is it universal for each directory OR is it counted on a per-entry basis? The second sounds more plausible as there are obvious three-[00] patches in the hashes corresponding to the big blocks of zeroes in the descriptors of each section that separate what I think to be sub-hashes pertaining to each entry. That would mean that the mini-hashes are only 5 bytes long, and are aimed against the hugely different amounts of data seen in different sections' entries. All in all, this format might win the confusion prize even over the IGB one -- that one at least has a publicly available, if dated, builder program.

While there's nothing else to do, I tore out all there is to tear, audio-wise, from THQ's excellent Punisher game. I'm now processing the long list of Punisher lines for the purpose of crafting a potential soundset for you-know-when.
"It's uninhabited now."
"Where can I get more guns?"
"Left my scorecard at home."
Etc., etc.
We can even add Tom Jane to the actor list once (if?) we do this, y'know. THAT much we already can do.

Okay, fresh nothings from my brainbox.

The PSP/PS2 format (ZSNDPS2) is actually the same, despite my previous allegations. It just has the filenames cropped out and instead replaced by numbers (which is exactly why Game Extractor thinks it to be a different format - it FIRST looks for the names and THEN for everything else). The rest of it functions in exactly the same manner - the header, the hashes, the rest of it too. At least now, knowing this, I can check if the X-Box soundsets of the PSP exclusives that I've got are complete or not, because the file amount number doesn't go anywhere :P

EDIT: Better yet, two of the three hashes don't change between the PSP and PC versions (based on simple comparison). That means they only reflect the contents of a specific 'directory'. Good. The bad thing is, of course, the difference of the third hash and the impact it may have on my editing.

EDIT2: More comparisons. I'm on a roll, dudes. The X-Box and PC sound formats use the same hashes for the first and third directories. Which means that, with a bit of stubborn idiocy, I may actually be able to compose stuff, by taking the first and second hashes from the PSP version, the third one from the X-Box one and just changing the sound data. It won't allow me to, say, make a Punisher sound set, but it may allow me to at least convert the X-Box audio for the exclusives to the PC.

Okay, I've recompiled a Hawkeye FX set, hashes and all, only to have it CRASH on me at loading. Damn. After killing two hours on recalculating all the offsets by hand. All I want for New Year is a program that would do this for me...

You're not gonna believe this, kids. I've (accidentally) found a game that actually uses the same ZSND format as MUA and XML... Yes, of course it is the monstrosity mostly known as X-Men III The Official Game. I DID remember I saw those weird ZSS files in some other game-- and finally remembered what game this was.
Yeah, I know I should be hung, drawn and quartered for buying shovelware like that -- then again, I occasionaly find playable gems among the shovelware kind (kill.switch had managed to depose Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow from my most-played-per-day-game position for quite a while).

But this is beside the point. XM3TOG uses the same sound format as MUA, right down to the frequencies and encoding... And ZSS formatting. Gives me more materiel to study the header styling with, mwahaha.

Fresh progress report from the sound editing front. This is still the same Deadpool power sound file being torn apart, just because I like it.
http://h1.ripway.com/ivank/dphero_m-rev2.rar
How is this different from the old version?
( http://h1.ripway.com/ivank/dphero_m.rar )
One thing: it uses a non-VOX codec to encode the inserted file. To be exact, this is a simple IMA ADPCM 4-bit 22050 Hz WAV. Not too pretty, and it sounds distorted as heck in-game (well, as distorted as the previous version, actually)... BUT. It not only PLAYS inside of the game without a hitch, hang or CTD, it also can be played back without any conversion upon being taken OUT of the ZSM and getting a WAV header slapped on. So there. I'm still lost without a way to get the sound I import to play back in-game without corruption, but at least I can now preview what I insert outside of VOX Studio... And I'm still looking for codecs that won't CTD the game when used so as to get away from using VOX Studio and its ghastly limit of 5 seconds' audio only which would put a crimp on getting Widow's voice into the PC version due to her eloquency.

EDIT: Screw that, kids.
I'm an idiot. I changed the sound type from [6a] (VOX) to [01] (Microsoft WAV) and inserted a pure unmodified sound dump from the X-Box.
And? Right-o. It not only WORKS, it sounds a heckuva lot cleaner than the native stuff.
http://h1.ripway.com/ivank/dphero_m-rev3.rar
Note the size jump though. This is from ONE file change. Imagine now, that Hawky's taunt file (hawkeye_v.zss) has 76 files in it. Total weight of the source WAVs (one of which was used for the example)... 7 megs. So I'll have to compress them (but these are unmodified unfiltered 22050 16-bit WAVs, kids -- they can be made a lot smaller without much in the way of losses).

Okay, working on. Despite the ability to define the WAV format codes in the ZSS, the game fails to interpret some of them correctly. As such, OKI [10] and IMA [11] ADPCM, which aren't much different from the format the game itself uses as default, don't work even at gunpoint, they come out as pure static. Same goes even for pure vanilla Microsoft ADPCM [02], which is quite surprising.
Equally, non-power-of-2-bit WAVs are distorted. Hadn't tried 24-bit or 32-bit WAVs because my system can't even play those back, but 8-bit ones don't work none. So, it's either 16-bit or 4-bit. Either humongous sizes, or crappy quality.

I'm done jumping through hoops, kids. Gonna try to put together the Hawkeye voice files together now and see if it works out.

On a seemingly unrelated note: further study of the X-Men Official Game ZSS files revealed one interesting fact... No hashes. The hash sections (or, rather, what I, after the Xentax Wiki, suppose to be hashes) are simply missing, and so are all the references to them. Gonna try that idea too, what would happen if I was to remove them altogether.

could the sounds from XM3TOG be used for the NC mod thats in the works?

Yes, I think so. Would require lots of repacking though, as they're packed on a per-level basis (i.e. to make taunts we'd have to rip them, rework them and convert them back). Do you want to?
I'd rather use XML2 ones.

Okay, here's the news: put the file together, loading up... Didn't crash which is good. Doesn't work which is BAD. So bad, in fact, I want to kill someone. Preferrably someone who took part in the creation of this file format. With a teaspoon. A blunt and worn-out teaspoon, just to enjoy it more.

Here are both variants. One built with VOX (closest I got to the game's native format) and another with WAV.
Neither works, but maybe someone will tell me where I screwed up. Wishful thinking, bleh.
These are the power sounds for Hawky, in case you're wondering, ripped from the Box version, converted and put back in. To check if they work, get into the game, select Hawky and jump or use a power, checking your herostat to use hwkeye_m as the sound set first.
http://h1.ripway.com/ivank/hwkeye_m-examples.rar

I looked into Vox Studio 3 but wasn't able to dig up anything. :\  Not many people use the program it seems.

Thanks for the updates though.  How nice would it be to have one dev from Ravensoft on this board? :D

If Raven, or Activision for that matter, knew, do you think they'd help us, hire us or sue us? LucasArts likes to sue the crap out of ANYONE doing things they don't want to see done with their games. They only wisened up less than a year ago. On the other hand, id software HIRED the guys who made the classic CTF mod for Quakes 1 and 2 and they went on as part of the team that made Quake 3. *shrugs*

QuoteNot many people use the program it seems.

Uh-huh. Because not many people use unfashionable VoiP sound formats either. *points accusing finger at Raven* And neither should YOU!

Okay, fresh nothings: XML1 (both PS2 and X-Box) formats conform to my above format description statements fully (except that they, again, have a different hash calculation principle, which is starting to grate on my nerves). Not that I doubted it for a second, but I just had to mention it. I've just finished ripping all the voice files of XML1 playables (and Marrow, because I want me a playable Marrow!), so it's the power sounds next.

Not that I can do much with them right now, considering how I hate NWN and have quit playing Baldur's Gate and no other game I've played allows one to fully enjoy custom voicesets (sorry FF fans, but that's the way it is!) and that I'm still no closer to uncovering the secrets of the ZSS's grail :D

What's wrong with NWN?  :P  I love that game....

Anyway, when you get a chance, could you upload Emma and Betsy's voice files please?  Thanks.

You do realize they'll be raw WAV dumps neither of the two games will run, right? Right.
Here are the voices (haven't covered the power sounds yet, sorry):
http://www.momoshare.com/file.php?file=db1c0d63cc8d31c770f09559dcbe9239
http://www.momoshare.com/file.php?file=20e56f25ac5659fb0a6fc2dd68bfae5b

That's fine.  I'm going to experiment with a few things while I'm waiting to talk to one of the Raven guys.  My teacher expects someone to come to my college here within the next couple of weeks, and they are working on a day to schedule.  Thanks a bunch.

Having nothing better to do at work and after combing across most of Google to find out what ZSND is, I decided to take a different approach and look for articles regarding the "Intrinsic Alchemy" engine itself.

Based on what I found, I have a strong gut feeling(note: no real concrete evidence, just a strong hunch) that the modified SMartTools SDK (Analog Devices SoundMAX) which was incorporated into the Intrinsic Alchemy Engine is the basis for ZSND; and that ZSND was name slapped onto it by Vicarious Visions.

VICARIOUS VISIONS®, INC. ANNOUNCES PURCHASE OF INTRINSIC ALCHEMY® TECHNOLOGY ASSETS FROM INTRINSIC GRAPHICS™, INC.
http://ps2.gamezone.com/news/05_13_03_09_51AM.htm

Intrinsic Graphics Alchemy Engine Integrates Analog Devices SoundMAX SPX Audio Rendering Technology.
http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-1963038/Intrinsic-Graphics-Alchemy-Engine-Integrates.html

I was under the impression that it spreads wider, as ZSND is used in quite a few games by Activision that don't list Alchemy as their engine and Vicarious as the developers or even participants -- meaning that the thing is Activision's proprietary format; but if this si the case, then we're on our own regarding sound then. Sad, real sad :(

Snagged this off a Russian Forum discussing sound ripping for MUA.

http://www.ctpax-x.ru/
Couldn't figure out how to get the ToWav.exe to work due to lack of documentation.

Edit: I found out why I couldn't get it to work, I have the PSP sounds. I think this prog only uses the PC / X-Box ones.

Could you link to the original post? Your quote screams "automatic translator" at me, and I expect I'd do far more with the source post in russian.

The program I will go experiment with, however, as Game Extractor refuses to work with MUA's music files.

http://www.extractor.ru/ipb/index.php?showtopic=1515

Quote
Никто не в знает где в игре музыка, и чем ее достать?

Вот что знаю сам: игра порт с Х-ящика, движок очень похож на тот который был и игре Gun.
Папка Sound, занимает 2 гектара, думаю в ней музон.
В этой папке дофига файлов идут по групам blsim_v.zss и blsim_v.zss.
blsim_v.zss весит 15 метров (сам контейнер наверно)
blsim_v.zss 370 килобайт
и т.д
и так все файлы с примерно одинаковым размером заголовок файлов ZSNDPC

Alright, that was just a request. Neato. I'm off to try the program now :D

EDIT: YESS! Not that this will help a LOT (no support for file insertion), but it will help a BIT :) Leastways I can now tear the musick out :P Thanks, man!

Awesome. So it just works on the music files? Not the audio clips?

It works on everything. It's just that what I have been using before worked only on speech, not music.

For the fun of it: the announcements in Stark Towers of Act 1, order of appearance.
"Mr. Stark, there's a Harold Hogan on line 2 for you."
"Mr. Stark, there's a Miss Bambi and Miss Heather here in the main lobby to see you."
"The nanotechnology team will be meeting in the optronics lab."
"Colonel Fury, Red Rolston is on line 6." {don't ask me about the speeling, please, the BG noises make it quite hard to make out some of the names accurately}
"Warning, a small thermonuclear device is missing. And Deadpool was last seen in the weapons lab."
"Preston is on line 5, Colonel Fury."
"Miss Heather and Miss Bambi are still waiting for you in the main lobby, Mr. Stark!"
"Johnny Storm would like to announce that today is Ben Grimm's 65th birthday! Happy birthday, Mr. Grimm!"

I did listen closely to the P.A. system in Stark Tower and laughed!  I must have missed the one involving Deadpool.  And that Johnny Storm...always a kidder and busting Thing's chops.  The call for Fury was from "Reb" Rolston, who served under Fury in the Howling Commandos as Pvt. Robert "Rebel" Rolston.  I wanna know what the Howling Commandos ate and drank since Dugan is still active and Rolston is still around.  I know Cap had the Super Soldier Serum and didn't Fury have the Infinity Formula or something?  What kept these others so fit?

It's funny when my kids (6 and 4) watch me play.  They call the P.A. announcer the "crazy lady" since she just keeps repeating.  And they wonder why Bambi (the deer from Disney) wants to see Mr. Stark.  Ah...the innocence of youth!

Quote from: DiamondDave on March 07, 2007, 08:32AM
I know Cap had the Super Soldier Serum and didn't Fury have the Infinity Formula or something?  What kept these others so fit?

Fury had the Infinity Formula (which was an attempt recreate the lost Super Soldier Serum).

However Cap got hit with something called a Vita-Ray Projector in addition to the Super Soldier Serum which made the effect of the serum permanent.

Hmmm... just had a thought. Would linking to sounds from other chars' sets (for the power sounds) work for PSP chars?

/goes to check

The short answer: yes. Got the sounds for Stark's first power working on Marv's first power.

Would it crash the game though if you had both characters loaded at the same time, since they are using the same sound references?  I had problems when I had some of Emma's files referencing some of Phoenix's.  When I used both characters at the same time, the game would crash.  I wasn't sure if it was because of the sounds, or the attack animations.  After that, I dumped the sound idea and made a new directory for Emma's effects.

Nope. Stark and Marv run fine simultaneously. Just gave his version of Nano Assault (Star somesuch) Stark's sounds. Woohoo, Marv is much funner with sounds :D Gonna go find good sounds for his other moves now.

Ronin's should be easy, since most of her moves are stolen from others. Hawkeye... gives me pause. Widow.. meh, I don't really use her and (if I her do her at all) she'll be last :P

Damn. I've hit a snag. Turns out the char whose sounds I use HAS to be on the team for them to work. *%&$. Gotta see if I can make them 'common', like the charge sound (which, oddly enough, every playable references from the common area EXCEPT for the PSPers, who have them built into their individual sound files.)

Fuck, I am on FIRE tonight. I can't figure out how to make Stark/Thor's sounds common. BUT, I broke down a whole other mystery.

Wanna get your XML2 chars to respond when you select them, make banter about pwning baddies, and yell out when they xtremalize? Shazam!

The makeup of XML2/MUA sounds are very different, and XML2 stores ALL of this for ALL chars (including PSPers!) in x_voice! So, copy XML2's x_voice, and rename it to char_v! For example, Cannonball's is cball_v. (O course, its 114 megs, so if you wanna do this for ALL XML2 chars, you're gonna need about 2 gigs :-X)

Testing Cannonball is MUCH more fun with his voice!

Now I'm off to see if I can solve this whole 'common' problem :P

What about the XML1 voices?  Don't suppose it would work the same, would it?  *hopeful for Emma's and Betsy's voices*  Copy it for each character?  I'll make that sacrifice for Rogue and company (external hard drive FTW!).

EDIT:  I know the file is huge as hell, but I don't suppose only hexing out the playables you want from XML2 and saving it as it's own file would work, would it?  Or do you think the game would not recognize the new file?

Sorry, we're outta luck there as we have PC format sounds for XML2, but only PS2/XBOX/GC sounds for XML1, which we have yet to crack ;)

EDIT: Eh, as for hexing, I don't think that'd work. I don't know very much about the make-up of the file (how the sounds are stored, etc.), but I'd imagine just hexing out various bits wouldn't be very good for it :D

Has anyone compared/contrasted the XML2 PC and XML2 Xbox sounds to find out the differences yet?  I'm sure the format couldn't be that different from XML1.  I know Noel was screwing around with the XML1 sounds, but I don't know everything that has been done with them.

Awesome work on the XML2 voices. They add a bit of depth to remove that creepy silence going on with those characters.

One question though- Can anyone figure out gambit's proper directory for this purpose. I've tried igam_v, and even resorted to trying gambit_v, and they simply aren't working for me. Any ideas?

Uh... igam_v works for me. Do you have his sound defined as igam_m in herostat?

My own unintentional discovery: for my machine at least, if you have more than two heroes using this process for their sounds (let's say cyclops, sabertooth, and gambit), only two of them will actually work. The third (in my case, it was Gambit) apparently stays silent. Does that happen for anyone, or just me?

No. After reading your post, I went to go check: Cyclops, Gambit, Cable, and Cannonball all simultaneously work. Then I figured that maybe it was non-PSP chars; so I checked Cyclops, Gambit, Juggernaut, and Bishop, and they all worked. Don't know how your problem would have come about.

I have no idea either. Especially since my problem was Cyclops, Gambit, Cable. So...who know. It works with Cyclops, Gambit, and Phoenix, but Cable makes things screwy. Weird. Also, weird thing I found-

If you copy both sound files for a character (ex. char_m and char_v), and define their sounds as char_m, you still get their char_v responses, plus their jump sounds, etc which were for me previously missing also seem to apply. Weird. Too bad it doesn't help their power sounds work better, though hopefully we can find a way to pop that through too...(and be we, I mean probably not me, unless I get uberlucky...)

Umm.... that's prolly yer problem. I have them all herostat defined as _m and I get ALL their power sounds working, as well as the _v. The _v is meant to be secondary, as evidenced by official MUA chars.

Power sounds have ALWAYS worked for the ones I make.....

Hmmm...that's....pretty fricked up, actually. Good to know that my computer is actually so out of what that it won't do little things like access those power sounds.

So, seriously, when a power references like phoenx p1begin, it'll actually play that?

I so love my screwed up computer...

Try downloading my newest version of Cyc (from the 1st post of the converted chars thread), then pull this _v trick. ALL sounds (except menu callout/menu break, but that's an entirely different matter) should play. If not, then it must be yer comp.

When I play as cyc, I still run my old mod as a test. Actually, the problem was the usual: I needed to start a brand new game before any of the power sounds would play.

So all we really need to crack are the menu callout and break (which I dont' see happening soon). Good job breaking this much though. It helps a lot.

I don't see it happening at all :D

They are built into the same file (x_voice), and replacing MUA's x_voice results in them working (for Storm, Wolvy, Big C, Bobby, DP, and Stark too) for all XML2 chars, but then MUA's char callout/breaks are gone. And I already tried changing the filext of one (one zss, one zsm), to see if that would help (it didn't ;)) Which means we would need to figure out the formatting of the files first, then merge the 2. And figuring out the formatting of the files is something Noel worked on for a LONG time, sadly to no avail.

Okay, for those who feel too lazy to read the first page of this thread:
The X-BOX sound format and the PC games ARE NOT FRIENDS. They don't cooperate none. Period. The best you can hope for is that the game won't crash when you activate them, though it most probably will, believe you me.

I CAN rip the sounds from ANY version, and convert them into the format of any version, but I CANNOT compile those back into ZSS/ZSMs for the game to use.

Brilliant call on char_v though, BliZZ. :D

QuoteI know the file is huge as hell, but I don't suppose only hexing out the playables you want from XML2 and saving it as it's own file would work, would it?  Or do you think the game would not recognize the new file?

Theoretically, it might work. The problem is, the moment you start removing something, you'll have to correct the hashes or the game will pretend the file isn't there... Instant hemorrhoids :D Feel free to try if you want to, though.

<~ (No expertise in programming)

Wouldn't towav.exe have the algorithm we need buried somewhere deep in the program?

Nope. Decoding the format is something I can already do, the program just makes it easier. It doesn't need the hashes to get the sound OUT, after all. But the game needs those to get the sound IN. Which is my gripe with most extractors out there - they stop at the point where they can get something out and stop :D

BliZZ - Let me see if I grock what you are saying...  You copied the XML2 sounds (incl. PSPers) into the appropriate MUA directory then referenced them in herostat and shabang they work?  How did you copy off the PSPers sounds?  I'd love to check out a WiP Cannonball.  If it's just a matter of copying out his (sound) files off the PSP I should be able to do that myself, I have the USB-PSP cable.  If there's more to it than that, I'll need a little direction.  Would like to get Cable's actual voice as well.  Love the progress! 

As was pointed out several times, the VOICES (but not the power sounds) of the XML2PSPers are already included in the XML2PC x_voice.zss file, you just gotta label it right.

Quotegrock

What was the name of that book? "Stranger in a strange land"?

How different is the sound format between the XML1 PS2 and the X-box?  I might try screwing around with the PS2 sounds if it's plausible.  Otherwise I'd like to look at the x-box sounds if you wouldn't mind upping the file (assuming it isn't too big to upload...  I have no access to the X-box files, or I'd rip them myself).

Vastly. All X-Box versions use the XBADPCM codec (which is a derivative of Microsoft ADPCM, but of slightly higher sound quality) while the PS2 uses a generic PCM-compressed format.

Tell me which files you need (as upping all 130+ megs is beyond my reach ATM) and I will see what can be done :D

I did it last night and great find yet again,your the man.

Quote from: aerophex on March 09, 2007, 07:20AM
BliZZ - Let me see if I grock what you are saying...  You copied the XML2 sounds (incl. PSPers) into the appropriate MUA directory then referenced them in herostat and shabang they work?  How did you copy off the PSPers sounds?  I'd love to check out a WiP Cannonball.  If it's just a matter of copying out his (sound) files off the PSP I should be able to do that myself, I have the USB-PSP cable.  If there's more to it than that, I'll need a little direction.  Would like to get Cable's actual voice as well.  Love the progress! 

Yep Noel is right, you can only get voices for PSPers, not powers (you could use another char's powers sounds, though)

I assume not everyone here has XML2PC, and that it'll have to be uploaded at some point. The question is: should I use THX's hosting space, or register at sendspace?

Cannonball wip is still VERY wip. I'll up when it is more user friendly (his 4th move that I added needs lots of glitch removing) and after tommy finishes his mesh (complete with Bolt-On legs!)

Turns out I didn't have to reg at sendspace, you can upload for free!

Download X_Voice.zss (http://www.sendspace.com/file/zh5byb)

And here are the various locations the file could/should go (minus the 6 official MUA playables)

Bishop - sounds/eng/b/i/bishop_v.zss

Cable - sounds/eng/c/a/cable_v.zss

Cannonball - sounds/eng/c/b/cball_v.zss

Cyclops - sounds/eng/c/y/cyclop_v.zss

Gambit - sounds/eng/i/g/igam_v.zss

Juggernaut - sounds/eng/n/j/njugg_v.zss

Magneto - sounds/eng/m/a/magnet_v.zss

Nightcrawler - sounds/eng/n/i/night_v.zss

Phoenix - sounds/eng/p/h/phoenx_v.zss

Professor X - sounds/eng/p/r/profx_v.zss

Pyro - sounds/eng/p/c/pcpyro_v.zss

Rogue - sounds/eng/v/o/vogue_v.zss

Sabretooth - sounds/eng/p/c/pcsab_v.zss

Scarlet Witch - sounds/eng/s/w/switch_v.zss

Sunfire - sounds/eng/s/u/sun_v.zss

Toad - sounds/eng/t/o/toad_v.zss

X-Man - sounds/eng/x/m/xman_v.zss

And... Dark Phoenix - sounds/eng/d/a/darkp_v.zss (Sure, we aren't converting her, but it'd be a shame for her voice to go to waste :P)

Quote from: Noelemahc on March 09, 2007, 08:05AMTell me which files you need (as upping all 130+ megs is beyond my reach ATM) and I will see what can be done :D

Are all of the voices in one file like in XML2?  I'm looking for Emma's, Betsy's, and Jubilee's.  I know you said the files aren't friends with the PC, but I'd like to give it a whirl with a few ideas of my own.  *shrugs*

If we're doing this junx, you HAVE to get Magma, Beast, Avalanche, Shadow King, Marrow, and Madrox too. It'd be a waste to up those three, and not these six. Sha-boing!

(PS: Noel, how bouts upping Avalanche's anims, ps, and effects too? I have some serious plans for him: he has 3 attacks + an xtreme already, so I just need to add 2 boosts and an attack!)

Quoteyou HAVE to get Magma, Beast, Avalanche, Shadow King, Marrow, and Madrox too.

Trouble is, there's no label on the files. Consequently, there's no way of telling who is who without converting everything and trying to sift through them. Which I'm trying to do between all other things (I got all the playables out, and Marrow, but the rest are a bit of a problem for now XD).

QuoteAre all of the voices in one file like in XML2?

Elaborate please. Do you need the ZSS (yes, it is one file) or the already-converted WAVs?

The ZSS file.

wait so do you copy this one file to all the different character's directories?

Yes, and you rename it to their personal code (f.e. vogue_v.zss for Rogue, etc.); then just copy that same char's ZSM file to the same dir -- poof, you got their XML2 voice in MUA. Works like a charm, though XML2 didn't have some lines MUA has, so some actions (orders and some taunts in particular) will not be accompanied by quips. Still, this IS better than nuthink, neh?

yup, awesome! once again, thanksx999999!!

.. i wonder if there's a way to reference a file in another directory without actually copying it. (and not a "shortcut" file, obviously)

Quote from: Burning Rage on March 10, 2007, 07:33AM
The ZSS file.

Check your PMs :D

And... I've discovered the first snag with the XML2 voice files. If you have, say, Jean and Logan on your team, and execute an xtreme chain, Wolvy yells out his XML2 xtreme (Berserker Fury) rather than his MUA xtreme (Feral Rage). I've only tested it with Wolvy, Bobby, and Storm, but I have to assume the problem also exists with Iron Man, Colossus, and Deadpool.

Hopefully there is a way to either
a) remove these sounds (not likely)
OR
b)remove/re-route references to these 6's various sounds within the .zss (more likely and, hopefully, possible)

I know I dump a lot of Chocolate egg on you but, Noel, you are our resident sound expert. Any chance of option b?

Hey, it looks like the same method works with some of the NPC heros as well (blob, frost, mystique). Tried blob so far. Works like a charm...

Which sounds does he have? Selection, death, taunt, etc?

A couple selection sounds, a couple taunts, grunts when he jumps. Actually, he's probably the most developed both in his powerstat file, his voice, and his extra files floating around. He had to be planned seriously for XML2 at some point in development. Frost just has a couple taunts. Mystique, if I recall XML2, has just about as much as Blob. No extreme sounds though, I wouldn't think.

Omegareds,Sentinels both work also.

My theory is that so long as you transfer over name_m and save the other file as name_v, you'll actually get most any set of sounds to work...

QuoteI know I dump a lot of Chocolate egg on you but, Noel, you are our resident sound expert. Any chance of option b?

I would expect that any sort of modification to the file will lead to my favourite problem with the hashes. Hang on, guys, I've got only two more exams to get over, then I'll be able to put my full attention back to modding...

Here's an anomaly... all the 'Dark' characters link to their own individual sound files, but those files don't exist. Odd, no? Any chance those exist on another system, or were they just not included anywhere?

QuoteAnd... I've discovered the first snag with the XML2 voice files. If you have, say, Jean and Logan on your team, and execute an xtreme chain, Wolvy yells out his XML2 xtreme (Berserker Fury) rather than his MUA xtreme (Feral Rage).

I only have added Juggy as a custom into one of the PSP slots, and Wolvy seems to shout out Beserker Fury all the time now, regardless of whether it's chained or not or who's in the team.

QuoteAny chance those exist on another system, or were they just not included anywhere?

If you haven't noticed, EVERY character is defined with codes separate files for which aren't available -- all of those are stored within the level sound sets :D

Oh.... fek me :deadpool:

Not sure if this helps with anything, but I stumbled upon this (http://www.watto.org/extract/program/archives.txt) site which lists all the various hashes that are involved in XML2 zsm/zss.

PS: Noel, I remember that you once upped the raw wavs for the PSP chars, but I can't seem to find them. Mind upping them again? If nothing else, I'd like to hear them and imagine Hawkeye speaking in-game :hawkeye:

EDIT:
(http://img235.imageshack.us/img235/5172/untitled2ch5.th.jpg) (http://img235.imageshack.us/img235/5172/untitled2ch5.jpg)

Those are all of the sounds blob has. I'm currently going through the file (using ToWav, thanks for finding that) to see which bosses have useful sounds. As you can see, blob's got quite a few useful ones (though no level up, among other missing stuff)

Watto's data is copied blunlty from Xentax, on which most of my findings are based :D See page two of this very thread.

QuoteI remember that you once upped the raw wavs for the PSP chars, but I can't seem to find them

Took'em down, those were low-qual PSP rips. I have to spend a day on tearing the hi-qual ones from the X-Box version, then I'll up them all, 'kay? Prolly be done by Tuesday or so.

Cleverly hidden in x_voice:

(http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/9459/untitled3zq1.jpg)

Menu Callouts! (Not voiced by Pat Stewart, by the DR Voice Guy (all the XML1 Playables/Bosses who re-appear in xml2 also have em))

BTW, for anyone who DIDN'T believe that 15th slot was to be Angel's, here is your proof.

Of course, these are of no use to us (I already tried renaming all the letters/numbers to an_blob.wav, to no avail)
But it is still nice to know they are there, and they will be useful if/when we figure out custom sets.

If Emma's and Psylocke's are in X_Voice, then would they be ready to go if I renamed the chars to match the voice callouts?

I would think not... these callouts are in the Danger Room section... almost as if it was planned to have a selection screen with callouts for the DR in XML1...

My next goal is to splice out all heroes names that are said in ALL the various dialogue of either MUA Fury or XML1/2 Prof X to make fodder for if/when we figure out custom sounds (Fury takes priority, of course)

Noel, could one get sounds out of the XML files using ToWav? If so, could you up the XML1 sounds as a whole on sendspace?

The PC version is the only one ToWav supports. I AM ripping the XML1 sounds, but it's gonna take a while as I've got to convert them all by hand :D
What exactly do you need from there?

N.B. Raping the PSP sounds (which, may I remind you, lack visible filenames inside) with ToWav has revealed that they ALSO contain virtual 'paths' to where the files are stored. No luck with producing discernible sound though, but the sheer fact that there's MORE text in them than meets the eye got me going again. Makes me wonder if those aren't hashes at all, but text encoded in some creepy format (which ToWav easily reads).
Still doesn't work with X-Box sounds though. What's weird, though, is that the PS2 sounds (which are little different from the PSP, mechanics-wise) DO NOT WORK with it. Major weirdage.

Quote from: Noelemahc on March 17, 2007, 11:10PM
The PC version is the only one ToWav supports. I AM ripping the XML1 sounds, but it's gonna take a while as I've got to convert them all by hand :D
What exactly do you need from there?

Charlie's dialogue.

Okay, here's the PSP voices stuff, as snagged from the X-Box build. These are of higher quality than on the PSP; BUT lacking 5 power sounds for Hawky and 7 for Ronin as well as a couple alternate enunciations of already-existing phrases for Widow and Hawky.
This pack also does not include Hawk's and Widow's speech from the SHIELD Comic Mission (which was packed INTO their personal voicefiles!), I will rip and up those later.

The missing files will come up in a separate pack once I identify and rip the missing sounds in the PSP files.

http://www.marvelmods.com/noelemahc/PSPVoices-XBOX.rar

Excelsior!

Leastways we can now discuss the voice acting quality (anyone else thinks Widow is too violent and Ronin sounds TOO old?)

In other other news, I'm back to rigging together a Tom Jane/Punisher voiceset (expanded this time over with his voiceovers for the protagonist of GUN), even though I really don't know if I'll ever be able to get it into MUAPC :runaway:

Quote from: Noelemahc
The PC and, hopefully, the X-Box sounds can be procured via the Game Extractor (http://www.watto.org/extract) tool (even the shareware version).

X-Box is confirmed.  The shareware version will extract the files, the question is, does the registered version let you add files?  If it did, I could go a long way with that.  Does anyone have the registered version?  I don't wanna buy it if I don't know if it'll work.  Speaking of which, I wonder if this dude's willing to add .fb support.  Being able to extract/write to those files would make life much simpler.

It lists "partial support" for the insertion, but I'm not so sure about its usefulness. I mean, I can tell you how to MAKE your own - it's the hash issue that's killing me, as I do not know how to work around them.

I'm trying to trim down x_voice.zss.  134mb is a bit much, but the bigger issue is that it trumps the MUA VO.  I've read the topic and I'm still lost.  If it's super complicated I'll totally live with it, but if I know what to look for I have no trouble trimming down filesize.

See the format breakdown I've posted. If you precisely determine which files you don't need (good luck with that one - XML's X_VOICE also contains the voices for each and every MINION enemy and boss you run into), you will have to remove THEM, the corresponding data entries in virtual directories one and two and the hash pieces corresponding to each of them in each of the three dirs. Then all that is left to do is to manually adjust the file length and file amount entries in the ZSS header.

It's too big a thing to do with X_VOICE without potty training previous experimentation, so try it on a smaller file - like, check if removing one file in this manner won't break it (i.e. that file's sounds will still work in-game).

Will do.  In the meantime I emailed the author of Game Extractor hoping for write support.  I offered to compensate him about 30 bucks plus the bulk of my PC game collection. :P

Not sure if anyone ever knew, but I found a few announcer files here in the Xbox that weren't originally there.

an_blackwidow
an_captainmarvel
an_hawkeye
an_hulk
an_namor
an_ronin

So there were files for the PSP guys, plus Hulk and Ronin.  The break files are there for everyone but Namor.  I'm assuming that's basically the same files as the PC.

Also, I arbitrarily just cropped random parts of x_voice.zss (XML2).  It worked for the most part.  After cropping so much however it had mixed results, as I knew it would.  For instance, Gambits sounds still worked, but Wolverine's quit working.  I'm assuming that it's because I didn't remove the headers.

an_hulk = Menu Callout, however an_namor is like a clang sound. Don't know how they got 'Namor' out of it :runaway:

Do we have announcer callouts for the XML2 characters?  Right now, I don't get anything when I choose Cyke, Juggy or Gambit although their voices and sounds work in game.

Do we have them? Yes. Can we use them? No. They are in the XML2 x_voice, and overwriting MUA's makes them work. The problem, of course, is that then MUA's are gone :runaway:

Quote from: Noelemahc
Now, on actual data.

Directory 1 houses seemingly random numbers as 'files'. Each 'file' is a 24-byte entry, with the following format:
First two bytes are the entry number. They start from zero and move on until the number before the one named in the header's 'amount of entries in directory' entry for this directory (which makes the total equal to the number listed in the header -- as entry zero obviously get counted too).
Then comes a seemingly meaningless fixed set of symbols: [00][10][7f][00][1f][00][00][7f][00][7f], and then come twelve zero bytes. This part is identical for every file in MUA.

Still fuzzy, but I'm getting there.

Quote from: NoelemahcDirectory 2 stores the file properties. Here, the hash is almost the same, as it is always 8 times X bytes long, where X is the amount of sound files stored in the archive. Yet, there is no discernible pattern to it (i.e. how or why does it look like that).
Each 'file' in this directory is 24 bytes long, the first two bytes being the number in hex, like in the previous one, followed by two zero bytes. Then come two more bytes, housing [22][56] for every entry -- it's 22050, the frequency of the sound for the PC and X-Box versions, in hex (and little endian order, of course). The remaining 18 bytes are zeroes.

I'm still hunting for this section, I know I'm looking right over it.

Quote from: NoelemahcDirectory 3 lists the file names and locations. The hash for this section is identical in size to the one for the previous one.
The entires are all 76 bytes long, and are in the following format:
First four bytes -- offset to this file's start. Always a multiple of 16 (the listed offset always has a zero for its last digit).
Second four bytes -- length of this file.
Third four bytes -- the format code. This corresponds to the WAVE FMT table, I think, as the X-Box version lists [01] for every entry (which stands for its ADPCM format) and the PC one lists  [6a] for it (which I'm yet to find in any table I've looked at so far -- anyone know any tables for the WAV format tags?). Suffice to say, that in the PC version is ALWAYS should be [6a][00][00][00] if we want to keep the same sound format. One of these days I got to try what will happen if I use 01 instead of 6a...
Anyway, the remaining 64 bytes of each entry are devoted to storing the filename (with its extension). According to shared_sounds.XMLB, only the start of a filename matters -- the numbers don't mean anything for real, nor are fixed in any place other than the hashes.

This is actually really understandable, but when you say the first four bytes are the offset, are you saying that I can put that offset in the GoTo command (CTRL+G) and jump to the data?

QuoteI'm still hunting for this section, I know I'm looking right over it.

See the opening section, the offsets for the start of each directory are defined in the first 100 bytes of the file.

Quoteare you saying that I can put that offset in the GoTo command (CTRL+G) and jump to the data?

Yes, just don't forget to reverse the byte order (f.e. 0x123456 would be recorded in the file as [56][34][12]). The hardest part is to determine where doth the offset start as at some places the zeroes grow out of proportion, making you scratch your head quite a few times while you determine which four bytes you actually need.

Yeah... I'm sitting here thinking that this might be a decent way to trim down XML2's x_voice so it's character-specific.

Speaking of x_voice, there must be a section that defines a character's folder.  How else would my renamed x_voice know which of all those files were Gambit's?  Did you cover that already?  If you did I guess I skimmed past it.

Ideas?

No, that's something I still CAN'T figure out. My guess is that the 'hash' sections have something to do with it, but HOW to fix it, or how to decode them - that's still a mystery.

Well, back to my renaming xtreme to 1treme in the zss.  Maybe it behaves like most files in that if it can't fine the filename it skips it.  Of course if the hash contains a character ID then they may have some tricky way of avoiding the filename, since PS2 files don't use filenames.  My other thought is that somewhere it actually contains a folder called igam_v, or a virtual folder if nothing else.  I'll try setting up gambit as gamb_m and gamb_v, then see what I get. 

QuoteOf course if the hash contains a character ID then they may have some tricky way of avoiding the filename, since PS2 files don't use filenames.

Yep, that's what I was thinking too. But I ran the hash's contents through every decipherer and decoder I've got on my hands (including most of the encodings M$ Word supports) and to no avail.

Hey Noel, does the x-box version of XML1 have a file called ZAUDIO.IRX under the Modules folder?  If so, can I get it?

Here's the PS2 one if you want to take a look:

ZAudio (http://www.momoshare.com/file.php?file=c4476327475d586d90fce159964de5a4)

It appears to be the "driver" for the sounds.  I glanced at it with a hex editor, and will find a way to get it in readable document form.  Perhaps if we can make a "driver" for the x-box sounds for the PC like they have for the consoles, we could get those working?  *shrugs*

We'd have to get it into DLL form. Since I'm no programmer, I haven't the slightest as to how to do it.

P.S. The modules are a Sony thing. Both of the Boxes have built-in drivers and the games use the Boxes' proprietary sound formats. I suppose you know what this means, dontcha?

We're screwed, with a capital PH?

Uh-huh. There still may be a way to add PS2 and Box support to the PC (after all, both formats are mapped out and well-studied these days; it'll be just a matter of injecting the necessary code into the DLLs) - but not of one to the other.

Anyone out there good with decompiling/recompiling DLLs?

I can MAKE DLLs with Microsoft Visual Studio.  I would be lost as to what code to use for the console sound support though.  I've tried using Studio to decompile the XML2 and MUA DLLs, and all I see is version info and other random garbage, but no actual code...  *shrugs*

Yup. You'd need a januwine proper disassembler for that (I use IDA, the Interactive Disassembler, if you want to know), then it's just a matter of seeing how the sound decodage is done... Mayhap that will ALSO allow us to decipher the ZSS format - but, again, allathis hangs on the premise of someone in here who actually understands machine code :P

I had a thought last night Noel -- We know the ZSM gets referenced by the herostat, but perhaps there's a hash ID that links a ZSM with a section of ZSS. 

I also thought about the absolutely dumb idea of making /igam_v in /sounds/eng/i/g, then extracting the files to that folder and seeing if it plays.  To me it stands to reason, since the devs probably didn't recompile ZSS's every time they needed to change a sound.  Makes much more sense to run from a folder.  But even if they did, that code is probably long gone.

Read the first pages of this thread, please (I know it's a lot, but since you've already outmaneouvered me on the planning and XML1ing fronts, I have to pretend I know more than you about something else now :P). I wrote out all of my procrastinations on the matter back then - I tested all the 'loose files' options imaginable with the various formats, which is WHY exactly I arrived to the hash smash - wouldn't've touched it with a ten-foot-pole if the option was open to me.

In short, I couldn't find a way to get the non-ZSSed files to work. Maybe you'll have more luck than I did - maybe there's some trick to it that I could not invent.

Quotebut perhaps there's a hash ID that links a ZSM with a section of ZSS. 

Or maybe it works in the same way as the package names are formed - take this, nip/tuck here, poof, new file name to load. I'm still stuck with decoding how the DLLs were made, can't manage to get them to tell me anything, even with a dissassembler in tow.

http://www.xbox-scene.com/xbox1data/sep/EEZlkuAyVygUPdTBgY.php

Kernel Master informed us he released a new version of EkszBox-ABX(info) - an audio extraction/injection tool which supports multiple xbox audio/container formats.

What's new/fixed: (Edit: The important stuff below)
* Zsm/Zss supprt (X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse) (Xbox only).
* Wav support (Hybrid mode).

Hmm....  It extracts the files as wav files (they're xbadpcm) which don't play.  Still this might be the best bet to installing new files.

Here's my idea: bear in mind I have no idea if it will work.

We take a character's sound file that ALREADY has the proper headers built in, like Wolverine's. We find the sections which are the raw data for the various sounds, and overwrite that raw data with raw data from another character's voice. Don't know if it'll work, but someone who knows what they are doing trying wouldn't hurt anyone :P

would anyone know Sebastian Shaw's voice is in xml2 or if he even had one?? :scratchhead:

He had about 10 dialogue lines.  Nothing that could be used for his character.

Thanks

Quote from: BliZZ on May 21, 2007, 12:09PM
Here's my idea: bear in mind I have no idea if it will work.

We take a character's sound file that ALREADY has the proper headers built in, like Wolverine's. We find the sections which are the raw data for the various sounds, and overwrite that raw data with raw data from another character's voice. Don't know if it'll work, but someone who knows what they are doing trying wouldn't hurt anyone :P

I dunno. This might be like trying to copy a 80GB HD image onto a 40GB HD.

Quote from: GuyIncognito on May 22, 2007, 04:04PM
I dunno. This might be like trying to copy a 80GB HD image onto a 40GB HD.

With or without the k-y jelly?

Seriously, anyone have any better ideas?  Nobody has been able to break any real ground on the sound problem yet, and I have no idea where to start (Noel seems like he's done it all already).

Hey, Does anyone have the audio for the voices and powers in .wav for silver surfer? If you do, could you up it please? :silvers:  :silvers: :silvers: :silvers: :silvers: :silvers: :silvers: :silvers:

Any idea how Omega Red's sound folder would look like. Does he have alot of dialogue?

Edit: I got Blizzes and cvc mods confused. Still would be interesting if the sound files worked no matter what X-men mod you are using. Not sure how they work exactly though.

Sorry if this has already been mentioned but I managed to open the sound files and able to listen to them in a program called Goldwave. The program knows no exact file to open them with but I manageed to get them open in a .vox format. These sounds were really slowed down so I sped them up a few times (dunno the exact value thoug) and got them into an audiable frequency. I was wondering, if you could get the sounds to paste over the existing sounds then perhaps something might happen?

Sorry if its already been done as I didn't have time to read the entire thread

Fresh news on the sounds front:  I've successfully re-built hwkeye_v.zss with Moon Knight's sounds on the Xbox.  For my next trick, I'm going to take a dive and see if I can convert the format over to PC.  The headers are virtually identical, I'd just have to convert the files to PC adpcm .wav, then remove the headers, then start pasting and changing offsets.  But that won't be until I paste all of MK's files into Hawkeye's.  I'm also going to try just changing Moon Knight's header from ZSNDPC to ZSNDXBOX, then pasting new Xbox wavs in (while chaning offsets and filesizes).  If that works, then we can literally exchange character sounds.  Xbox can finally get Moon Knight and Colossus, and PC can get Captain Marvel, Ronin, Black Widow and Hawkeye.

Cross your fingers & gimmie a couple'a weeks.

But can you change it so that that new file can be read with a different name, ie moonk_v? Because changing the name usually results in the file not being read, which leads to the assumption that it is built into the header.

No, you won't be able to build new ones in that sense.  But if I can use moon_m and moon_v as a 'shell' and go through putting things back into Xbox format then that tells me we've got the following we can do the same to:

moon_m --->Xbox
coloss_m --->PC (XML1 sounds, since the MUA actor suxbad), then ---> Xbox
hwkeye_m --->PC
capmvl_m --->PC
bwidow_m --->PC
ronin_m --->PC

And, if the 360 ZSS builds are the same 'shell', we replace the xma files the same way, making:
cyclops_m --->PC (now a dedicated file, rather than XML2's x_common)
night_m --->PC (same deal)
magneto_m --->PC (same deal)
sabretooth_m --->PC (same deal)
hulk_m --->PC (we'd need to make our own sounds)
venom_m --->PC (same deal as Hulk)

Also, if this is possible that also means conversion of XML1 world sounds.  It'd be a long and sucky process, but if this works, that's possible too.

*EDIT*

Crash and burn.  Apparently the headers are different enough to cause a dirty disc error.

Hulk: Ultimate Destruction'd be my suggestion (for Hulk, that is)

Would someone who knows the process for ripping PC sounds do me a huge favor?  I need Moon Knight's menu callouts and break_moonknight sounds.  Regular wav format is fine.  From there I can actually convert them to the Xbox.

clicky (http://momoshare.com/file.php?file=c0cca2f3e868d531606c2f97ee8b5f08)

he only has the one break (much like XML2 Pyro), I am not short-changing you

No prob.  I can just repeat the break as many times as needed.  Thanks man.

maybe more info here...

http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=591713&pid=3951171&mode=threaded&show=&st=&

http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~franke/SoundApp/index.html

...maybe.

Yeah, the first one is the program I use for Xbox stuff (extracting), but it only works on Xbox stuff.

I had a thought the other day on 'cheating' to give power sounds to the XML2 PSPers.  It's semi-complicated.

1-We know that the first character in the herostat always has his stats loaded.  By default this is defualtman.
2-What we do is make our first character the one we're borrowning _m sounds from.  So if defaultman is still there... (if he's not, we can still theoretically use whoever appears first in the herostat)
2A-We copy nickfury_m from MUA -- then for defaultman we add the line sounddir = nickfury_m
2B-In the PSPer's powerstyle, we change the power sound references.  For instance instead of cable_m/p1_power, it's nickfury_m/p1_power. 
3-We DO NOT change anything else in the herostat.  In this case, Cable's should still read sounddir = cable_m.

Now that's only gonna give you so many sounds, but the theory still sits that if you can find a MUA character with lots of power sounds and some good generic sounds for jumping and dying you can hex-replace specific sounds, giving you at least a few power sounds for each PSPer.

That being said, Dark Phoenix can use Jean's sounds, so that knocks her out.  That leaves you Cable, Cannonball and X-Man.  Since X-Man is a Cable clone he could probably just be forgotten altogether, or put in as one of Cable's skins.

Have I done this?  No.  Am I in the process?  No.  I'm replacing sounds in MUAXBOX at the moment, but thought I might share this because I'll really never have a need to try it.

Hey Blizz, can you repost the link to the x-men voice files, the one in this thread has expired.

http://marvelmods.com/blizz/x_voice.zss

Works like a champ!  Thanks blizz!

has anyone manage to rip the sounds from XML1?

Yeah, we can rip them easy (I did all the playable characters not in XML2/MUA).  It's re-injecting them and making new ZSS/ZSM files that's the tough part.

I haven't noticed anyone mentioning this, so I'll insert a very useful tip from my brother:

QuoteIf you have an NTFS file system (most Windows 2000 and XP users should have it, as it is used by default), you can save space by creating a hard link to the x_voice.zss instead of copying it.
In order to do that, issue the following command (for simplicity reasons let's say we want to insert sounds for Magneto) :
fsutil hardlink create path_to_MUA_folder\sounds\eng\m\a\magnet_v.zss path_to_XML2_folder\Sounds\eng\x\_\x_voice.zss

Example:
If I had installed MUA to "C:\Program Files\Activision\Marvel - Ultimate Alliance\" and XML2 to "C:\Program Files\Activision\X-Men Legends 2\" then the command should look like this:
fsutil hardlink create "C:\Program Files\Activision\Marvel - Ultimate Alliance\sounds\eng\m\a\magnet_v.zss" "C:\Program Files\Activision\X-Men Legends 2\Sounds\eng\x\_\x_voice.zss"

This example can be also found in my readme file for Magneto.

so there's no easy way to export character specific voices for xml characters? i only want magneto's voice from the x_voice file.. :(

Unfortunately not.  In theory you could probably chop down each of the XML2 character's voices into their own individual ones (keeping the unique signatures needed), but x_voice has 1000+ files in it, so I doubt anyone's gonna jump on it.  It involves writing down TONS of offsets, etc, finding a way to keep track of them all, then deleting what you don't need, recalculating offests, and going on from there.  Someday I might try it for one character, but it just seems so monotonous.

How to Edit Sounds:

Suppose you're creating a custom character, but you want to utilize power sounds from more than one character (or several characters).  For example, your character might use Dr. Strange's sound file drstr_m and you want to replace his p7 power sound with the p3 power sound from Mr. Fantastic's sound file, mrfan_m.

1. Open drstr_m and locate the ascii string "p7_power.wav" in a hex editor.  In the hexadecimal panel, this string is preceded "C0 AB 02 00 60 36 00 00 6A". 
2. There are 3 numbers contained in this hexadecimal code and they make sense when written in reverse order:
  First Number = 02ABC0  or  175,040 (when converted to decimal)
  Second Number = 3660  or  13,920 (when converted to decimal)
  Third Number = 6A
3. The meaning of these three numbers is as follows:  The first number is the start location of the p7_power.wav file.  And the second number is the size of the sound file.  The third number seems to always be 6A (which isn't important right now, but it's something to look into possibly)
4. So, the p7_power.wav file starts at decimal location 175,040 and ends at decimal location 188,960.
5. Now, open mrfan_m in a hex editor and write down the corresponding numbers for his p3_power.wav file.
  First Number = 017CE0  or  97,504 (when converted to decimal)
  Second Number = 2B40  or  11,072 (when converted to decimal)
  Third Number = 6A
6. Simply copy and paste the block of code for Mr Fantastic's p3 power over the code for Dr. Strange's p7 power.  Since the former wav file is smaller, you will need to fill in the remaining spaces with  "00 00 00 ..." in the hexadecimal panel.
7. Now whenever Dr. Strange activates his Pixies power, it sounds like he's doing Elastic Crush

Rather than replacing a sound file with another one, I think it is possible to just expand the sound file to include more sounds.  However, adding more sounds would require you to update many many hexadecimal pointers.  It would be like trying to edit a herostat manually - you don't want to do it.  So, I guess now it's in the hands of someone with computer programming skills to make a program that can automatically update pointers to make sound editing more efficient time-wise.

The line of code that one would need to find to make sound editing meaningful would be the one that ties a particular file to an extension. Renaming captam_v to something like, say, hwkeye_v produces the game finding nothing, since internally the file still seems to reference itself as captam_v. We would need to somehow make the file reroute itself to a new location (like hwkeye_v) in order to make sound editing anything other than a somewhat fruitless venture.

Quote from: BliZZ on November 08, 2007, 06:20PM
The line of code that one would need to find to make sound editing meaningful would be the one that ties a particular file to an extension. Renaming captam_v to something like, say, hwkeye_v produces the game finding nothing, since internally the file still seems to reference itself as captam_v. We would need to somehow make the file reroute itself to a new location (like hwkeye_v) in order to make sound editing anything other than a somewhat fruitless venture.

Actually, the game does find the sound file well enough. You can create a custom sound file by starting with an existing one "drstr_m", for example and then renaming it to [character name]_m and putting it in the appropriate folder based on the first 2 letters.  In the herostat file, you would reference the sound file as [character name]_m.  But in the powerstyle file, you would still reference the power sounds using the char/drstr_m filename.  The file extension name seems to be coded (not in ascii) onto the sound file itself.

Yeah, he's saying that if you rename the _m file, then the _v file they won't link up.  So if you did deadpool_m and deadpool_v and renamed them to newguy_m and newguy_v, putting them in /n/e you won't hear voiceovers. 

As far as new voiceovers are concerned the best bet we have is splitting up x_voice.zss so we could at least have the XML2 characters without multiple 133mb files.  Possible, but with over 4000 files it's going to be very tedious.  I've been able to split off an igam_v that doesn't conflict (for the Xbox), but it took me about a week.

Quote from: Teancum on November 09, 2007, 05:20AM
Yeah, he's saying that if you rename the _m file, then the _v file they won't link up.  So if you did deadpool_m and deadpool_v and renamed them to newguy_m and newguy_v, putting them in /n/e you won't hear voiceovers. 

As far as new voiceovers are concerned the best bet we have is splitting up x_voice.zss so we could at least have the XML2 characters without multiple 133mb files.  Possible, but with over 4000 files it's going to be very tedious.  I've been able to split off an igam_v that doesn't conflict (for the Xbox), but it took me about a week.

But you may not even want the voiceover for a custom character if the voiceover is character specific.  I'm talking more about customizing a set of power sounds.

Has anyone read this:

http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:kWImFwvvCAcJ:www.writersgallery.com/MXM/White%2520Paper%2520-%2520Plug-in%2520ActionScripts.doc+actionscript+plugin+mxm&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1

It seems like the sound files are actually packages (which is probably already known) but it seems like there is an XML header file. I wonder if this could help create new sounds at all?

Not the same ZSM files actually, those are known as Zipped Script Modules.  Good try though.

Quote from: Teancum on November 09, 2007, 05:20AM
As far as new voiceovers are concerned the best bet we have is splitting up x_voice.zss so we could at least have the XML2 characters without multiple 133mb files.

you dont need to have multiple 133mb files, you can make links to the files, as Dark_Mark said, although i havent tried it for this particular case myself, i know that this kind of thing works for linux boxes

Quote from: idrinkdrpepper on November 08, 2007, 09:50PM
Actually, the game does find the sound file well enough. You can create a custom sound file by starting with an existing one "drstr_m", for example and then renaming it to [character name]_m and putting it in the appropriate folder based on the first 2 letters.  In the herostat file, you would reference the sound file as [character name]_m.  But in the powerstyle file, you would still reference the power sounds using the char/drstr_m filename.  The file extension name seems to be coded (not in ascii) onto the sound file itself.

I'm not 100% sure, but I imagine the game would then run into problems when you are loading both the edited sound file and drstr_m at the same time.


Either way, I think 2 things that it would be awesome to get would be a "Wav Replacer" program and XML2's x_voice split up into pieces. At the very least, coloss_m/_v, sabre_m/_v, pyro_m/_v, and darkp_v could be used to give 4 characters their voice sets. My votes would be Hawkeye, Hulk, Captain Marvel, and Magma (frost/beast both have partial sound sets, psylocke has a boss sound set, and Jubilee's voice is very similar to Invisible Woman's). We could also use an unused boss set, like deadpl_m/_v, as a house for the XML1 Avalanche boss sounds.

Yeah, a x_voice splitter would be swank.  If we could split the archives up then we'd have a better variety.  That'd give us all of the PC XML2 characters, plus Beast (but with no Xtreme sound) and a few others.  Once that's all extracted some characters can get generic XML2 baddies for soundsets.

Replacing the sounds with new ones isn't a problem.  I could write a tutorial on that.  But we need something to break up x_voice for XML2 because, trust me on this, it's a major pain to do that all by hand.

Hey Norrin, if we put our heads together on this could you write something?  I can match up HASHIDs, wav info, etc. to a particular entry.  It sucks and takes tons of time, but it's possible.

Another side option is to write a MUA-remover for XML2's x_voice.  Characters that appear in both (like Deadpool & Wolverine) have the exact same HASHIDs, so we know exactly what needs to be pulled.  From there we're removing around 400 files.  That'd be a start.

i would be possibly willing to work on it, depending on how much time i have, and how difficult the project may be, and if i feel it is worth it (meaning whether or not it will have a significant impact)

Separating x_voice would give us easy access to the complete sound sets that are going to no use (coloss_v, pyro_v, darkp_v and sabre_v), essentially giving 4 characters with no sound full soundsets for us to use by overwriting the sounds. I'd say it is worth it, but I really have no idea how much work it is. I know it is a lot, but how much exactly I have no idea.

Quote from: Noelemahc on April 04, 2007, 10:26PM
No, that's something I still CAN'T figure out. My guess is that the 'hash' sections have something to do with it, but HOW to fix it, or how to decode them - that's still a mystery.

The 2nd and 3rd hash sections are not important.  I was playing around with Dr. Strange's sound file (drstr_m) and I was able to overwrite the last two hash sections with "00 00 00 ..." and all of the sounds were left intact.  It is the first hash section which contains the file directory as well as the pointers that lead to the location of the sound files.  For example, in Dr Strange's powerstyle file, the command "sound = char/drstr_m/p7_power" will access the p7_power sound.  However, the file extension name is first converted into a 4 byte hash code and appears as "D2 7F 75 04 1B" in the ZSM file.  The first 8 hex numbers (4 bytes) are the hash of the file name and the last 2 hex numbers (1B) are the index of the sound file.  You can easily change "1B" to any other index number in order to identify the p7_power with a different sound clip.  Meanwhile, the hash of the file name "char/drstr_m/p7_power" was generated by some unknown hash function.

I was able to edit this particular hashID so that it read "char/ddevil_m/p7_power".  This can be done by identifying the hashID in ddevil_m corresponding to p7_power and then using that hashID in the drstr_m file.  In making this replacement, you only need to take care that the ordering convention is preserved - namely that the hashIDs are ordered according to the value of the 4th byte.

Since the hashID is only 4 bytes, it isn't large enough to accommodate the number of possible ascii strings that are >10 characters long.  This means that the hash function is not one-to-one (i.e. it's an irreversible or one-way function). Given a hash code, you can't go backwards from it to recover the generating ascii string.  However, for our purposes, we would like to generate the hash code for an arbitrary (custom) filename.  This would require us to know the hash function.

It is no easy task to figure out a hash function.  Maybe there are programs that can do it, but it's an exercise in cryptography.  Our best bet would be to guess at the hash function by trying a few likely candidates and seeing which one generates the correct hash code.  In the Game.exe file there are a couple of references to hash - one of them being "m_uiHash", which I googled and it only resulted in a few hits off of a game programmer's web page.  There seems to be a HashString function from NeoEngine which may or may not be related to the one MUA uses.

a lot of the focus seems to be using sounds for character mods. Has anyone tried to use level sounds/music from XML2?

in MUA, the level music/sounds are taken from this line at the start of the level eng:

Quotesoundfile = omega1 ;

Yes, music/conversations wor. However, npc sounds don't, because in XML2 all NPCs use sounds from individual directories, whereas in MUA all the NPCs for a map have their sounds shoved into that map's sound files.

Quote from: BliZZ on November 11, 2007, 09:10AM
whereas in MUA all the NPCs for a map have their sounds shoved into that map's sound files.

yes, thats why it sucks when you add different npcs to a map, even if they are packaged with MUA, you will only hear their punch and some melee moves, but not their power moves :(

Quote from: BliZZ on November 09, 2007, 09:33AM
I'm not 100% sure, but I imagine the game would then run into problems when you are loading both the edited sound file and drstr_m at the same time.

This problem can be solved by making small changes to the HashID in order to generate a unique file extension name that isn't used by any other file.  For example, I said in my previous post that the file name "drstr_m/p7_power" gets hashed into "D2 7F 75 04".  Or schematically,

drstr_m/p7_power (input) ----> [Unknown Hash Function] ----> 04757FD2 (output)

where I wrote the hex code in reverse order.  While, I wasn't able to find the hash function yet, I did find a similar one and I noticed that changing the last character of the filename by 1 increment, will have the same effect on the hash output. So,

drstr_m/p7_powes (input) ----> [Unknown Hash Function] ----> 04757FD3 (output)
drstr_m/p7_powet (input) ----> [Unknown Hash Function] ----> 04757FD4 (output)
and so on ...

Changing other characters will also have a small effect on the hash function and if you want you could go character by character until you get a filename you're happy with.  However, changing just one character is sufficient to allow custom file extension names with zero conflicts.

This is actually really relevant to ripping XML2's x_voice into individual files as well.  Luckily we know the HASHIDs for Deadpool, Storm, Iceman, Iron Man and Wolverine (they're the same in both games).  So as far as ripping goes we can grab all the HASHIDs from their MUA counterparts.  That way when it comes to ripping we know that those particular IDs are irrelevant.  It makes life much easier that way.

Now, that being said, we can then slowly work to find out each of the other character's HASHIDs.  As we do, we store them in a database (Excel or Access would work best) along with the offset to the file, filesize, etc.  Then theoretically we should be able to take, say captam_v, and paste over the original hashes and sound bytes.  Finally we rename to the new xml2char_v to test.

As I recall, Noel got Xbox sounds to work in PC just fine by changing the wave type from 6A (vox) to 01 (standard wav).  XBADPCM is pretty close to ADPCM (PC) so we could probably rip all the Xbox files with GameExtractor to build new ones, rather than manually hex ripping each PC version.

Quote from: Teancum on November 11, 2007, 01:34PM
As I recall, Noel got Xbox sounds to work in PC just fine by changing the wave type from 6A (vox) to 01 (standard wav).  XBADPCM is pretty close to ADPCM (PC) so we could probably rip all the Xbox files with GameExtractor to build new ones, rather than manually hex ripping each PC version.

do you think this could work for both xml1 and xml2 sounds?

I would assume so.  I'll tinker with a wav replacement after this weekend.  Ripping them is no problem at all with GameExtractor (they come out as .xbadpcm, but they're wav files).  It's just a matter of re-injecting and changing the wav type from there.

i just wrote this small prog for spliting the x_voice.zss
Worked fine with magneto and juggernaut.
Informations in the readme.txt

http://rapidshare.com/files/69094899/xml2split.zip.html

hope it helps.
[]'s

Dude, awesome. I'll test this and report back asap.

It says to open the configuration file, but there is no configuration file as far as I can tell. What should that file be named?

Just so I don't lose track of it, here are some of the sounds:

3 cable 285 332 c/a/cable_v
4 cannonball 333 387 c/b/cball_v
5 colossus 496 594 c/o/coloss_v
6 cyclops 685 788 c/y/cyclop_v
7 darkphoenix 789 846 d/a/darkp_v
8 ironman 1454 1559 i/r/iron_v
9 sabretooth 2296 2359 p/c/pcsab_v
10 phoenix 2360 2467 p/h/phoenx_v
11 profx 2585 2633 p/r/profx_v
12 sabretooth2 2698 2756 s/a/sabre_v
13 xman 3813 3866 x/m/xman_v
14 pyro2 2645 2697 p/y/pyro_v
15 beast 111 124 b/e/beast_v
16 archangel 94 110 a/r/archa_v
17 blob 253 275 b/l/blob_v
18 garrok 1261 1284 i/g/igarr_v
19 grizzly 1285 1307 1/g/igriz_v
20 bishop 145 252 b/i/bishop_v
21 iceman 1049 1158 i/c/iceman_v
22 gambit 1159 1260 i/g/igam_v
23 pyro 2243 2295 p/c/pcpyro_v
24 toad 3460 3570 t/o/toad_v
25 rogue 3571 3676 v/o/vogue_v
26 wolverine 3677 3785 w/o/wolv_v
27 storm 3029 3137 s/t/storm_v
28 sunfire 3179 3285 s/u/sun_v
29 switch 3343 3452 s/w/switch_v

you're right.. forgot to include the config file in the zip lol
sorry gonna up again

try that:
http://rapidshare.com/files/69094899/xml2split.zip.html

Thanks it works great. I successfully extracted Magneto, Juggernaut, and Scarlet Witch's voices :)

Except, for some reason, some of Scarlet Witch's "sight" sounds get played instead of the "respaffirm" sounds when you change to her from another character. Do you know why it might be doing that?

Quote from: BliZZ on November 11, 2007, 06:47PM
Thanks it works great. I successfully extracted Magneto, Juggernaut, and Scarlet Witch's voices :)

Except, for some reason, some of Scarlet Witch's "sight" sounds get played instead of the "respaffirm" sounds when you change to her from another character. Do you know why it might be doing that?

not sure, but probably is not the right sound number range. I gonna make some test.

so far, cable and gambit also worked pretty well here.

Ugh, can anyone up this little app somewhere else, I'm getting the d/l limit exceeded error.  I'll host it too once I've got ahold of it.

Here:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/jdikgc

If you could try and see why I got the switch error I did, and if you get the same error, that'd be great.

Okay, what's the usage of convall.bat?  It doesn't do anything at all when I run it.  I assume it's supposed to rip the wavs out of the zss too.

*EDIT*

Looks like everything works fine on my side on PC sounds, still need to figure out how to get convall to work so I can try it on Xbox sounds. 

It runs towav. Step one is to c/p x_voice into the folder for the program.

Yeah, it didn't work for me.  Guess it didn't like Xbox wavs.  I'll keep fiddling. 

@ Winstrol -- If I uploaded the Xbox version of x_voice.zss do you think you could write a Xbox version of xml2split?  It would make working on Xbox mods lots easier.

Thanks for the program!

I can try but not sure if it's gonna work.

The format is really close, I can tell you the differences that I've noticed later this evening.  I know that all of the HASHID values are exactly the same.  All of the files are in the exact same order as well.  The only differences are that each file has an extension of .xbadpcm instead of .wav, the header says ZSNDXBOX instead of ZNSDPC, and a few other things I can't think of right now.

So far; Magneto, Juggernaut, Phoenix, Pyro, Gambit, Nightcrawler, Mystique, and Sabretooth's sounds work; while Cable, Professor X, X-Man, Rogue, Bishop, Toad, Sunfire, Cyclops, Blob, and Scarlet Witch's sounds are played at the wrong times. I will keep testing more of them.

Here are the sound files that run with the order off for me, as well as the cfg file I am using. If anyone can find out what is wrong with them/how they would be fixed, that'd be great.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/xk6b4e

Here's Hawkeye's Xbox sounds (to see the difference).  You'll notice that in the section with the file name has 8 more bytes with zeros than the PC.  Also, the header changes from ZSNDPC (with 00 bytes to fill) to ZSNDXBOX.  Filenames change from .wav to .xbadpcm.  Wav type changes from 6A to 01.  Theoretically if you remove the extra 8 bytes before each filename, change .xbadpcm to .wav and fix the offsets might work on the PC.  I'm working on uploading the Xbox x_voice.  These are just for reference.

http://rapidshare.com/files/69341395/hwkeye.rar.html

For the record, pyro_v, sabre_v, coloss_v, and darkp_v ALL come up with the "sounds are off" glitch (and these are the 4 we need to use :ugh:)

hmm i lost here. can some1 how can i find the starting number and ending number for a certain character? i tried reading the readme and it doesnt make sense to me. thanks!

winstrol, here's the Xbox x_voice

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=790ZM801

I updated the program to try fixing the problem with scarlet, xman and some others.
(I don't know why but those characters's hash/id seems to be out of sync within the x_voice, although it works fine with the x_voice it gets messed when extrated to a new file, so i added a option in the program to shift the ids for the hashes).

http://www.sendspace.com/file/mx6e2x

beside the already known workin characters that BliZZ tested, as far as i could test it now worked as well for: cable, bishop, cyclops, sunfire,
switch, blob (he really have few sounds)
xman (though cmdattack sounds are not working)
toad (some sounds not working eg xtreme)

For the last two, i guess they can still be fixed but opening it with a hexadecimal editor and changing the id for some hashes.
If someone could find out how the hashes are calculated i could get it full working.

Making some changes in the program i could also import some sounds from x_voice (xml2) into the x_voice (mua), eg break_character (character's voice played in the character selection screen). an_character (when the character's name is said) though so far only worked for deadpool and pyro.


Teancum
ok i'm gonna try, but can't guarantee it is gonna work. if at least i had a xbox for testing.

Quote from: winstrol on November 13, 2007, 09:45PM
Making some changes in the program i could also import some sounds from x_voice (xml2) into the x_voice (mua), eg break_character (character's voice played in the character selection screen). an_character though (when the character's name is said) seems only to work for deadpool.

This'd be great :)

Another issue with MUA's x_voice is that Captain Marvel's break sounds never play. Do you think you could look into that?

i gave it a look and seems like there's no break sounds for him in the x_voice
so i guess there's no hash for him as well. I'm afraid there's nothing we can do  without the hash.

They are the very first sounds in the file. 1 through something.

Anyway here is what I have tested-

Works:
Bishop
Blob
Colossus
Cyclops
Dark Phoenix
Scarlet Witch
Sunfire
X-Man (except the cmdattack sounds, which don't work like you mentioned)

Doesn't Work: (sounds are played off)
Sabretooth2
Pyro2
Professor X
Toad
Rogue

Can someone who knows how to replace sounds try the following?

1) Replace Bishop's xtreme "BIG BANG" sound with his xtreme "SUPERCONDUCTOR" sound

2) Replace Nightcrawler's xtreme "MASTER OF CHAOS" sound with his XML1 xtreme "BLINDSIDE BLITZ" sound

3) Replace all of the sounds in coloss_m/coloss_v with the sounds from capmvl_m/capmvl_v (we can use Bishop's "BIG BANG" sound- even though it is a different va, it is better than nothing imo)


PS: Does anyone have a copy of Hulk: Ultimate Destruction? We need to pull together a good Hulk voice set to toss into darkp_v. It'd also be nice to figure out what distortions to use on the xtreme sound, so we can get a "HULK SMASH" sound similar to those xtreme sounds already in game.

#1 will be really easy.  They're both in VOX format

#2 I'll work on, but I'm not 100% on VOX settings during a save, so I might change that to a regular WAV since the data's at the end of file.

#3 I could also do, but we can run into trouble here.  VOX files smaller than standard WAVs, so it'll take me awhile as I'll have to either figure out the VOX export format or insert WAVs and manually change every offset.


I already have my copy of Goldwave set up with the proper distortions for a Xtreme.  I did that when I record the Angel VO for the Xbox mod.

Quote from: Teancum on November 14, 2007, 12:14PM
#3 I could also do, but we can run into trouble here.  VOX files smaller than standard WAVs, so it'll take me awhile as I'll have to either figure out the VOX export format or insert WAVs and manually change every offset.

Which of the processes would you imagine to be less time consuming? That'd be the one I'd suggest :laugh:

That's a good question really.  I'm not sure.  Guess I'll dive in and see what happens.  Slightly off-topic, what's the status on Punisher?  I wanna put him on the Xbox.  Noel mentioned the same guy that did the voice for the game also did the main characte for Gun, so I was going to rip voices, but not if it's gonna be awhile on him.

Quote from: Teancum on November 14, 2007, 12:50PM
That's a good question really.  I'm not sure.  Guess I'll dive in and see what happens.  Slightly off-topic, what's the status on Punisher?  I wanna put him on the Xbox.  Noel mentioned the same guy that did the voice for the game also did the main characte for Gun, so I was going to rip voices, but not if it's gonna be awhile on him.

I thought Noel had ripped from the THQ game, the one with Tom Jane?

Either way, all he needs is some of the graphical stuff (icons, 2 skins, fixes to the one skin, mannequin), so if you just want to set up files with placeholders for that kinda stuff I'll pm you a download link. I'm also not sure how many of his weapons will have appeared on the box. I know his knife didn't (that was tommy's model), so you'll want to use Fury's Grabsmash instead of Deadpool's.

Yeah, I thought Noel had too, I just wasn't sure if we could get ahold of what he ripped or if we'd have to rip it ourselves.

I think it'd have to be re-ripped.

PS: For people who have played them, which of these 2 games would offer better Hulk voice?
http://pc.ign.com/objects/499/499624.html
http://xbox.ign.com/objects/627/627861.html

I liked both but would pick the Hulk first one or movie Hulk I just liked the game better.

I have very good news.  Remember how I said that Game.exe contained a reference to m_uiHash, which Google told me was a function used by NeoEngine?  Well, I tracked down the hash function used by NeoEngine (a pretty standard function) and it turns out that this is the Hash function that MUA uses.  It took me a while to figure out that the correct input string needs to be capitalized, but it generates the correct HashIds exactly.  What this means is that you no longer need to waste time searching for the correct HashID.  Just simply enter the power name the same way you would reference it in the powerstyle file.  For example, input: "CHAR/DRSTR_M/P7_POWER" and the program will give you the HashID in reverse order: "04757FD2"

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;
int Hash(const char *s);

int main()
{
  string thisisastring ;
 
  cout<<"Please enter a string: ";
  cin>> thisisastring;
  cin.ignore();
  cout<<"You entered: "<< thisisastring <<"\n";

  int n = Hash(thisisastring.c_str());
 
  //while (cin >> n) {
        cout << "decimal: " << n << endl;
     
        //--- Print hex with leading zeros
        cout << "HashID: ";
        for (int i=2*sizeof(int) - 1; i>=0; i--) {
            cout << "0123456789ABCDEF"[((n >> i*4) & 0xF)];
        }
        cout << endl << endl;
  //}
  cin.get();
 
}


/* Peter Weinberger's */
int Hash(const char *s)
{
const char *p;
unsigned int h, g;
h = 0;
for(p=s; *p!='\0'; p++){
h = (h<<4) + *p;
if (g = h&0xF0000000) {
h ^= g>>24;
h ^= g;
}
}
return (h & 0x7FFFFFFF);
}



This is C++ code.  If you have a C++ compiler, then just compile this and run it. 

Can you write that in reverse real quick too?  That way we can take the hex value and see what string it would refer to.  Then we can find out exactly how _v.zss hashes are built. 

Quote from: Teancum on November 14, 2007, 08:03PM
Can you write that in reverse real quick too?  That way we can take the hex value and see what string it would refer to.  Then we can find out exactly how _v.zss hashes are built. 

Nope.  It's not possible.  The HashID is only 7 hex numbers long, which allows for 16^7 = 2^28 = 28bit strings.  However, the file extension names can exceed 28 bits by several factors.  This means that the Hash Function is not one-to-one, so it's irreversible.  It also means that there exist several strings that will generate the same Hash value.  But the number of file extension names used by MUA is so small that there most likely won't be any hash "collisions".

uhmm can sum1 tell me if it's posible to rip all of deadpools banters or jokes on mua? like for example when he ties to make black bolt spatula? i really love that line. :) thanks!

Are there HashIDs for MUA or XML2 PSP characters' power sounds? Or were those not included in the PC exe?

No, but with his source code we can create them.  For instance, we run something like CHAR/CABLE_M/P6_POWER through the program it it'll generate the HashID that we need.  From there we take someone with a similar amount of power sounds (say captam_m) and rename it cable_m.  We go through and replace the HashIDs as needed, then Cap's sounds will play.  From there we replace the actual raw sounds as needed.  Of course that's all in theory.

Speaking of theories, I've got a fairly solid one on why charname_v has to be the same as charname_m to work.  It's not because it's linked to the ZSM file, but rather that it's linked to the herostat.  So if you've edited mrfan_m and now it's called angel_m (and of course you've fixed HashIDs and whatnot) your herostat is going to look for angel_m.

So here's where I'm going with this.  Using the above example, angel_v is still looking for mrfan_m in the herostat.  My theory is that _v HashIDs are generated in a similar manner as above, but like this:

CHAR/MRFAN_M/XTREME

That would explain why charname_v is depending on finding charname_m.  I doubt the ZSS/ZSM files are actually linked, but rather that charname_v is linked to whatever's in the herostat, as stated before.  How else would x_voice (XML2) work when it uses the same hash system?  That also explains why the XML2 PSPers work when you put pspcharname_m in the herostat.

Okay, the HashIDs for Bishop are wrong as well.  He plays "You lose, tough guy" (a victory taunt) during an Xtreme.  If we fix that I'll fix his Xtreme sound.

No, the newest version got a working zss file for me :scratchhead:

See for yourself (http://www.sendspace.com/file/ys7mqt)

Quote from: Serph21 on November 15, 2007, 05:44AM
uhmm can sum1 tell me if it's posible to rip all of deadpools banters or jokes on mua? like for example when he ties to make black bolt spatula? i really love that line. :) thanks!

Deadpool-Blackbolt (http://www.sendspace.com/file/l4bfmf)

The file extension name for power sounds (which appear in [char]_m), is of the form "CHAR/DRSTR_M/[power name]".  And it's referenced that way in the powerstyle files.

For sounds in the simulation files and in the level files, the file extension name is of the form "VOICE/DRSTRANGE/[sound name]".  It's referenced that way in the Conversation files.

For common sounds, several of them have the filename "COMMON/MELEE/[sound name]"

For sounds that appear in [char]_v, I'm not sure what the file extension name is.  The only one that I know is "CHAR/DRSTR_V/XTREME".  I don't know the full file extension name for the other sounds like BORED or ISEEYOU.  If there were a file that referenced these sounds, it would be helpful.  Otherwise, it's a matter of trial and error to see which filenames will generate the correct HashIDs.

One ZSS file, complete with new Xtreme sound

bishop_v.zss (http://www.sendspace.com/file/t97xhx)

Quote from: Teancum on November 15, 2007, 01:56PM
No, but with his source code we can create them.  For instance, we run something like CHAR/CABLE_M/P6_POWER through the program it it'll generate the HashID that we need.  From there we take someone with a similar amount of power sounds (say captam_m) and rename it cable_m.  We go through and replace the HashIDs as needed, then Cap's sounds will play.  From there we replace the actual raw sounds as needed.  Of course that's all in theory.

Speaking of theories, I've got a fairly solid one on why charname_v has to be the same as charname_m to work.  It's not because it's linked to the ZSM file, but rather that it's linked to the herostat.  So if you've edited mrfan_m and now it's called angel_m (and of course you've fixed HashIDs and whatnot) your herostat is going to look for angel_m.

So here's where I'm going with this.  Using the above example, angel_v is still looking for mrfan_m in the herostat.  My theory is that _v HashIDs are generated in a similar manner as above, but like this:

CHAR/MRFAN_M/XTREME

That would explain why charname_v is depending on finding charname_m.  I doubt the ZSS/ZSM files are actually linked, but rather that charname_v is linked to whatever's in the herostat, as stated before.  How else would x_voice (XML2) work when it uses the same hash system?  That also explains why the XML2 PSPers work when you put pspcharname_m in the herostat.

So, theoretically, we could build new files using the shells of old ones and HashIDs? Including XML1 characters and custom characters? Or am I misunderstanding this.

That's exactly what I'm saying.  Stage sounds too.  But we have to figure out the VOX format that the game is encoded in, cuz it's not wanting to take XML1 wavs.

so here is the xbox version (though i have no ideia if it is gonna work in game). I also updated the pc version to fix some things (it's in the same zip)

http://www.sendspace.com/file/8ovjxp

as for the hash, that's great dude. Too bad i finished the program prior to see the post. But now i could make a new program to completely compile and decompile the zss file (which would allow us to change sounds, change hashs or whaterer) what you guys think? Or is anyone else already working on something like that?

Also i tried using the xbox sounds in the pc version's zss and it worked but it sounds crappy in game. The closest i got was using Vox studio 3 and converting the file to bicom adpcm 22050 and put back in the zss (without changing the 106 to 1). That gave a better quality very close to the game sounds. I was just wondering how noel managed to get better quality, i even tried uncompressed wave file and still sounded bad.

You have no idea how much you rock Winstrol!

By the way, Xbox and PC use the exact same HashIDs, so if anyone wants to build actual Hawkeye/Captain Marvel/Ronin/Black Widow we already know all of the HashIDs.  Now all we need is a Xbox->PC converter :P

*EDIT*

It creates ~115kb files, but doesn't actually rip the raw sound data.  The wav type (before the file name) should be changed from 6A to 01, but I can do that.  Also, .wav should be .xbadpcm.  I'll keep testing, and thank you for helping me out.

I can confirm the following from the newest upload:

Rogue's sounds now work
Professor X's still don't (Or maybe it is just his xtreme that doesn't work? I am not sure)
Toad's still don't (Or maybe it is just his xtreme that doesn't work? I am not sure)
X-Man's cmdattack sounds still don't play

I haven't tested Sabretooth2/Pyro2, but with the knowledge that it might be possible to set up the PSP characters' sounds in their own files they might not even be necessary

night_v.zss (http://www.sendspace.com/file/d8g97j) w/Blindside Blitz as new Xtreme sound.  The quality is slightly lower, but it's all I can do.

It sounds reasonable enough to me. Thanks.

Quote from: Teancum on November 15, 2007, 05:34PM
It creates ~115kb files, but doesn't actually rip the raw sound data.  The wav type (before the file name) should be changed from 6A to 01, but I can do that.  Also, .wav should be .xbadpcm.  I'll keep testing, and thank you for helping me out.

are you using the same xbox x_voice you uploaded here?

(xbox) cable_v.zss sample (xml2splitx 5 x_voice.zss)
http://www.sendspace.com/file/g0752e

Do you have dlc doom's sound files? could upload it pls?

I'll test it out more.  Maybe it was just Gambit and Colossus that didn't work right.  Actually, those are the only two that I need for the Xbox MUA mod.

I *think* I've got the DLC ZSS files somewhere, but the problem is that all of the sounds inside are stored in .XMA format, which only the Xbox 360 can read.

DLC sounds:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/j3lrx1

(You'll find they aren't usable, as they are in .XMA format)

Thanks

about the hashs,
I was looking for references into the game.exe
and i found how they are used for the character selection menu:

COMMON/MENUS/CHARACTER/AN_[character]
COMMON/MENUS/CHARACTER/BREAK_[character]

EDIT: Only the first seems to be right, the second didn't work.

I think that those sounds are a little more complicated, though. For instance, an_nightcrawler and break_nightcrawler will ONLY play when the character's name is "nightcrawler", not "nightcrawlerdlc". On the other hand, an_sabretooth and break_sabretooth will ONLY play when the hero's name is "sabretooth_hero", not when it is "sabretooth".

Unless you are suggesting entering in something like:
COMMON/MENUS/CHARACTER/AN_NIGHTCRAWLERDLC

will make the sounds play for "nightcrawlerdlc".

@ Winstrol -- my fault.  I forgot I modified my x_voice before you made the program.  I'll get the original of my XML2 game and test it out tonight.

Quote from: winstrol on November 16, 2007, 06:25AM
Thanks

about the hashs,
I was looking for references into the game.exe
and i found how they are used for the character selection menu:

COMMON/MENUS/CHARACTER/AN_[character]
COMMON/MENUS/CHARACTER/BREAK_[character]

EDIT: Only the first seems to be right, the second didn't work.

There are multiple breaks per character, so
COMMON/MENUS/CHARACTER/BREAK_CAPTAM1
COMMON/MENUS/CHARACTER/BREAK_CAPTAM2ALT
might be what would generate the hash

Winstrol, the Xbox program works great!  The HashIDs are off by two though.  For instance, Colossus's Respaffirm sounds go in this order:

Respaffirm1
Respaffirm4
Respaffirm3
Respaffirm2

But play in this order:
Respaffirm3
Respaffirm2
sight1
sight2

I can confirm this is it because victory6 will play xtreme2, which is two after it.

If you could fix this the program would be perfect.  Thanks again.

Alright, in case anyone cares, Sabretooth2 works with the newest version.

Also, Teancum, could you test out that theory? For instance, edit all the hashes in night_m (which has 11 power sounds) with hashes generated for Hawkeye, and see if they play in-game when the file is named as hwkeye_m? I'd do it, but I'm not exactly sure how to :runaway:

Yeah, I'll see if I can get to it soon.  It makes me nervous to mess with that.  Not due to the _m, but the sheer amount of VO.  But I'll see what I can do.  BTW, don't publicly release night_v.zss yet.  I *think* I can get Blindside Blitz in there with better quality.

*edit* -- Nevermind on the Nightcrawler vo.  It turned out the same.

*edit 2*
I have Hawkeye's HashIDs, it's true, but it's 1000x easier to use Idrinkdrpepper's algorythm.  Trouble is I couldn't get it to compile in Visual C++ 2005

You might just want to wait to see if winstrol will create a compiler/decompiler program for the .zsm files.  We have everything needed to create our own .zsm files from scratch, which can simultaneously solve any sound-mismatch problems. 

We don't quite have everything needed to create our own .zss files because (besides the xtreme), we don't know the full filename for the powers listed in [char]_v.  The way to find out is by finding a file (maybe a conversation or powerstyle or Game.exe?) that references the sounds in [char]_v.  Another way is by guess-and-check.  What this means is that you guess the filename, turn it into hash and then do a search on the [char]_v file for that hash.  If you find that hash in the header, then you've guessed correctly.

For a C++ Compiler I used Bloodshed's Dev-C++. 

Quote from: BliZZ on November 16, 2007, 07:44AM
I think that those sounds are a little more complicated, though. For instance, an_nightcrawler and break_nightcrawler will ONLY play when the character's name is "nightcrawler", not "nightcrawlerdlc". On the other hand, an_sabretooth and break_sabretooth will ONLY play when the hero's name is "sabretooth_hero", not when it is "sabretooth".

Unless you are suggesting entering in something like:
COMMON/MENUS/CHARACTER/AN_NIGHTCRAWLERDLC

will make the sounds play for "nightcrawlerdlc".

Yep,
COMMON/MENUS/CHARACTER/AN_NIGHTCRAWLERDLC
hash: 217532403 (decimal value)
worked just fine for nightcrawler.

and COMMON/MENUS/CHARACTER/BREAK_NIGHTCRAWLERDLC
hash: 98009251 (decimal value)
worked fine as well.

however, it turns out that for the hash to work it needs to be in the right place(at least for x_voice.zss,  dunno 'bout other files). I mean, in my first attempt i replaced the first hash in x_voice.zss with 217532403 giving ID 51 (anouncer of mr. marvel) and.. it didn't work.
so, i jumped to the hash 207913237 (closest number to nightcrawler hash i created) and replaced with 217532403 giving ID 51 and.. it worked. The same for the break sound.

Another thing, maybe i'm wrong but seems like the hash only works for sounds that don't have a alternative sound. Like, CHAR/NAME_M/JUMP works fine, but CHAR/NAME_JUMP2 don't. BUT, CHAR/NAME_M/JUMP works fine only if the character have no alternative jump sounds (jump2, jump3..)

eg:
Sound              have alternative sound(jump2)?   created hash matches?
CHAR/MOON_M/JUMP         yes                         no
CHAR/GHOST_M/JUMP        yes                         no
CHAR/ELEKRA_M/JUMP       no                          yes
CHAR/DRSTR_M/JUMP         no                          yes

so maybe that's why the created hash don't match any of _v sounds.. since most of them have alternative sounds. It matches for Xtreme which for some have alternative, but i don't think that counts since mua never uses the alternative xtreme sound.

Compiled code idrinkdrpepper posted just in case someone needs:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/xpj2uf
just made a small change to show the right hex code.


Teancum,
for colossus try editing the conf file and increase/decrease the 5th number eg: 7 colossus 496 594 2 c\o\coloss_v

When you're generating new hashes, you need to keep in mind that the hashes are placed in increasing order.  If it's out of order, the new hash or the one after it will not play.  Also, there are 2 other sections of hash, but as far as I know, they don't matter.

For the sounds that have alternatives, the game needs to randomly choose one of them.  Maybe try CHAR/[char]_M/JUMP/JUMP2 or CHAR/[char]_M/JUMP_2

EDIT1: For the alternative sounds, I wasn't able to guess the filename, but I can tell you that the indexing number is at the end of the filename and it starts from 0.

EDIT2: One option is to try and take a character with multiple RESPAFFIRM sounds and rename one of the hashes to CHAR/[char]_V/RESPAFFIRM and see whether the game plays that sound.  If we don't know how to generate the filename hash for the alternative sounds, maybe we can force the game to play a single respaffirm.  The logic behind this is that some characters have a single jump sound and some characters have more than one jump sound.  Since we know the filename for single sounds, we can still give custom characters every type of sound if we leave out the alternative sounds.

Quote from: BliZZ on November 15, 2007, 05:47PM
I can confirm the following from the newest upload:

Rogue's sounds now work
Professor X's still don't (Or maybe it is just his xtreme that doesn't work? I am not sure)
Toad's still don't (Or maybe it is just his xtreme that doesn't work? I am not sure)
X-Man's cmdattack sounds still don't play

I haven't tested Sabretooth2/Pyro2, but with the knowledge that it might be possible to set up the PSP characters' sounds in their own files they might not even be necessary

Let me know if Sabretooth2/Pyro2 work.  It'd be nice to build a few quick customs for characters like Angel while we're building official sounds from scratch.

Quote from: winstrol on November 16, 2007, 06:58PM
however, it turns out that for the hash to work it needs to be in the right place(at least for x_voice.zss,  dunno 'bout other files). I mean, in my first attempt i replaced the first hash in x_voice.zss with 217532403 giving ID 51 (anouncer of mr. marvel) and.. it didn't work.
so, i jumped to the hash 207913237 (closest number to nightcrawler hash i created) and replaced with 217532403 giving ID 51 and.. it worked. The same for the break sound.

Wow, so I guess editing x_voice will be the biggest pain in the ass of all. I suggest we gather all the sounds we can before we even try to recompile that one (DLC [custom, since we can't use the XMA stuff], XML2, XMl1, custom characters [Vision, She-Hulk, Punisher, Namor, etc]). If we can add more sounds to it, that is.


Also, I am assuming Marv's break sounds don't play since they are at the beginning of the file, meaning the hashids aren't where they should be (unless that is where they should be)


Teancum:

QuoteAlright, in case anyone cares, Sabretooth2 works with the newest version.

Haven't tested Pyro2 yet. Since he has an xtreme sound, you could just change any character's voice file in your herostat and type in "pyro_m", and see if that character yells out "WILFDIRE" on execution of the xtreme.

I don't read all but I've got a question. The sounds of Cyclops and for Nightcrawler are realesed ?

second hash's file name: CHARS3/7R/[CHARACTER]_M/[SOUND_NAME]
third hash's file name: FILE/[CHARACTER]_M/[SOUND_NAME]

the first above don't make sense, but seems to work.

Quote from: Onua on November 17, 2007, 01:43AM
I don't read all but I've got a question. The sounds of Cyclops and for Nightcrawler are realesed ?

No, the will be released when the Official Characters mod is updated.

Ok. Thanks.

Quote from: winstrol on November 15, 2007, 05:28PMas for the hash, that's great dude. Too bad i finished the program prior to see the post. But now i could make a new program to completely compile and decompile the zss file (which would allow us to change sounds, change hashs or whaterer) what you guys think? Or is anyone else already working on something like that?

How hard would it be to create a program to build ZSM/ZSS files?  If it's possible then it would make life lots easier for both PC and Xbox mods.

Quote from: winstrol on November 15, 2007, 05:28PMAlso i tried using the xbox sounds in the pc version's zss and it worked but it sounds crappy in game. The closest i got was using Vox studio 3 and converting the file to bicom adpcm 22050 and put back in the zss (without changing the 106 to 1). That gave a better quality very close to the game sounds. I was just wondering how noel managed to get better quality, i even tried uncompressed wave file and still sounded bad.

What do you mean by 106 to 1?  I've placed VOX files in-game, but they sound terrible.

In the zsm and zss files, each filename is preceded by 6A (or 106 in decimal). See page 2:

Quote from: Noelemahc on January 16, 2007, 09:18AM
I'm an idiot. I changed the sound type from [6a] (VOX) to [01] (Microsoft WAV) and inserted a pure unmodified sound dump from the X-Box.
And? Right-o. It not only WORKS, it sounds a heckuva lot cleaner than the native stuff.

For creating our own zss and zsm files, we first need to know what the input filename is for sounds that have alternatives like JUMP, RESPAFFIRM or ICANSEEYOU, otherwise compiling a text document with an incorrect filename will result in a hash that the game won't understand.  I think we've already figured out pretty much all of the filenames except these ones for the alternative sounds.  Maybe winstrol will have better luck guessing the filename.

Ah, hadn't thought about what the value was in decimal.  Thanks.

Quote from: Teancum on November 18, 2007, 04:31PM
How hard would it be to create a program to build ZSM/ZSS files?  If it's possible then it would make life lots easier for both PC and Xbox mods.

i'm woking on it.
But as idrinkdrpepper said above it won't work for alternative sounds, unless we figure the hash filename.

I tried everything but no luck. So if there's someone willing to try guessing this might help a bit:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/cqo9um
use: bruteforce 142983137 5 CHAR/GHOST_M/JUMP2*
try changing the CHAR/GHOST_M/JUMP2* like: */GHOST_M/JUMP2 or whatever. (btw that's how i found the filename for the second and third hash). 142983137 is the ghost rider's hash for jump2 which the correct filename is unknown so far.

Quote from: Teancum on November 18, 2007, 04:31PM
What do you mean by 106 to 1?  I've placed VOX files in-game, but they sound terrible.

Nope i meant the oposite.. i didn't do what noel said about changing 106 to 1 (leaving its default value) and put the vox file into the zss. At least here it didn't sound that bad, i'd say slightly worse than game's sounds (maybe due to some codec i installed?) some samples below.

that one is just for testing new file name, /t/e/test_m.zsm edit herostat, start a game and jump. It's only 40kb, i only put 1 sound for jump and its hashes (doom's voice actually, just 'cause i like him :))
http://www.sendspace.com/file/5fouql

that's like the above, but the sound was replaced with a normal wav converted to vox:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/oljcu2

I created a "Raven Knights" team for the Xbox, complete with sounds.  Here's what I did:

1-Added the following team (pay attention to the sound section)

Quotebonus {
   descbonus = +6 Body, Strike, Focus ;
   descname1 = Raven ;
   descname2 = Knights ;
   powerup = shared_team_increase_traits ;
   sound = common/menus/character/an_namor ;
      hero {
      name = ironman ;
      }

      hero {
      name = humantorch ;
      }

      hero {
      name = iceman ;
      }

      hero {
      name = captainmarvel ;
      }

      hero {
      name = deadpool ;
      }

      hero {
      name = hawkeye ;
      }

      hero {
      name = ronin ;
      }

   }

2-Next I copied the raw sound data for "Raven Knights" (team_bonus_rk.wav) from XML2
3-I pasted it in place of an_namor in MUA x_voice, filling in the gaps with 00 bytes

So basically if you want to add any team bonus callouts from XML2 you can use an_namor, so long as it's smaller than Namor's sound.

Just FYI, the following team bonuses aren't in MUA, but are present in XML2

Age of Apocalypse
Brotherhood of Evil
Bruiser Brigade (though "Bruisers" is a team bonus in MUA)
Energy Corps
Family Affair
Forces of Nature (though "Natrual Forces" is a team bonus in MUA)
Heavy Metal
New X-Men
Old School (though "Flashback" is a team bonus in MUA)
Raven Knights
Special Ops

MUA Gold for the 360 has the following new teams:
Arch Rivals
FREAKS
Friendly Rivalry
Met His Maker
Rogues Gallery
Secret Defenders
Shaba Ultimates
West Coast Avengers

I'm not sure how many team_bonuses you can add to the game, but if it's more than one you can try replacing stuff like menu_ps3 with announcer VO

QuoteI'm not sure how many team_bonuses you can add to the game

The official ones +3.

New hash find:

MENU/MENU_PS3

will give you the has for Menu Ps3.wav in x_voice.  Useful to put in yet another team bonus callout.

Also, any spaces in a filename are considered an underscore ( _ ) when finding a hash.  So Menu Ps3 becomes MENU_PS3

Quote from: winstrol on November 18, 2007, 10:17PM
I tried everything but no luck. So if there's someone willing to try guessing this might help a bit:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/cqo9um
use: bruteforce 142983137 5 CHAR/GHOST_M/JUMP2*
try changing the CHAR/GHOST_M/JUMP2* like: */GHOST_M/JUMP2 or whatever. (btw that's how i found the filename for the second and third hash). 142983137 is the ghost rider's hash for jump2 which the correct filename is unknown so far.

Can someone re-upload this little program?  It'd be useful in the future for me

Okay, this is officially weird.  I've double and triple-check the PSP ZSM/ZSS files that were left on the Xbox.  All hashes that we know about are exactly as they should be.  I know that hashes work as well because if you use that character's _v.zss file, the game will crash when switching to the character (because it called the correct hash, but there was a problem).  But no matter what the game doesn't even recognize the _m.zsm sounds.  No crash, no sounds playing -- nothing.  I even went through and fixed bwidow_m.zsm to match what a PC sound should have.  Still nothing.

zsm editor 1.0 (for winXP)
http://www.sendspace.com/file/md1n7j
It's for PC and Xbox(not tested)

There's also another prog i made to auto import xml2 sounds in x_voice i'll post it soon.

Sweet!  I'll get to work using this to convert Hawkeye/Black Widow/Captain Marvel/Ronin's sounds tonight.  Also useful for making power sounds for X-Man/Cable/Dark Phoenix/Cannonball.

Quote from: winstrol on November 28, 2007, 10:01AM
zsm editor 1.0 (for winXP)
http://www.sendspace.com/file/md1n7j
It's for PC and Xbox(not tested)

There's also another prog i made to auto import xml2 sounds in x_voice i'll post it soon.

Does the zsmeditor have that "bruteforce" feature you were talking about earlier?

Quoteuse: bruteforce 142983137 5 CHAR/GHOST_M/JUMP2*

I'm pretty sure the filename will end in 1.  So, if there are two JUMP sounds it will be something like JUMP0 and JUMP1.  Thanks for the sound-editing tools BTW.

It works, by the way.  I was able to get Hawkeye's sounds converted to PC.  They sound terrible, but they're working.  The sounds are also off some (he says the wrong things at the wrong times) but they could have been me messing up.

*EDIT*

By going one file at a time I'm not having any problems.  It's very slow-going though.  Hopefully we can figure out how to make the sounds less scratchy.  Converting to Bicom VOX in Vox Studio 3 makes them semi-decent, but they still need work. 

Quote from: idrinkdrpepper on November 28, 2007, 03:25PM
Does the zsmeditor have that "bruteforce" feature you were talking about earlier?

Nope. It's not necessary, it was only to try finding the filename for alternative sounds. While we don't find out the filename the program will not support alternative sounds when you try to make new files.

yep, the program doesn't change the format of the sounds that's why it sound terrible when converting between xbox and pc. In order to do that i would need to know the exact format of the sounds for pc (its not vox or bicom that's only close to it). The only program i know that can convert them keeping the quality it's the towav.exe. all i know is that it was make by a russian called xplorer from www.ctpax-x.ru.

well that's the only 2 things left to find out i guess.

Okay, I'll wait to convert the Xbox sounds then.  Maybe I'll do cable_m, xman_m etc from existing PC sounds in the meantime.  When I get home from work I'll post our ZSS findings at the wiki.xentax.com forums and see if they can help us figure out the PC's sound format.

253-275 in "X_VOICE"= BLOB_V
5-30 in "BGENO_V" = Blob's NPC Dialogue

1973-1994 in "X_VOICE" = MRSIN_V
34-56 in "AEGYPT_V" = Mr. Sinister's Boss dialogue
62-75 in "BGENO_V" = Some of Mr. Sinister's stuff

1845-1868 in "X_VOICE"= MMEGA_V, aka Omega Red
9-13 in "DMON_V" = Omega Red's Dialogue

2468-2488 in "X_VOICE" = PLIVM_V, aka Living Monolith
15-33 in "AEGYPT_V" = Living Monolith's Dialogue

Sweet!  That'll make life much easier.  I should warn everyone that the VO won't be as flavorful as it is with the normal characters.  Since we don't know how to do multiple of the same command (i.e. RESPAFFIRM1, RESPAFFIRM2, etc) there will only be one for each character.  That makes my life much easier though, as I don't have to come up with as many sounds.

sorry i didn't see teancum had already posted a new x_voice replacement lol
so i'm removing the link cause the x_voice he made is better.

Thanks for the program Winstrol.  It's really easy to use.

Still stuck on what sort of format the PC actually uses, but I found a few ideas today.  First, it could be in  DSP TrueSpeech WAV.  I can't check since I don't have a program that encodes to that.  Also, there's a program called BASS at http://www.un4seen.com/ that is supposed to recognize different formats automatically.  Worth a look if it wasn't 100 pounds for the shareware version.

*edit*

Here's a TrueSpeech converter http://www.micocosoft.com/audio-converter/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_codecs -- has all of the common audio codecs.  Might be useful.

I have good news.
I met a person who worked with the game sounds and she helped me figure out some things like the filename for the alternative sounds. So, here it goes:
CHAR/[CHARACTER]_M/[SOUND]/***RANDOM***/0
the sound name doesn't change. eg:

RESPAFFIRM1.WAV => CHAR/MOON_V/RESPAFFIRM/***RANDOM***/0
RESPAFFIRM2.WAV => CHAR/MOON_V/RESPAFFIRM/***RANDOM***/1

Also, I updated the zsm editor so now it can fully work with the zss files as well.
http://cyberscript.org/mua/zsmeditor2.zip

as for the PC's sound format.. i still don't know what it is, i asked LN but she don't know cause wasn't much involved in the tech side. But said that they used a really old engine called Coda. does anyone now anything about it?
so, i think we can almost say for sure that the format is: 4-bit adpcm, 22khz, mono. Question is: what kind of adpcm?

The wavs that I'm using are IMA ADPCM, but they still sound a little bit off.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GameCODA

It's what I found on the Coda engine.  Still doesn't lead to a codec, but maybe it will get us started.

993-1004 in XML2 x_voice == Emma Frost (will be using some of these for break files since they're already in a nice native format)

Quote from: Teancum on December 08, 2007, 03:26PM
The wavs that I'm using are IMA ADPCM, but they still sound a little bit off.

Yep, i tried that and seems like it sounded even better than vox/bicom. So perhaps it could be some sort of modified ima adpcm, or some format really close to it.

I also tried using uncompressed wave (PCM, 16-bit, 22050) again and it worked this time and sounded really fine (last time it didn't work because i was using 8-bit.. :X)
So what about using that? the only drawback is that the files will be bigger (about 4x). For _m would  still be less than 1mb and for _v sounds you could decrease the amount of sounds eg: only 1-2 sound for bored, only 2 respafirm.. etc

What do you use to edit sounds with?  I tried using Goldwave for 16-bit PCM and it doesn't even play.  It's just static.

I used voxstudio. But it also worked with the windows's sound recorder.
Also, you need to modify the file format 106 (hex 6a) to 1.

Do they sound fine in ZSM Editor?  Maybe I need to try them in-game.

nop. In zsm they will sound really bad. Only sound good in game.

*EDIT*

Figured it out.  I'll do regular PCM for all the sounds.

Yeah, I'm trying to do it with x_voice.  Doesn't seem to work, but I'll try some other things.

But it worked with regular sounds for you?
test_m http://www.sendspace.com/file/ojwbh1
original file http://www.sendspace.com/file/j2qixh

Ugh... can you upload the source .wav and your compiled test zsm/zss file so I can look at it?

it's the files i uploaded above

Edit: i tried the same file with x_voice and it sounded bad. Gonna try to figure out why.
Edit2: Seems like this only works for .zsm files. But i could make it run with x_voice.. how? just renamed it to x_voice.zsm and worked fine.

So all we have to do is rename x_voice.zss to x_voice.zsm.  Simple enough.  Is it possible to get that to work with zss files too?

so for the _v.zss files is the same of x_voice.. it only works when renamed to _v.zsm
but for some reason the sound only get played once.. and it don't play anymore.

I'm going to try putting all of [character]_v's events (like RESPAFFIRM) into [character]_m.zsm.  If that works then we only need to worry about x_voice.

*edit*

That works.  Sortof.  The sound (in my case RESPAFFIRM) plays perfectly, but after that nobody else's voices will play.

I wonder if we can contact the person who wrote towav to give us his source code. 

well, he compressed towav with upx and modified it a bit to make sure nobody would uncompress it to just see it with hex editor.. why would he give the source code? lol
but if he at least tell the file format will help a lot.

Teacum,
dude i don't know if this is the format, but i got really really close to it
http://www.sendspace.com/file/m8vecw
jump.wav is the uncompressed wav before i converted.

Yeah, but that still leaves us with ZSS problems.  It seems to be engine related as I can rename a ZSS to ZSM and it works.  If I rename a ZSM to ZSS it won't work.  Odd, as they're basically the same format.  So we're basically stuck in the same place we were.

nop, it worked fine in zss files. Since i'm not changing the file format (106 or 6a) it will work for any file no problem. I think that zss files just can't handle pcm files.

Oh, the file you uploaded is an uncompressed PCM 16-bit 20050.  Are you sure that it's the same one that's in the ZSM?  The wav looks very different from the file in the ZSM

nop, the file in zsm is converted to this 'new format' i found.
It's a modified ima adpcm.

Do you have the codec for it?  I've got lots of sounds waiting in line to be put into ZSM/ZSS files.

wav2xa
http://www.sendspace.com/file/5b9pit

source code:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/4ckrfl

it was created by Deniz Oezmen and was intended to work with sound files of the game driver (i guess), so i just messed it a bit to try making them work with mua/xml sound format..

edit: no need to input the "block_size" anymore. just do wav2xa uncompressed.wav muaformat.wav

Awesome.  I'll start ripping out the XML1 sounds and prepping them.

yes! i just figured out the file format :)
should i make a interface program or console (dos)? (either will be quite simple and fast to do) or should i just modify zsm editor to auto convert the files?

Have ZSM Editor auto-convert if you can do that.  It will make things easier for the future.

*edit*

Wav2xa works great.  All of the files I've converted from basic PCM work fine.  On an unrelated note, I can't seem to get completely new ZSS files to work.  I'll post more information later.

so here it goes:

zsm editor 2.3:
http://cyberscript.org/mua/zsmeditor2.zip

Actually, since i'm using audiere library it was supposed to support even non pcm format (like mp3) converted to mua format.. but i'm a bit lazy lol
i can do that later if you think it would be useful. For now you'll need to import files as
pcm 22050hz 16-bit mono
or
xbox format: xbox adpcm 22050hz 4-bit mono


hwkeye sounds converted from xbox as sample:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/1utd6y

Awesome.  I'll download this tonight and work on it over the weekend.  Since I can just import Xbox ADPCM files right in I'll do the other 3 characters over again with better quality.

Winstrol, can you check to see if you can build a brand new ZSS file?  I tried creating venom_v.zss, and while the sound plays in ZSMEditor and the hashes are correct, it won't play in-game

I have a problem during my modifications to ghostie's sound *.zss file (see my thread). Can someone pls tell me how to save recorded files into the *.zss file using the ZSMEDITOR in the correct format? cos it keeps tellin me that there is some error with the  format, even if it is an ordinary .wav file

There's lots of wav types.  It has to be PCM, 16-bit 22050khz.

The music wavs seem to be 44.1kHz and stereo instead of mono. Has anyone been able to import these type of file into the zss?

It is possible to get the music wav's using 'towav', but these files cannot be imported directly back using winstrol's program (they can be dragged and dropped but will not transfer properly).

The game does recognize mono 22050Hz for music also, however there seems to be a problem with doing so. Unless forced using script (you can use script to force music to play), the music won;t play at the right times, even if the correct hashs are used. For instance, if you export MUA music using 'towav' then convert it into mono 22050Hz, and then import it into a zss, under _c as combat music, the game recognizes it as ambient music (when not fighting) and will override the _a music file. This means there is no combat music, instead only ambient music. If this problem could be fixed, it may not be necessary to have a program to import 44.1kHz stereo, but i haven't found a way to fix it.

I tried importing into the zss different formats: stereo, a different frequency (41k), and 32bit, although the sound of it changed (because the frequency changing), the problem still occured where the music would stop playing when you in a combat situation, and then start back again when in a non-combat situation. This means the problem may not be dependent on the sound format, but something else.

I did notice that in the file listing in zsm editor (for a working, original game sound file) the music _c only has one file associated with it, but when using 'towav' to decompile it, there are two files that are generated, maybe this has something to do with the problem. I did try inserting two _c files with the same hashs, but it didn't solve the problem

OK great news!
I did some more searching in the zss files, and i noticed a byte which had not been discussed (at least i don't think it has been discussed). I noticed it was different for the music files (besides the 28A0 instead of 2256 for the 41kHz music files). In the section when listing all the 'ID, white space, 2256', there is a byte in the 'white space' that should be set to 22 (two bytes back from 2256). Changing this allows the game to play the music correctly!! Instead of changing zsmeditor to account for this, it is possible to mannually change that byte in the new sound files. In addition, you can copy the music sound data bytes directly from the original game files, and modify the 2256 to 28A0 to account for their 41kHz frequency. I will post a how-to in another thread shortly

Long story short, it is now possible to convert the music files into a new zss

The Gamecube and Wii both use GCADPCM (a Gamecube codec).  The codec can be found online for installing, and so hex-replacing sound files is possible.  For instance, taking Hawkeye's sounds from the Xbox and injecting raw GCADPCM files over the original Xbox files will, in theory, give you sounds for Hawkeye that will work on the Wii.

Right now nobody has a modded Wii, so I have no way of testing this theory.


*EDIT*
Also, from everything I've been able to see, the PS2 and PSP use different variants of the Playstation VAG format. (http://filext.com/file-extension/VAG)  Near as I can tell (and as near as Noel documented before) they're just at different rates, the PSP versions being much lower def to ensure they'd fit on the disc.   The issue here is that the file names are not stored in the ZSM/ZSS files, so it's really tough to know, seeing as how I can't even hack things to open them in ZSM Editor.  If PS2/PSP sounds are gonna get done, it's gonna all be in hex.

More info on XML1/2 Gamecube and MUA Wii sounds:

-It uses 22050khz GCADPCM wav codecs
-The files table has no actual names, but is replaced by "DSP"
-The first two bytes in that section are the start location of a file, followed by to 00 bytes, followed by the size (see below)

(http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/5046/gcpcm.png)

So I've been doing more research - the next step in checking various sound containers out is whether the hashes match between platforms.  I have a hunch that (in lamens terms) the table that defines what plays at what time is the same across all types.  If that's the case then building Wii, PS2 and PSP sound files can be done (and technically can be done on the 360 too, but I don't have the XNA tools required).  Also if that's the case, it means PS2 and PSP owners can have more mods.  If someone steps up to do PSP or PS2 mods let me know and I'll help you with your sounds.

If I knew how to convert models to PS2 format I would've made my mods compatible with PS2 and ask for that lol.

Yeah, I'm hoping someday I can figure out how to make models work on PS2/Xbox, but I would have to play a lot with the exporter and hex editing, so for now I'm gonna figure out sounds and animations.  I'd rather have the anims anyways.  Boltons can cover most model needs if necessary.

Rather than using an ol xv123. How bout: HDD Hex Editor Neo. It has: New automaticly open tab when open the file & even better than the old one.

Trust me, it works too. No pain, no gain. :thumbsup:

010 Editor is by far the best hex editor I've ever used, and I have 10+ years of experience.