Guide: Converting DoW/WA Music

[aurisma]

I want to switch the ingame language to french, is that possible? I find it easier to read french. Which file do I have to modify to do this? Can you download a french mod for the sound packs?

[Dazz]

I find "fda2aifc.exe *.fda" works fine at that point.

[CMC SoCygnus]

Thanks alot, now i can listen to the awesome DoW music.

[Gabriel Angelos]

when I type fda2aifc.exe *.fda it says that it cant recognize the comand.
I converted the DOW,WA and DC music very long time ago and now I cant seem to remember

*Edit* nvm just did it

[Number251137]

Hi

I've long been a veteran of the sound conversion scene, and have successfully replaced both speech and weapon sounds by extracting the appropriate .sga file and then placing them in the Dark Crusade directory.

However, I finally decided to try and replace some of the music ingame, and extracted the DXP-Music.sga, and having replaced the files I wish to replace, I'm now having trouble hitting on the correct file path. As we all know, the game uses the unpacked files first, so that hasn't been a problem for the speech, but I'm having trouble trying to get the game to recognize the unpacked Data-Music folder. Any idea of the file path I should be using here:

i.e: Dark Crusade/DXP/??????

Thanks in advance

- Rogue Trader

[Finaldeath]

If you've extracted them, shouldn't you know their path from that? Use the Mod Packager or Archive Viewer and you can see the paths.

[waaaghboss]

I say we do it in da orky way !! ya know solving problems direktly
so 'ere's da plan, we pick up a walkman (or a walkork) or a mp3 playa, 'n' put it near da PC speaka, 'n' play dawn ov waaaagh!! or we kan gaver da boyz 'n' start a huge waaagh!! on relik, den force dier progammaz to give us da audio filez!!
isn't we orkz klever?

[Borealis]

VECCTOR - THANK YOU SO MUCH.

I searched music from Soulstorm trough whole NET !
This music is unreachable.

I maded all what You write in first post - dot to dot

Mission completed.

Now i have extracted all music from Soulstorm.

Your knowledge is very impressive.

Regards.

[DaemonHunterThy]

How do I do the installation? They mentioned they have problem loading the files as I following the instructions in the readme such as regsvr32 luadc.dll

[Khorne]

Please hear me out.

It's a wonderful guide, but like some posters have said, I just stumble and fail when it comes to command line stuff. I also don't like putting random DLLs and other such files into my windows folder.

If anyone can help me...I am after one sole tune from the original Dawn of War game. It is a very slow, moody and haunting piece, with gregorian monks chanting through it. It plays during some of the chaos space marine levels, and sounds very different to most of Jeremy Soule's work. I've obtained the official Dawn of War soundtrack and it isn't on it.

Can anyone make this into an MP3 and send it to me? It is the only track I want, as I find it quite stirring.

If anyone can do this, I would be very, very grateful.

(PS - mods, if I have broken a rule or two in this post, I apologise.)

EDIT - forget it, I've managed to get it. The track was called "music_chant," and I love it!

[TWiTCH]

But multiple downloads, dozens of steps, four years and 14 pages worth of "I can't get _____ to work" and I'm thoroughly discouraged. This is especially true because I run Vista (which can barely run itself, much less pretend to run programs intended for XP).

I've got extra web space and bandwidth, so...

If anybody out there has completed this tutorial and would be willing to email their MP3s to me, I'd be happy to organize and post some ZIPs on my server.

If anybody is looking for some MP3s, they can email me requesting specific files, prove that they're familiar with the game, and I'll shoot them a link.

I figure that nobody would be coming to this DoW mod forum if they didn't already own the game, so I'll keep this up until interest wanes or the creators send me a cease and desist (since providing some music files won't cut into game sales, I doubt this will ever happen).

I will not post a link in here, so don't ask.

am.twitch at gmail

[cagecrawler]

@TWiTCH: Hosting the files is certainly copyright infringement, which you seem to be well aware of. Even if Relic/THQ don't stop you, there's a big chance you'll be banned from here (others have been banned for similar activities). I highly suggest not to do what you're offering.

For those that don't like dealing with command lines, try my Relic Audio Converter tool. It's basically a GUI for the tools used in this tutorial and makes the whole process a lot easier.

[TWiTCH]

@cagecrawler: I don't mean to argue as it is possible that I need clarification. Along the lines of clarification, hosting files isn't always copyright infringement and it is my understanding that my hosting of game sounds doesn't infringe Games Workshop Ltd's rights, much less Relic's.

My honoring a Cease and Desist is not an admittance of guilt but rather my respect for an artist's perceived rights, the possibility that I could be interpreting the law incorrectly, and the simple fact that I'd prefer a letter to a court order. I was hoping that the fact that I said I would happily stop if asked would be used as proof that I do not wish to infringe on any rights.

However, offering a small portion of a game (unlike the art and logos, the music/sounds are neither specifically copywritten nor offered by its creators outside of the game) at no charge to people who have already purchased a license to the game in such a way that does not hinder the creator's right to exploit its content with absolutely no gain, monetary or otherwise, for myself is enough to argue that what I am offering is well within the limits of Fair Use.

I'd be somewhat surprised if this forum wouldn't support my offer. If a forum user has the ability to follow forum tutorials and use independent software for the express purpose of modifying copywritten material for personal use, then why would my method, which uses the same steps for the same purpose, be illegal?

[cagecrawler]

Because to follow the tutorials and use the tools, you must have a copy of the game. Hosting the mp3s makes them available to people who don't have the game and you then become involved in the distribution of copyrighted material.

The audio is definately copyrighted and is offered outside of the game (I believe there is a CD that could be bought and came with some game editions).

The tools are there to let people get the music themselves, why run the risk of getting yourself into trouble? I only say this because the community has seen its fair share of people who have done similar actions, with both good and bad intentions, with the game and mods and have been banned for it.

[TWiTCH]

Granted, I haven't downloaded the tutorial programs so I can't say for sure, but I'm willing to bet that you don't need the game to complete this tutorial. From what I've read you just need the tutorial programs and the SGA files in the same folder. No DoW disc in the CD-ROM. No unique and valid registration number.

This forum does nothing to make sure that the tutorial files are being used on purchased copies of the game in its entirety. Somebody can download a pirated copy of the game or copy the SGA files from a friend and this site would never know.

On top of that is the fact that without expressed permission from the creators, altering the files to create MP3s in the first place is considered an unauthorized duplication, akin to how it's technically illegal to rip MP3s off of your audio CDs. It's not really even a mod because it doesn't change gameplay. Furthermore, Relic encourages, but does not endorse, modding. There's no statement that I've found that says it's legal.

Which isn't to say that I don't trust this forum to be completely legal. For all I know it has paid Relic for use and alteration of DoW logos, graphics, and trademarked names. There's no doubt in my mind that Relic is aware of what goes on here. So what relicnews claims as being legal is legal in my book.

Side note: A limited soundtrack IS packaged with screen shots and a video but was never/is not available for purchase. I've found no language within the copyright statement that indicates that the music itself is separately copyrighted. Its copyright still remains with the game as a whole. End side note.

If that's not enough, I am a web designer/developer. I can think of a few security methods that requires far more compliance out of my users than what is required here. I'd rather spend hours creating a privatized automated download system (that anyone can use in five minutes) than 40 minutes downloading untested, independent, unsupported software, manually installing some of it, running command lines or installing yet another piece of software to use it, and then manually uninstalling it only to find out that ANY ONE PART may or may not work on my system and may or may not kill the game (which at least one person wrote on here his game stopped working, even after reinstalling). With my luck, I may or may not find all the components in the registry to fully uninstall so that every time my computer boots up it pops up with a "Random.exe could not be found" error.

I've done this sort of thing three or four times before. Not every attempt was successful and something went wrong every time (sometimes my fault, sometimes not). My favorite was the pop-up that said, "Unknown error." during independent software installation. That was the only clue. The only support came a month later from the author who said he had no idea why that would have occurred as it doesn't happen to him. His advice? Try again.

Fourteen forum pages later and the dozens/hundreds/thousands of people who didn't bother to register at this site to voice their displeasure indicates that I'm not the only one who isn't turned on by the modding process. They, like me, feel that if the modding process itself isn't illegal and if modders are allowed to legally enjoy extracted MP3s of the game music then why can't it be available to others who have purchased the game but don't mod?

You say it's illegal. You may be correct but offer no proof or reference. I say I can make it just as legal as modding, if it's not already legal via Fair Use laws. I have backed it up with descriptions on how I believe my actions fall within the Fair Use balance test as well as offered my expertise as a web developer to indicate that I can protect the content.

I'm an artist. I have just as much of an interest in upholding copyright laws as anybody else (probably more so). So, again, I wouldn't have suggested this endeavor in the first place if I thought it was illegal.

[GDVL]

Well... i'm not interested in this debat, even if it is interesting for some people. I just want to say thanks, as I can now listen to the music without launching the game

It's sad to have to do all these steps though... but the music is worth it.

So again, thanks. To all the developpers that provided the tools and for vecctor to summarize all of this \o/

[bman3k]

Worked perfectly, I'm on vista and everything.

Let me try to put it into simpler terms, it took me a while to figure it out as well.

General discription
First make sure the .fda's you extracted (I used Corsix for this) are in the same directory as the files for fda2aifc

After you /run cmd type "cd C:\*the directory of the fda's and the files for fda2aifc*"

The "fda2aifc.exe filename.fda" command will only work in you are in the correct directory

How to convert
First you need to convert DoW FDA files using command "fda2aifc.exe filename.fda"
or "fda2aifc.exe *.fda" This will create files with .aifc extenition. You can
already play them with Winamp.
Now you can decode AIFC files to WAVs: "dec.exe filename.aifc filename.wav".

By "filename" they mean the actual files name like "music_dawnofwartheme", I'm not trying to insult anyone's intelligence, took me a bit to realise this

Or, if you need to convert many files in one instance use "decShell.exe *.aifc".
decShell.exe is a console shell for dec.exe, and it supports filename masks.
Use aifc2fda converter for converting AIFC files back to FDA files.

Hope that can help some people

[Logga]

Where can I get the extractor that works for Vista 64bit?

[Khorney]

having some issues with this, i'm using the reverse function with encshell.exe and aifc2fda.exe, however, the music i put in is slightly slower than it should be, meaning it's out of sync with the video it's supposed to be playing with.

any ideas?

[GDVL]

If it was 2x times slower with a lower tune, I would have said it was due to the number of channels (stereo/mono) or bits (16/8). I had this problem with other games but have not tried in DOW :/

[Mystecore]

If the track sounds slower you've got it at the wrong sample rate. It should be either 44.1khz or 48khz if I remember right.

[Khorney]

seems about right, i sorted out the bit rates for a septate video and it turned out fine. it was the same with Civ3 so i figured it would be that. thanks guys!

[deathwalker383]

i seem to have a problem. i cant find the folder inside the W40k folder that the raptor voice files extract to when i go threw my computer but when i try to open them using spooky's tools it says the files and folders are all right where the should be. solutions?

after pressing a button on the top bar labeled compatibility files they all magically appeared :\

now i get the 0 files found error when i try to convert i have looked threw the tread and i have not seen a solution to this. maybe i messed it can someone please tell me what i did wrong

[pyro.sim]

i get the fda files from spooky tools
then i get the aifc from fda2aifc.exe
when i use decshell.exe *.* it says decoding ...
it decodes all the files. but i dont get a single wav file....it worked one time but never again..
help anyone??


hold on...aifc or aifr????

ummm.. dec.exe is working
dec.exe fa.aifr a.wav

what to do??

[corncobman]

Instead of

decshell.exe *.*

You should use

decshell.exe *.aifc

Otherwise it will try to convert everything in the folder, which you don't want.

[Kasrkin84]

I'm getting the following response whenever I try and do this:

C:\Users\Me\Desktop\copies\fda2aifc.exe *.fda
FDA to AIFC converter v1.0 by jTommy [jTommy@zmail.ru]
Find 0 files

The .fda files are in the same folder as the fda2aifc.exe file, so what exactly am I doing wrong here? Looking back through the thread it seems that others have had the same problem, but no solution has presented itself.

[radiant92]

I've opening up the SGA files in corsix mod studio, but I can't find the imperial guard theme?!

I was able to successfully extract and convert the space marines themes.... But what happened to the others?

I'm using the steam version of dark crusade. It should have every race in there.

[GDVL]

Different musics might be in differents files. Have you opened "DXP2Data-Music.sga" ? The music you search should be titled "music_imperial_guard_theme" (perc/orch are the same, except with only percussion or without orchestra)

[On a side note, that's my favorite music ^^]

[Darth_Overkill]

This seems like as good a place as any to ask:

I am trying to get the Khornate Chaos Lord from the firestorm mod (for DC) into SS. Everything was going fine until I tried to bring over his speech files. While the speech files work fine in DC when I copy them to SS all I get is an annoying beep.

If anyone knows why its doing this and, more importantly, how I can fix it I'd really appreciate the help.

[jONES1979]

This seems like as good a place as any to ask:

I am trying to get the Khornate Chaos Lord from the firestorm mod (for DC) into SS. Everything was going fine until I tried to bring over his speech files. While the speech files work fine in DC when I copy them to SS all I get is an annoying beep.

Maybe you was wrong with setting destination directory?

Anyway, the best solution is the run the game with -dev option added to shortcut and then search for errors in log files...

[corncobman]

If you have any sound folders inside your mod folder, you need to have a _default.rat file present inside the root /sound folder. You can extract it using Corsix's Mod Studio.

[Darth_Overkill]

Thank you CornCobMan,
putting that file in was all it needed so now it all works fine.

[Gabriel Angelos]

Dammit, I forgot again.

Whenever I type fda2aifc.exe *.fda it says that it cant recognize the command.

Vectors missing pic is really a blow >.<

[Robrain]

Really random, I seem to remember a post somewhere mentioning this once upon a time...

Does anyone know what the file location is for the sort of "ping" sound effect that happens when you select a spot to Deep Strike your Dreadnoughts? I looked all over the blasted Dawn of War filesystem and cannot find it. Any help?

Again, this isn't the "impact" or "woosh" sound effect from the deep strike, it's basically the cursor-ping sound effect.