[REQ] Help with SH3C and Radio files

[stokeyblokey]

Having messed with this idea for a few days and explored a few options I think it may not even be possible...but as I don't understand what SH3C does with the "date" folders when implementing the built in Radio/News Mod I am stuck.

I wanted to split a huge collection of radio broadcasts that I have in mp3 format into their own "date" folders and have them appear only once, on the correct date - as with the radio.wav files included with SH3C.

After reading the user guide for SH3C a couple of times, I have tried creating the folders with the exact same structure (eg: 19391013>data>Sound>Gramaphone) and inserting the files there but they seem to play out of sequence, many well before the date they are "due" on.

This happens with original-named mp3 files and ones converted to "radio.wav" as I thought perhaps that was the issue.

I am very carefully only starting the game via SH3C, have tried both randomised gramaphone tracks and un-randomised, am only applying changes and the reloading the game whilst in port, but still it is playing them out of sequence...

And the really confusing part: since I was having to skip through tons of music to get to the radio broadcasts I deleted all the music files from C:\Program Files\Ubisoft\SilentHunterIII\data\Sound\Gramophon e so there was nothing left for it to play as I had ~350 tunes in there...and it still finds music from somewhere and plays that, as well as the radio files out of sequence!

I have reinstalled both SH3 and GWX then SH3C 3.2 and the config files for GWX andf changed nothing else at all in case I had messed something up with a previous mod, same issues.

Now I am clearly out of my depth here and would appreciate some advice from anyone familiar with how this all works in SH3C - JSCones or anyone, help!

My eventual aim was to create a JSGME enabled mod that would stick a year's worth of radio news broadcasts in to play at their historical dates but I am getting nowhere fast at the moment.

[frau kaleun]

Not sure if this is part of the problem, but the way I understand the Date folders is this: whatever is in a particular Date folder will be written into the game any time you launch it with a starting in-game date that is on or after the date specified by the folder, up until you launch it with a starting in-game date that is on or after the date of the next dated folder.

So if you have a Date folder 19390901, and the next one is 19400101, everything in 19390901 will be enabled every time you load the game and your in-game date is on or after Sept 1 1939, and it will continue to add all that stuff to the game until you've played to or past Jan 1 1940, at which point it will start enabling the stuff in the next folder instead the next time you exit the game and relaunch it.

If you want files be there on one specific day and that day only, you'd have to make Date folders for each individual day in order (19390901, 19390902, 19390903, etc.). But that would only work for you if you exited and re-entered the game every time the date changed in-game, otherwise you'd still be hearing Sept 1's broadcasts on Sept 2, 3, 4, and so on, until you exited and relaunched and Commander could enable stuff from the folder that applies to whatever your new in-game date is.

(Also if you are not rolling back Commander either manually or automatically, anything written into the game during one session will remain in the game until you either remove it manually or overwrite it with a different file of the same name.)

[stokeyblokey]

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

Not sure if this is part of the problem, but the way I understand the Date folders is this: whatever is in a particular Date folder will be written into the game any time you launch it with a starting in-game date that is on or after the date specified by the folder, up until you launch it with a starting in-game date that is on or after the date of the next dated folder.

So if you have a Date folder 19390901, and the next one is 19400101, everything in 19390901 will be enabled every time you load the game and your in-game date is on or after Sept 1 1939, and it will continue to add all that stuff to the game until you've played to or past Jan 1 1940, at which point it will start enabling the stuff in the next folder instead the next time you exit the game and relaunch it.

If you want files be there on one specific day and that day only, you'd have to make Date folders for each individual day in order (19390901, 19390902, 19390903, etc.). But that would only work for you if you exited and re-entered the game every time the date changed in-game, otherwise you'd still be hearing Sept 1's broadcasts on Sept 2, 3, 4, and so on, until you exited and relaunched and Commander could enable stuff from the folder that applies to whatever your new in-game date is.

Damn, I was beginning to think that might be the case after all this messing and testing, testing and messing I have been doing.

(Also if you are not rolling back Commander either manually or automatically, anything written into the game during one session will remain in the game until you either remove it manually or overwrite it with a different file of the same name.)

I always have Commander set to auto-rollback to save my but glad you reminded me anyhow

Ah pants, looks like this might be a non starter then leaving the only alternative to do what Tarjak did and mix up a long list of music and "generic" radio brodcasts that are not date-reliant cos the last thing I wanted was anachronistic radio...and I have over 2gb of radio that I wanted to use to go through and find non-date specific files now *groans*

I am off to mow the lawn, thanks for the help Frau

[frau kaleun]

You're welcome. I don't use 'historical' radio broadcasts of speeches and news for this very reason. It's unfortunate but I can't get past the 'it's playing on the wrong day!' thing either.

[Fish In The Water]

Originally Posted by stokeyblokey

...the only alternative to do what Tarjak did and mix up a long list of music and "generic" radio brodcasts that are not date-reliant cos the last thing I wanted was anachronistic radio.

I can see how this would bother some folks, but for me it's not a major issue...

The way I look at it, the sheer value of historical immersion more than outweighs the minor annoyance of exact chronology. If something does happen to play 'on the wrong day' I just quietly tell myself it's a rebroadcast and carry on.

Obviously it's a personal choice, but for me I'd rather hear the historical report (on or around the correct date) than a bunch of generic ones that have little bearing to what's actually going on.

[irish1958]

See War Radio Mod for how to set up the correct structure, how to randomize the gramophone tracts, and how to get the the correct radio broadcast to play on the correct date via SH3CMDR.
MP3: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/down...o=file&id=1068
Ogg: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/down...o=file&id=1067

[stokeyblokey]

Originally Posted by irish1958

See War Radio Mod for how to set up the correct structure, how to randomize the gramophone tracts, and how to get the the correct radio broadcast to play on the correct date via SH3CMDR...

Intriguing, thanks for the links irish1958. I had looked for anything like my idea using forum search but after dredging through tons of unrelated posts (why does it always bring up such random, unrelated stuff?!) I had only found TarJak's Radio Deutschland/England etc ones and they are just a nicely mixed single track so not really relevant.

I am downloading your Mod now to have a look, apologies for not even knowing you had made this, and thank you in advance for your help

EDIT: Thanks to Irish1958 I think I have this straight in my head now and this thread can be closed/deleted by Mod/Admin - thanks again to Frau and Irish