Re: Reworking the /data/sound/radio/radio config to work with other radio bits...

[Mad Mardigan]

1st time actually posting a thread, in some time.. though I have commented on other threads... I started this so as to NOT clutter up another thread & derail it..

Ok, here is My quandary...

Am working with We dive at Dawn, the Brit sub action mega for SH4 ( obviously SH4, but that aside...) thing is.. radio wise.. it's a bit of a Sahara desert there. Other than this.. I got it running pretty much like a well oiled machine. So...

I decided to look at beefing it up. I went to initially see of adding in Florida Sailor's ''BBC Radio 1939 to 1945 MOD''.. well, that was a somewhat wash out. I did find however, that Fred8615, thoughtfully re uploaded FS's earlier on mod ''BBC World''... only issue there with that 1.. is it DOES NOT cover from '39 to '41, only covers from '41 to from what I can see is the end of the war..

So... I went & asked if Fred, had the updated mod.. Alas.. no go. Fred only had that copy of the older mod & was satisfied with it, since he only does the U.S. side of it all.. which is fine.. I respect that.

So, I turned to another fount of info, s7rikeback who, while did not have a copy available, did however point out a couple of other mods that looked as they would be a fit to tie into & use as a replacement to flesh out the BBC radio roster. Both do cover the period from '39 & up... which is grand.

My only issue is, getting them all to work together, as a cohesive whole when it comes to listening to the radio. there are a couple that don't play & some that do. I did check each folder & files to ensure that they are there & work independently outside the mod (using VLC to listen to them all & they worked...)

I believe the issue may lie in the radio config file.. and would appreciate any info to get all of this working together when I go in game to play We dive at dawn.

The other mods are:

Updated BBC Radio Mod by LesBaker (know it's listed as for SH5, but.. it is in the right format & should work with SH4)

Wetton's BBC Radio Mod by Wetton (Again, listed as above with LesBaker's mod, same belief in it working with SH4, as well...)

Am including the radio config as well:

radio - notepad copied:

[GENERAL]
RadioRealism=Yes
StartCh=1

[CHANNEL]
Name=Washington
Folder=Washington
Freq=22
Antenna=01.01.1930-01.01.2000:44.16,-35.10:100000
;MusicVolumeOnNews takes values from 0.01 to 1
MusicVolumeOnNews=0.4

[CHANNEL]
Name=BBC39
Folder=BBC39
Freq=32
Antenna=01.01.1930-01.01.1940: 51.45,-0.12:100000
MusicVolumeOnNews=0.01

[CHANNEL]
Name=BBC40
Folder=BBC40
Freq=42
Antenna=01.01.1940-01.01.1941: 51.45,-0.12:100000
MusicVolumeOnNews=0.01

[CHANNEL]
Name=RRG
Folder=RRG
Freq=44
Antenna=01.01.1930-05.12.1945: 52.50, -13.45:100000
MusicVolumeOnNews=.03

[CHANNEL]
Name=BBC41
Folder=BBC41
Freq=52
Antenna=01.01.1941-01.01.1942: 51.45,-0.12:100000
MusicVolumeOnNews=0.01

[CHANNEL]
Name=DHB
Folder=DHB
Freq=57
Antenna=01.01.1930-05.12.1945: 52.50, -12.50:100000
MusicVolumeOnNews=.03

[CHANNEL]
Name=BBC42
Folder=BBC42
Freq=62
Antenna=01.01.1942-01.01.1943: 51.45,-0.12:100000
MusicVolumeOnNews=0.01

[CHANNEL]
Name=BBC43
Folder=BBC43
Freq=72
Antenna=01.01.1943-01.01.1944: 51.45,-0.12:100000
MusicVolumeOnNews=0.01

[CHANNEL]
Name=BBC
Folder=BBC
Freq=78
Antenna=01.01.1930-01.01.1948:44.16,35.10:100000
MusicVolumeOnNews=.01


[CHANNEL]
Name=BBC44
Folder=BBC44
Freq=82
Antenna=01.01.1944-01.01.1945: 51.45,-0.12:100000
MusicVolumeOnNews=0.01

[CHANNEL]
Name=BBC45
Folder=BBC45
Freq=92
Antenna=01.01.1945-01.01.1946: 51.45,-0.12:100000
MusicVolumeOnNews=0.01

[CHANNEL]
Name=BBC
Folder=BBC
Freq=102
Antenna=01.01.1941-01.01.1946: 51.45,-0.12:100000
MusicVolumeOnNews=0.1

[CHANNEL]
Name=Radio Tokyo
Folder=NHK
Freq=112
Antenna=01.01.1941-01.01.1946:35.70,139.77:100000
MusicVolumeOnNews=0.01

[CHANNEL]
Name=Radio Vladivostok
Folder=USSR
Freq=122
Antenna=01.01.1939-01.01.1946:43.12,131.92:100000
MusicVolumeOnNews=0.01

End copy...



As I have said, any info to get all of this working together when I go in game to play We dive at dawn... will be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks, Mad Mardigan out...



p.s.

The radio config, that was there for the main radio set up, is safely tucked away in back up mode.. this copy/pasted radio config, is the work that I cobbled together from all of the mods into 1 radio config file & in its proper placement where it needs to be.. some of the folder/files from both mods that s7rikeback provided info on, are the areas that I am having play issues with, when I use the radio in game... some play, some don't. Just f.y.i. passed along.. thanks.

[propbeanie]

The cool thing about the "radio" is that you can "change stations". that is in effect what happens when you load the different "stations". The easiest way to manage all that used to be with the use of Digital Trucker's Radio Station Manager. Windows 10 especially can be rather finicky about it, but Windows 7 can also. Once you get it set-up though, it is much easier to deal with the radio stations, and build a set of them that you like. There is a mod discussion thread link on the download page. You have to pay attention to the details with it. Using it on the CBS Radio (can't remember the correct name) can fix the date error in it that can CTD your game. Good stuff, that I wish was update-able, like a mod... lol

[Mad Mardigan]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

The cool thing about the "radio" is that you can "change stations". that is in effect what happens when you load the different "stations". The easiest way to manage all that used to be with the use of Digital Trucker's Radio Station Manager. Windows 10 especially can be rather finicky about it, but Windows 7 can also. Once you get it set-up though, it is much easier to deal with the radio stations, and build a set of them that you like. There is a mod discussion thread link on the download page. You have to pay attention to the details with it. Using it on the CBS Radio (can't remember the correct name) can fix the date error in it that can CTD your game. Good stuff, that I wish was update-able, like a mod... lol

propbeanie...

I can so relate about the whole 'wishing I was update-able, like a mod' comment...

First off, want to thank you for pointing out that Radio station manager, from Digital Trucker. It works with Win 10, for Me.. but to be frank, the version I have is Win 10 Pro v1909, updated to the latest (which ironically, occurred the other day, no less... )

Will be looking into using it more, with all the SH variations I have from 3 to 5... have to wonder if I truly know just what I've gotten Myself into though...

In all seriousness... I enjoy listening to music, especially with older music. I grew up listening to stuff from the late end of the 30's & everything from there up. Because of that, may have just found My niche for it what with SH & ensuring that things musical, are in the correctness of timing for them.

That said... have found errors in some of what I have radio wise with this muddle.. and hopefully I can find others who have more.. knowledge, experience than Me, to get through the Jurassic morass.

Seems I am going to have to go through the whole shooting match & cross verify everything. If worse comes down to it, may see of setting up a whole mod structure Myself.. provided I can find info on how to go about that, beyond the bit of digging into this that I've done, thus far...

Just hope I can keep My sanity, throughout it all... ( here comes the I love Myself brigade to take Me away... They're comin' to take Me away haha... ) Now I know how a guy feels, about getting obsessive about tearing down a classic to the bare bones & rebuilding it from the ground up, doing a full out restoration...

Right now, have 1 folder gone through out of it all & going to take a break... We dive at dawn, isn't going any where, so will be there when I come back to it.

[propbeanie]

Issues with the radio, are of course, why some folks prefer the "phonograph", because you load your mp3 or ogg vorbis songs into the folder, and you hit "Play", and off it goes just playing one song after the other, with no "station identification" breaks or "we interrupt this program for a special news update!" but of course, there-in lies the charm of the "radio" in the game. Special announcements can occur based upon date, if the author of the mod incorporated them in, which you can look at those dates with Digital Truckers RSM proggy... cool beans, but you can, as you have found, lose hours noodling in the files...

[Mad Mardigan]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

Issues with the radio, are of course, why some folks prefer the "phonograph", because you load your mp3 or ogg vorbis songs into the folder, and you hit "Play", and off it goes just playing one song after the other, with no "station identification" breaks or "we interrupt this program for a special news update!" but of course, there-in lies the charm of the "radio" in the game. Special announcements can occur based upon date, if the author of the mod incorporated them in, which you can look at those dates with Digital Truckers RSM proggy... cool beans, but you can, as you have found, lose hours noodling in the files...

True... true... but.. worth the time & effort when all is said & done. NOT to forget to mention the satisfaction that comes with completion, not to mention successful completion, at that.

Now that you mention it.. I do seem to recall that the Gramophone section was a bit.. Sahara desert, as well...

Could possibly take & copy/paste the songs from out of the Radio section & drop them in there.. to round it out... make it where you could listen to those through either the radio or the phonograph aka Gramophone... something else to add to the do list... ahh heck , I've done stepped into it NOW... another fine mess you've gotten us into Ollie...

p.s.

I do so happen to have the SH4 shuffler mod, that does like what SH3Commander did in the settings option & shuffles the music tracks about, so's that it's not playing them repetitiously, so you get a different start off. Good thing to have, in My book... A shame that there was NOT an SH4 version of Commander done up.. I would but no idea where to start to even begin to see of converting SH3Commander over to usability for SH4... ahh well.. will have to make do with the SH4 Gramophone Randomizer.

[Havan_IronOak]

I recently struggled with getting the KMGB radio mod to work with Captain Midnight mod.



I believe that the radio.ini that you have listed has one issue that I see, Some of the stations are too close together. I missed that the first time I tried and it mattered. Fixing that solved my problem.


I'm not sure why but the KMGB mod was very clear that "Channels should be at least 10 frequencies apart to avoid overlap."


And I think that they need to be in order, but it looks like you're fine there.

Also, MusicVolumeOnNews ... As I understand it, that's the volume at which you want the music files to play when an event (such as a news bulletin) has been triggered. I've been using 0.01 for all mine. Not sure why you'd want one to be 0.40 unless you're sure that all the random music in that station's folder is instrumental. Otherwise you'll have folks singing over the news.

I'd suggest you re-assign the frequencies and try it again.


Also it seems to me that the radio is a bit more elegant in that it plays music randomly. The Gramophone uses the same order over & over. I switched the radio.ini to have RadioRealism=No as well. I wasn't sure if that was to add static but One clear benefit is that the radio will continue to play when you submerge. I like to think that I have Filo T. Farnsworth as one of my crewmen and he's rigged up a towed array antenna. (Actually I was just getting annoyed at the radio having to cut out every time an airplane came by.