149 réponses à ce sujet

[0x30A88]

DahliaLynn wrote...

I don't really understand why you are having problems inserting sounds in the cutscene editor.
Though for action sequences it may be tedious, but by clicking on the music symbol you should be able to find a large library of soundfiles by folder, then place the speaker where you want the sound to be emitted.

The sounds however, have confusing names, thus making it hard to find the spesific sound you wish. Why not
hm_faint_stone instead of the confusing name it now has.......

[BloodsongVengeance]

alan;



no, i can place sounds in the cutscene. but... okay, i think i know what the problem is. i was looking at the sound palette on a machine that doesnt have a sound card installed. i see them in the palette at home.



but i dont see all the sounds here in the palette. if i want sword clangs and such... where can i find those? bah, we should open a thread on the cutscene group for this.



but to chip in my 2 cents... i didnt use ANY in-area creatures for 'it takes a thief,' yet the pc's character's animations had footsteps sounds, wheres the palette zevran copy didn't. that was kinda annoying, actually. as i didnt really WANT footstep sounds.



ps: hey! i finally watched your vid with sound... and there's no sound! you cheater ;D good music, though. is that from the game, or elsewhere?



@Beerfish: isn't there.... i dunno some sort of sound file directory? like the animations? because the animations in the game/2da are different than the ones in your listings. is the only option we have for sounds at the moment limited to the ones on the palette? :/ i mean... that seems like limiting the preset animations to the ones on that first animation load window, and not having a custom load option.

[AlanSJF]

BloodsongVengeance wrote...

ps: hey! i finally watched your vid with sound... and there's no sound! you cheater ;D good music, though. is that from the game, or elsewhere?

Sadly, there was no sound because none of the sounds/sound fx that should have played in-game did. Practically the whole cutscene exported without sound. Same old problem. Hence using music to cover up the silence - and yes, the music is from the game, selected with the aid of DA Extractor and then added to the video in Windows Live Movie Maker.

[BloodsongVengeance]

maybe we should ask those warden's fall guys how they did theirs. unless they did all custom sounds, which i wouldn't put past them.

  actually, alan, i've been thinking... where is your master object in relation to the actors that are supposed to be making sounds?  do you put that close to the actors, or do you leave that off at 0/0/0?  have you tried mucking with that at all in relation to your sound problem?

Modifié par BloodsongVengeance, 24 octobre 2010 - 02:53 .

[AlanSJF]

BloodsongVengeance wrote...

maybe we should ask those warden's fall guys how they did theirs. unless they did all custom sounds, which i wouldn't put past them.

  actually, alan, i've been thinking... where is your master object in relation to the actors that are supposed to be making sounds?  do you put that close to the actors, or do you leave that off at 0/0/0?  have you tried mucking with that at all in relation to your sound problem?

Hey, BloodsongVengeance.

I've always moved the master object to roughly the centre of where the majority of the action in the scene takes place - though moving it continuously throughout the scene is something I've been meaning to try but haven't gotten around to yet.

And oddly enough, I wonder now if proximity of the master object may not be part of the problem, at least when it comes to sizable exterior scenes. Because I've been working with a small interior scene, and guess what - I've tested my new scene in-game, and every single sound that should play actually does play. I'm still in shock.
 
I have to do a second scene now which takes place in a larger room (rougly double the size) so it'll be interesting to see - well, hear - how that effects things ...

Modifié par AlanSJF, 24 octobre 2010 - 04:11 .

[AlanSJF]

Well, the whole animation sound issue has taken an interesting twist.

Purely to see if using interiors has any influence on whether or not animation sounds and sound fx export correctly and are audible in-game, I decided to try a little scene (actually two scenes, set in two different interiors) that fills in some of the backstory for two of the characters from my Night Attack video. On the evidence of this, it seems that switching to interiors does make quite a bit of difference:

www.youtube.com/watch

So now I don't know what to think. Two cutscenes, both interior scenes, both with sound. I've even used animations that when used previously in exterior scenes played silently in-game - yet here all the ambient/movement sounds are perfectly audible. Weird ...

[Lord Methrid]

Nicely done Alan! I loved every moment of it!

[AlanSJF]

Lord Methrid wrote...

Nicely done Alan! I loved every moment of it!

Thanks, Lord Methrid.

[DahliaLynn]

AlanSJF wrote...


So now I don't know what to think. Two cutscenes, both interior scenes, both with sound. I've even used animations that when used previously in exterior scenes played silently in-game - yet here all the ambient/movement sounds are perfectly audible. Weird ...

Question:

(And this is speculation)
The interior areas you were using in your cutscene are already preset in the game . They already have audio presets. I'm thinking this may have something to do with your animation sounds becoming audible -or not.

Are you using custom areas for your exterior shots? I know there are audio presets in the vanilla areas, and am wondering if that has anything to do with it. i.e.  audio volumes, etc.

Modifié par DahliaLynn, 31 octobre 2010 - 01:22 .

[BloodsongVengeance]

i think we should do a sound investigation study in the cutscene creators guild.



meanwhile, another sample -- a promo video for my nug chase minigame. thank goodness im done hammering on the actual game part! this is just for fun

[AlanSJF]

DahliaLynn wrote...

AlanSJF wrote...


So now I don't know what to think. Two cutscenes, both interior scenes, both with sound. I've even used animations that when used previously in exterior scenes played silently in-game - yet here all the ambient/movement sounds are perfectly audible. Weird ...

Question:

(And this is speculation)
The interior areas you were using in your cutscene are already preset in the game . They already have audio presets. I'm thinking this may have something to do with your animation sounds becoming audible -or not.

Are you using custom areas for your exterior shots? I know there are audio presets in the vanilla areas, and am wondering if that has anything to do with it. i.e.  audio volumes, etc.

You're half right, DahliaLynn.

The tavern I used in the first part is a modified version of the Redcliffe village tavern from the game - but all I used was the actual tavern architecture, a bit of which I changed - eg, replacing the stairs with the corridor leading to the backroom where the second part of the scene takes place.

That backroom however, is entirely my own creation. You only see about a third of it in the video - it's about twice the size of the tavern (the sapce is needed for another part of that story, which I might get around to one day).


In both cases I set the audio, music and reverb volumes myself (ditto my exteriors).

All four exteriors I've used in my cutscenes I built from scratch as well - new modules, levels, areas, the works. In some of them sounds played, in others not (or were not audible in-game). The majority of the creatures I've used are built from scatch, too, for that matter.

[Lord Methrid]

Did you make sure your creatures (characters) were in the area before importing the area into the cutscene editor? If you do this, then right click on the creature in the cutscene editor, you can unlock the creature allowing you to use it freely.

This should also play all sounds connected with that creature.


Also, make sure that your sound files used for other parts of the cutscene, are in PCM 24 kHz 16 bit mono format.

Modifié par Lord Methrid, 31 octobre 2010 - 10:25 .

[DahliaLynn]

AlanSJF wrote...

DahliaLynn wrote...

AlanSJF wrote...


So now I don't know what to think. Two cutscenes, both interior scenes, both with sound. I've even used animations that when used previously in exterior scenes played silently in-game - yet here all the ambient/movement sounds are perfectly audible. Weird ...

Question:

(And this is speculation)
The interior areas you were using in your cutscene are already preset in the game . They already have audio presets. I'm thinking this may have something to do with your animation sounds becoming audible -or not.

Are you using custom areas for your exterior shots? I know there are audio presets in the vanilla areas, and am wondering if that has anything to do with it. i.e.  audio volumes, etc.

You're half right, DahliaLynn.

The tavern I used in the first part is a modified version of the Redcliffe village tavern from the game - but all I used was the actual tavern architecture, a bit of which I changed - eg, replacing the stairs with the corridor leading to the backroom where the second part of the scene takes place.

That backroom however, is entirely my own creation. You only see about a third of it in the video - it's about twice the size of the tavern (the sapce is needed for another part of that story, which I might get around to one day).


In both cases I set the audio, music and reverb volumes myself (ditto my exteriors).

All four exteriors I've used in my cutscenes I built from scratch as well - new modules, levels, areas, the works. In some of them sounds played, in others not (or were not audible in-game). The majority of the creatures I've used are built from scatch, too, for that matter.

Okay, that's quite impressive there btw!

I'm not sure if this was mentioned before, but expanding on what Lord Methrid said, I understand that placing creatures in your area, then activating them in your CS editor can allow for audible sounds.

Also, you might want to experiment by using an all vanilla external area (where you are sure sounds play) with your exterior cutscene and test if you hear sounds.This way at least you can find out if it has anything to do with your custom settings. 

Another thing may be, that not all animations have sounds "attached" to them, but I'm sure you've already experimented with that.

Testing with vanilla in comparison to custom, then noting the differences can be a good way to find things out. (that would be one approach I would try)
And if you do manage to find the answers...don't forget to inform us of your findings!

Modifié par DahliaLynn, 02 novembre 2010 - 11:09 .

[AlanSJF]

Lord Methrid: Yep, I always place my characters in the area editor and then activate them in the cutscene editor - prompted by a post on these forums (one of yours?) suggesting this is the way to go if you want animation sounds to play. Sometimes they do, but too often they don't.



DahliaLynn: Doing a compare and contrast with vanilla exteriors is a good idea - I'll add it to the list of things to try. Also, I make a habit of checking animations I want to use in the events editor, so I'm always aware of which animations should have attached audio - but again, that isn't any guarantee that the audio will play.

[DahliaLynn]

@AlanSJF: I just had a thought.
Aside from waiting to hear about your findings, I was wondering if you modified the animations in any way, such as used weight, slow them down, or anything that may differ from the original animation, perhaps causing it's associated sound to "de-link"?

Modifié par DahliaLynn, 03 novembre 2010 - 12:25 .

[Yara C.]

@AlanSJF: some annotations...
For your comparison: do you see a text layer over your areas in the area editor? If not, the fonts.erf could be useful for your investigation. If it is installed sound definitions will become visible in the area editor. May be useful. (http://www.dragonage...ile.php?id=1110)

Further, I have read in another forum that something worked only if the area (built from scratch) was exported from the single player module. Sorry, I don´t remember what it was exactly. It was not related to sound otherwise I would have kept in mind. Perhaps it makes a difference for sound too from where you export your areas built from scratch. (Respect)

Using custom areas I can´t detect a difference between exterior and interior areas in my cutscenes. Area sound worked well.
To my impression the problem of not-audible animation sound seems to exist since the release of the Toolset. The use of the animation event editor seems to me no really satisfying solution (volume too low or no effect). And I doubt that it´s a less laborious method to get the sounds attached to animations than to use the sound resources in the cutscene editor.  (assumed, you need them only in cutscenes) After a while you know where the relevant resources are located.

BTW: I like your cutscenes, especially how you create atmosphere, tension...

Modifié par Yara Cousland, 05 novembre 2010 - 12:45 .

[AlanSJF]

Hi all.

First off, I've had a few technical issues to deal with the last week or so - my PC starting to show it's age, I think - and as a result I've only managed one quick experiment.

Using the Party Camp as a test area - i.e., new area, party camp as the layout, all the settings copied and pasted - I placed 3 new creatures, each with different armour and weapons, and put together a quick cutscene using a variety of animations that I've used in my previous scenes. All the animations I used have associated audio, but in some cases that audio did not export or was inaudible when I ran the cutscenes in-game.

I deliberately chose different weapons and armour, as I noticed that when I have managed to get animation sounds and sound fx to play in-game - for example, in my tavern scene and in the Night Attack scene - my characters were wearing particular types of armour (light, rogue-appropriate), so I've been wondering if that may have anything to do with it.

Anyway, I exported the test cutscene and ran it in-game, and every single animation sound was audible. I used a single fixed camera, GAD where appropriate, had the Master object placed directly above the three actors and set to be used for LOD.

In and of itself, that doesn't really prove anything. What I plan to do is repeat this experiment - same creatures, same animations - but using various different exterior and interior areas from the game, and then again using each of my own custom areas. Then I'll repeat the whole sequence again, changing one or two elements at a time; camera and master object position, use of transitions and changes to the weight of the animations, etc.

All of which will take a bit of time, and is dependent on whether or not my PC decides to keep working, but fingers crossed I'll have something more definitive to report before too long.

[DahliaLynn]

AlanSJF wrote...

Using the Party Camp as a test area - i.e., new area, party camp as the layout, all the settings copied and pasted - I placed 3 new creatures, each with different armour and weapons, and put together a quick cutscene using a variety of animations that I've used in my previous scenes. All the animations I used have associated audio, but in some cases that audio did not export or was inaudible when I ran the cutscenes in-game.

What settings did you copy and paste? What I was thinking is if you took the exact same animations, same armor, basically copy and pasted your first scene including creatures etc, left the camps area settings alone,  and tested in the camp as in your example, do you get the exact same results? Or do you note differences. If there are differences, then I would assume the answer is area related.

Anyway, I exported the test cutscene and ran it in-game, and every single animation sound was audible. I used a single fixed camera, GAD where appropriate, had the Master object placed directly above the three actors and set to be used for LOD.

Was this different than your original problematic exterior scene?


I also would like to repeat a previous question, Have you changed the length of these animations, i.e. slow down speed up. Just wondering if this may disengage the sound "link"

Modifié par DahliaLynn, 08 novembre 2010 - 01:59 .

[AlanSJF]

DahliaLynn wrote...

AlanSJF wrote...

Using the Party Camp as a test area - i.e., new area, party camp as the layout, all the settings copied and pasted - I placed 3 new creatures, each with different armour and weapons, and put together a quick cutscene using a variety of animations that I've used in my previous scenes. All the animations I used have associated audio, but in some cases that audio did not export or was inaudible when I ran the cutscenes in-game.

What settings did you copy and paste? What I was thinking is if you took the exact same animations, same armor, basically copy and pasted your first scene including creatures etc, left the camps area settings alone,  and tested in the camp as in your example, do you get the exact same results? Or do you note differences. If there are differences, then I would assume the answer is area related.

Anyway, I exported the test cutscene and ran it in-game, and every single animation sound was audible. I used a single fixed camera, GAD where appropriate, had the Master object placed directly above the three actors and set to be used for LOD.

Was this different than your original problematic exterior scene?


I also would like to repeat a previous question, Have you changed the length of these animations, i.e. slow down speed up. Just wondering if this may disengage the sound "link"

The copied & pasted settings I mentioned were the audio, reverb and music volumes.

As to your second question, in the above test I didn't make any changes to the weight or length of the animations, and I used no transitions. In my cutscenes where sound has been a problem - that's to say all 4 exterior cutscenes - weight/length of animation (with or without transitions) didn't seem to effect the audio - there are examples of unaltered as well as altered animations playing with sound in-game, and also playing without sound in-game.

As things stand now I suspect  it is area related, but I still have a bunch of things to try.

[DahliaLynn]

AlanSJF wrote...

The copied & pasted settings I mentioned were the audio, reverb and music volumes.

Ahh, well I suggested using the vanilla area (without touching it) to see if your scene playes sounds without setting any audio volumes and the like. This way you can find out if indeed it was your settings in the area that cause this problem. i.e. just copying the animations keys cams and actors into camp

or better yet, keep your cutscene as it is in the editor and simply change the area to vanilla

(I'm being persistent because I'm really curious as to your findings

Modifié par DahliaLynn, 08 novembre 2010 - 06:34 .

[AlanSJF]

or better yet, keep your cutscene as it is in the editor and simply change the area to vanilla

Doh! Why didn't I think of that? It's a hell of a lot easier than the rigmarole I've had in mind.

I'll give it a go asap - in fact I'll probably try it with all my problematic exterior scenes - and report back. Stay tuned ...

[AlanSJF]

Okay, I'm having some trouble changing my areas from custom to vanilla.



I can change them in the cutscene editor - eg, select camp100ar_camp_plains in the object inspector, and the change occurs in the toolset - and then when I export it seems to go without a hitch, only when I run the scene in-game it takes place in the original custom area, not the camp I thought I'd moved it to.



So, is there something else I need to do other than change the area and re-export? I'm stumped ...

[Yara C.]

It is not totally clear to me what you have exported exactly. The vanilla area was newly created? Did you keep in mind to (re-) export both: the area and the cutscene? (Only to exclude this)

Did you run the cutscene by the -autologin - runscript command? Then it should work as described.
As it does for me in my tests.

Edit: Sorry, I have overlooked that you are exporting from the single player module. That´s not working for me because of the missing campaign.cif.

Modifié par Yara Cousland, 09 novembre 2010 - 08:35 .

[AlanSJF]

Yara Cousland wrote...

It is not totally clear to me what you have exported exactly. The vanilla area was newly created? Did you keep in mind to (re-) export both: the area and the cutscene? (Only to exclude this)

Did you run the cutscene by the -autologin - runscript command? Then it should work as described.
As it does for me in my tests.

Edit: Sorry, I have overlooked that you are exporting from the single player module. That´s not working for me because of the missing campaign.cif.

Okay, let me try to clarify exactly what I'm trying to do.

Basically I'm trying to switch the custom areas I've used for my cutscenes for vanilla areas - i.e. pre-existing areas from the game (in this case, the party camp). The aim  is to try and determine if the sound issues I've been having with my cutscenes (the ones using exterior areas, at least) can be traced back to settings I've used in those areas. The question I'm trying to answer is, if I run the cutscene in a non-custom area will animation sounds and sound fx still be missing, as they have been when I use my own custom areas?

Following DahliaLynn's suggestion, I'm attempting to switch areas in the cutscene editor - I'm not changing anything else, just the area.

I can make the switch in the cutscene editor, export the new version of the cutscene, and also export the new area. However, when I run the cutscene in-game, all I get is the orignal cutscene - i.e. the one taking place in the custom area - and not the new version taking place in the party camp.

I've tried with two different cutscenes - 'The Rescue' and 'Into the Deep Woods' - but I can't get the new versions to run in-game, just the originals.

Is the fact I'm running them from the original triggers the problem? If so, I'm not sure what to do, as I can't add a new trigger to the party camp area as any changes I make to it in the toolset can't be saved.

[Yara C.]

Hi Alan,

thanks for the detailed explanation. The intention and by which approach had been already clear for me. BTW, I am still exploring too if we can find out more about sounds associated to animations. I had only one case (in an interior area) where it worked in a cutscene - and then never again.
I have interpretated the example camp100ar_camp_plains as a hint that you are exporting from the single player module with which I can´t test. There may differences...(Or do you have duplicated it into your module?)

Related to the aspect 'trigger problem' : a) Why can´t you save changes? (Duplicate - check out?) Any reason why you can´t test it with the autologin- runscript command to avoid temporarily the trigger and check if the result will be the same?

Modifié par Yara Cousland, 10 novembre 2010 - 12:04 .