F-4E Custom Music

[too-cool]

I can create mp3's, wave, ogg etc all day but I don't know how to create music for the F-4E in DCS. What I don't know is how to create the (sdef) file that is also needed and what program the sdef is created in and how, also where does it go once created. Help Please. Thanks  TC

[Zabuzard]

Have a look here:

https://f4.manuals.heatblur.se/dcs/tape_player.html#custom-songs

And on the linked SDEF page.

If anything is unclear, just ask

[too-cool]

8 hours ago, Zabuzard said:

Have a look here:

https://f4.manuals.heatblur.se/dcs/tape_player.html#custom-songs

And on the linked SDEF page.

If anything is unclear, just ask

I saw that but what I need to know is how to create the SDEF file that is also needed?  TC

[Zabuzard]

I saw that but what I need to know is how to create the SDEF file that is also needed?  TC

They are just text files. You can create and edit them with Notepad or similar.

The manual tells you where to put them and if you follow the link, it explains how to make them as well. I would suggest just copying one of the existing and simply editing the path/name of the sound file listed in it.

[too-cool]

23 hours ago, Zabuzard said:

They are just text files. You can create and edit them with Notepad or similar.

The manual tells you where to put them and if you follow the link, it explains how to make them as well. I would suggest just copying one of the existing and simply editing the path/name of the sound file listed in it.

I'm just not understanding this, there are (3) folders 1 listed under music (TapePlayer) and 2 Listed under Sound (SDEF and TapePlayer). I placed the .wav in both TapePlayer folder and the Text SDEF in the SDEF folder. Can't get it to work.  TC

 

PS, Do I just drop the wave files into the folder or do I need to create a separate folder for my custom songs and if so is a special folder name required ie; TapePlayer 2?

Edited July 26, 2024 by too-cool
correction

[Zabuzard]

I'm just not understanding this, there are (3) folders 1 listed under music (TapePlayer) and 2 Listed under Sound (SDEF and TapePlayer). I placed the .wav in both TapePlayer folder and the Text SDEF in the SDEF folder. Can't get it to work.  TC
 
PS, Do I just drop the wave files into the folder or do I need to create a separate folder for my custom songs and if so is a special folder name required ie; TapePlayer 2?

DCS, during startup, reads the folder where the sdefs for the TapePlayer are located in.
The sdefs tell DCS where the corresponding sound file can be found (open one in a text editor and you see where it defines the path).

Our code will load all sounds from that folder in alphabetical order, provided DCS found and supports them (use OGG, not WAV, not MP3,...).

So you would open the directory with the TapePlayer SDEFs, copy one of the existing and rename it as you like. Then open it in a text editor and adjust the path in it accordingly. Then you would open the directory of the existing TapePlayer sound files and put your OGG file next to them, with the name you used in your SDEF. Just mimic how the existing sounds are setup.

Restart DCS and you should now have 11 sounds instead of 10 on your player.

[Hikaruncat]

How about this?

I didn't create a new folder.

I just changed the name and contents of the Sdef a little so that it matches the name of the music file (wav) I want to put in.

I hope it works XD

　　

Edited July 26, 2024 by Hikaruncat

[Zabuzard]

How about this?
I didn't create a new folder.
I just changed the name and contents of the Sdef a little so that it matches the name of the music file (wav) I want to put in.
I hope it works XD
　　

Looks good. If it doesnt work, export the music as OGG, not WAV :)

[Hikaruncat]

おお

Thank you
This is what works for me. I just wanted to explain to the person above
How to do it, but the translation doesn't seem to work well
Sorry

Edited July 27, 2024 by Hikaruncat

[too-cool]

3 hours ago, Hikaruncat said:

おお

Thank you
This is what works for me. I just wanted to explain to the person above
How to do it, but the translation doesn't seem to work well
Sorry

 

I really understood your explanation, finally got it to work but one song won't play. What I need to know now is how to create a whole new tape with only my custom songs and the naming conversions that are required. I don't want to delete whats there already. Also whats the purpose of the Music folder with those songs in it, is this also something I'm going to have to alter?  TC

[too-cool]

5 hours ago, too-cool said:

I really understood your explanation, finally got it to work but one song won't play. What I need to know now is how to create a whole new tape with only my custom songs and the naming conversions that are required. I don't want to delete whats there already. Also whats the purpose of the Music folder with those songs in it, is this also something I'm going to have to alter?  TC

Thanks Guys, I figure it out just have to be very careful of the file name data. Precision is what counts.

[Zabuzard]

I really understood your explanation, finally got it to work but one song won't play. What I need to know now is how to create a whole new tape with only my custom songs and the naming conversions that are required. I don't want to delete whats there already. Also whats the purpose of the Music folder with those songs in it, is this also something I'm going to have to alter?  TC

The music folder contains the METEOR soundtracks in high quality. If you want to listen to it outside of DCS.

Regarding song naming, the code doesnt care. It literally just takes any files in that directory in alphabetical order. As long as your song name matches the path defined in the sdef file, it should find it.

[kopperk9]

Is there any known issues with copyrighted songs?  If I wanted to put say some old Metallica in my playlist, should it play, or does DCS recognize the song is copyrighted, so won't play?  I have followed the instructions above, and I can't get the song to play.  I think it sees the path to the song, because in game, I see M01 is playing, but I hear no music.  The song is loaded in ogg format.

[Hikaruncat]

Something's wrong. Recently, I can't play music.
I haven't made any changes as stated in my previous post.
I can't change it from M01 either, and there's no sound.
Has something changed?

[Zabuzard]

9 minutes ago, Hikaruncat said:

Something's wrong. Recently, I can't play music.
I haven't made any changes as stated in my previous post.
I can't change it from M01 either, and there's no sound.
Has something changed?

Yes, ED changed something in regards to sound files. There is now some form of cache file in the sound folder to accelerate loading times, but it prevents adding custom unknown sounds.

We have contacted ED and are looking for a resolution.

In the meantime you can either rename your custom sounds to the original names (they will then get loaded again) or temporarily delete that sound-cache file.

[Hikaruncat]

Thank you for your quick reply.

By "original name," do you mean making the file names of the music I add default names like 01-J79?

What do you mean by deleting the cache?

[Zabuzard]

2 minutes ago, Hikaruncat said:

By "original name," do you mean making the file names of the music I add default names like 01-J79?

Yes. That cache file remembers the names of all sounds the F4 is supposed to contain. So if you add files with new names, due to that cache mechanism, they are ignored.
If your new files replace the existing sound files, i.e. same name, they will get loaded again.

3 minutes ago, Hikaruncat said:

What do you mean by deleting the cache?

I am talking about the new file DCS/Mods/aircraft/F-4E/Sounds/sdef.tar. If you look into the file, you can see it contains all names of the original sound files. DCS uses that file to speedup loading times. If you delete the file your loading times will be back to how it was before the update, but custom sounds (with new names) will be loaded again.

[Hikaruncat]

20 minutes ago, Zabuzard said:

はい。キャッシュファイルは、F4に含まれるすべてのサウンドの名前を記憶しています。そのため、新しい名前のファイルを追加しても、キャッシュの仕組みにより無視されます。
新しいファイルが既存のサウンドファイル（つまり同じ名前）を置き換える場合は、再度読み込まれます。

新しいファイルDCS/Mods/aircraft/F-4E/Sounds/sdef.tarについてお話しています。ファイルの内容を見ると、オリジナルのサウンドファイルの名前がすべて含まれていることがわかります。DCS はこのファイルを使って読み込み時間を短縮しています。このファイルを削除すると、読み込み時間はアップデート前に戻りますが、カスタムサウンド（新しい名前）は再び読み込まれます。

Oh, thank you.
I was just changing the name of the custom file to the original song name.
I thought there was some file I didn't recognize, so I opened it, but it took so long that I gave up halfway through.
So that was the new file...

[too-cool]

12 hours ago, Zabuzard said:

Yes, ED changed something in regards to sound files. There is now some form of cache file in the sound folder to accelerate loading times, but it prevents adding custom unknown sounds.

We have contacted ED and are looking for a resolution.

In the meantime you can either rename your custom sounds to the original names (they will then get loaded again) or temporarily delete that sound-cache file.

Will you make Hot Patch or something else?

[Zabuzard]

Will you make Hot Patch or something else?

The team and ED first have to design a proper solution. As explained, that file serves a good purpose.

This will most certainly not be resolved in a "hotfix", no.

[LizardKingYB]

I remember I was playing with it. Some bitrates are not acceptable even with the right format