"Music fixes" possibly corrupting mus files?

[aVENGER_(RR)]

After installing Fixpack v6 I noticed that I'm unable to play some songs, for example MXTHIEF.MUS and MXKHALI.MUS. I accidentally noticed this since I use those two songs in my mod. After installing the fixpack, these mus files become unplayable both in-game and from Near Infinity for me. After some checking, I traced the bug to a piece of new code which was added for Fixpack v6. So, I was wondering, what exactly are the following lines supposed to do:

 

COPY_EXISTING ~music/mx0202.mus~ ~music/mxkalah.mus~
 REPLACE_TEXTUALLY ~0202~ ~KALAH~

COPY_EXISTING ~music/mx0202.mus~ ~music/mxkhali.mus~
 REPLACE_TEXTUALLY ~0202~ ~KHALI~

COPY_EXISTING ~music/mx0202.mus~ ~music/mxthief.mus~
 REPLACE_TEXTUALLY ~0202~ ~THIEF~

 

For me, this code appears to corrupt the aforementioned music entries and I'm unable to play them at all.

[aVENGER_(RR)]

Just for clarity, with Fixpack v6, the code in the following example does nothing (i.e. the song does not play after I press the designated hotkey):

 

IF
HotKey(K)
THEN
RESPONSE #100
	PlaySong(39) // MXTHIEF.MUS
END

 

OTOH, in the unmodded game (and with Fixpack v4) this worked fine and the song always played properly. Naturally, restoring the original MXTHIEF.MUS from the Fixpack's backup folder resolves the problem.

[devSin]

I don't think this code has ever changed (of course, I'm surprised it's in the fixpack at all)?

 

MxKhali is used in a couple Watcher's Keep areas but due to the playlist structure, it would only ever run once. The patch changes the playlist to a standard one for ambient music (as opposed to the current NPC structure), meaning the song plays after a delay and then waits awhile and then loops back to the beginning.

 

Nothing wrong with unrolling them, but I'm positive the resulting playlists from those patches are going to work fine (IIRC, they've never been tested with PlaySong(), so it's possible they're not going to work the way you want to use them). What happens if you try PlaySong(7)?

[aVENGER_(RR)]

What happens if you try PlaySong(7)?

 

Nothing, that song doesn't play either. Hmm, I suppose that only non-ambient songs can be used with the PlaySong() action.

 

BTW, as far as I know MXTHIEF.MUS and MXKALAH.MUS are unused in the unmodded game. MXKHALI.MUS is used in one area and actually works there but, as you said, it only plays once per game load i.e. like an OnCreation() trigger. So, how about rolling back these patches for the next version?

[CamDawg]

I don't think this code has ever changed (of course, I'm surprised it's in the fixpack at all)?

This bit was added in v5, when I found an old post mentioning we hadn't included all of your music fixes.

[devSin]

Nothing, that song doesn't play either. Hmm, I suppose that only non-ambient songs can be used with the PlaySong() action.

I guess it must only play the first track (in area song playlists, this would be the blank music track). On the list of things to check someday.

 

BTW, as far as I know MXTHIEF.MUS and MXKALAH.MUS are unused in the unmodded game. MXKHALI.MUS is used in one area and actually works there but, as you said, it only plays once per game load i.e. like an OnCreation() trigger. So, how about rolling back these patches for the next version?

I like the Khalid patch (my ears tell me the piece is quite lovely and deserves to be heard more than once), but I don't have any problems unrolling them (especially unused thief and Kalah songs, although they do make interesting area songs in my local install).

 

For now, I'd suggest just including a copy of the original playlist if you want to script the thief song and not have v5 and v6 screw it up (or just use a similar patch to copy one of the romance playlists back to THIEF).

[aVENGER_(RR)]

For now, I'd suggest just including a copy of the original playlist if you want to script the thief song and not have v5 and v6 screw it up (or just use a similar patch to copy one of the romance playlists back to THIEF).

 

Sure, I'll add the code to revert this change from within RR.

 

And, in case any of you are curious, in RR I primarly use those songs for dramatic effect. For example, MXTHIEF plays when upon Aran Linvail's death, MXKALAH plays after reading Arledrian's journal and the omious MXKHALI plays after being ambushed by the Chosen of Cyric party. IMO, they add a lot to the atmosphere.