WAV to WAVC?

[Xyx]

I'm tweaking my Lilarcor soundset by trimming some of his long, rambling quotes down to just the part I need. I used NearInfinity to export the sounds and convert them to WAV format, then used Audacity to trim the excess blabbering.

 

The result works fine, but it is uncompressed. Even the simple "Right now!" WAV file is bigger than the entire original "I want to kill a dragon, blablabla... Right now! Go look blablabla" WAVC file. I would like to convert the WAV files back to WAVC to cut back on the download size when I distribute this. I tried converting the WAV files back to WAVC using DLTCEP, but all that does is spit out a few errors.

 

Any suggestions?

[ericp07]

Will the game even read .wavc files? I thought it handles only .wav format for character sounds. In any case, make sure you're saving files as 16-bit mono files, with sampling rate of 22,050 Hz. I'd also advise using an audio editing program (Audacity or better) for converting, not a tool such as DLTCEP, NI, etc.

[argent77]

While there are a lot of tools to convert WAVC/ACM into WAV files, DLTCEP is the only one I know of to convert WAVs into WAVCs. But make sure your WAV file is really 22050Hz, 16-bit. Many sound editors convert them automatically to 32-bit or a different sample rate.

 

NB: If you use Audacity's export function, make sure to remove any meta-data from the WAV file, as DLTCEP will choke on them.

[Xyx]

Will the game even read .wavc files? I thought it handles only .wav format for character sounds.

You're right, they're .wav files. My mistake.

 

make sure you're saving files as 16-bit mono files, with sampling rate of 22,050 Hz.

That did the trick. Thanks!

 

If you use Audacity's export function, make sure to remove any meta-data from the WAV file, as DLTCEP will choke on them.

Perhaps that was it.

[Miloch]

Sam.'s PS Gui can convert most sound/video/graphics formats, in batch mode too. And yes, of course the games can recognise compressed WAVs, being as how that's the native format for sounds.

[Xyx]

of course the games can recognise compressed WAVs, being as how that's the native format for sounds.

I think what ericp07 meant was whether the game will accept .wavc files in the sounds folder. The other soundsets are in .wav format.

[berelinde]

I regularly use WAVC format for edited BioWare sound files in my mods when I need to edit an already existing game sound because it spares me the necessity of making installation/uninstallation batch files across three operating systems for only one or two files.

 

And those WAV files in the sound folder may look like they're uncompressed WAV files, but they aren't. You can't play them without using the tool Miloch linked to decompress them first. Once you use PS_Gui to compress your regular WAV files to WAVC format, their ending will not change, but they will be compressed.

 

You won't get as good a compression ratio as you would with OGG, nor will the sound quality be as good, but it will good enough. And like I said: You can copy them straight to the sounds folder without bothering with OS-dependent batch files.

[Xyx]

This is probably a stupid question... but what is PS_Gui and where do I get it? Google won't tell me anything useful. It sounds like a good thing, though.

[Miloch]

This is probably a stupid question... but what is PS_Gui and where do I get it?

The blue underlined text I posted is a hyperlink... in this case to a post where you can read about the tool and download it. It does exactly what you want - I use it all the time.

[Xyx]

OK, it was a stupid question. Sorry 'bout that, appreciate your help.

 

So... I used PS gui to convert all the sounds to .wavc format (but with .wav extension) and then copied them to the sounds folder. Now they're either inaudible or they make the game crash. Good thing I still have the originals. Anyone have any hints?

[ericp07]

I posted in ignorance, as I had no knowledge of .wavc prior to this discussion; I knew only of .wav format ("Windows WAVE file"), but not of any variations. Outside BG2, I don't use .wav files, unless some programs I have on my computer use them, and I'm just not aware of it.

[Miloch]

You have to make sure they're in the right format (see 2nd-3rd posts). If they don't play in the sounds folder, try putting them in the override and testing them in NI (with acm2wav also present). AFAIK, the sounds folder works just like a higher-level override folder, but who knows, could be some engine funkiness. WAVC is basically ACM with an extra header (described somewhat in the IESDP).

[Xyx]

I saved the sound clips as 16-bit mono WAVs, and that worked fine. I then had PS gui convert them and I tested them in Near Infinity, and they still seemed fine. Then I tried them in-game a bunch of times, and it seemed that the selection sounds were silent, while the action acknowledgements crashed the game.

 

For me personally there's no real issue. The soundset takes up 1mb instead of 0.5mb, but who cares. If I understand berelinde correctly, I can't currently distribute this to anyone on a non-Windows OS. Is that a large part of the community?

[Miloch]

I saved the sound clips as 16-bit mono WAVs, and that worked fine. I then had PS gui convert them and I tested them in Near Infinity, and they still seemed fine. Then I tried them in-game a bunch of times, and it seemed that the selection sounds were silent, while the action acknowledgements crashed the game.

I don't know why they'd work in NI, some would be silent and others would crash, unless there's something else going on in those files. You could also try attaching them to a joinable NPC and see if they work that way (i.e. in the override folder). So are you saying they work fine as WAVs but not as compressed WAVs?

For me personally there's no real issue. The soundset takes up 1mb instead of 0.5mb, but who cares. If I understand berelinde correctly, I can't currently distribute this to anyone on a non-Windows OS. Is that a large part of the community?

She was saying you *can* distribute them to anyone. Your WeiDU installer would probably consist of one line (after the header stuff):

 

COPY ~mymod/sounds~ ~sounds~

 

Edit: Not that you need a WeiDU installer for a PC soundset necessarily, but obviously it wouldn't be tough.

[Xyx]

are you saying they work fine as WAVs but not as compressed WAVs?

Yes. The compressed WAVs only work in Near Infinity, but the regular WAVs work everywhere.

 

She was saying you *can* distribute them to anyone.

Wait... I can distribute uncompressed WAVs to anyone? I don't think that's what she said.