SONGLIST.2DA vs. SONGLIST.IDS

[temnix]

What's the diff? ADD_MUSIC extends SONGLIST.2DA, and assuming that does the job for writing at Songs offsets of areas, what is the IDS for?

[DavidW]

2DA files are read by the engine.

IDS files are ignored by the engine: they're only used in compiling scripts.

[Jarno Mikkola]

4 hours ago, DavidW said:

IDS files are ignored by the engine: they're only used in compiling scripts.

Well, if you make a romance mod, I bet your romance music that pops up might sound a bit weard if it were say not floot playing one, but say Death Metal, if the engine would completely ignore the music should it be lauched by a script. But you do you.

[DavidW]

The compiled script doesn’t care what’s in the IDS file. The IDS file just helps translate human-readable text into a compiled script. 

Edit: my mistake- as Kjeron points out below, dlg files are the exception , since the text there gets compiled at runtime. Apologies.

[kjeron]

The engine still has to read them to process dialog files.  Their actions/triggers are just plain text, not compiled.

[DavidW]

That is a very good point. Apologies: I stand corrected.