Music Addon for Gaias Retaliation ORPG

[Jumbo]

Music Addon for Gaias Retaliation ORPG

Version 4 (1.2B) released!

It is my pleasure to introduce my Music Addon for Gaias Retaliation. All music is provided under the terms of the free Creative Commons Legal Code. The Addon introduces custom music made by some very talented composers from around the internet. All music files used in Gaias Retaliation apart from the combat music and the Frozen Throne title screen music have been changed to more fitting RPG themes.

By downloading the Music addon you agree to the terms of the following license:

License

Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0

Credits to all the great composers! Celestial Aeon Project, Light Elves Music, Joel Day! And more!

Credits

Music Credits:



Celestial Aeon Project, Matti Paalanen
Celestial Aeon Project | Jamendo Music | Free music downloads
License: Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0

Compositions:
Virtue Lost
Suspicion
Mystery
-and more..


Esther Garcia
Esther Garcia | Jamendo Music | Free music downloads

Compositions:
Lonely Heart


Marc Teichert
Marc Teichert | Jamendo Music | Free music downloads

Compositions:
The Hut in the Wood


Joel Day, dayjo.org
Free RPG Music Pack - Part 1 - dayjo.org

Compositions:
Meadow of the Past


Antti Martikainen
https://www.jamendo.com/en/artist/426659/antti-martikainen

Compositions:
Wonders Below
Spirit Creek (Naked)


Tincolindo
Tincolindo | Jamendo Music | Free music downloads

Compositions:
Storms
The Forest
Priestess_of_Avalon - extended_version
-and more..


PremiumMusic
https://www.jamendo.com/en/artist/420766/premiummusic-instrumental-version

Compositions:
Cinematic Atmospheric Mysterious Dark Fantasy Choirs Soundscape Theme Soundtrack


Angelcomposer
https://www.jamendo.com/en/artist/420603/angelcomposer

Compositions:
Jennie


Light Elves Music, Music for Roleplaying Games (RPG), Butterfly_Tea
https://www.jamendo.com/en/list/p118781/music-for-role-playing-games-rpg
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Compositions:
Father's Dead
Peace in Forest
Stars Dancing for You
Path of Heaven
Dark Secret V2
Before The Storm
Marit is Coming

Version 4 is out! (Works for 1.2B only)

Changelog:

V4 11/7/2015:
Moved on to the new Gaias folder system.

v3 30/6/2015:
-Completely overhauled the music of Mytargas.
-added extra tracks for Forest & sewers/dungeon
-added music to the snow area and dwarven village. This means that you can use this version even when Gaias 1.2b comes out!
-added proper pitches so no tracks sound strange. Added gain to one track to keep its volume in line with the rest of the music.

v2 28/6/2015:
-Changed music for the intro and the Foothills area.
-Fixed the annoying glitch causing music to stop playing, overlap and other annoying things. Now it will work in full glory!
-Mytargas music is reverted to vanilla until better tracks are found.

v1 3/3/2015:
-First release

Finally thanks to Zwiebelchen for making this great map, and remember to give rep if you like the Addon.


OLD- For versions 3 and below: Please make sure to backup your MPQ files in Warcraft 3 before overwriting with the ones from the Music Addon. The Music Addon only changes the music in the MPQ files and with a backup of the original, it is simple to switch back to vanilla Warcraft 3 soundtrack. Enjoy![/SIZE]

Don't use this anymore.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

Sticky'ed because awesome!

 

[Jumbo]

Currently, there is a minor issue with tracks overlapping each other at the end of one track. This will be fixed in the map and has nothing to do with the addon it self. The same can be said for the pitch of most tracks, which shares the pitch values of the WC3 soundtrack used specifically for Gaias Retaliation. Therefore some tracks will sound better once this has been changed. None of this prevents the addon from sounding good already though!

The mod has been fixed, go to post 12 to see the continued discussion.

 

[S0ulseeker]

Amazing work Jumbo very, VERY cool.

EDIT:

Hey Jumbo so I'm loving the add-on. Like you said it overlaps with wc3 music but if you use the disable music feature within gaias wc3 option menu it stops over lapping.

I've been using it now for a few moments but the music just stopped for me entirely just thought I'd let you know

 

[Jumbo]

Does ctrl + S, ctrl + S not fix this? It did for me. Anyway there is one track causing the stop of the music. I suppose it is a specific one with a short duration. I will reupload with this fixed as soon as possible.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

I'll check out if I can debug the sound trigger for the overlapping; but I don't remember putting any timers in there to start the next sound file ... I use a JASS command to check if a sound is still running so there shouldn't be any overlapping in theory.

 

[Jumbo]

Cool thanks Zwieb.

I've tested it again and I've realised that each area plays all of its tracks once and then goes silent. The exception is the Foothills where it plays all tracks once and then loops Frozen Throne menu theme indefinitely. As I've had this problem before in other music packs I've made, I believe it is caused by music files with a short length compared to their vanilla counterpart. I believe it has to do with the game engine as the music also goes silent in the Battlenet menu (where the custom music is obviously played now). So perhaps it can't be fixed from a map maker PoV. In the past what I usually did was add longer tracks (approx. +2.30 minutes of length), and this appeared to fix the issue.

The addon can still be used just fine. Just be prepared to turn sound off/on every 10-20 minutes or so to reset the music. Personally this is something I can live with.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

Hmm, maybe this is due to some internal coding of WC3 I have no control over. It's really weird, tbh. Maybe just make a new MPQ with longer tracks? I checked out your sources and there seem to be plenty of other tracks that you can use that are longer.

 

[Jumbo]

I already made a test with longer tracks for the forest region, and I appear to have been wrong. It didn't fix the issue, so far. I think what really made my previous pack work was the combination of custom music with vanilla music for every area. This is based on how the Foothills currently keeps playing music as the only zone cause of the vanilla main screen music. Anyway I'll have to experiment with this over the next days. It seems like trial and error is the only approach to this strange issue.

I hope people are enjoying the addon anyway, this aside. If someone is annoyed by this too much, keep in mind that replacing with your backup MPQ takes seconds. Sorry for the inconvenience anyway!

 

[Zwiebelchen]

I'll check out the scripting side of things just to rule out some possibilities.

EDIT: Nope, nothing that could cause the overlapping or the non-playing soundfiles.

I noticed, though, that a lot of the WC3 default files have different compression rates or MPEG layers. Some of them are Layer 1, some are Layer 2. Also, the sample rate varies a lot.

 

[Jumbo]

So, I have been spending 8 hours today going through tracks and getting ready for the new areas.

Also, more importantly, I seem to have fixed the bugs with the music addon though a little more testing will be required before I upload a fixed version.

 

[Jumbo]

Version 2 is released!
A version without the annoying bugs!

Changelog in op!

 

[Jumbo]

Version 3 will be out soon. It will have music for the whole of Gaias including the upcoming snow area of 1.2b. The mainmenu tracks will stay unchanged as usual.

Now you may wonder why the old Mytargas city (& the opening track which is already added in ver2) music was removed and will be replaced in the upcoming release. The reason is simply that the used music, while cool, was too dominant and intrusive after a few playthroughs. My main inspirations for choosing the music themes for this mod are Jeremy Soule (Skyrim, Oblivion, Guild Wars) and Baldur's Gate 1 soundtrack. With that in mind, it is easy to see why I am going for an ambient, non-intrusive approach to the music of each zone. Looking through around hundred free music artists, many of whom make pretty subpar music in my opinion, I pick only a small amount of quality tracks that occasionally come up. Now, after that, one also has to make sure that these selected tracks actually fit each area. So you see, from 1000 tracks I may find 20 good ones and then some may actually be superfluous due to their theme not fitting any of the Gaias zones. This is the reason why it isn't a walk in the park, but I enjoy it all the same, so it is not a problem. Hopefully, I have now made it clear why the Mytargas tracks and the opening track have been changed for version 3.

 

[Jumbo]

Version 3 is out now.

Download link & changelog in OP!

 

[Jumbo]

Update: I made a small mistake with the snow area music. This has no influence whatsoever in the current Gaias version 1.2A. Just before 1.2B is released I will upload a fixed version. I can tell you that the dwarven village has awesome music already though - stay tuned !

 

[BoxOfFaith]

I haven't used this yet, and may never.. but

Would it be possible to have specific boss battle music? So when you're engaged with Firelord or the Gargoyle or something there could be more intense sorts of music playing?

 

[PurgeandFire]

I think it's possible (it would have to be coded specifically to support this). Zwieb could label a particular music file (or multiple music files) from the default wc3 soundset to be replaceable to play during particular boss fights. People who want special music to play during those times can overwrite that file by enabling local files and placing it in the appropriate directory. For example, if Arthas Theme.mp3 was used, then you would place the local file under whatever path Arthas Theme.mp3 is contained in relative to the root wc3 mpq.

On initialization, you could create the sound. (Will this desync? Idk. I imagine it wouldn't if this mod works in the first place. It would have different sound information depending on the computer, but I think it is fine to have asynchronous data in that regard) Next, you could use GetSoundDuration or GetSoundFileDuration to detect whether the local mp3's length differs from the default Arthas Theme (or whatever designated theme you have). I suppose there are situations where the themes will have same lengths, but w/e, you could just extend the mp3 by a second. Anyway, that flag could be used throughout the game to play music if necessary upon the boss fights.

It would be pretty awesome. And it wouldn't require a separate map file or anything. It could all be determined via code. But this is just a concept--I haven't tested it.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

I think it's possible (it would have to be coded specifically to support this). Zwieb could label a particular music file (or multiple music files) from the default wc3 soundset to be replaceable to play during particular boss fights. People who want special music to play during those times can overwrite that file by enabling local files and placing it in the appropriate directory. For example, if Arthas Theme.mp3 was used, then you would place the local file under whatever path Arthas Theme.mp3 is contained in relative to the root wc3 mpq.

On initialization, you could create the sound. (Will this desync? Idk. I imagine it wouldn't if this mod works in the first place. It would have different sound information depending on the computer, but I think it is fine to have asynchronous data in that regard) Next, you could use GetSoundDuration or GetSoundFileDuration to detect whether the local mp3's length differs from the default Arthas Theme (or whatever designated theme you have). I suppose there are situations where the themes will have same lengths, but w/e, you could just extend the mp3 by a second. Anyway, that flag could be used throughout the game to play music if necessary upon the boss fights.

It would be pretty awesome. And it wouldn't require a separate map file or anything. It could all be determined via code. But this is just a concept--I haven't tested it.

The easiest way would be to actually have an external MPQ for this.

The problem is that I would need a runtime method of determining if the external MPQ exists or not.

So basicly:
If MPQ exists then
--> play external file.
else
--> play default file.

I have no experience with using external MPQs, so I'm not sure if this is possible or not.

 

[Jumbo]

Box, I have talked to Zwieb: In 1.2B anyone with 'Box' in their name checks for music addon installed, if not it's instant defeat screen. ;-)

 

[BoxOfFaith]

Haha .

I normally play without sound or just have something from my Itunes library playing, its almost never something thats meant to be immersive anyway.

However I was thinking how funny it would be to be playing some sort of foresty pan-flute type music while killing a super awesome boss. So while an area theme is fitting most of the time, having something a bit more intense depending on the content actually being done would be more fitting.

It also would be cool in a sense if it was only applied to certain final bosses of areas. So Firelord for D3, Gargoyle for Foothills, Ancient one for D2 (could probably ignore D1 since Gaelas is old and boring anyway). This way the player would be alerted that this is the end of the journey for an area type thing.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

Haha .

I normally play without sound or just have something from my Itunes library playing, its almost never something thats meant to be immersive anyway.

However I was thinking how funny it would be to be playing some sort of foresty pan-flute type music while killing a super awesome boss. So while an area theme is fitting most of the time, having something a bit more intense depending on the content actually being done would be more fitting.

It also would be cool in a sense if it was only applied to certain final bosses of areas. So Firelord for D3, Gargoyle for Foothills, Ancient one for D2 (could probably ignore D1 since Gaelas is old and boring anyway). This way the player would be alerted that this is the end of the journey for an area type thing.

Isn't that already what is happening? I mean, there is a battle theme for boss battles used after all.

I just used only one, because from all the default WC3 music, the orc victory theme was the only one that sounded remotely like a battle theme to me.
I could maybe find one more for "harder" battles, but the default WC3 music doesn't offer much freedom there.

Now, in a custom or modified MPQ, this is a totally different story.

 

[Jumbo]

PursuitTheme (but that one is annoying) also sounds like combat music and perhaps Doom.mp3 if you pitch it a bit faster: p1.20 or something.

 

[Jumbo]

Update: I am looking for a real 'Gaias Theme', but it isn't exactly easy. It is a little difficult as I am looking for something similar to
Baldurs Gate 1 Main Theme or Neverwinter Nights2: That is, an oldschool RPG sounding theme.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZP7vWiaxw7Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmDyYORSPFY

The problem is to find a track that is fairly epic while at the same time not too loud and intruding. The main theme is playing both in the Forest area of Gaias, the starting area, and the Alchemist mine. With that in mind, you can see why I cannot just select some heroic fanfare because that will only fit in the selection, but, in the other two areas, be very annoying. The search continues...

EDIT: Also the sheer number of too sentimental free RPG-ish music tracks makes me sick :-D. It needs to be cool, down to earth. That doesn't mean it can't be epic, but not in the clichéd way. This really goes to show how professional game music composers are miles ahead of most of the free stuff you can find.

 

[Jumbo]

Version 4 is released. It is not in MPQ form this time and thus will not work until version 1.2b is released. However, the new system that Zwiebelchen made (which allows local files) means that the file size of the addon is much, much smaller now and you don't need to replace anything. This means that the music addon only plays inside Gaias map, but in every other Warcraft 3 map the normal music will play.

See this thread OP for information: http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/gaias-retaliation-orpg-649/voice-acting-267502/

 

[SaikoDeMoN]

This is so much better.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

Just to clarify: the soon to be released Mystic class Beta will include this and the highres pack support already, so you can already test it out there.

 

[Jumbo]

Guys please give Rep if you like the mod . If the creator of such a mod as this one has lots of rep, more people will believe it is quality made.

 

[Mullock]

so hard...

i dont understand...

 

[Jumbo]

What don't you understand ?

 

[Mullock]

Could you let me know how can i use Music addon by screenshot

 

[Jumbo]

Just wait until Gaias version 1.B (or the beta) comes out. Then it is simple:

1. Download the music addon zip (version 4)

2. Unpack to Warcraft III directory

 

[Mullock]

Just wait until Gaias version 1.B (or the beta) comes out. Then it is simple:

1. Download the music addon zip (version 4)

2. Unpack to Warcraft III directory

When T_T

So long time. 2 year


-----

sorry jumbo....