How does one get custom music into a game (total beginner)?

[AnonymousDwell]

Greetings!

I've done several searches, both in this forum and elsewhere online, and have yet to come across a step by step guide for a total beginner in editing/modding to add custom music to the levels in a game running in ZDoom.

I have the mp3s in a folder entitled "music," but that's all I have. In this case the game in question is Hexen, and the music in question is that of Hexen 64 (both of which I legitimately own, and have since their original release on PC and N64.)

I have never done anything like this before or used any tools associated with modding (with the lone exception of the Elder Scrolls Construction Set and some minor ini tweaks in various games for performance) and thus am hoping you will regard me as a complete initiate in these matters, and to the extent you're willing or able to, hold my hand a bit.

Or, failing that, direct me to a comprehensive and easily understandable guide I've missed in my searches.

There have been mods made in the past that do what I'm trying to do, however none of them are currently available anymore, and I'd much prefer to make my own so as to have control over the quality (I recorded the audio myself from the N64's stereo output.)

I essentially need to know everything from: what tools I need, where to get them, what to do, and how to do it, to what to name the tracks or any file format limitations, etc. I would be extremely grateful thank-you! I hope it's not too much to ask.

P.S. This would be strictly for personal use.

----------------------------------------------

UPDATE: For the benefit of future forum-goers who have the same question, this is the solution which worked most easily and was easiest to understand for me, thanks to the help from this lovely community, in a comprehensive step by step form:

1. Go to http://doomwiki.org/wiki/Music and scroll down to the list of games. Click on the game you wish to mod music into, and note the names of the tracks for every level in your game. Determine which music goes with which level, and rename your audio tracks those names accordingly.
2. Download Slade 3 from here: http://slade.mancubus.net/index.php?page=downloads and install it. I used default settings.
3. Open Slade. Click File > New > WAD Archive
4. Select all of the audio tracks you wish to mod into the game in question, and drag them into Slade. Wait for the list of tracks to fully populate (should be instantaneous unless you're on a very slow machine.)
5. Go to File > Save As and enter whatever name you want for your music mod wad.
6. Close Slade, and when asked if you wish to close it, click Yes.
7. Click and drag the saved wad you just created directly into Zdoom on your desktop, or wherever it is.
8. When Zdoom opens after doing this, select the game you're trying to mod, and then launch as normal. The songs will now automatically replace the vanilla in-game songs, and will be correctly applied to their appropriate levels, provided you named them correctly in step 1.
9. Repeat every time you wish to run the game with this music. Simply skip dragging the music wad into Zdoom if you want to get back to the vanilla in-game tracks.

That's it! Thank-you again to everyone who replied!

[TheBadHustlex]

A MAPINFO-file is what you need to create. There, you assign music to the levels.

[AnonymousDwell]

Are there any step by step guides anywhere for how to do that? The wiki article linked to goes completely over my head and I have zero clue what any of the terminology means.

[TheBadHustlex]

Code: Select all

map [name of the map-lump] "name it what you want"
{
   music = "your music file"
}

Inside your pk3/wad, create a file called "ZMAPINFO". Write this in there.
Add the other keywords from the wiki if you need them.

[AnonymousDwell]

That's beginning to make some modicum of sense to my brain now lol. But I still feel quite far from really comprehending what to do.

So, some questions:

1. What do you mean "in my wad/pk3?" I have never created a wad or pk3, have no idea how to do that, or what I need in order to do so. Am I creating said wad or pk3 from scratch, or editing the game's actual .WAD (which I've read elsewhere is not a good idea)?
2. Do I include all of those brackets exactly as quoted above?
3. Are there specific names for the levels (e.g. do I just use the in-game level names, or is there a specific terminology that the file needs in order to know what level I'm actually referring to?) Likewise for the song track titles - do they need to have specific names? I read somewhere that the first one needs to be entitled DDRUN or something like that, is that true? I need all these specifics, as I have no clue.
4. Do I just do this in a simple text editor such as notepad and save as a txt? Then put it in my WAD? (Again, not knowing how to create said WAD.)
5. Is there a specific directory the WAD needs to be in, and does it need to have a specific title? E.g. does it go somewhere in ZDoom or does it go somewhere in the Hexen's file folders?

Apologies for being so utterly clueless.

[phantombeta]

PK3s are simply renamed ZIPs.
1. Make a PK3 and name it whatever you want.
2. Put your music in a folder called music inside your own PK3 with the same names as the ones from Hexen. No need for MAPINFO.

(Open (g)zdoom.pk3 and go to mapinfo/hexen for a list of the names Hexen.WAD uses.)

[AnonymousDwell]

So to clarify, is this, step by step, all I need to do?

1) Open zdoom.pk3 and see which music file names Hexen.WAD uses
2) Name my music files those names, and put them in a folder named "music"
3) Zip that folder
4) Remane it .pk3 instead of .zip

Is that really it? It will just work? That would be nice, as I can comprehend that lol.

Do I put the pk3 I create in any specific directory? Do I need to do anything to Zdoom.pk3 or Hexen.WAD itself (move them somewhere else or something?) to prevent the original music from conflicting with my new pk3, or does it just supersede it automatically if it's newer somehow?

P.S. Re: #1 How exactly do I "open" the zdoom.pk3 to look in it? I don't see a way to open a pk3 file. When I try, Windows cannot find a program to open it with. Is there an application I need?

[RUNSABER]

I'll make it simple for you. You can use ANY format to replace music within a DOOM map. For example, some ports allow OGG/FLAC/MP3 formats, while most vanilla/boom-compatible ports will use MIDI.

Simply rename your MIDI track with the name of the track used on the map you wish to replace the tune for.

DOOM 2: MAP01 uses D_RUNNIN

Simply import your track and rename "SOMIDI1" with D_RUNNIN within your .wad.

Wallah. If that was easier than the above suggestions, pleased to be of your assistance! You can also do this for ULTIMATE DOOM and other IWADS, by changing your track of choice to D_E1M1. Remember, your track must be renamed to the level you are using it for.

You can also view .pk3 formats using SLADE3, or unzip them with your friendly neighborhood archiver and view the newly unzipped folder as a directory. Thanks!

[AnonymousDwell]

I appreciate the additional response. However, That was actually a fair bit more confusing than the previous suggestion, because I still don't know how to create a WAD or how to put the songs in it to begin with, or if you mean I should do this in Hexen.wad itself and if so, how to edit a wad lol.

That said... it did tell me what I need to open and view a pk3, so that means ... if I'm not misunderstanding... I can now open ZDoom.pk3, see what the track names are, rename my mp3s, zip them up, rename the extension to .pk3 and... will that work then?

Still not sure where to put it once that's done, though. Or, if it works, if I have to do anything else to Hexen.wad or Zdoom.pk3 once it's in there (wherever "there" is.)

Sincerely apologies again for my confusion. I'm seeing multiple ways of doing this and not quite sure how to do even the simplest one offered so far completely lol.

EDIT: Looking in Slade 3 at zdoom.pk3, I'm not seeing anything anywhere called Hexen.wad nor am I seeing in MAPINFO anything listing what song titles to use. Where should I be looking for this?

Further edit/P.S.: I found Hexen.wad elsewhere on my PC. I'm assuming that's the one ZDoom uses, as it's the one I told it about when installing ZDoom. However when opening this Hexen.wad in Slade 3, its mapinfo file doesn't list track titles for levels. Instead, it says CD TRACK = followed by a number.

My confusion persists, and worsens lol.

[Kappes Buur]

A simple method would be

• 1. know the name of the music used for which map
  • http://doomwiki.org/wiki/Music
  for DOOM2 click on DOOM II music, etc.
  
  2. so for DOOM2 MAP01 the track is called D_RUNNIN
  
  3. rename your track to D_RUNNIN
  you already know, from above, which music formats are supported.
  
  4. open SLADE3 and click on New - Wad Archive
  
  5. drag and drop your music track into SLADE3, for example

  ---

  • 

  and save with a name of your choice.
  
  6. drag the music wad onto G/ZDoom
  
  7. Add tracks for other MAPxx in a similar manner.

[jdredalert]

If you have SLADE on your machine, than you have what it takes to create a wad. Just click File > New > Wad Archive. To put music on it, just drag and drop. If you still have doubts, try looking inside of this file. All the music inside are named according Doom and Doom 2 song names.

[Kappes Buur]

And now for something totally different

• 1. Open Windows Explorer and create a folder with a name of your choice, for example MyMUSIC.
  
  2. Open MyMUSIC and create a folder named MUSIC.
  
  3, From previous posts you know which music name applies to each MAPxx.
  
  4. Rename your music track to D_RUNNIN and drag it into the folder MUSIC,
  that would be for DOOM2 MAP01.
  

  Code: Select all

  MyMusic
     |
     |--Music
         |
         |-- musicfile

  5. Back out to MyMUSIC and with a program such as 7zip create a file MyMUSIC.zip
  
  6. Since zip and pk3 are the same format you could just leave it as a zip file.
  If you want to follow convention, then rename MyMUSIC.zip to MyMUSIC.pk3
  
  7. Drag MyMUSIC.zip or MyMUSIC.pk3 onto G/ZDoom.
  
  8. Proceed likewise for music tracks for other MAPxx by installing them in MUSIC.

[AnonymousDwell]

A simple method would be

• 1. know the name of the music used for which map
  • http://doomwiki.org/wiki/Music
  for DOOM2 click on DOOM II music, etc.
  
  2. so for DOOM2 MAP01 the track is called D_RUNNIN
  
  3. rename your track to D_RUNNIN
  you already know, from above, which music formats are supported.
  
  4. open SLADE3 and click on New - Wad Archive
  
  5. drag and drop your music track into SLADE3, for example

  ---

  • 

  and save with a name of your choice.
  
  6. drag the music wad onto G/ZDoom
  
  7. Add tracks for other MAPxx in a similar manner.

When you say drag it into ZDoom, what do you mean? Into the ZDoom launcher? Or into the ZDoom directory where the program is located?

Other than that, it SEEMS simple enough, so I'll try this first. Thank-you.

Also... do I create a wad or pk3 for every single song individually, or all in one?

Lastly... do I need to do anything to override the existing song tracks the game uses, or will ZDoom automatically give preference to my pk3 or wad?

[Kappes Buur]

When you say drag it into ZDoom, what do you mean? Into the ZDoom launcher? Or into the ZDoom directory where the program is located?

Drag the music pwad onto the ZDoom icon or the ZDoom.exe file.

Also... do I create a wad or pk3 for every single song individually, or all in one?

all in one.

---

for the first 5 maps of DOOM2.

Lastly... do I need to do anything to override the existing song tracks the game uses, or will ZDoom automatically give preference to my pk3 or wad?

ZDoom will overwrite the iwad lumps with whatever is in your music pwad.
So, you do not have to do anything else.

[AnonymousDwell]

When you say drag it into ZDoom, what do you mean? Into the ZDoom launcher? Or into the ZDoom directory where the program is located?

Drag the music pwad onto the ZDoom icon or the ZDoom.exe file.

Also... do I create a wad or pk3 for every single song individually, or all in one?

all in one.

---

for the first 5 maps of DOOM2.

Lastly... do I need to do anything to override the existing song tracks the game uses, or will ZDoom automatically give preference to my pk3 or wad?

ZDoom will overwrite the iwad lumps with whatever is in your music pwad.
So, you do not have to do anything else.

Success! Ahhh, sweet nostalgia high! Thank-you all so much for your patience. This is awesome.

I still had the Hexen 64 cart, but I have no upconverter so my old consoles look abysmal on my HDTV, and I'd much rather be playing the PC version anyway! Now I have the best of both worlds. Really nice. Thank-you all again!