Trouble linking sound file to cutsom element

[Lee Brewer]

I am having trouble linking a .wav sound sample to a custom element. I want to make it such that when Rockford enters a transporter, that the transporter sound is played.

Looking through others' soundsinfo.conf files I have noted that it appears a sound can be triggered by an action defined in the CE's different assignment pages such as "collectable" from conf 1 page corresponds to "custom_255.collecting," and the conf 1 page "passable" corresponds to the command "custom_255.passing."

Is this the case? When I made my transported passable to try and trigger the sound sample I want - it played an entirely different sound that I cannot even identify

If my assumption is wrong (and I am thinking it might be because other options such as "custom_255.filling" and others are not conf 1, conf 2, or change page options). Then can someone help me in finding out how reach my goal?

I thought about making the transporter "collectible," hoping this would trigger the sound, but then my transporter I collected would be gone.

Thanks,
Lee

[Zomis]

Isn't there an "custom_255.entering" event?
Or "entered"?

Alan Bond has made a nice program named "ConfEdit" to edit conf-files like soundsinfo.
Available here: http://www.artsoft.org/rocksndiamonds/tools.html

[Lee Brewer]

OK - I downloaded the editor. The list of possible actions does include "entering."

I had done this before, but did not delve too deeply when I could not find out what I wanted to from the Help file which is included (but empty )

This time did find the "actions folder" for sounds - this was the first time i had used the program for sounds.

So now my soundsinfo.conf now contains the following line:

custom_254.entering: teleportersound2.wav

There is no other reference to custom_254 in the sounds info.conf file - hence there are no re-assignments made after the above line from soundsinfo.conf.

The .wav file is on the proper directory.

The custom_254 is the custom element that I assigned to be:

custom_254: L-4-Teleporters.pcx
custom_254.xpos: 0
custom_254.ypos: 2
custom_254.frames: 10
custom_254.delay: 3


In my graphicsinfo.conf

And... nothing happens still!

There is something I need to ask.
I assigned custom_254 to be the teleporter graphic in graphicsinfo.conf. Since i use multiple transporters to different locations on a game screen, I assigned CE1 and CE2 - from within the games level editor, to use the graphic of custom_254, ergo they look look transporters.

Does the sound file associated with custom_254 in soundsinfo.conf get triggered when a player enters CE1 that is set to use the graphic of custom_254? Or will the graphic just be used by CE1 (and CE2) and the soundfile not play when the transporter is entered?

Just in case this was what happens, I also, as a test, put CE254 on the screen, assigned it to be able to be entered, and I still got no sound!

All that I know about CE's I have gotten from playing around with Alan's graphicsinfo, etc. I am sure there are a lot of holes missing in my ideas as to how things work (such as the question above). The documentation that is available is helpful to a degree, but I have run into enough problems figuring out what i do know that I did not want to use the ConfEdit program (especially when i saw the help file was not done) since i figured it would only pose more questions than it would answer.

I guess my evaluation is wrong and i should poke around with it for awhile?

Thanks for any and all help.

[Lee Brewer]

OK - I found out one of the answers.

1. I now understand that in order to use the transporter with the sound settings I desire, I have to use the conf 1 page to make it "PASSABLE INSIDE" and not "WALKABLE INSIDE" - this was the problem! Where, if anywhere, are these little details documented? it is these type of things that end up causing me the most time.

Also, for the first time I was able to surmise something you vets of this game might see as "well, of course its that way," but for me - learning by dissecting a graphics/sound set and finding how it works, this was not obvious.

I now understand that in order to have 5 different transporters, I need to define them each as a custom_254, custom_253, custom_252, etc., in the graphicsinfo.conf file element if I wish a transporter to have a sound play when the Rockford enters them.

I had planned on making just ONE transporter graphic (custom_254) and make a bunch of CE's to use its graphic and sound. I was hoping there was some way to trigger the soundfile for each CE which used these graphics, but, evidently, this is not possible(?)

2. Something weird happened. I changed the graphicsinfo.conf from a set called Lee's to a set called Lee's work. My transporter graphic (custom_254) appears in the editor panel in all the levels except one! It so happens in one of the levels I previously had defined a CE254 (in the level editor) to use the graphics of the sand (while also making it passable and droppable), but have other attributes. For some reason, on this level (only) in the editor panel, custom_254 looks like sand! My transporter graphic is not there at all. Does this mean that the grpahicsinfo.conf, when it is read, does NOT have absolute control to alter the graphics set globally? It would not make sense to me - but this appears to be exactly what happened in this case?

[Zomis]

1. I now understand that in order to use the transporter with the sound settings I desire, I have to use the conf 1 page to make it "PASSABLE INSIDE" and not "WALKABLE INSIDE" - this was the problem! Where, if anywhere, are these little details documented? it is these type of things that end up causing me the most time.

Truly I must say that I am also surprised with that information. I believe the only one who can answer your question there is Holger. However, after taking a look on the default soundsinfo.conf file, maybe you should try '.walking' as well?

I had planned on making just ONE transporter graphic (custom_254) and make a bunch of CE's to use its graphic and sound. I was hoping there was some way to trigger the soundfile for each CE which used these graphics, but, evidently, this is not possible(?)

I believe the 'use graphic of' only refers to graphics, but I am not 100% sure. I am afraid you need to define it for each transport-element.

2. Something weird happened. I changed the graphicsinfo.conf from a set called Lee's to a set called Lee's work. My transporter graphic (custom_254) appears in the editor panel in all the levels except one! It so happens in one of the levels I previously had defined a CE254 (in the level editor) to use the graphics of the sand (while also making it passable and droppable), but have other attributes. For some reason, on this level (only) in the editor panel, custom_254 looks like sand! My transporter graphic is not there at all. Does this mean that the grpahicsinfo.conf, when it is read, does NOT have absolute control to alter the graphics set globally? It would not make sense to me - but this appears to be exactly what happened in this case?

'use graphic of' overrides any setting in graphicsinfo.conf. Disabling the 'use graphic of' for this particular element should make it use whatever is defined in graphicsinfo.conf.