KeenWave 0.5

A catch-all of miscellaneous Keen:Modding utilities.
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Fleexy
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Post by Fleexy »

IMF import is done, as is level song assignment. The patch generator has been extended to work with the audio resources - it can even do all the pointer shuffling to have more music tracks than were in the original! Management of normal sounds isn't going so well, and I'm considering just making the v2.2 release without it - I don't think anybody has ever gone to the trouble of making new SFX for Galaxy.
levellass
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Post by levellass »

*Stamps foot*

AHEM!

(I even have patches that change the number of PC and adlib sounds the game has!)


It's your program, you don't have to release everything in a 'section' each time. If sounds give you trouble just leave them aside for later.
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Post by Nospike »

Fleexy wrote:I don't think anybody has ever gone to the trouble of making new SFX for Galaxy.
Ceilick and the team have for UTUIT. It's a shame that those were adlib only, I love my Galaxy gameplay with dat PC speaker.
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Fleexy
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Post by Fleexy »

Alright, music and sound have happened. It doesn't have all the features of KeenWave (no WAV or bitmap export), but I'd say its everything most people will need.

Lass, if you want to check out .NET, you could make an Abiathar extension for additional KeenWave interoperation. (Alternatively, support for the ASNDS format in KeenWave would be just as convenient. It's nice when tools work together.)
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Gridlock
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Post by Gridlock »

This should be useful when I get back around to working on AR (yes, it does still exist). Hopefully around Christmas time I can get back to work and see how this functionality works with the extra music patches.

I also did create quite a few new sfx for AR. With WDC it's really not too difficult. I've never bothered with pc sounds, though.
levellass
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Post by levellass »

Fleexy wrote:Alright, music and sound have happened. It doesn't have all the features of KeenWave (no WAV or bitmap export), but I'd say its everything most people will need.

Lass, if you want to check out .NET, you could make an Abiathar extension for additional KeenWave interoperation. (Alternatively, support for the ASNDS format in KeenWave would be just as convenient. It's nice when tools work together.)
Heck, I'm hoping Abiathar will render KeenWave utterly useless. WAV and BMP export isn't that big a deal. (Mostly it's just for being able to easily scribble the entire soundwave instead of going on a note-by-note basis.)

Abiathar is my shinning hope for the future, a complete Keen modding tool that does not need any other pesky allies. Especially note my stuff.
Wodd
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Re: KeenWave 0.5

Post by Wodd »

Levellass, I attempted to use KeenWave, downloaded from http://www.shikadi.net/keenwiki/KeenWave (version 1.1) to extract the sound effects from episode 4. But, upon attempting to extract the sounds, I received the following error. No audio header found in executable. Make sure it is UNLZEXE'd! How do I export the audio for playback in other software (e.g., Windows Media Player)? I am not interested in modifying any of the games. I just want to extract the audio from them to play outside the game.
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Re: KeenWave 0.5

Post by levellass »

Strange, was the game executable UNLZEXE'd? Keenwave can't work with the compressed game files.

Otherwise it's simply a matter of exporting the sounds as wave files. Sadly this works perfectly only with the PC sounds, Keenwave is a basic tool and has no adlib capacity. If you want the sounds in wave or mp3 format I beleive there's a community link somewhere around.
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Nisaba
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Re: KeenWave 0.5

Post by Nisaba »

you can also manually download all files from over here:
http://www.shikadi.net/keenwiki/Keen_4_Music
the package includes both, the IMF & MIDI format.

afterwards just convert them with this tool over here:
http://www.shikadi.net/keenwiki/IMF2WAV
or else search the internet for a MIDI to WAVE converter. there should be plenty solutions.


EDIT:
ah... you are interested in the Sound Effects... well... then it's KeenWave. (additionally maybe WDC helps: http://stefan.lohner-net.de/keen_modding/tutorial/)
Wodd
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Re: KeenWave 0.5

Post by Wodd »

Thank you for the replies.
Nisaba wrote:maybe WDC helps
I have not used WDC. I have read that it is definitely not "the best" with respect to modifying the games. But, as I stated in my initial post. I am not interested in modifying the games themselves. I am interested only in audio extraction. Does WDC extract AdLib sounds or only PC speaker sounds?
Nisaba wrote:you can also manually download all files from over here
I do have copies of the music from all of the games. I have arranged the tracks in a "play through" form. That is: The music is laid out as it is heard in the game. This includes introductions, returns to the map, freeing the council members (in the case of Secret of the Oracle), and conclusions. Also, the full pack returns errors when attempting to extract files (This is true with at least WinZip).
levellass wrote:was the game executable UNLZEXE'd
I do not know what that means exactly. But, based on your post, I am guessing that it means that I need to extract the files that are contained within the executable. By the way, I was sadly informed that KeenWave is incompatible with 64-bit operating systems. As a result, I had to run it in a virtual machine. Perhaps an update is in the works to resolve this issue. Also, perhaps KenWave could be updated to behave in a way as does X-Ripper. If KeenWave searched the executable file and data files and pulled out key extensions, the AdLib issue that you mentioned should be resolved. Depending on how it works, you might even be able to expand it to become an all-purpose game file extractor. I have been trying to get copies of the sound effects from Rayman (both the original game and the "learning games" version) and One Must Fall: 2097 also. Although I do have copies of the sounds from One Must Fall, I am sure that they are not "perfect" or "spot-on," as I manually trimmed them out of the data file using OpenMPT. But, the Rayman games have so many sound effects that trimming them out is impractical. Sadly, X-Ripper does not extract them.
Wodd
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Re: KeenWave 0.5

Post by Wodd »

Alright, I figured out what "UNLZEXE" means and have decompressed the executable (renaming the newly created one and the old one accordingly). I now run into problem #2, [stated slow and low] the famous one. [back to normal speed and pitch] I have come across error #2.
AdLib sound too short!
Error at sound 0
[S]kip or [Q]uit?? I looked here, but did not get any help. There was a hypertext there mentioning some possibly already extracted sounds. But, I was informed by Dropbox that "This file doesn't live here anymore." The link is no good. Since I have not used Dropbox in a long time, I don't remember if the files eventually expire. That might have been what happened with the file to which Levellass linked. I am using version 1.1 of KeenWave, downloaded from there. (It worked fine in DOSBox, by the way. I didn't think to use that prior to using the virtual machine method.) It was quite a shock to find that UNLZEXE was developed by the same person that develops Commander Genius. I have it installed on my phone. In fact, it was updated earlier today. But, I haven't looked at it yet. I tried to play it on Windows. But, that didn't work out. I got the games to appear in the list (except episode 6 I believe it was). But, they wouldn't run. I created a games folder and subfolders for each episode. I then copied files with the extension CKepisode number and the Keenepisode numbere (or c) executables into the episodes' directories. But, the games did not run. In fact, only 1, Keen 4 Plus, downloaded from Gerstrong's game list. But, it, too, did not run. In fact, when I tried to run it, Commander Genius terminated. I hope that, if he finishes version 2, it will be more stable and I will be able to run at least the 10 episodes pictured on the page, preferably with original sounds (most notably the music). The ones used don't sound as nice. I am not sure if they are original PC speaker sounds. But, they don't have quite the same "ring" that the original ones do. Episode 9 looks neat with the snow level. Fortunately, I don't think that I have seen sporadic terminations on the phone in a while. That is good. But, I was hoping to look at 4 of Commander Keen (or, perhaps, 3 of Commander Keen and his sister, as 1 of the characters looks like it might be a female) (In fact, it might even be the entire Blaze family: Billy [Commander Keen], his sister, and their parents) sitting down and reading or hopping on pogo sticks. I was also hoping (even more than the part mentioned prior) that I could run it in the background while doing other things and listen to the audio. I currently use an application called Old Box. But, it is defunct. I downloaded the games from not quite everywhere, so the episodes have batch files that I simply run to play them. That works great, with 1 problem. DOSBox's audio does not play in the background if using another audio source, most notably a game such as those from PopCap Games or another instance of DOSBox. Old Box resolves that issue. But, it will sometimes return an error when trying to load games. In rare cases, it will terminate unexpectedly.
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Re: KeenWave 0.5

Post by levellass »

Interesting, and rather annoying. Well here are the extracted adlib sounds that I have from Keen 4-6: https://www.dropbox.com/s/gvq8r6lon57a8 ... s.zip?dl=0

Are those more of what you're looking for?
Wodd
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Re: KeenWave 0.5

Post by Wodd »

Those are what I was looking for. Thank you, Levellass.
Note to Levellass: KeenWave worked with no problems when I used version 1.4 of Commander Keen 4. The version that I had used before that was version o1.0. But, I [at least, currently] do not have the latest version of episodes 1-3½ or episodes 5 and 6. I also found that the application looks for the executable by the name Keen4E. The name Keen4 did not work. But, renaming files is not usually problematic. Changing extensions is usually the dangerous part. But, I figured that I would let you know that the application does work. But, if you have a guide somewhere, you might want to note the "quirks" in it.
Question: Within the sound set, did there happen to be any sounds for Keen's footsteps? It sounds like it might be either unique or a combination of 2 of the other sounds. My guess is that, if the latter is the case, one is the "Keen hit floor" sound. But, I am not sure what the other is. I temporarily switched to PC Speaker mode, figuring that it might have been a set of PC Speaker sounds. But, it is clearly a set of AdLib sounds. But, I didn't see any "Keen footsteps" or "Keen step" or "Keen walk" or any such labels. That is why I am wondering if either you missed it in your list or it is a combination of 2 of the sounds that are already in the set (Keen hit floor (?) and another sound). It is also possible that it is the "hit floor" sound played at a different volume, a different frequency, or a different volume and a different frequency.
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Re: KeenWave 0.5

Post by levellass »

The set is not mine.

There are two sounds used for Keen walking, sound 0 and sound 1. They are played 0-1-01... (Pit-pat pit-pat) and also played when Keen enters doors. They are quite quiet and so are missed by most people. You can hear them if you turn the music off and turn the volume up.

If it is so desired I could compile my own Adlib\PC sound pack in WAV form. It occurs to me that I can use the game engine to pull them out as separate files in an exhaustive list ordered by sound number.
Wodd
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Re: KeenWave 0.5

Post by Wodd »

levellass wrote:The set is not mine.
Ah
That might why they already had "human readable names." I know that, when I cropped One Must Fall: 2097's sound effects out of the original data file, I named them Sound number, where number is the sound's in-game index. For example, the sound of a spike coming from the Danger Room's back wall has a sound index of 32 in the game; therefore, it was named Sound 32 (and, in the case of this sound, since it resembles a person burping, I added the words possibly burping in parentheses after Sound 32). I did like wise for the words fight, ready and round, the phrases "you win" and "you lose" and the round numbers.
levellass wrote:If it is so desired I could compile my own Adlib\PC sound pack in WAV form.
This would be great.
levellass wrote:It occurs to me that I can use the game engine to pull them out as separate files in an exhaustive list ordered by sound number.
This should allow to extract all of the sounds from all of the episodes (both the Invasion of the Vorticons series and the Goodbye, Galaxy! series as well as Keen Dreams)
levellass wrote:There are two sounds used for Keen walking, sound 0 and sound 1. They are played 0-1-01... (Pit-pat pit-pat) and also played when Keen enters doors. They are quite quiet and so are missed by most people. You can hear them if you turn the music off and turn the volume up.
Ah
I don't know what "sound 0" and "sound 1" are. But, based on the sounds heard in the game and comparing them to the file set to which you linked, if I am interpreting them correctly, I am going to guess that "Hit Floor" is one of them.
But, a fresh copy with original file names (save the extension, of course, which is going to be .wav, as sounds of .kepisode number don't do me any good) would be much appreciated. I hope that the combination of all sounds is prime. Assuming that I have no missed sounds in the current set, episode 4 contains 73 AdLib sounds. If each episode contains 73 sounds, that makes a total of 3 × 73 (219) [Invasion of the Vorticons series] + 73 [Keen Dreams] + 6 × 73 (438) [Goodbye, Galaxy! series, both AdLib and PC Speaker sounds], 730 sounds. If Keen Dreams happens to have both AdLib and PC Speaker sounds like the Goodbye, Galaxy series does, then the sound quantity increases to 803.
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