Mod: Fallout 3 - HD Audio Overhaul 1.2
Author: Morwyn Kelm (www.fallout3nexus.com)
Email: [email protected]
Date: June 14, 2010
Download: http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=13055
Discussion: http://thenexusforums.com/index.php?showtopic=210816
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0 - Changes
1 - Introduction
2 - Features
3 - Requirements
4 - Installation
5 - Technical
6 - Tips
7 - Bugs
8 - Credits
9 - Final Notes
10- License

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0 - Changes:
------------

V1.2 June 14, 2010

- Replaced 'main menu' track
- Replaced 'exit the vault' track
- Replaced an explore track (overwrite the old one!)
- Replaced 'death' sound
- Replaced 'level up' sound
- Updated 'Bugs' section
- Updated 'Credits' section

V1.1 June 12, 2010

- Corrected bad checksum in original archive
- Original archive contained raw masters, these were not encoded for use in FO3 and caused system hangs, menu lags, etc.
- Added additional 15 minutes of material
- Rebuilt structure, re-ordered some tracks
- All tracks re-encoded with MP3Pro @ VBR/256Kbs
- Reposted and tested archive
- Added 'bonus' material. Oh yes.

V1.0 June 11, 2010

- Initial release

1 - Introduction:
-----------------

This is an immersive and massive, High Definition (HD) ambience overhaul for Fallout 3 and includes over 3 hours (!!!) of new music. The vanilla ambience is certainly good but it just doesn't 'feel' like Fallout. This will (hopefully) change that and, to me, feels like a totally different game.

All of the tracks have been professionally re-engineered to provide as much clarity and fidelity as possible and include many of my own re-mixes and compositions. Other credits are listed below.

The goal is to create additional ambience while retaining (and recreating) the original Fallout theme while adding some new elements.

Those of you with nice sound systems will appreciate this.

2 - Features:
-------------

Well over 3 hours of new music (almost 100 tracks) that will complete your Fallout 3 immersion. This pack will *definately* alter and enhance your Fallout 3 experience.

- 41+ Minutes of themed spelunking music to set the mood when you're somewhere you shouldn't be.
- 25+ Minutes of new "battle" music.
- 11+ Minutes of military themed music for base locations.
- Includes selected songs from Fallout 1 and Fallout 2 for the old-school among us.
- and much, much more.

*** Bonus Material:
-------------------

There are numerous original tracks included, they are provided here under GNU licensing (see bottom).

With all due respect, this pack is guaranteed *NOT* to include music from the following sources:

- The Dark Knight films
- Louis Armstrong
- The Ink Spots
- Scratchy radio circa 1930
- S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
- Trent Reznor

3 - Requirements:
-----------------

Special care has been given to retain the quality of the masters without taxing older systems but please keep in mind this in intended to push your audio sub-system to the fullest.

A 5.1 surround setup is not required but strongly recommended. Everyone, especially headphone and stereo users, can still benefit greatly from this pack.

Turn it up. ;)

4 - Installation:
-----------------

1. Extract the contents of the archive into your Fallout3/DATA folder. It will not over-write vanilla files. The only potential conflict is if you're using another music replacer.

2. Use Quazzy's ArchiveInvalidation Invalidated found here;

http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=944

3. Optional - If you don't want to replace the main menu's "slide" sound, don't copy the Data/Sound/ folder. I removed it because that sound was screwing up a good piece of music. ;)

5 - Technical:
--------------

All files were digitally re-mastered and encoded with mp3Pro @ 256Kbps to preserve the highest quality. Original compositions were created using Yamaha DX-10, Yamaha E313 and a boatload of various sequencers, MIDI pads and an old P4.

6 - Tips: (not required)
---------

For users comfortable editing the fallout.ini file, you may want to increase the buffers the FO engine uses. While this is not required, it may help with any stuttering.

fMainMenuMusicVolume=0.6000 - The volume of the music which plays in the background when in the game's main menu can't be adjusted anywhere in the game, except by using the Master Volume slider, which then in turn affects all sound and music.

To alter just the menu music volume independently, change the value of this variable. Note that if you try to disable the main menu music altogether using the sTitleMusic=MainTitle variable, it will likely result in a crash, so instead just set this variable to =0.0000 to effectively disable the menu music (Fallout.ini).

bEnableAudioCache=1

iAudioCacheSize=2048

iMaxSizeForCachedSound=256

bEnableAudioCache=1 - The audio cache should be enabled to ensure a reduction in stuttering, however you can fine tune how much memory the game uses to cache audio with the

iAudioCacheSize=2048 variable. The cache size is in KB, so a value of 2048 = 2MB for caching audio data. You can experiment with raising this value, e.g. double it to 4MB (=4096) to see if it further improves stuttering and audio performance in the game. You can also alter the

iMaxSizeForCachedSound=256 value to change how many sounds are cached; higher values should mean more sounds are cached. Note however that the audio system in Fallout 3 seems very sensitive, and raising these variables too high, or indeed changing other audio-related variables can result in crashes at startup or exit (Fallout.ini).

Refer to http://www.tweakguides.com/Fallout3_10.html (Audio Section)

7 - Bugs:
---------

Only one known bug currently exists. In some cases (this was hard to reproduce) the menu title will continue playing and loop even once the game is loaded. The only way around this is to select and deselect a radio station. You should hear the regular in-game ambient music as intended.

Sadly, the FO3 audio engine is flakey. Very flakey. In some cases, you may have overlapping sounds but this is (fortunately) rare. This isn't the mods fault, but the FO3 engine doesn't always know when a song ends (even if you add metadata to the file!) and in some cases, the 'battle' music won't play at all. Again, this isn't a limitation of the mod, it's just the way it is.

Finally, there's no way to easily create 'themed' areas, this would be really important for DLC's, especially. Overall, this mod was prepared with the main FO3 world in mind, although it will work with DLC's.


8 - Credits:
------------
Mark Morgan
Peter Gabriel
moje moje
Pawel Blaszczak
Ennio Morricone
Steve Roach
Michael Stearns
Ron Sunsinger
Chris Cote
Thomas Newman
Jens Jungmark
Sync-24
Simon Koudriavtsev

...and a few others. ;)

Many thanks to my testers:

OpticalWinter, gimpyparrot, italianfuct and the others for providing such terrific feedback and testing so thoroughly. Thank you.

9 - Final Notes:
----------------

Like so many projects, this began well over a year ago, but work, family, life in general have a way of sneaking into fun projects. FO3 - and this mod - would just have to wait. Until now. I'm happy to finally release this to the FO3 community and hope it breathes new life into your FO3 world. Send any comments to the official thread at;

http://thenexusforums.com/index.php?showtopic=210816

Enjoy!

10 - LICENSE:
-------------

Fallout 3 - HD Audio Overhaul - 3+ hours of additional ambient music for Fallout 3. Copyright (C) 2010 Chris Cote / Morwyn Kelm

This material is provided as is and free of charge: you may NOT redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation.

This material is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You may NOT re-publish, modify or re-package this material under any circumstances without the express, written permission of the author.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see .