== GNR Enhanced WAV Only ==

Author: ibanix
Date: 05/13/2014
Version: 1.0

** Made for GNR Enhanced version v1.2 **

*** THIS REQUIRES YOU TO HAVE DOWNLOADED AND INSTALLED GNR ENHANCED BEFORE USING! ***

GNR Enhanced location: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/14946

== About ==

GNR Enhanced is a wonderful radio ad-on for the GNR radio station. However, some users find that the addition of 100+ new songs puts a strain on the audio engine which results in skipping, jittering and other audio problems. These problems can sometimes be solved by solutions found in the GNR Enhanced readme.

If those solutions do NOT work, there is another option, which is where this 'mod' comes in to play.

GNR Enhanced songs, like most of the stored music in Fallout 3, is compressed into an mp3 format. By decompressing the music into wav format, and updating the game to use those files, audio problems are often resolved. I expect this is because of the poor quality of the Gamebryo audio engine, or because the game doesn't prioritize mp3 decoding, or something. In any case, the switch often does work.

This mod does two things:

1) Decompresses the new GNR songs from mp3 to wav format
2) Updates the GNR Enhanced .esp plugin to use those .wav files.

What this mod does _not_ do:

* Decode any of the stock songs from the game (this would require unpacking the .bsa file)
* Delete the original GNR Enhanced mp3s - you can return to them if you wish

== Installation ==

NOTE: This will use approximately 3GB of space! Make sure you have enough space.
NOTE 2: Make a new save with GNR radio *TURNED OFF* before doing this!

First, as mentioned above:

*** THIS REQUIRES YOU TO HAVE DOWNLOADED AND INSTALLED GNR ENHANCED BEFORE USING! ***

GNR Enhanced location: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/14946

Secondly: Copy the GNR Enhanced.esp file to your Fallout3\Data directory

Third: Copy ALL other files to your Fallout3\Data\sound\radio\GNR directory.
(Files to copy: lame.exe, sox.exe, zlib1.dll, covert.bat)

Fourth: Open a command window (cmd.exe on most systems). Change directory to your Fallout3\Data\sound\radio\GNR directory. Run convert.bat.


Running convert.bat will create a lot of output like this:

C:\Bethesda Softworks\Fallout 3\Data\Sound\Songs\Radio\GNR>lame --decode Track99
.mp3 - | sox -v 4 --norm - Track99.wav
input: Track99.mp3 (44.1 kHz, 2 channels, MPEG-1 Layer III)
output: (16 bit, Microsoft WAVE)
skipping initial 529 samples (encoder+decoder delay)
Frame# 5813/5977 192 kbps MS
sox WARN wav: Premature EOF on .wav input file
sox WARN dither: dither clipped 12713 samples; decrease volume?
sox WARN sox: `-' balancing clipped 100402 samples; decrease volume?

This is normal! Your \GNR directory will fill up with new .wav files.

Lastly: Using FOMM or whatever other manager you use, DISABLE 'GNR Enhanced.esp' and ENABLE 'GNR Enhanced WAV Only.esp'

If this was sucessful your GNR should be working as before, but with less glitching!

== Uninstallation ==

1) Disable 'GNR Enhanced WAV Only.esp' and enable 'GNR Enhanced.esp'
2) If desired, delete all .wav files _without_ the "mono" in the file name.

== Technical ==

LAME is used to decode the mp3 to wav format, and sox is used to increase the volume and then renormalize the output, as volume is seriously decreased after conversion. I'm not really sure why this happens. I used a gain factor of '4' for sox, as you'll see in the convert.bat file; I found this to be close to the volume of the other music and Three Dog. If you like it louder or softer, increase or decrease that number and run again. Small increments (+1 or -1) will make a large difference.