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About this mod
Replace music, sound effects, (and hopefully soon) voice lines easily with this tool.
- Requirements
- Permissions and credits
This tool has been in the works on and off for months, and it is finally here. If you want to listen to hard rock while traversing Giza, or if you want the pacman death sound to play every time a character dies, this is for you.
How to use:
Just click "Add Sources" and select any files you wish to modify (you can find them using the VBF Browser). You can also just drag said files into the left listing.
There are three types of audio containers in this game:
Upon right clicking one of the subtracks, you will have the option to replace it, download it as wav, or extracting the hca.
The .hca is the file type used for the tracks each of these containers holds.
You can play the extracted .hca without conversion using foobar2000 with the vgmstream plugin. Earlier versions of Sounds of Ivalice allowed direct play of the track. Such behavior was largely out of scope of the tool's intended behavior, and with already existing options as mentioned before, it was scrapped. Know that foobar2000 can also directly load all the tracks from a .win.mab or a .win.sab container.
Downloading a track as .wav will convert the file, however note that this process is not perfect with .win.mab files (loops are not blended well) and you can already play (and convert) them easily using foobar2k. It may be deprecated at some point due to being out of scope.
Onto the juicy part: replacing the track. First, you will need a suitable .wav file. The wave file format has been largely bastardized over the years, but you should be fine using .wav files from most sources. However, if you want to replace a loop-able music track, you need to take an extra step.
Creating the WAVE file
If you're already into audio editing, know only that for a music track you need a wave file with loop points at the right samples.
While testing I used Wavosaur. Here is a tutorial on how to define loop points. There might be better options out there.
Although it should still work, I recommend using the same sample rate as the original track's. You can change an audio track's sample rate in Wavosaur by going to Process > Resample.
Final Touches
Now that you have your wav file, right click the track in Sounds of Ivalice and replace it. After a conversion process, the PATCH button should become clickable. Use it to generate a new container file, that holds the new tracks in place of the old ones. Now simply re-inject it with VBF Browser, or create a shareable mod with Draklab. Remember to keep backups while testing!
THINGS TO NOTE
The .orb.sab files found in the shout folder contain the same sounds than their .win.sab counterparts, only in ogg format (so it seems). As of right now, I have not tested replacing them, as I haven't found them to be actually used. Could be wrong though, if so let me know.
I have not tested replacing short sound effects with long tracks. In theory, they should stack to the point of crashing either the audio engine (resulting in complete silence) or crashing the game all together. Be reasonable!
Currently the UI should highlight which tracks already have replacements loaded. As of right now, it only displays that after switching back and forth between two source files on the left listing. This is merely a UI bug and not a functional one. If the PATCH button is clickable, then know that your current file has tracks ready to be replaced.
As mentioned before, vpc/vpcjp (audio line) files are loadable, extract-able, convertible, and patch-able. However, either the patch process has not been fully ironed out, or there is more to be done outside these files (maybe in the .snd ones? gotta research). Replacing these files will crash the game.
I'm just one man and things may have gone wrong in some places. I'm also a (thankfully) busy man, so don't take offense if I don't reply to any queries you may have right away.
How to use:
Just click "Add Sources" and select any files you wish to modify (you can find them using the VBF Browser). You can also just drag said files into the left listing.
There are three types of audio containers in this game:
- .win.mab - The music files. These will likely have loop points (with some exceptions). Find them in ps2data/sound/music. They contain 3 tracks: original, re-orchestrated, and remastered in that order.
- .win.sab - These hold sound effects. These can be found in both ps2data/sound/se and ps2data/sound/shout.
- .vpc / .vpcjp - These hold voice lines in english and japanese respectively. These can be found in ps2data/plan_master. As of right now simply replacing them causes the game to crash upon entering content that requires them, more research is needed.
Upon right clicking one of the subtracks, you will have the option to replace it, download it as wav, or extracting the hca.
The .hca is the file type used for the tracks each of these containers holds.
You can play the extracted .hca without conversion using foobar2000 with the vgmstream plugin. Earlier versions of Sounds of Ivalice allowed direct play of the track. Such behavior was largely out of scope of the tool's intended behavior, and with already existing options as mentioned before, it was scrapped. Know that foobar2000 can also directly load all the tracks from a .win.mab or a .win.sab container.
Downloading a track as .wav will convert the file, however note that this process is not perfect with .win.mab files (loops are not blended well) and you can already play (and convert) them easily using foobar2k. It may be deprecated at some point due to being out of scope.
Onto the juicy part: replacing the track. First, you will need a suitable .wav file. The wave file format has been largely bastardized over the years, but you should be fine using .wav files from most sources. However, if you want to replace a loop-able music track, you need to take an extra step.
Creating the WAVE file
If you're already into audio editing, know only that for a music track you need a wave file with loop points at the right samples.
While testing I used Wavosaur. Here is a tutorial on how to define loop points. There might be better options out there.
Although it should still work, I recommend using the same sample rate as the original track's. You can change an audio track's sample rate in Wavosaur by going to Process > Resample.
Final Touches
Now that you have your wav file, right click the track in Sounds of Ivalice and replace it. After a conversion process, the PATCH button should become clickable. Use it to generate a new container file, that holds the new tracks in place of the old ones. Now simply re-inject it with VBF Browser, or create a shareable mod with Draklab. Remember to keep backups while testing!
THINGS TO NOTE
The .orb.sab files found in the shout folder contain the same sounds than their .win.sab counterparts, only in ogg format (so it seems). As of right now, I have not tested replacing them, as I haven't found them to be actually used. Could be wrong though, if so let me know.
I have not tested replacing short sound effects with long tracks. In theory, they should stack to the point of crashing either the audio engine (resulting in complete silence) or crashing the game all together. Be reasonable!
Currently the UI should highlight which tracks already have replacements loaded. As of right now, it only displays that after switching back and forth between two source files on the left listing. This is merely a UI bug and not a functional one. If the PATCH button is clickable, then know that your current file has tracks ready to be replaced.
As mentioned before, vpc/vpcjp (audio line) files are loadable, extract-able, convertible, and patch-able. However, either the patch process has not been fully ironed out, or there is more to be done outside these files (maybe in the .snd ones? gotta research). Replacing these files will crash the game.
I'm just one man and things may have gone wrong in some places. I'm also a (thankfully) busy man, so don't take offense if I don't reply to any queries you may have right away.