Music in Civilization 4: Add new tunes?

[skyline5k]

I know you can play a different folder & such, but I have two questions to add.

One: If I were to drop music into one of the folders for the particular time, Renaissance or Modern or whatever, would that automatically queue? Or is there an xml file somewhere that handles all that? Worse comes to worse, I'll just make extra folders somewhere & copy the music into there also.

Two: If above IS possible, what recommendations do you have for each Era's music? I also ask this because I do like the music from the ancient eras and would like to get more.

And Happy New Year!

 

[RandomPerson]

I hear that one is possible, BUT the game is programmed to play music with certain names, so you'd need to rename the music to the names of music the game already plays. So you can't add music, but you CAN replace music. And Gutes Neues Jahr (say GOOT-ayz NOY-ayz YAR, which is German for happy new year) to you, too!

 

[skyline5k]

Cheers, RP! Any recommendations?

 

[Yxklyx]

Is this true? You can't add new tunes to the existing ones?

 

[RichPowers]

Heh, I was wondering this myself. Good thread.

So, if I'm reading this correctly, we're limited to a finite number of tunes per era? That kinda defeats the point of adding more music for variety's sake, unless you feel like editing XML files and periodically rotating out music. But hopefully I'm reading this incorrectly.

 

[Camikaze]

I don't know anything about adding new music to the game, but I'll work under the assumption you can. You should add plenty of later romantic/nationalistic music. It fits in well with the style of the game. Perhaps some Wagner, and some Russian stuff (Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, etc.) Oh, and add plenty of Beethoven (for the sheer reason that his music is brilliant).

I reckon it would be really good if there was a bit more civilization specific. As in, perhaps every second song was appropriate for the civilization and the era. Many more musical possibilities would result.

 

[Combat Ingrid]

Just make copies of the folders and play them as custom folders, then you can add in as many tunes as you like.

 

[Yxklyx]

This works:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=248415&highlight=music

 

[Sisiutil]

This works:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=248415&highlight=music

It does, but it's a heckuvalotta work. I thought that there was a utility around that does all this for you? (If not, someone should create one...)

 

[r_rolo1]

Yes, there is/was a utility for that . But only works for vanilla

On other note, there are some modders that told me they would be interested in making a decent sound player in the game, but it was far of being their first priority. Unfortunately a good sound player in the game ( choose tracks, shuffle, all that jazz ) would imply some heavy working in modding terms, so I don't expect to see that so soon

 

[Balderstrom]

There used to be a mod for WinAMP controls within CIV, I don't recall if it has been updated for BTS or not.

As for custom tunes, I'd recommend backing up the relevant directories, and renaming your new mp3 files to match the existant ones. No XML editting. To keep track of what file is what (since you are renaming them) - just select the file in question, "Properties", [Summary] "tab" and add a comment with the original file name.

 

[phungus420]

On other note, there are some modders that told me they would be interested in making a decent sound player in the game, but it was far of being their first priority. Unfortunately a good sound player in the game ( choose tracks, shuffle, all that jazz ) would imply some heavy working in modding terms, so I don't expect to see that so soon

Wow, that's an increadibly good idea. But I don't even know how to start. Could you set up the gamecore to pull stuff from Windows Media Player, or VLC or something instead of the XML? I don't know this seems increadibly complicated...

 

[Sisiutil]

There used to be a mod for WinAMP controls within CIV, I don't recall if it has been updated for BTS or not.

As for custom tunes, I'd recommend backing up the relevant directories, and renaming your new mp3 files to match the existant ones. No XML editting. To keep track of what file is what (since you are renaming them) - just select the file in question, "Properties", [Summary] "tab" and add a comment with the original file name.

Not a bad idea, except I like almost all of the existing Civ music; I'd like to supplement it rather than replace it.

 

[r_rolo1]

Wow, that's an increadibly good idea. But I don't even know how to start. Could you set up the gamecore to pull stuff from Windows Media Player, or VLC or something instead of the XML? I don't know this seems increadibly complicated...

I talked about this informally with ruff_hi a while ago and my opinion is that, to make a real music player inside the game , we would most likely need to make DLL changes ( the Python section doesn't look suited for this kind of extensive change ). But , like i said, I don't think that anyone is really working on that now....

 

[Yxklyx]

Not a bad idea, except I like almost all of the existing Civ music; I'd like to supplement it rather than replace it.

Well, I did this and it wasn't that much work once I figured things out. Just copy and edit the three files and move the mp3 file into the right place.

I added:

Industrial:
Holst Mars
Debussy Fetes

Renaissance
Mozart Eine Kleine Nacht Musik

Medieval:
Dies Irae
Purcell Rondeau
Piton Cantate Domino

 

[phungus420]

I talked about this informally with ruff_hi a while ago and my opinion is that, to make a real music player inside the game , we would most likely need to make DLL changes ( the Python section doesn't look suited for this kind of extensive change ). But , like i said, I don't think that anyone is really working on that now....

Recently I've had to move some code from Python to the SDK in order for things to work right. And to be honest the SDK was much simpler to code then the Python it replaced. So Python vs SDK isn't really an issue. But I'm pretty sure you'd need Python and SDK code to make something like this work. My problem is I don't even know where to start here....

 

[Balderstrom]

Yeah SDK is C++ which for the most part in the CIV code is fairly clean C - a lot easier to work with than Python script. The problem you will run into is compiling, large binaries that have to be distributed and chunks of code that cannot be modified by the general modder.

 

[phungus420]

The problem you will run into is compiling, large binaries that have to be distributed and chunks of code that cannot be modified by the general modder.

On my computer it takes about 2 hours to finish compiling a fresh gamecore, so if I alter any header files it's very vating

 

[JCMiller23]

or you could just mute it and play winamp in the background