X-Wing Custom Audio
Audio files in X-Wing (for its CD and Remastered editions only) provide audio for briefings. These files can be modified to provide custom audio files, which in turn can allow mission creators to accompany their custom missions with audio that matches their own custom briefings.
This page serves as a guide on how to configure custom audio files for X-Wing, as well as an explanation for how audio files work in X-Wing.
Limitations[edit]
X-Wing CD vs. X-Wing Remastered[edit]
Audio is available in both X-Wing CD and X-Wing Remastered (95/98); however, only in X-Wing Remastered are the audio files stored on the user's hard drive. While it is possible to use custom audio on TX-Wing CD, it would necessitate creating a new CD image / ISO with the updated files, or using a tool (such as XCDR) that could swap files from being read on the hard drive instead of on the disk. As both scenarios require considerable effort, this page will focus explicitly on the installation of custom audio for X-Wing Remastered, even though the steps and information would also apply to X-Wing CD (in most cases).
DODONNA vs. ACKBAR[edit]
There are two different briefing officers in X-Wing: General Dodonna and Admiral Ackbar. General Dodonna is used as the briefing officer when playing a mission as a historical mission (whether that be a training mission or a previously-completed Tour of Duty mission). Admiral Ackbar is the briefing officer when playing a Tour of Duty mission.
X-Wing features complete audio for all briefings for both Dodonna and Ackbar (even though there is no in-game method for Ackbar to brief on the historical missions). They are seperated by the Dodonna audio being in the DODONNA folder, and the Ackbar audio being in the ACKBAR folder. The audio file names are identical in each - the game simply loads the appropriate audio folder based on whether the mission is being loaded as a historical mission (DODONNA) or as a Tour of Duty mission (ACKBAR).
At present, most Emperor's Hammer custom missions replace the X-Wing historical missions. As such, custom audio for custom Emperor's Hammer missions would be placed in the DODONNA folder.
No Briefing Line 0[edit]
The briefing audio that plays corresponds to the line number of a particular briefing text. While X-Wing technically supports text lines at position "0", the base game never uses this. As a result, audio files that are trying to trigger on a text line at position 0 (i.e. audio files with a filename extension of ".P00") will never load.
Furthermore, the base X-Wing game never uses audio for position line 1 either (as this is typically reserved for the briefing title). As such, it is recommended that any text lines that will be used for briefings begin at position 2.
Location and File Structure[edit]
Folder Structure[edit]
All audio voice files are located within the TALK folder in the XWINGCD folder in the X-Wing installation path for X-Wing Remastered (for TIE Fighter CD, the TALK folder is stored on the root folder of the CD). As indicated above, the TALK folder contains the DODONNA folder for Dodonna's briefing audio and the ACKBAR folder for Ackbar's briefing audio. Custom audio for EH missions will typically use the DODONNA folder.
Typical file path therefore would be: %X-Wing Installation Path%\XWINGCD\TALK\DODONNA
File Structure[edit]
X-Wing loads certain audio files to play during briefing based on the name of the audio file within the DODONNA or ACKBAR folder. If it cannot load an audio file (either because it does not exist or because it is not in the correct audio format), it will not play any audio.
The format of these briefing audio files is as follows:
| Mission File Name | .P | Briefing Line (two digits) |
|---|
Where "Mission File Name" represents the name of the corresponding mission files (ex: WAISTEM for X-Wing Historical Mission #1), and Briefing Line represents the text line number (using two digits) of the briefing line that corresponds to the audio (i.e. the number of the text line that should trigger the briefing audio whenever the text appears on the briefing screen).
For example, the audio file that corresponds to the second text line appears in the briefing for thee first X-Wing historical mission would be:
WAISTEM.P02
Where WAISTEM corresponds to the filename, and 02 corresponds to the second text line in the briefing file.
Note that the number does NOT represent the order in which the text appears in the briefing. It is specifically for the line number of the text in the briefing file.
To follow X-Wing convention (and ensure that the audio files will actually load), custom missions should follow convention, where briefing text line 0 is unused and briefing text line 1 is used for the briefing title (which should not have audio).
If unsure, consider reviewing existing audio files and noticing which audio corresponds to the specific message in the mission file.
Audio Format[edit]
X-Wing uses 8-bit Creative Voice (Soundblaster) VOC files for briefings. All audio files are mono audio files set with a sample rate of 10989 Hz.
When creating files with a modern audio program, the following settings must be in place in order for the audio to be playable by TIE Fighter:
- Encoded as Creative Voice (Soundblaster) VOC file
- Encoded as unsigned 8-bit
- Recorded as mono audio
- Sample rate set to 10989 Hz
WARNING: At time of writing, audio files created using Audacity have not been functional. GoldWave is the recommended audio editor for creating/modifying X-Wing audio files.
