TIE Fighter Custom Audio
Audio files in TIE Fighter (for its CD and Remastered editions only) provide audio for briefings, debriefings, and in-flight radio messages. 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 and in-flight radio messages.
This page serves as a guide on how to configure custom audio files for TIE Fighter, as well as an explanation for how audio files work in TIE Fighter.
Limitations
TIE Fighter CD vs. TIE Fighter Remastered
Audio is available in both TIE Fighter CD and TIE Fighter Remastered (95/98); however, only in TIE Fighter Remastered are the audio files stored on the user's hard drive. While it is possible to use custom audio on TIE Fighter 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 TIE Fighter Remastered, even though the steps and information would also apply to TIE Fighter CD in most cases.
Sixteen Radio Messages
By design, TIE Fighter only supports 16 in-flight radio messages (not counting mission complete/failure messages). While there are mixed results with having messages above this limit in TIE Fighter Remastered, this is not supported, and under no circumstances will function with audio messages.
Secret Order Debriefing Audio
Audio for the Secret Order member in TIE Fighter is hard-coded to run based on whether the ***secondary*** mission objectives are successful or not. It does not matter what the mission itself has been coded to display.
For example, a mission that has been configured for the Secret Order member to reply when the primary objectives are complete will play the audio for secondary objectives failed if the secondary objectives were not completed (or did not exist).
In general, this speaks to a standard principal: TIE Fighter is expecting certain standard behaviors when it comes to what audio is played, and anything outside of the standard game experience is unlikely to function as desired.
Location and File Structure
Folder Structure
All audio voice files are located within the VOICE folder in the TIE Fighter installation path for TIE Fighter Remastered (for TIE Fighter CD, they are stored on the root folder of the CD).
Within the VOICE folder, all folders use the following structure, to identify what mission they are for
| Battle # | M | Mission # |
|---|
Where Battle # represents which number battle the mission is for, and Mission # represents which mission number within the battle the mission is. For example, to find audio for mission 6 in Battle 1, you would navigate to the **1M6** folder.
(For the Historical missions, "A" is the Battle # for the TIE Advanced, "G" for Assault Gunboat, "D" for TIE Defender, "F" for TIE Fighter, "B" for TIE Bomber", "I" for TIE Interceptor", and "M" for Missile Boat).
Within each folder, there is an LFD with a name that matches the folder (ex: 1M6.LFD). All audio for in-flight radio messages are stored within the LFD. All briefing/debriefing audio are stored as external files within the folder. Both the audio files stored individually (for briefings/debriefings) and the audio files stored within the LFD (in-flight radio messages) all have their own naming convention that must be followed in order for the game engine to load them.
