Commentary Mod

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Palyarmerc
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Commentary Mod

Postby Palyarmerc » Tue Feb 19, 2013 9:48 am

Hi everyone. Here's my real reason for joining these forums...

If you are not into sound modding I wouldn't bother reading any further, it's a bit long winded...


I wanted less chatter between Al and John after gameplays. Similar to Madden '97
I wanted the simple post play Maddenisms from '97 too...they were SHORT & SWEET
"That just had to be a mis-read, the QB and the Reciever were'nt on the same play"
"Looks like he just ran into the Madden-Cruiser"
"You don't pass into double coverage"

etc

My aim was to

1) MUTE Madden from the majority of the gameplay
2) create about 100 new short & Sweet postplay Maddenisms
3) Release a mod under 200Mb that had the new madden post-play chatter

I spent over a week playing with the sound files. Here's what I learned.

The original sound files use this codec: adpcm_ea_r3

I Extracted the SPCHMAD1.DAT (mostly Al Michaels gameplay & Madden postplay, re-play chatter)
After exporting, converted files to wav using Sounconverter from MadModX
(which uses an sx.bat; sx -wave -remixstereo -rs48000 -.wav *.copy001)
Had a listen to find the offending chatter, most seemed to be files 413-688

Muted files 413-688 (mostly Madden after play chatter) using Goldwave Studio

SoundConverter'd back to .asf
(single file only, could'nt find a workaround to batch multiple files to the correct fileformat
even using the sx.bat DOS commands - Very time consuming when converting over 100 files)

Used DAT Batch Replacer 4.0 I did the following,
from Menu selected Create DAT Batch Script
Selected the original SPCHMAD1.DAT
Selected my .asf Files to Replace
It then created a list of my .asf files and output an .import file
(in my case - MADDENISMS.import)
You just have to add -build to the line
File #,SPCHMAD1.dat-build

(used Heisman11 installation for understanding how it all worked)
If you are familiar with the rest I had 4 files ready to go
maddenisms.mpk.txt, maddenisms.mpk, Install.inst, MADDENISMS.import
Plus my .asf files numbered 413-688

Installed as a new Mod Maddenisms.mpk, now then

It worked to a degree...Madden shut the **** up, which was nice
Al said less, and I could reduce further his speech by finding his unecessary chatter. BUT

Once any of the .asf MUTED sound files played, I would have to pause the game and resume to get the speech back,
otherwise you would only have the field commentary.
You can get just the field or just madden commentary by simply reducing the sound sliders in the options menu
so that was no great achievement
Reading EA-Sports forums for other EA games, it seems the game does not like the new SPCHMAD2.DAT file size
The original was 407Mb but the new one was only 247Mb (thereabouts)

I'm guessing it is the file size because it did play a file. It just then locks any further speech unless you quickly pause and resume.

Even though a Mod release file would be too big, a few of us good at modding could have benefitted from knowing how it's done, hence me starting this thread.
If it ever became possible, or was possible to find a tool that creates adpcm_ea_r3 encoded files on mass
or got it to work in any capacity, I'd like to learn how.

Now, I know some of you will say that adding Madden 97 soundfiles to Madden 08 is not allowed, well it's my game, it's moddable, and if I want to put Foghorn Leghorn soundbites into SPCHMAD2.DAT I bloody well will....
(I won't of course, that's just being silly)


What we really need is to know what calls the sounds and stop 'em before they start.
OK so we won't replace any sounds, but having less Madden observations does make my game more enjoyable
From the tests I ran, less chatter was bliss.





Final notes on Editing
..................................................................................................................
Soundconverter creates the only proper .asf using the real codec as seen here

Input #0, ea, from 'E:/source_1_path/00003-SPCHMAD2.dat.File00003.asf':
Duration: 00:00:03.46, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 383 kb/s
Stream #0:0: Audio: adpcm_ea_r3, 48000 Hz, stereo, s16p, 384 kb/s

.................................................................................................................

Other .asf will play however, I believe the overall .DAT filesize creates a conflict

You can use the sx.bat in the Soundconverter folder as a standalone
(see the helpfile in the readme)
Using your DosShell for Multiple file format conversion example
> sx <fileformat> *.<input.extention> -<to.extention> *.<output filename>

So I had all my .wav, including the muted ones, navigated to their folder (you need to know a little DOS)
and ran this line
> sx -pcstream *.wav -.asf *.asf
Intended Result was thus
sx <convert-to-pcstream><allfilesnamed.wav in this folder><with.asf extension> <renameallwithsamefilename.asf>

;-)

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PML17
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Re: Commentary Mod

Postby PML17 » Tue Feb 19, 2013 4:26 pm

Thanks for the info. I usually listen to my iPod when playing, but the stale commentary drives me crazy!
Retired from the Fourm. I check back in once a month, sorry in advance for late replies.

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slydways
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Re: Commentary Mod

Postby slydways » Tue Feb 19, 2013 4:41 pm

I have been working with all the sound files myself.....WITH THE SAME RESULT!.... when my replacement sound file is said ( or not said ) , the commentary stops and I have to pause and resume to restart it. I was concentrating on "the home team" "the away team" and inserting "Ohio State" and "Michigan" but all I got was silence at that point as if the game did not recognize my .asf replacement file.I too would like to eliminate most if not all of Madden's comments and just have Michaels and the stadium announcer. My most concentrated efforts thus far have been on having them announce the players "name" and not just his number ( custom players ) and finding a way to create new "name sound files" and link them to the spelling. I have run some experiments on the #6 db templates file ( default roster ) because some have said the link was there but I did not find any link. The names said by the game seem to be linked between the recorded name and the spelling. No matter what team or roster you put a guy spelled "Favre"...they announce that name. I will have to look over more carefully your post and see if i can understand and implement you file replacement system.Maybe we can work together and make some progress in "breaking the sound barrier" that is Madden NFL Football :D

btw...you began with SPHCHMAD1....the switched to SPCHMAD2...typo?...intended?

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Palyarmerc
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Re: Commentary Mod

Postby Palyarmerc » Tue Feb 19, 2013 5:04 pm

Yep, it's a typo ;)

I'll keep an eye on anything you discover thru this thread, Looking at what you've said so far, and from what I searched thru, I think a lot of it is hard-coded.
Unless we can get the sound files to play without locking up I doubt we'll get very far.
Essentially we see it the same though, to just have Al's basic drive commentary with an occassional Maddenism. Would be nice

To be honest, Madden commentary has improved tremendously since Madden'97 - take a look at this beauty....

Well their in 4th down territory here. Now here's where you have to think on 3rd down.
If you think you're gonna use two plays...you're gonna use 3rd and fourth down, then your gonna
use two plays...if you think that you're going to, or you know that your going to kick a field goal on 4th down.
Because once you get inside, in to 4 down territory, you can still kick the field goal on 4th down.
So you have to make the decision on 3rd. You want to think in terms of two plays, that means if you
don't make it on third you're going to go for it on 4th, or do you think in terms of one play?
then you try and get your first down, if you don't get it, you kick your field goal.


?? Frank Caliendo would be proud of that one.
Most were subtle, short and even funny...

-His own guy wiped out the sun on him
-He just turned the corner and ZIP, he was gone
-You have to bend your knees, keep your head up
-Had the same colour helmet!


:D

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slydways
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Re: Commentary Mod

Postby slydways » Tue Feb 19, 2013 5:57 pm

I was able to get a new audio file in the game and not have it stop the commentary. I took a players name audio file from the stadium announcer ,"Peterson" and copied over it a new recording of "Cassidy". In the game when Peterson ran the ball the SA said "Cassidy". But when I renamed Peterson as Cassidy....the SA said "number21". That audio file slot in the DAT was linked to "Peterson" spelling. When I changed the spelling the game when to calling just the number because it did not have an original recording of "Cassidy" and no link to it's spelling.

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slydways
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Re: Commentary Mod

Postby slydways » Tue Feb 19, 2013 8:18 pm

Hey Palyarmerc....how did you obtain this info about the .asf file ...

Input #0, ea, from 'E:/source_1_path/00003-SPCHMAD2.dat.File00003.asf':
Duration: 00:00:03.46, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 383 kb/s
Stream #0:0: Audio: adpcm_ea_r3, 48000 Hz, stereo, s16p, 384 kb/s


I want to get this info for other files from other DATs

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Palyarmerc
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Re: Commentary Mod

Postby Palyarmerc » Tue Feb 19, 2013 9:15 pm

I forget exactly. Audacity? or maybe one beginning ojo...something audio converter

I did try replacing the SPCHMAD2.DAT original file in the game folder
hoping it needed a match with the one in MyDocuments\Madden08. No dice.
I tried renaming the extentions from .asf to .copy001 before re-packing (In Dos >Rename *.asf *.copy001)
No dice.
Given up at this point.
:)

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Re: Commentary Mod

Postby slydways » Wed Feb 20, 2013 12:14 am

I do not like the "defensive player chatter" in SPCHDATA, files #22-35. I replaced those files with a silence .wav file of 9.425 sec. so when converted to .asf each file would be the avg of the 14 files and not change the overall DAT size. In game with just the SA (stadium announcer) on,the chatter was gone but after a few seconds the announcing stopped ( as usual). However...after switching to the Madden/Michaels commentary,they continued to announce. It seems that the audio is separated between the files associated with the "Field Volume" and those of the "Commentary Volume". The Field Volume is the SA,Defensive player chatter,Hit sounds,and Offensive sounds. The Commentary Volume is Madden/Michaels. Still do not know why silencing the chatter stops the SA....research continues...don't give up.
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Palyarmerc
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Re: Commentary Mod

Postby Palyarmerc » Wed Feb 20, 2013 3:50 am

Filesize could be part of the problem. Or maybe that it doesn't like muted files.
I did think about copying and pasting the 'header' from an original file with a
converted (silent) file using notepad. Not really a solution as this would be far too much
work on multiple files, but just to test to see if it is because of the codec.
Not sure notepad editing would retain the file structure though, or which bits of
'gobble-de-gook' to replace. (Clutching at straws/Clueless)

It's strange because we are led to believe that a sound.asf will replace music if used
to replace an original music file and they do play, initially...

I won't give up completely though, if I think of something I'll test it :)

P.S I used Ojosoft and Iorgsoft demos to open some files - one of those may have given me the file info.
I tried installing and using FFMpeg too (with a front end) but it was too complicated
All of the research I did pointed to on Decoding adcpm_ea_r3 files, not encoding
hence I used the sounconverter to convert back to .asf

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Re: Commentary Mod

Postby Gridiron » Wed Feb 20, 2013 7:59 am

I wish you guys well on your quest here.

It seems like a solvable set.

If you guys manage to find the necessary information, then if you are not already, kindly think about a ComMod.

Of course ComMod should include the option to call TexMod.
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