Playing custom sounds in battle animations

Questions
1

  • Starting with a clean FE8 rom, I insert the debug animation in place of Eirika, with S00E7 (the code for the brigand war cry) inserted into Mode 1. I open the rom and test it, sure enough the sound plays with no issues.

  • Next, I use Sappy 2006 Mod 17.1 to import a WAV file to the documented free space at 0x0B30000-0x0B3683F. I use HxD to insert a single-instrument map at 0x0B36850 that points to the WAV (00 C0 00 00 00 00 B3 08 FF 00 FF 00).

  • I use Anvil Studio to make sfx.mid, a one second long single note Midi using Instrument 0 playing note C3, export as Midi-0 and use Mid2GBA to convert it to sfx.s.

  • At this point I test the ROM again, and the brigand war cry is still working.

  • Back in Sappy I go to Song 231 (brigand war cry) and choose Assemble Song, using 0x0B36900 as the base offset and using the instrument map I put in earlier. I leave the Song Group options at 6 and 6 (pretty sure this means it’s priority 6). Now I click play on Song 231 in Sappy and I hear my WAV sound.

  • BUT when I go in game, the sound does not play. Nothing else breaks, just the sound won’t play.

  • Back in Sappy I try replacing Song 1 with the sound effect as well. In game, I go to the Sound Room and play the song, and sure enough the sound effect plays perfectly. I go into battle, and the sound fails to play.

i dont know what is happening pls to help

EDIT: I added one more step:

  • Reload the script and reinsert the animation using Feditor Adv (Render Edition, forgot to specify earlier)

  • Now the sound plays - sometimes. About half the time it still won’t work.

2

Could you post the contents of SFX.s by opening it in a text editor and then pasting it here?

3

Sure:

	.include "MPlayDef.s"

	.equ	sfx_grp, voicegroup000
	.equ	sfx_pri, 0
	.equ	sfx_rev, 0
	.equ	sfx_mvl, 127
	.equ	sfx_key, 0
	.equ	sfx_tbs, 1
	.equ	sfx_exg, 0
	.equ	sfx_cmp, 1

	.section .rodata
	.global	sfx
	.align	2

@**************** Track 1 (Midi-Chn.1) ****************@

sfx_1:
	.byte		VOL   , 127*sfx_mvl/mxv
	.byte	KEYSH , sfx_key+0
@ 000   ----------------------------------------
	.byte	TEMPO , 60*sfx_tbs/2
	.byte		VOICE , 0
	.byte		N24   , Cn3 , v064
	.byte	W24
	.byte	FINE

@******************************************************@
	.align	2

sfx:
	.byte	1	@ NumTrks
	.byte	0	@ NumBlks
	.byte	sfx_pri	@ Priority
	.byte	sfx_rev	@ Reverb.

	.word	sfx_grp

	.word	sfx_1

	.end
4

Your method is correct - the only possible problem I can think of is the song group (which has been mislabelled by the creator of the modules as priority). Likely another sound effect being used also plays on group 6 so try changing it to 2, 3, 4, 5 or 7. Sound effects have a buffer/debuffer time, so to speak, so if for example a footstep was being played through group 6 it needs some time to clear that space in the memory, which may explain why your sound effect only works occasionally and always in isolation.

As I said previously, the 6 doesn’t denote priority, but rather designates a certain area in the memory for the song details to be placed. If you examine various in-game sounds you will find they have different song groups - IS has strategically placed each sound effect in a song group such that no sound effect from the same group plays at the same time, or closely in succession.

5

Well, this seems to be part of the solution. Changing it from 6 to 5 makes it play more often than not, though it still occasionally fails. I did find another piece of the puzzle - the sound plays if I turn off the ingame music.

What I don’t get is why the brigand yell worked every time, even though it was also group 6.

6

Yeah, I can’t tell you why that happens, I’m not too sure myself.

Nonetheless, can you give this patch a try and see if it solves your problem?

7

Is there an FE8 version? I couldn’t find one, but I went to $2900 and changed it to 0C E0 and it seems to be working. Is that going to cause problems with the RAM or something?

8

It definitely shouldn’t - the RAM issues are specific to part of the hack that lets you play more tracks (which isn’t happening at the moment). So it’s been solved, then? :smiley:

9

Looks like it! Thanks for the help!