Where can I find thief and/or thief-like ambient humming sound/music - by Lord Spoochyspoochy
Lord Spoochyspoochy on 24/6/2013 at 14:21
Hallo, I wanted to ask you if you can tell me where/how to find that ambient humming sound/music played in the background in the Thief games. I am generally interested in finding both the ambient tracks from the game's installation (I ony have T2), PLUS if there was something very similar, in an hours long youtube video, for example, to use it for relaxation.
I saw some threads talking about how to find the ambient tracks of the game, but they weren't very clear and I also don't know how to use DromEd (I just know that it's the editor). I just found a file named "snd.crf" and I unzipped it, which has many folders, corresponding to the game characters, with sounds in them. Almost all of them though, are the characters' voices etc. Only I think 4 of all of those .wav's are really what I was looking for, and even those were only a few seconds. And when I put them in a loop in winamp, the fade in and fade out made them not sound nice, I tried putting zero fade in/out but it was the same, so I guess it was the particular tracks.
In youtube searching for relaxing sounds, I only found one video with that "humming" ambient, found in thief. This one:
Relaxation Ambient Sounds - Inner Light in Meditation
(
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5vFWPSVN9Y)
Any help will be appreciated.
AntiMatter_16 on 24/6/2013 at 17:11
The sounds in Thief are organized into what are called "schemas". A schema contains a list of a few different sound files (in snd.crf), and some settings on how to play them. In thief levels, there are invisible markers with Ambientsound properties that specifies which schemas to play around them.
If you open DromEd and go to "Editors->Object Hierarchy" You'll see a tree called "Sound" and in it, "Schema". In there are the list of all the schemas. If you write down a schema name, you can play it by entering "play_schema [schemaname]" in the black box in the lower right of the window.
Lord Spoochyspoochy on 24/6/2013 at 19:22
Quote Posted by AntiMatter_16
The sounds in Thief are organized into what are called "schemas". A schema contains a list of a few different sound files (in snd.crf), and some settings on how to play them. In thief levels, there are invisible markers with Ambientsound properties that specifies which schemas to play around them.
If you open DromEd and go to "Editors->Object Hierarchy" You'll see a tree called "Sound" and in it, "Schema". In there are the list of all the schemas. If you write down a schema name, you can play it by entering "play_schema [schemaname]" in the black box in the lower right of the window.
Thanks for the answer, but I was hoping to find a way to play them in winamp (in order to play them in repeat, use winamp's playlist to listen to many of them, etc.), or at least something very similar in youtube. Of course I'm gonna try what you said, but it makes me curious, why aren't those ambients inside that snd.crf, in the form of .wav, like all those other .wav's in those folders?
SlyFoxx on 24/6/2013 at 19:40
Because ambient sounds are often a mix of more than one sound/.wav Take just for example an ambient called "night". It might have a music loop or two along with crickets and various wind sounds. The schema directs the game to play the various sounds as a package deal thus negating the need to mix them into yet another .wav which would increase the size of the sound folder.
Remember, when T1 and T2 came out hard drives were still measured in megabytes so every little bit really counted. Game designers were tasked with stretching their resources.
Lord Spoochyspoochy on 24/6/2013 at 19:57
I must be doing something wrong. I go to where you told me to and I find "schema" in that tree. When I open it, it has various things, such as devices, doors, weapons, etc. and in the end there is "Ambients". Alright, I open "Ambients" and there is another list, with options such as AMB_M06, AMB_M13, AMB_M09, etc. If I open one of those, there are some options, like m06whispers, m06screams, m06laughs, etc.
I don't know which one should I put, after the "play_schema" command, the whole AMB_M06, or one by one m06whispers, m06screams, etc.? I have tried both and both have failed.
When I try "play_schema AMB_M09", it says in the command window "SchemaChooseSample: schema AMB_M09 <-117> has no samples". And DromEd freezes.
When I try "play_schema m06whispers" absolutely nothing happens. When I tried once another one like m06whispers, it told me something about buffer and it froze again.
Can you tell me what should I do?
AntiMatter_16 on 24/6/2013 at 21:52
AMB_M06 is basically a folder. It contains all the schema used in mission 6 (Eavesdropping). You want to play the schema inside, like 'm06whispers'.
Not sure what's going on with your audio settings though. What schema gave you the error about the buffer?
BTW, If you're using the (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=141708) Dromed Basic Toolkit, there's a menu command in Extra->Schemas->Play Schema that calls the "play_schema" command with a dialog box to input the schema you want. There's a similar command in NV's DromEd Toolkit menus that were included with Newdark.
Constance on 25/6/2013 at 06:20
Quote Posted by SlyFoxx
Remember, when T1 and T2 came out hard drives were still measured in megabytes so every little bit really counted. Game designers were tasked with stretching their resources.
Actually I had a 8 GB drive back in 1998 but yeah, that still wasn't much room. Make a full Baldur's Gate install on that and you don't have much left ^^'
Lord Spoochyspoochy on 25/6/2013 at 06:23
Quote Posted by AntiMatter_16
AMB_M06 is basically a folder. It contains all the schema used in mission 6 (Eavesdropping). You want to play the schema inside, like 'm06whispers'.
Not sure what's going on with your audio settings though. What schema gave you the error about the buffer?
BTW, If you're using the (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=141708) Dromed Basic Toolkit, there's a menu command in Extra->Schemas->Play Schema that calls the "play_schema" command with a dialog box to input the schema you want. There's a similar command in NV's DromEd Toolkit menus that were included with Newdark.
AntiMatter, excuse me for being late to reply, I was asleep.
Well, by trying and trying again, at some point I realised that the sounds were being played, but they were being played extremely low. If I turn on my speakers on full (and I have very loud speakers), then you can barely hear those ambients that say "whisper", "night", etc., which are the ones I wanted. Those door squeaks for example, are louder (nowhere near as loud as when inside the game though), I just hadn't tried anything else except ambients. Also most of them just play for a little and then stop. As for that buffering thing, I encountered it again a couple of times while trying out schemas, but I didn't memorize which ones, I'm sure though, one had "loop" on the end of the name and it was supposed to play continually. And DromEd froze again. The message was "Sample TBD: what if LockBuffer fails?".
Anyway, the thing though, is that the way we are talking about doing it (playing them seperately, one by one, whispers, crickets, etc.) it will be extremely monotonous, right? I just thought of it. Because when you play the game, they change because you move through the areas. I thought that I would put the "AMB_M09" in and it would just use all those sounds (whispers, crickets, etc.), circling through them, merged with a permanent humming "background", kind of like the game...
Do you have any ideas for this? Maybe a way to play them successively, something like a playlist? And of course a way to play them louder. Although I feel this isn't gonna work for what I said I want it to.
I think the best way though, would be to just try to find something similar in youtube (which I haven't except the one I posted). If only someone had found a way to rip those sounds together with the humming as you hear them ingame and turned them into mp3...
