Not a valid .WAV file

[panTera]

"Set sample error - Not a valid .WAV file"
I really really hate the combination of mohaa+custom sounds. Whadaloadacrap. I've tried to understand why the devs came up with that whole ubercrap thing in the first place and the only thing I can think of is that with it some of the maps would load faster when it only caches specific sounds for a specific map. But that's probably not it.

Okay I think I've tried about everything to get rid of this console-message but so far no luck. In my map I'm using only a handful of custom wavs that are being cached in a tiki. (I didn't use the 'local.master = spawn scriptmaster' method because it seems to be causing problems with Spearhead? The map is designed for AA, but it would be nice if it will work with SH as well.) All the sounds play and don't give me any errors when I'm actually playing on the map itself. But recently I've been doing some more testing and I'm letting the map rotate with the stockmaps to see if everything's okay, (ie. if the pk3 is correct.) At first all seems fine, but whenever my map has been played and the server goes on to the next map in the rotation, the error seems to pop up randomly and clogs the console (only with "developer 1"). It sometimes comes immediately in the next map and sometimes it may take a while. Or so it seems.

As the error suggests I thought there had to be something wrong with my wav files. I know the wavs need to have mono-bitdepth (1 channel) but I'm not sure about the sample rate. The weird thing is, all sounds WORK regardless of their sample rate. In the game you can set the sound quality to Low (16bits, 11025kHz), Medium (16bits, 22050kHz) and High (16bits, 44100kHz). After converting all wavs to 16bits that annoying message STILL showed up. I also tried pointing my wavs to the original 'sound/amb' path; didn't help either. Get this, even when I delete the wav files from the pk3 the error is there!
Conclusion: it has nothing to do with the wavs not being valid files. Right? There must be something else the game likes to whine about. Probably the tiki.

(I found out this also happens with other maps that have custom wavs, even if they use the 'spawn scriptmaster'-thingy. Just start a DM game and begin with a custom map that uses custom wavs (if you can find any...lol?), then switch to a stockmap. It may take a while before the error shows up. It may even take switching between maps a few times...)

Is there anyone who has seen this error before and would such looping "error" be a problem with servers' logfiles since it only shows with developer set to 1? Or should I just forget the whole thing and leave it this way? I'm so done with this and I haven't yet begun testing it with SH...

[tltrude]

Ok, for Spearhead, you'll need to make a custom ubersound script. If you study the Spearhead ubersound.scr file, you will see how they imported mohaa sound alias'. It will be the same for new sounds, if they are also used in mohaa.

Jv_map gave up on using the tiki method--because it had problems on dedicated severs, I think.

[Rookie One.pl]

You can make aliases with a spawned ScriptMaster. I use it in a server-side mod and it works perfectly.

[panTera]

Jv_map gave up on using the tiki method--because it had problems on dedicated severs, I think.

Yes that's what I heard once but I forgot about it.. thanks for reminding.
Okay, I will go for the spawned scriptmaster then and write it in a custom ubersound script instead of in the maps' script itself and have a look at Spearhead's version of ubersound.

The problem however won't go away if I use this custom uber.scr method because I already tested that. In fact that's why I started this thread. But if it avoids possible problems with dedicated servers, it's better than the tiki method.

I've looked at several maps and for instance the map The_rescue (by bdbodger) uses the following in a custom ubersound, which he named 'rescue.scr' :

local.master = spawn scriptmaster
local.master aliascache etc. etc..
local.master aliascache etc. etc..

end

He also uses this line in his _precache: "cache ubersound/rescuesounds.tik" I don't know if that's correct because the names don't match. When I do it this way I get an error saying it can't find "models/ubersound/mysounds.tik" So how do I cache my custom uber.scr? With the "exec" line? I'll just try some more... but it would help if someone happens to know this off hand.

Still I have no clue as to what causes that weird wav-error. In AA I've also tested it with the map "Train_to_hell" and the same error occurs. However this map uses the scriptmaster in the maps' script and not in a custom ubersound. Perhaps that's the problem.

[Rookie One.pl]

It doesn't matter where you use this spawned scriptmaster, it just has to be between level waittill prespawn and level waittill spawn.

As to the error - make sure the file is not corrupt or anything.

[Master-Of-Fungus-Foo-D]

It doesn't matter where you use this spawned scriptmaster, it just has to be between level waittill prespawn and level waittill spawn.

thats just like saying you can put it anywhere you want, it just has to be inbetween those two rocks....

You can make sounds with a tiki?
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you put the stuf in between level waittill prespawn and level waittill spawn,

Code: Select all

level.master = spawn ScriptMaster
level.master aliascache alias blah blah blah....
level.master aliascache anotheralias blah lah blah...

why make youre own ubersound for a map? just put it in youre maps script

[Rookie One.pl]

Fungus, that's exactly what I meant - you can put it in any script as long as it's executed between prespawn and spawn.

About the TIKIs, you can, but it's a whole lot of work and it won't work with server-side-only mods very well as the clients probably won't have the TIKI.

[jv_map]

The error sounds very familiar but I forgot why it happens. Maybe try to find out which sound exactly causes the error by using s_show_sounds 1 in console.

[panTera]

Well I did some more testing and the s_show_sounds 1 command only displays which sound is being played at the moment and I couldn't find anything unusual about my own sounds...

To make something clear I don't have problems with cacheing the sounds and getting them to work with or without a spawned scriptmaster, it's just the 'invalid wav' message that only seems to appear when other maps load after a map that has used custom sounds. (Sort of like when you've played a map that has a sunflare and your map is next the sunflare will still be there unless you've set 'sunflarename none' in the worldspawn.)

Nonetheless I did find a way to cache sounds for a specific map only. Normally you'd use "dm moh obj" at the end of your aliascache line but that means the sounds will be loaded for all maps starting with 'moh' and the ones that are in the dm and obj folders. However if you write the full maps' path it will work:

local.master aliascache mynewalias sound/mechanics/Mec_ShutterSqueak_01.wav soundparms 0.7 0.2 0.8 0.4 250 1000 item loaded maps "dm/mymap obj/mymap"

It didn't make the error go away so it probably won't make much of a difference anyways but it's nice to know that it's possible.

[Rookie One.pl]

Try setting the maps soundparms to "dm obj", not the name of the specific map.

[panTera]

Yes Rookie One, I know that... but I'm guessing that either you're not reading all of it or I was a bit unclear. Probably the latter. As I already mentioned it has nothing to do with the error. I've done all kinds of testing and of course I tried it first with "dm obj". I was just stating that it also works fine if you write "dm/yourmap obj/yourmap".

[Rookie One.pl]

Ah, sorry.

Can you play the WAV with e.g. winamp or foobar? Have you made sure it's not corrupt?