Tutorial Unpacking / Packing .PAK files, and Sound Replacement GUIDE for Oblivion Remastered

[WestTek]

Hello everyone, I managed to replace one sound from the .pak file. Below is a tutorial on how to do the same for possibly any other sound found in the .pak.

Note: This might even help you understand other file locations within the .pak file that do not show up in FModel, more on that below!

Note 2: For sound replacements, Unreal Editor is not required :-), learn more below!

MUSIC NOTE: Presently there is a known issue with custom music being cut off. See this post for more information.

UPDATED NOTE: Vortex and MO2 supports .pak files, just make sure the mod folder and .pak filename end in _P, see below for more details.

 

REQUIRED TOOLS

Let's begin with the Tools and tutorial links on how to use them.

Note to Forum Mods: Forgive me if links to websites are not permitted. These don't point to the direct files themselves and were shared by others in the Mod Author Discord.

All you need is:

1. UnrealPak by FluffyQuak - This will pack up your mod into a nice .pak file and you can unpack .pak files to learn from each other! DOWNLOAD HERE
2. FModel - You need this program to browse files not found in the game's original directory (including sounds, music, code etc.) DOWNLOAD HERE
3. Oblivion Remastered .usmap file for FModel by huwiee. This will tell FModel to show you the packed file directories correctly. DOWNLOAD HERE FROM NEXUS
4. Wwise - Used to convert .wav to .wem, the required audio file for sound replacer mods. DOWNLOAD HERE
   1. Wwise is downloaded from within the company's app launcher, any version should do.

 

BROWSING OblivionRemastered-Windows.pak

OblivionRemastered-Windows.pak contains all the new sounds and possibly other files you're probably looking for. To browse them you will need to install FModel.

The .pak file and all present .pak mods for the game are located here:

Quote

\Steam\steamapps\common\Oblivion Remastered\OblivionRemastered\Content\Paks

 

BROWSING .pak FILES
FModel GUIDE:

Set up your FModel settings to match huwiee 's screenshot below. You may change your Output Directory and Archive Directory as needed.

• NOTE 1: All settings must match. i.e. "UE Versions" must be GAME_UE5_3.
• NOTE 2: You need to checkmark "[ ] Disabled" near Mapping File Path to reveal the option to select the .usmap you downloaded.

• Click OK and let it restart if it needs to. Then click on the Archives Tab on the top left.
• Then select OblivionRemastered-Windows.pak (or another mod's .pak to learn!) and click Load.

• After it loads you will then be on the Folders tab. Expand OblivionRemastered and explore!
• Sounds are located in WwiseAudio

For today's example I will show you how to replace the New Area Discovered sound which is tied to the new UI system in the Remaster. Check out my mod to see it in action.

Browse and double click on "Redesign" at the following location:

Quote

OblivionRemastered/Content/WwiseAudio/Interface/HUD/Redesign

Double Clicking on any .uasset sound will open up an Audio Player for you to preview the sound.

Close or move the preview window out of the way and look at the information on the right side.

• Now you need to find what the name of your .wem needs to be along with the folder location it must be saved in for your mod to work. In this example we want to remember this filename and location:

Quote

 "MediaPathName": "Media/94211525.wem"

NOTE: If you browse back you might notice your .wem may be missing from the Media folder, this is fine. You only need to know that this is where it should go in your .pak file directory.

Sound Replacer modders you are done with FModel here! 

There is no need to export files from FModel's menu if you do not need to. Sound replacers just only need to know what the name of the .wem is along with their location.

 

CONVERTING .WAV TO .WEM

Here is a YouTube tutorial on how to use wwise to convert all your .wav files to .wem

REMEBER: The .wem filename must match the one you found in FModel, 94211525.wem in today's example.

 

PACKING UP YOUR NEW .PAK

• Create a folder inside the folder you extracted UnrealPak to.
• The name of this folder is important!
• You must start the name of the folder with: OblivionRemastered-Windows_ then add the name of your mod afterwards. 
• For Vortex or MO2 compatibility, make sure this folder ends in _P for example: 
  OblivionRemastered-Windows_WestTek_NewArea_SFX_P

NOTE: Your mod's .pak file can be named anything you want, just make sure _P is at the end for mod loaders to load this correctly.

• Now create the folder paths as shown in FModel to the location your .wem file needs to be. In my example it's:

Quote

OblivionRemastered\Content\WwiseAudio\Media

• So I place my newly converted and named .wem file inside the Media folder.

 

• Now drag the entire folder that you named correctly from the steps above onto UnrealPak-With-Compression.bat
• This will launch your console cmd, press any key when it's done packing.

 

NOTE: If you want to unpak any pak file, simply drag the .pak over UnrealUnpak.bat

 

CONGRATULATIONS MOD AUTHOR!

You just packed your first working .pak (hopefully!)

• Now simply place your new .pak in the paks directory of the game and launch, test, and publish your mod!

• Or if using fomod, make sure your mod folder and .pak files end in _P

Good luck and have fun modding, everyone! Curious to see new audio mods in the coming days, weeks, years!

Edited May 4 by WestTek
Added a note about mod pak files can be named anything except to leave _P at the end.

[7H3LaughingMan]

Just so you are aware, if you name the file NewArea_SFX_P.pak you can put the pak in a Oblivion Remastered\OblivionRemastered\Content\Paks\~mods folder. UE mods need to end in _P to be loaded.

[christianhulen]

Thanks again, kudos to everyone who has made this happen!!

[Thaddion]

Looks like hell. Hope there'll be an easier method in the future for sound stuff.

[Kotekia]

Can this guide be used to replace the voices for player characters?

[Noobatron22]

You may have just created the breakthrough we needed for sound/music mods! Will experiment and see what happens.

 

EDIT: Can confirm this method does allow anyone to replace music tracks via OblivionRemastered/Content/WwiseAudio/Music/music_global_play.uasset, however the music cuts off early and immediately starts the next track; will look into this.

Edited April 27 by Noobatron22

[7H3LaughingMan]

4 hours ago, WestTek said:

Note 3: Presently there is no way to properly use Vortex or Mod Organizer to automatically place your modded .pak file for players. You still will need to direct players to manually install it.

Just want to point out that Vortex is wanting to place your modded .pak file in Oblivion Remastered\OblivionRemastered\Content\Paks\~mods which isn't compatible with how you made your mod.

[WestTek]

4 hours ago, 7H3LaughingMan said:

Just so you are aware, if you name the file NewArea_SFX_P.pak you can put the pak in a Oblivion Remastered\OblivionRemastered\Content\Paks\~mods folder. UE mods need to end in _P to be 

Ok Ill give it a shot, thanks. Do you know if mod organizer added similar support?

[WestTek]

3 hours ago, Kotekia said:

Can this guide be used to replace the voices for player characters?

It should in my opinion. vo lines are found in Media>English

[Kotekia]

43 minutes ago, WestTek said:

It should in my opinion. vo lines are found in Media>English

I found them and attempted to do it but honestly I don't really understand what im doing lol. I wanted to try and replace the wood elf generic hit sounds with the breton just as a proof of concept for myself before I dived more into it. But honestly this is a bit to much for me. Also how would I go about exporting textures so that I can edit them in my sculpting / texture tools?

Edited April 27 by Kotekia