TUTORIAL: Adding/Replacing Music with the Creation Kit

[durge13]

Made a forumpost with detailed testcases at Bethesda's official forums in a desperate hope that some community manager will forward it to their QA department.

 

http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/1351617-4-bug-reports-ctd-game-always-looks-for-music-in-the-last-esm-in-the-loadorder-2-ck-crashes-and-1-assert/

 

To put it short, creation kit searches for music in the last loaded .esm. If you add "update.esm" to creation kit when you edit your .esp, it will save the references to 01 (instead of 00). Then if you don't load Update.esm when you start Skyrim and leave your .esp first in the loadorder (so it is now 01), it will be able to find your custom music and you won't CTD.

 

In Creation Kit.

00 Skyrim.esm

01 Update.esm <--Custom music will be hexcoded 01, making them be referenced to this loadorder

02 YourMod.esp

 

In Skyrim

00 Skyrim.esm

01 YourMod.esp <-Custom music will be searched for here, and found, thus you avoid the CTD.

 

If your loadorder deviates from the above, you will CTD.-

 

I have seen a few explanations of load order in my years of using mods for tes series but that has to be the farthest from the truth yet. The way the load order is in the creation kit has nothing to do with how skyrim will detect the plugin, if it did you would not be able to share mods with anyone unless they had an identical list of plugins in the exact same order, the load order simply adds a 2 digit hex code to the start of anything from that plugin to avoid conflicting ID's when it comes to adding a mod from someone else with the same ID.

 

For instance say ModA has a staff added which uses the ID 1234, and ModB has a different staff which is in the same ID (1234), because both are on a different load order 'slot' they are assigned 01001234 for ModA's staff, and 02001234 for ModB's staff. So even if you use the same ID it will be different because the load order is part of a mods object ID's. The order of the mods is to do with which mod has priority if there does happen to be a conflict. Like if a mod changes the original Skyrim giant to be double the height, and another changes the same giant to triple height, whichever one is loaded last (or first I cant remember now) will have the change.

 

I am not sure if that made any sense to anyone but I tried to help and its the thought that counts :)

[NoAardvarksAllowed]

Made a forumpost with detailed testcases at Bethesda's official forums in a desperate hope that some community manager will forward it to their QA department.

 

http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/1351617-4-bug-reports-ctd-game-always-looks-for-music-in-the-last-esm-in-the-loadorder-2-ck-crashes-and-1-assert/

 

To put it short, creation kit searches for music in the last loaded .esm. If you add "update.esm" to creation kit when you edit your .esp, it will save the references to 01 (instead of 00). Then if you don't load Update.esm when you start Skyrim and leave your .esp first in the loadorder (so it is now 01), it will be able to find your custom music and you won't CTD.

 

In Creation Kit.

00 Skyrim.esm

01 Update.esm <--Custom music will be hexcoded 01, making them be referenced to this loadorder

02 YourMod.esp

 

In Skyrim

00 Skyrim.esm

01 YourMod.esp <-Custom music will be searched for here, and found, thus you avoid the CTD.

 

If your loadorder deviates from the above, you will CTD.-

 

I have seen a few explanations of load order in my years of using mods for tes series but that has to be the farthest from the truth yet. The way the load order is in the creation kit has nothing to do with how skyrim will detect the plugin, if it did you would not be able to share mods with anyone unless they had an identical list of plugins in the exact same order, the load order simply adds a 2 digit hex code to the start of anything from that plugin to avoid conflicting ID's when it comes to adding a mod from someone else with the same ID.

 

For instance say ModA has a staff added which uses the ID 1234, and ModB has a different staff which is in the same ID (1234), because both are on a different load order 'slot' they are assigned 01001234 for ModA's staff, and 02001234 for ModB's staff. So even if you use the same ID it will be different because the load order is part of a mods object ID's. The order of the mods is to do with which mod has priority if there does happen to be a conflict. Like if a mod changes the original Skyrim giant to be double the height, and another changes the same giant to triple height, whichever one is loaded last (or first I cant remember now) will have the change.

 

I am not sure if that made any sense to anyone but I tried to help and its the thought that counts :)

The problem is that the CK's music handling is severely bugged. The load order prefix assigned to the Music Tracks created in the CK are permanently fixed and unchanging. They are not dynamic. So, if you load Skyrim.esm and Update.esm when you start working on your music, the added tracks will be assigned the 02 prefix, and this means that the mod MUST be loaded as number three in the load order. Otherwise the mod simply won't work. This is why adding music to the game is an issue. (Well, together with the fact that the CK erases all file paths to your added music every time you load your plugin and that you can't save it unless all file paths are again defined.)

 

I made a mod to help people import music without having to use the CK, for this reason. It just won't work if not loaded 3rd in the load order. (http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=13286)

Edited March 23, 2012 by No_Aardvarks_Allowed

[NoAardvarksAllowed]

In the 1.5 patch for the game and the CK, Bethesda actually fixed the bugs with music handling in the CK that this thread brings up. Now the formID prefixes for added Music Tracks are changed dynamically to fit the load order of plugins, meaning they can be put anywhere in the order. Also, no longer are the Music Track file paths to the actual .wav files erased every time the plugin is loaded in the CK. This makes adding music a lot easier.:)

 

Keep in mind, however, that the CK still crashes if saving is attempted for a plugin without all Music Track file paths defined. If one is empty when saving, you're screwed.

Edited March 24, 2012 by No_Aardvarks_Allowed

[alasdairhurst]

ah great news (partially)

[misterbeefy117]

Hi!

Any1 know what the f*** the main menu theme music type is called in creation kit? been trying to replace it since day one... :(

The easy way to replace the main theme is to convert your track to .xwm, rename it as "mus_maintheme" and put it in your ~/skyrim/Data/music/special

 

I've tried that and it doesn't work for me, the main screen is just silent. Is there anything I'm doing wrong? I have it in skyrim/Data/music/special and the file name is mus_maintheme.xwm, but it still doesn't work for me.

[alasdairhurst]

did you actually convert it or just rename it?

[misterbeefy117]

I converted it using Audacity, my computer reads it as a .xwm file. Edited March 30, 2012 by misterbeefy117

[sulka]

I converted it using Audacity, my computer reads it as a .xwm file.

Indeed, if it remain silent it's just that something goes wrong during the conversion. I suggest to make a try with MultiXwm and see if it works for you.

[alasdairhurst]

i recommend multixwm too. Audacity doesn't seem to have the option to export to xwm :S

[UncleJesse87]

Hey everyone! Thankfully using this conversation I've been able to put in my custom music (thanks for the help), and it actually works thanks to the update! I'm also messing around with Music Types, trying to separate Skyrim into Natural Regions/Biomes such as Pine Forest, Fall Forest, Tundra, Highlands, Snow, Mountains, Swamp, etc. each to have its own distinct music playlist. There only really 2 bugs that have been slowing me down and I'm wondering if you have any insight for me.

 

First is the one that everyone seems to be dealing with, and which probably has no solution until there's an update: That CK seems to lose all of the filepaths to any custom-added Music Tracks between sessions. Only workarounds seem to be either a) Not ever closing out of CK and keeping my custom .esp as the Active File or b) Re-loading EACH filepath separately every time I open CK and edit the .esp. Both pretty lame options. Not really expecting much help here except from Bethesda themselves, but thought I'd check.

 

My second question starts with an observation I've had. It seems most of these Music Types/Playlists (notable example: MUSExploreForestPine) are mainly associated with Interior Cells (which can be seen if you right click and select 'User Info'). I had expected that they had divided Skyrim into Natural Regions (as I mentioned above) and associated different tracks accordingly. But the majority of (if not all) Exterior Regions seem to just draw from the invisible/unalterable playlist of 'DEFAULT'. So there really isn't much, if any, variety of music as you travel through Tamriel in the outdoor spaces as they all are playing the DEFAULT Music Type.

 

So my first goal is to convert the majority of The Rift hold region into playing MUSExploreForestFall, which I've added many custom Music Tracks to. I've found pretty much all of the regions under the Cell View > World Space > Tamriel tab (e.g.: AngarvundeExterior01, AngisCampExterior, AnisesCabinExterior01, etc.) and changed them to the Fall Forest Music Type. They were all originally DEFAULT. I also changed all of the "Wilderness" Cells under Cell View > World Space > RiftenWorld to this Music Type. But as I walk through The Rift, I find the music is constantly switching between the 'MUSExploreForestFall' Type and the 'DEFAULT'' Type. This must mean that many of the "Wilderness" Cells under the Tamriel tab are in this area, and they are all under the DEFAULT playlist. SO, is there any way to go about the immense task of figuring out which Wilderness Cells are associated with which area? (Besides using the coordinates?)

 

Sorry if this is way too much, but I figured I'd share some of the stuff I've learned while checking to see if anyone can help me out. Thanks!