SOUNDS WITHOUT SIZE
This is an old trick that came about with Merlin's release of the Staredit Enhancer with Stardraft, but I figure I might as well make a quick article on it to avoid the inevitable question. Basically, the one use of the SEE (not its original intent) was the ability to allow map makers to use sounds that are in the MPQ files in their maps without adding any size -- a very useful tactic in multiplayer maps for battle.net distribution. Here's what you need first:
- Starcraft 1.04 (or atleast Staredit 1.04 and its needed files)
- Stardraft 1.04 (which can be found in the Misc. Programs section)
- A blank wav file (just a empty text file with a *.wav extention will do fine).
This is because of a bug in the 1.05 version of Stardraft which disables the SEE from working. Now, patch Staredit 1.04 with Stardraft 1.05 -- you don't need any CWADs (unless you want emerald or something to edit the map with). You may need to edit your Starcraft registry if your patcher is opening up your 1.05 version of Staredit instead of 1.04. You can use SCRegedit (which is also in the Misc. Programs section) to do it. Just change the install path of Starcraft to whereever your 1.04 stuff is.
Now, once everything loads up, here's what you do:
- Find the path(s) of the sound(s) you wish to use in your
map. I.E., say you wanted the first Scout annoyed sound:
sound\protoss\scout\pscpss00.wav
- Open your map with the patched SE. Open the Sound Importer,
and then enable the StarEdit Enhancer (via clicking on the button in the Stardraft Control
Center widow).
- Set the import path in the StarEdit Enhancer so it matches
the path of the path of the sound in the MPQ you want. I.E.,
sound\protoss\scout\
Click Apply. Now, Name your blank wav the same as the actual wav file in the MPQ. I.E.,
pscpss00.wav
Import the wav into the map with the Sound Manager (in Staredit).
- Change the path (if necessary) for each sound are going to
import (respective to their MPQ locations).
- Close the Sound Importer, and save the map.
- Edit your triggers (or make new ones) using these new
sounds.
- Save your map, and close StarEdit/StarDraft.
You're done. Now when you play your map, when your trigger reads the sound, it will actually read the wav file from the MPQ instead of your map (cus you told it to look in the MPQ directory for the sound =).
Its a little tedious, but it really shrinks down the size of maps. Original credit to skittles (previously of Camelot Systems) for writing the first article on this.
DI
August 19, 1999
