Atmospheric Sound Effects 3.0 Update 3
Created by Duncan
Scripts optimised by CoolDemon
Contents
Description
Requirements
Installation
New in update 3
Cleaning a savegame
readme_AtmosphericSoundEffects-3.0.htm corrections
Morrowind.ini modifications
Compatibility
Users of previous versions (1.2, 2.0, or 2.1)
Description
This update to Atmospheric Sound Effects 3.0 adds 110 3d-positioned sounds throughout the world of Vvardenfell with 2,066 sound emission points. All sounds added are randomized except for the new footstep sounds.
In towns, you'll hear screeching cats, barking dogs, rats, wind chimes, wood sawing, metal hammering, pullies, running footsteps, opening doors, closing doors, locked doors, knocking on doors, and voices. These sounds are most prominent during daylight hours when the weather is clear or cloudy. At night or during adverse weather conditions (foggy or overcast) the sounds are less frequent. If it's raining, thundering, or dust-storming the sounds vanish.
As you near a cave entrance, foreboding sounds might make you think twice before entering the cavern.
Sewers are much scarier now with sounds that only exist in the imagination.
Requirements
- You must have ase30.exe and ase30update2.exe installed to use this update. You do not need ase30update1.zip or ase30update2.1.exe.
- If you have Tribunal installed, you must have the latest version, which is 1.4.1313.
- I tweaked the ranges of all sounds using hardware accelerated mode. This option can be found in the in-game audio options menu. The reason I used this mode instead of software is because it sounds much better. If you use software mode, you may not hear some sounds as intended and some sounds might not be heard at all. One example, if you stand on the deck outside Arrille's Tradehouse and you're using software mode, you won't hear the sounds coming from the trees. I attempted to tweak the ranges to accomodate both modes but was unsuccessful. The difference between these modes may be specific to my system, however I don't think it is.
Installation
- Run and extract ase30update3.exe, a self-extracting rar archive, to your Morrowind data files folder. This will overwrite AtmosphericSoundEffects-3.0.esp and/or AtmosphericSoundEffects-3.0-Tribunal.esp. There are 6 other files that will be over-written. These files are not game default files but are part of ase30update2.exe.
- If you are having problems with volume levels, remember to play around with all the volume sliders in the Morrowind audio options.
New in update 3
- Added 76 randomized sounds to the following towns: Ald Ruhn, Ald Velothi, Bal Isra, Balmora, Caldera, Dagon Fel, Dren Plantation, Ebonheart, Gnar Mok, Gnisis, Khuul, Maar Gan, Molag Mar, Odai Plateau, Pelagiad, Seyda Neen, Suran. Some, but not all, have voice sounds also.
- Added 30 randomized sounds to all sewers throughout Vvardenfell. This includes sewers that are specific to Tribunal.
- Added 20 randomized sounds to cavern entrances.
- New footstep sounds for bare, light, medium, and heavy armor types. (I realized too late that the footstep sounds in Update 2 get to be very annoying and distracting when heard on your character constantly, especially the heavy armor type, which sounds like a tin can. They may sound fine on NPC's, but not on your character.) These new sounds still distinguish between the different armors but hopefully won't be annoying or distracting. If you don't like the new ones, you can always replace the clearly named footstep files in data files\sound\_ase_ with ones that you do like.
- Made the hand-to-hand hit sounds louder.
- Made the light, medium, and heavy armor hit sounds slightly louder.
Cleaning a savegame
Sometimes, a savegame can become unclean from a plugin. This can lead to some strange errors and occurrences ingame. This applies to many plugins available.
Note that if you have a savegame that has been used with the original ase30.exe, and you want to use this update with it, you must clean your savegame.
So, if you're experiencing problems, and not necessarily with ASE, here are some instructions for cleaning a savegame quickly and easily.
- Open morrowind.ini, located in the root installation folder of Morrowind, in whatever text editor you use.
- Add the following line anywhere under the [General] section: AllowYesToAll=1
- Save the modified morrowind.ini.
- Use the Morrowind Launcher and select Data Files.
- Deselect all plugins you want a savegame cleaned of.
- Run Morrowind.
- Load the savegame you want cleaned.
- When given the choice, select the Yes To All button.
- Once the game is loaded, re-save. The savegame is now cleaned of whatever plugins you deselected in step 4.
readme_AtmosphericSoundEffects-3.0.htm corrections
Morrowind.ini modifications
In the original 3.0 readme file, I listed many ini entries that need to be changed. However, I wrote in it such a manner that had the comments with default values on the same line as an ini entry.
If you copy and paste these entries from the readme into morrowind.ini, the game will crash right after the Bethseda logo. The cause is too many characters (in this case, the characters happen to be spaces) for a sound id; a sound id can only have 31 characters.
If you have had or are having this problem, getting rid of all the space characters after a sound id name (e.g. _ase_water layer) and putting any comments on a separate line will correct it.
Compatibility
Atmospheric Sound Effects 3.0 Update 3 is compatible with any plugin available. There are some plugins that have conflicting sound entries, but technically there is no problem with this. The newer plugin will override the older one.
For example, Morrowind Sound Enhancements has some conflicting sound entries. By default, ASE is the newer plugin file so any conflicting entries will be over-ridden by ASE and will therefore not be heard from MSE. If you want the opposite to be true, just load MSE in the construction set and re-save it. Now any conflicting entries will be overridden by MSE.
Users of previous versions (1.2, 2.0, or 2.1)
Follow the instructions for cleaning a savegame in this readme.