Topic: Modified sounds won't play in the game...

[SF_H3llr4iser]

Hello all.
I'm messing around with SFCIII sound effects, trying to change some of them... but the new effects I put into SFCSounds.zip don't play in the game. The files have the same hz, kbps and channels of the original, and I put them into the .zip file without comression. The funny thing is that if I try to extract and then insert again an original sound effect, it stops playing as well.
Example: I exctract, from the original SFCSounds.zip, the file "KlingonDisruptor.mp3" and then, without modifing it, reinsert it back. Start the game, and the Klingon disruptors are muted.

Thank you for your attention. Jolan Tru.
 

[ancientangel]

I know you stated you did not use any compression when you added it to the Zip file. But it sounds like a compression issue.
Are you running a patched version of the game? or straight out of the CD case?  

[SF_H3llr4iser]

The game has the 1.01 b500 patch.
I can't be 100% sure, but I tend to exclude compression problems: I also tried exctracting the entire SFCSounds.zip tree in a folder and repacking it again: everything worked fine, except for the file (KlingonDisruptor.mp3) I changed in it. Lately, I discovered an even more strange behavior: if I replace a "corrupted" (in wich the klingon disruptors sound doesn't work) SFCSounds.zip file with a backup copy (that worked properly), I still can't get the sound I replaced to work... it behaves as if the "wrong" SFCSounds.zip file if "cached" somewhere. I'm really going mad about that.
 

[SF_H3llr4iser]

I found what the problem is: the MP3 encoding. The bitrate, kbps and channels are the same as the original but, somehow, the encoding itself differs slighly, and makes the file not playable by SFCIII. If I convert it to .wav, insert into SFCSound.zip and change the binding string in the .txt configuration file it works perfectly. Anyway, this looks like the complex way to do the thing to me (not to mention it inflates consistently the SFCSound.zip file size). I used one of these idiot-proof programs to encode the file (it is Magix MP3 maker): it just requires you to select the .wav file and click an encode button to perform the operation... at this point, I'd say it is not suited for purposes other than making a music MP3 file to listen in your car player.
Can you suggest any good encoder programs I could use? I should have an old version of the Xing Encoder somewhere, or the even older mp3enc command line tool... maybe they're what I need.