ROM Hack Modding Dark Souls - An Investigation

[horkrux]

After fiddling around with the bank files for a bit, I've managed to successfully implant a new FSB5 (with 44.1kHz instead of the previous 16kHz in this case). The tracks play fine, but the problem is that the order is completely jumbled :^)
I've fixed it for one track by hand, but that's not really viable for thousands of tracks of course. Gonna see if I can write a tool to do this automatically.

 

[maxx488]

After fiddling around with the bank files for a bit, I've managed to successfully implant a new FSB5 (with 44.1kHz instead of the previous 16kHz in this case). The tracks play fine, but the problem is that the order is completely jumbled :^)
I've fixed it for one track by hand, but that's not really viable for thousands of tracks of course. Gonna see if I can write a tool to do this automatically.

Thank you very much, now we can play with decent sound.
PD: Any fps drop with this?

 

[cucholix]

After fiddling around with the bank files for a bit, I've managed to successfully implant a new FSB5 (with 44.1kHz instead of the previous 16kHz in this case). The tracks play fine, but the problem is that the order is completely jumbled :^)
I've fixed it for one track by hand, but that's not really viable for thousands of tracks of course. Gonna see if I can write a tool to do this automatically.

16khz is abysmal ;(

Anyway, I would definitely make a donation towards this project, I’m dying to play this game with decent audio.

I have the game in card format, any chance to make a fake patch for use with it?

 

[horkrux]

Managed to rearrange all the tracks in a bank now. Works fine. All that's left is basically the grind to change all the banks

16khz is abysmal ;(

Anyway, I would definitely make a donation towards this project, I’m dying to play this game with decent audio.

I have the game in card format, any chance to make a fake patch for use with it?

I'm using layeredfs currently. I think this "just works" with carts? Idk if there are other ways

 

[Beware]

LayeredFS should be fine even for retail carts. You're doing gods' work, horkrux. Have you thought about outsourcing the labor of converting the banks? I'm sure it it would be a lot faster to get a patch out together if the final steps are just manual labor.

 

[maxx488]

Can I open the nsp, replace the files and then repack it? Is it possible?

 

[horkrux]

Yeah, if someone wants to help with the rest of the sound files, I usually hang out in the #modding section of the speedsouls discord. You just need access to the sound files of the PC version.

 

[cucholix]

Managed to rearrange all the tracks in a bank now. Works fine. All that's left is basically the grind to change all the banks

That’s pretty cool thanks, btw have you noticed any performance issues while playing with the new files in place?

 

[Bigjokker]

Can I open the nsp, replace the files and then repack it? Is it possible?

Yeah.. you can use hacpac to repack back to an nsp file.

 

[maxx488]

Yeah.. you can use hacpac to repack back to an nsp file.

Thx for the response!

 

[horkrux]

That’s pretty cool thanks, btw have you noticed any performance issues while playing with the new files in place?

didn't notice anything unusual about performance, no

 

[Bigjokker]

Talked with @horkrux on discord and figured out a way to automate building the FSB files. Now all I need to do is COPY & PASTE to bank files. Just a couple hundred files.

I did 110 so far...

 

[Beware]

I have some time to help today. I'm in the speedsouls discord, feel free to ping me.

 

[horkrux]

Talked with @horkrux on discord and figured out a way to automate building the FSB files. Now all I need to do is COPY & PASTE to bank files. Just a couple hundred files.

I did 110 so far...

you don't have to do them all XD
just send me/us the rest

 

[maxx488]

Inb4 tutorial

 

[cucholix]

Inb4 tutorial

It would be interesting to do a tutorial from zero, just explaining the most straight forward method to inject those audio files, I’m willing to hack my Switch just to play DS with optimal sound quality, then get back it to unhacked.

 

[maxx488]

Any progress??

 

[WadsRUs]

Has the 1.0.3 patch affected the work on this?

 

[mrmole]

Any progress??

If you want to track the progress, you should join the speedsouls discord community. They are all very friendly there and have a dedicated modding section.

Has the 1.0.3 patch affected the work on this?

Not sure, although I doubt that the patch has some audio specific files in it.

 

[horkrux]

So there are good news and bad news. The good news is the banks are all ready.
The bad news is that some of them don't work together. Whenever I put in both the bank that contains the level music and the bank with most of the general purpose sounds in place (the former is quite big, the latter pretty small), the game stops loading some others. It only worked when I made the music bank a lot smaller. They all work individually though.
So either I messed up setting all sizes and there is still some value (I've already adjusted three per bank ....) left that needs setting, OR there is actually some nasty new (memory) limitation on how big loaded sounds can be.

Either way, I'll try and find a sweetspot maybe and encode the files from the music banks once more..