Create a music pack

Music pack cover in-game view

In this tutorial I would like to show you how to add your own music to the internal jukebox of World of Padman. So if you are a music artist or if you have a band, why not creating a custom music pack for World of Padman to spread your music all over the [PAD]Community.

Preparations

WoP can handle up to 10 music packs with up to 15 tracks each at maximum. Make sure that all of the tracks are at the same volume and are not too loud or too quiet compared to the already existing music packs. The player is able to create own play lists from all music packs, so if that differs too much, it can be really annoying.

Also the length of the tracks be taken into account. It is pointless to have a track of 15 minutes length, if the map cycle is set to 5 minutes. It’s not a problem, but nobody will hear the end of the tracks before the map changes. From my point of view 2 to 3 minutes are totally enough.

Formatting and converting

oggdropXPd

oggdropXPd

For playing music internally we use audio codec Ogg Vorbis, which is open and patent-free. Your original WAV files should have 44,100 Hz and 16 bit stereo before conversion. We recommend a variable bit rate at quality setting 4 of the Ogg Vorbis encoder. This indicates a nominal bit rate of 128kb/s and seems to be a good compromise between audio quality and file size. If you want to convert your original WAV files into OGG files, there is a helpful tool called oggdropXPd out there.

Naming and sorting

First, create a folder in your root directory of your drive and call it wopmusic. Create a new sub-folder with the name of your music pack, such as  C:/wopmusic/mymusicpack. The name of the sub-folder must be unique, so it could be the name of the music pack or the band. Copy all your already converted OGG files into that folder.

Now it is time to bring all tracks into the right order. To do so write numbers from 01_ up to 15_ in front of the file names. The id-Tech3 engine doesn’t like some special characters, so keep names simple such as:

01_this is my first soundtrack.ogg
02_try to make it better.ogg
...
15_the end is here.ogg

The title of a song will always be shown in small letters in game without the first 3 characters and without the file suffix.

Adding cover art

To finalize the music pack you also need a cover art. Therefore you can find a template with a suitable layout in folder XTRAS/editing files in the file custom music album files.zip. The TGA includes an alpha channel to make the the surrounding of the cover transparent in game. Fill up the white area inside the frame with your custom cover art, but take care of the track list. It will cover most of the left part of the picture in dependency of the length of the track names. Track names are always shown white, so don’t use bright colours in the background of this area.

Music pack cover template (TGA file)

Music pack cover template (TGA file)

After your artwork is final you have to re-size it to 1024 x 512 px, 72dpi and save it with included alpha channel as enhanced TGA file. It looks a bit weird now but in game it’ll be shown correctly. Rename your cover art to bg.tga and store it into the sub-folder of your music pack.

View on the music pack cover in-game

View on the music pack cover in-game

Create and release the PK3 file

To finalize the music pack you need to create a PK3 file. To-do so you need to create a ZIP archive out of the wopmusic folder, including the sub-folder. It is important to keep the folder structure packed in the ZIP archive. Rename it to wopmus_mymusicpack.pk3 and copy it into the wop sub-folder, where all the other PK3 files are located. Start the game and enjoy your music.

If you are interested in releasing your music pack, you should make a full test of your music while playing the game. Check for any errors and if the tracks are listed and named correctly. Pack the PK3 into a ZIP archive and add a read-me file with important information such as author, copyrights, web page, email etc.

Please note, for playing online the server also needs to have your music pack installed. Otherwise it won’t work.In this tutorial I would like to show you how to add your own music to the internal jukebox of World of Padman. So if you are a music artist or if you have a band, why not creating a custom music pack for World of Padman to spread your music all over the [PAD]Community.

Preparations

WoP can handle up to 10 music packs with up to 15 tracks each at maximum. Make sure that all of the tracks are at the same volume and are not too loud or too quiet compared to the already existing music packs. The player is able to create own play lists from all music packs, so if that differs too much, it can be really annoying.

Also the length of the tracks be taken into account. It is pointless to have a track of 15 minutes length, if the map cycle is set to 5 minutes. It’s not a problem, but nobody will hear the end of the tracks before the map changes. From my point of view 2 to 3 minutes are totally enough.

Formatting and converting

oggdropXPd

oggdropXPd

For playing music internally we use audio codec Ogg Vorbis, which is open and patent-free. Your original WAV files should have 44,100 Hz and 16 bit stereo before conversion. We recommend a variable bit rate at quality setting 4 of the Ogg Vorbis encoder. This indicates a nominal bit rate of 128kb/s and seems to be a good compromise between audio quality and file size. If you want to convert your original WAV files into OGG files, there is a helpful tool called oggdropXPd out there.

Naming and sorting

First, create a folder in your root directory of your drive and call it wopmusic. Create a new sub-folder with the name of your music pack, such as  C:/wopmusic/mymusicpack. The name of the sub-folder must be unique, so it could be the name of the music pack or the band. Copy all your already converted OGG files into that folder.

Now it is time to bring all tracks into the right order. To do so write numbers from 01_ up to 15_ in front of the file names. The id-Tech3 engine doesn’t like some special characters, so keep names simple such as:

01_this is my first soundtrack.ogg
02_try to make it better.ogg
...
15_the end is here.ogg

The title of a song will always be shown in small letters in game without the first 3 characters and without the file suffix.

Adding cover art

To finalize the music pack you also need a cover art. Therefore you can find a template with a suitable layout in folder XTRAS/editing files in the file custom music album files.zip. The TGA includes an alpha channel to make the the surrounding of the cover transparent in game. Fill up the white area inside the frame with your custom cover art, but take care of the track list. It will cover most of the left part of the picture in dependency of the length of the track names. Track names are always shown white, so don’t use bright colours in the background of this area.

Music pack cover template (TGA file)

Music pack cover template (TGA file)

After your artwork is final you have to re-size it to 1024 x 512 px, 72dpi and save it with included alpha channel as enhanced TGA file. It looks a bit weird now but in game it’ll be shown correctly. Rename your cover art to bg.tga and store it into the sub-folder of your music pack.

View on the music pack cover in-game

View on the music pack cover in-game

Create and release the PK3 file

To finalize the music pack you need to create a PK3 file. To-do so you need to create a ZIP archive out of the wopmusic folder, including the sub-folder. It is important to keep the folder structure packed in the ZIP archive. Rename it to wopmus_mymusicpack.pk3 and copy it into the wop sub-folder, where all the other PK3 files are located. Start the game and enjoy your music.

If you are interested in releasing your music pack, you should make a full test of your music while playing the game. Check for any errors and if the tracks are listed and named correctly. Pack the PK3 into a ZIP archive and add a read-me file with important information such as author, copyrights, web page, email etc.

Please note, for playing online the server also needs to have your music pack installed. Otherwise it won’t work.