Better Gun Sounds - Making Guns Great Again

[slverbaur]

Hello Hunters and other ranged weapon users.

I am a dwarven hunter and engineer, so the gun is my natural weapon of choice. But there is a problem with guns - they have a mind numbingly annoying sound effect. It's too loud and leading some hunters to abandon the gun and swear by the bow. But what if you're not an elf suffering from wood-phelia?

After a bit of tinkering, I found a solution.

The solution is simple:

Replace the original sound effects with sound effects that are better. This method is not in violation with the rules, by the way.
The method is similar to the way you change the fonts without an addon.


Downloads:
The folder structure:

Code: Select all

World of Warcraft\Sound\Item\Weapons\Gun

If you don't have these folders already, make them.

The "Gun" folder is where we're going to put the new sound effects.


Heavy Canon Sound Pack
HD Fire and Reload sound.
http://www.filedropper.com/heavycanonsoundpack


Mute Guns / Lower Volume
http://www.filedropper.com/fortheinternet
There are two different two folders (i.e. two different fixes).
a) No Firing Sound
b) Original Sound with Lower Volume

Both have a folder named "Sound" inside them. Take the one you want and put int WoW Directory

Lower Volume (Lower than the one above)
http://www.filedropper.com/showdownload.php/lowervolume


Even Lower Volume (Lower than the one above and even lower than the one above that)
http://www.filedropper.com/evenlowervolume

Heavy Canon Sound Pack 2
http://www.filedropper.com/heavycanonsoundpack2
Same concept as the other Heavy Canon pack. Just different sounds

[slverbaur]

Making Custom Sounds

Useful if you found different sounds somewhere. Or if you want to adjust the volume etc.
The following is what I did with the files you can download in the above post.
You can share if you made something awesome. You can just upload it in a .zip file on http://www.filedropper.com/ (no registration required)

The Right Format

• The sound files must be in the .wav format
• The sound files must be mono. Not stereo.
• The sound files must be in specific sampling rate: 22050 Hz.
• The recording format must be: 32-bit float. ( Not entirely sure about this one, but I'll show you how to do it anyway )

Neither the default sounds nor the custom sounds will play if the file is formatted wrong.


How to check that the sound effect is the right format:
You need to install a program called "Audacity".
Audacity doesn't work with .mp3 files out of the box (because licensing) so you must install the "LAME encoder plug-in" as well.

Here's how: http://www.wikihow.com/Convert-WAV-File ... h-Audacity
(It's really easy)

1) Open the file in Audacity.
2) Look in the box, to the left of the waveform. It displays the format information of the sound effect.

http://imgur.com/CCvAnyQ (This is wrong - See "How to Convert Files")
https://i.imgur.com/O5kOYyE.png (This is right, export as .wav and put in the directory)

How To Convert Files

Open the sound effect with Audacity.
File > Open... > Navigate to file.

Change from Stereo to Mono
1) Press CTRL + A to select the whole track.
2) Click Track in the top bar/ menu thing.
3) Select Turn into Mono Track. (or whatever it's called - see picture)
http://imgur.com/WYfKUhn

Change Recording Format.
1) Click the downward triangle to the left of the track.
2) go to "Choose recording format"
3) Choose 32-bit float
http://imgur.com/0WT2wm8

Change Sample Rate
1) Press CTRL + A to select the whole track.
2) Press "Track" in the top bar / menu thing.
3) Press "New Sample Rate"
http://imgur.com/NSbnv0S

4) Type 22050 in the box and click ok.
http://imgur.com/NsfOIMo

Export as .wav file
1) File > Export Audio (CTRL + Shift + E)
http://imgur.com/BkViiOD

2) Give a proper name and choose .wav format. (According to step 2 below)
http://imgur.com/6zSZLtM


1) Making the Right Folders
The folder structure:

Code: Select all

World of Warcraft\Sound\Item\Weapons\Gun

If you don't have these folders already, make them.

The "Gun" folder is where we're going to put the new sound effects.

(Picture coming... maybe)


2) Make Sure the Files Are Named Correctly

You can have up to 3 different "firing" sound effects and 3 different "reload" sound effects at the same time.
Wow is alternating between these threee, so it doesn't get too repetitive.

You must name them accordingly:

Gun Fire Sound Effects:

GunFire01.wav
GunFire02.wav
GunFire03.wav


Gun Reload Sound Effects:

GunLoad01.wav
GunLoad02.wav
GunLoad03.wav

The client will use the original sound effect if you don't replace it. For example: If you don't put a sound effect called "GunFire03.wav", the game will use the default "GunFire03.wav".

If you only want two different effects instead of three, you must duplicate one of them and name it either "GunFire01.wav", "GunFire02.wav" or "GunFire03.wav".

Otherwise the client will play the default sounds. However, if that's what you desire you can do that as well.



How to Change the Volume of Sound Effects
1) Open the sound effect in Audacity.
2) Press CTRL + A (To select the whole track)
3) Click "Effect" in the top menu
4) Click Amplify... ( I don't have english Audacity, so the name might be slightly different)
5) A pop-up box appears where you can type in db (decibels) - Type in a negative number and click OK. For example -5.
6) Volume is lower. Experiment with different numbers. Yes, you can use CTRL + Z

How To Reset to Default Sound Effects:

Remove the sound files from the "Gun" folder, that you created, or delete the "Sound" folder that you created.



Sound Files that you can download individually (Not continuing the wordpress effort)

Reloading Sounds (Mag. style)
https://asdfadfsdfa.wordpress.com/2016/01/16/sounds/
These will play once when you toggle Auto Shoot.

Gun With Silencer
https://asdfadfsdfa.wordpress.com/2016/ ... nd-effect/
You need to download 3 copies and name them: GunFire01.wav , GunFire02.wav and GunFire03.wav
if you only want that sound

Original but with lower volume
https://asdfadfsdfa.wordpress.com/2016/ ... er-volume/

Muted Gun (Just a click sound)
https://asdfadfsdfa.wordpress.com/2016/ ... ick-sound/

(ok, this wordpress thing is too tedious. Take it for what it is, I'll probably just make some sound packs).

[forsaken_toys]

1 internet to OP for that post. I've made nelf hunter-engineer, so right way is guns and self made ammo, but that freaking gun sound just turns me down. Now I need StarWars blaster sound =)

[slverbaur]

Holy shit, that's a good idea. Do you mind sharing the sound effects once you've made them?

[Draggah]

It all seems very cool, but I'm not sure how to make it work. I diddnt have any path as described (Only sound "item" I have is in my data folder, my Sound.MPQ). So I tried to make a folder path as described, put it in the main wow folder first, and then tried the data folder, added the premade sound files, named them and all that, but sadly it dosnt work. What am I missing here?

[Rhena]

This might be relevant:
https://forum.nostalrius.org/viewtopic. ... nd#p144913

[Draggah]

Ah, thanks Rhena!

[Religionless]

Can this be done with cone of cold or Frostbolt?

[Dreez]

Can this be done with cone of cold or Frostbolt?

yes, you can modify it, you can even modify the visuals

I wouldn't advise you to do so anyway
(see Rhena's comment)

[slverbaur]

Can this be done with cone of cold or Frostbolt?

yes, you can modify it, you can even modify the visuals

I wouldn't advise you to do so anyway
(see Rhena's comment)

No. That is absolutely not the same thing. AT ALL. And you're all jumping on the bandwagon because some dude who made a good addon thinks he knows what this is (but he doesn't so there's that)..... Sorry Rhena, LUF rocks but you're just plain wrong here.

Let me explain it:

RHENA'S COMMENT IS WRONG BECAUSE THE LINK IS NOT RELEVANT

Why? Because the nost staff gives a non-answer. Client modifications are agains the rules, but this is not a client modification. This is an interface customization just like any other interface customization.
Blizzard even encouraged AddOn developers to put as much stuff as possible into the /WoW/Interface/ directory as possible in their official tutorial: http://vanilla-wow.wikia.com/wiki/World_of_Warcraft_Interface_Addon_Kit.


What you are talking about is "model editing" this is not model editing which falls under the "client modifications" category.


When you model edit, you make a custom patch-x.mpq file which you put into the data folder of the WoW client.


With gun sounds, you simply put sound files into the Interface folder. This is also where you put AddOns.


In WoW, sounds count as part of the Interface, which means it's allowed to customize.


If you do not believe me, then look here. (the imgur links are screenshots of the posts in case the battle.net links die)

Former forum manager: https://eu.battle.net/forums/en/wow/topic/13686039995

https://imgur.com/a/ho6bCOf


INB4 "anyone can claim to be a forum blizzard employee":

https://eu.battle.net/forums/en/wow/top ... 771?page=2

Here you can see the exact same poster, post as a greentext (which means he is blizzard representative) where he is saying good bye because he is relieved of duty.


https://imgur.com/a/0sRh0ox





This is not a model edit. Simple as that. No custom .mpq's or anything. You just have add sound files to interface folder and the game does the rest of the work.



SO STFU AND ENJOY WHAT'S GOOD IN LIFE JESUS