Help needed with mp3 files on LAN coop

[GSHWK_Houndstone_Hawk]

Ok I'm running into a few problems and need to break them down to try and solve one at a time. I've been making coop missions for a little while and haven't encountered the problems I now face.

Basically I have two pc's 2 different premium IL-2 accounts etc and both running wirelessly off a home router. I've also set up simply coop missions with little to no fuss and I'm becoming slightly more adventurous with coop mission content (in that I'm wanting to add mp3 & jpeg files).

I've submitted a mission on here in the past which was a single player training type mission based on the A-20B Havoc and this included multiple mp3's & jpeg presentations. This mission plays faultlessly in S/P but not so in M/P Cooperative.

 

So .... my first question is this. I set up the mission and now have two aircraft set to cooperative start (and NOT to player thanks to Sketch who pointed this out). The mission is saved to a subsolder within my Multiplayer/Cooperative folder and in the mission folder I have a media folder (further folders in the media folder separate the mp3s, jpegs etc).

 

So the mission directory on my host pc looks like this:

D:\Flight Sims\1C Game Studios\IL-2 Sturmovik Great Battles\data\Multiplayer\Cooperative\HSHawk_MP_Missions\Rheinland_Map\Practice_Mission-A-20B_Havoc

 

I then copy the mission straight to my second pc from my host pc so the directory of the second pc is as follows:

 

F:Flight Sims\1C Game Studios\IL-2 Sturmovik Great Battles\data\Multiplayer\Cooperative\HSHawk_MP_Missions\Rheinland_Map\Practice_Mission-A-20B_Havoc

 

(note everything being identical  apart from the drive letter which I can't help and has never hindered things with past missions).

 

When both pc's come to connect and load into the aircraft, only the host PC  plays the mp3 files. No error messages on the second PC, just no mp3 files playing. It's worth pointing out that both pc's contain the exact media folder & contents.

 

On switching hosts around (having the second PC host), the mp3 files will then play only on the pc that's hosting.

 

Until I can solve this particular issue, I can't move onto the other issues I'm currently experiencing.

 

I include a stripped down variation of the mission which has multiple jpeg presentations & sound files taken away from the mission to help with size and if you were to drop the HSHawk_MP_Missions folder into your Cooperative folder, you'd have a replica of my address path.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vy6c3eiz137kfvk/HSHawk_MP_Missions.rar?dl=0

 

p.s. This is the link to the single player mission I made on here, which I've been trying to convert to Coop.

 

 

As ever ... any help will be so very appreciated ?

 

 

 

Edited December 20, 2021 by GSHWK_Houndstone_Hawk
inclusion of link

[Hanu]

The only way I got my custom sounds to work with my buddies was that they had to create same structure of media folders and I HAD TO open the the mission in server's ME and save it. Although it looks like the it does not care about the drive letter, but without re-saving the mission in the server machine itself, it failed to load, or did not work. I'm guessing that it is because of those mysterious ,"ba0d8f18" etc. suffixes you can see in the missions .list file.

Edited December 20, 2021 by Hanu

[GSHWK_Houndstone_Hawk]

Thanks for the reply. I'm not sure what you mean by opening the mission in the server's ME and resaving it. I'm assuming you mean loading the mission on the Host PC and saving it? 

Forgive me as I'm not too hot on multiplayer & servers; mainly for the reasons that I'm currently experiencing after all this hard work. I have 2 PC's. Let's call the Downstairs PC the host & the upstairs PC, the connecting PC. 

I'm saving & resaving the mission on the 'host' (downstairs) pc all the time & I'm confident you don't mean open the ME whilst attempting the coop as it's never a done thing to have the editor open at the same time as the game.

 

Please excuse my ignorance & lack of understanding in this. I just basically assumed that if the connecting PC 'mirrored' the mission structure perfectly then there would be absolutely no problem as this id the way we do it with DCS & other titles all the time with no problems.

 

I've tried having the connecting PC, join the host with the mission not loaded at all, to force it to download the files from the host but whatever the size of the mission, it will always end up with a #10016 unable to save files to disk.

[GSHWK_Houndstone_Hawk]

Here's the things I've tried so far:

 

Getting the joining pc to connect to host whilst both machines have the mission in their Multiplayer/Cooperative locations (complete with media folder). (This will play out the mission on both PC's but only the host PC will hear the custom mp3 files from the media/mp3s folder).

It's worth pointing out that both machines will receive the jpegs used at mission start  (from the mission's media/jpegs folder).

 

Getting the joining pc to connect to host with nothing in the Cooperative folder. (This will always result in the joining pc downloading the mission folder & files but NOT  the media folder & contents and thus receiving the #10016: unable to save file to disk).

 

Putting the mp3 files directly into the root mission folder (where the .list files, MSBIN etc is stored) & updating the STEditor & .list files accordingly. (Again this will result in mp3s only being heard by the host)

 

Resaved all missions in folder from the STEditor tools menu

 

Resaved all groups in folder from the STEditor tools menu

 

Clear and reenumerate Localizaion Indexes (I know; great spelling right) done ... no change.

 

R/Clicked both the IL-2 Launcher.exe & STEditor.exe & under compatibility, have tried checking the following boxes:

Run this program in compatibility mode for: (Windows ?

Disable full-screen optimisations

Run this program as an administrator

 

Swapping PC roles around. Have the joining PC host. (Basically whatever PC is currently hosting, is the only pc that will receive the mp3 audio from the mission's media folder).

 

--------------------------

 

I've been at this non-stop for just over four entire days now, and no closer to getting it solved. Who thought to be able to receive custom mp3 files (that are very small in size) could be such an ask. Glad I've spent double on buying everything twice for this local coop setup only to be confronted with this ?

 

I fear my disadvantage may lie within my poor understanding & knowledge of multiplayer setting etc. I know next to nothing of things like forward ports, server, etc but I've never struggled in the past, both with getting complex user-created DCS media-heavy missions to work flawlessly & even basic, non-media-file IL-2 GBS coop missions either so there can't be a lot wrong with the network this end.

 

It's very rare I give up but this one has me very close to it ?

 

Edited December 20, 2021 by GSHWK_Houndstone_Hawk

[[DBS]Tx_Tip]

F:Flight Sims\1C Game Studios\IL-2 Sturmovik Great Battles\data\Multiplayer\Cooperative\HSHawk_MP_Missions\Rheinland_Map\Practice_Mission-A-20B_Havoc

 

That's a long route you've got there to get to the actual 16 MB Media Folder in which the Mp3's and Jpeg's are themselves separated into two respective folders.

 

As a suggestion I would combine the MP3's and Jpeg's into the media folder and that should be directly placed into the Cooperative folder. 
C:\IL-2 Sturmovik Battle of Stalingrad\data\Multiplayer\Cooperative\media

 

You of course will need to go into the missions and reset the media path within the MCU to their new location. 

 

Good Luck with your Mission Design.

Tip

 

 

[Hanu]

I just opened the mission file in the editor. I've not used those "Command: Play Sound", it should related to animation operator translator, but I never got it to work.

How I do it is I trigger "Translator: Media" -> Media Type -> Play sound -> xxx.mp3. And if the sound is for example 4 seconds long, I trigger "Translator: Media" -> Media Type -> Stop Media after 5 seconds. You must stop it, otherwise you can hear the sound only once. This method may lack finesse, but has served me well in my Dogfights with my buddies where I have A LOT of Finnish language chatter, victory cheers, deathsounds etc to give atmosphere into mission.

 

Edited December 21, 2021 by Hanu

[[DBS]Tx_Tip]

43 minutes ago, Hanu said:

I just opened the mission file in the editor. I've not used those "Command: Play Sound", it should related to animation operator translator, but I never got it to work.

How I do it is I trigger "Translator: Media" -> Media Type -> Play sound -> xxx.mp3. And if the sound is for example 4 seconds long, I trigger "Translator: Media" -> Media Type -> Stop Media. You must stop it, otherwise you can hear the sound only once. This method may lack finesse, but has served me well in my Dogfights with my buddies where I have A LOT of Finnish language chatter, victory cheers, deathsounds etc to give atmosphere into mission.

 

 

 

Agreed. 

 

@Hawk you didn't mention you were using that "play sound" logic stream to play the sounds. Never seen that used in MP or SP for that matter just to play sounds myself. 

Perhaps losing that logic stream and using the Translator: Media method will allow a proper download from the host machine to the connecting puter using that lengthy route as well.

I would still have that Media Folder with your MP3's and JPeg's directly placed in the Cooperative Folder as I mentioned above just to eliminate that as a problem.

 

Good Luck with your Mission Design.

Tip

 

 

 

[GSHWK_Houndstone_Hawk]

 

Thanks both for your replies. I've only ever used the Command Play Sound object linked to a Translation: Animation Operator & admittedly I've only ever made SP missions but it's never given me a problem. I took you up on your advice last night and brought the mission folder up the chain, & dropping it directly into the Coop folder whilst putting all media files in a separate media folder, also in the Coop folder & started the labour of love in changing all the MCU's in-editor accordingly. Still no joy.

 

I must admit I'm a little baffled by Hanu's explanation but I guess I'll have to work it out and have a fiddle. I think (as my pic attachment suggests), I have way too much media for a multiplayer coop mission. The example is just 'one' of 'four' audio/visual presentations. (This example is a cockpit familiarisation presentation that the pilot can optionally view at mission start by firing a flare. The presentation lasts about 3 mins; media operators are used for the jpegs on the left, & the translation: animation operator for the audio files). These all work brilliantly in SP.

 

I will give Hanu's kind advice a whirl & see what happens in the MP environment but I think realistically I'm asking way too much of such an editor to expect all this to work in coop.

 

Thanks guys

 

[Hanu]

2 minutes ago, GSHWK_Houndstone_Hawk said:

I must admit I'm a little baffled by Hanu's explanation but I guess I'll have to work it out and have a fiddle. I think (as my pic attachment suggests), I have way too much media for a multiplayer coop mission. The example is just 'one' of 'four' audio/visual presentations.

I have at least +150 triggers for 100 different sound effects in my mission. I do not think that will be a problem. Just remember to stop the media several seconds after playing. If you are unlucky, that "Stop media" translator may cut the sound if several "play sounds" are triggered almost simultaneously, but that does not affect the atmosphere as sounds may cut in the real life too.

I use them with random triggers. For example when opponent's plane triggers OnKilled, it will fire a trigger counter 2 (with reset enabled), that in turn fires a 9-way randomizer so we hear a different kill-cheer. Counter 2 is there just to limit the cheering that it won't trigger every time and clog the radio.

And please note that these sounds will be heard by everyone.

[GSHWK_Houndstone_Hawk]

IT WORKED! AAAAARRGHHH! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

Yes not a problem that they'll be heard by everyone as it's only a coop mission with both pilots on the same side.

 

I love your random logic also. Thank you so much for your help with this. Diamond!

 

Thanks also to both Sketch & Tip. Have a great Christmas. (I know what I'll be doing ... going through hundreds of my audio logics ?).