I'd sent a little bug report or two to VALVe whining about this, and they seem to give a very small amount or poops about it, so I thought my best bet to save my map I've spent months making was to come here and see if anybody has helpful advice or perhaps a fix from a similar problem in the past.
My map was nearly ready to be officially released, and had custom soundscapes AND custom sound files (both .wav and mp3 variety). These were all working PERFECTLY and had been ever since I implemented them into the map. I had not touched a single darn thing between that point and the point of breakage.
Scream Fortress 6 went live, and during the few days I was enjoying the new content, I happened to join viaduct_event, and noticed that when I went into the underworld it was DEAD silent. The soundscape in that map was no longer functioning at all. It wasn't just improperly loaded. It literally ceased the overworld soundscape, and refused to load the underworld soundscape. I genuinely mean COMPLETELY silent (other than the constant pain noises from my character, obviously).
A friend of mine confirmed this as happening to him too, but another said it was NOT happening to him, which means it's an inconsistent glitch and potentially why VALVe has not fixed it yet considering it effects THEIR work and not just mine.
The map I'd been making was an extension of viaduct_event, specifically in the underworld, providing players a multitude of different islands to get to and fun little rpg-esque objectives just to pass the time as they explored the new content. I loaded up my map to see if my soundscape was still working and I got a strange result.
The custom soundscape I was using for the underworld was playing the WRONG soundscape entirely. It was playing something that sounded like it belonged in the courtyard of 2fort perhaps. This strange misread of soundscape content actually extended to ALL my custom soundscapes. Every single one in the map was playing the wrong soundscape, not just the underworld! Even the overworld soundscape that I didn't even touch was playing the wrong soundscape, as I later realized it was as well in the official koth_viaduct_event (and still is to this day for me) One that used to have perfectly functioning wind noises for a balcony was now playing a zapping noise that I am nearly positive is from the nucleus generator in the center of the map. Each other one played a different soundscape as well which was from VALVes line-up, and not any of my custom ones.
It is worth mentioning that this issue is not just sounds being misread, because I have two soundscapes that are literally exactly the same in the sounds they use. The only difference is one is significantly quieter than the other. After the Scream Fortress 6 update, however, BOTH of these are completely different soundscapes flat-out.
On top of this, some custom sounds that I had created for the map would no longer load in console. The console gave the usual complaint that the file could not be loaded possibly because it was missing from the repository, however this is not the case. Again, I did not touch a single file and ALL files were working perfectly fine before the update. However, now, SOME files in my custom sound folder were not loading, while others would still load perfectly fine.
Mind you, ALL these custom sounds are in the SAME folder, but now a random handful of them (which are the same every time, I don't mean it randomly changes which ones do and do not work each time the map loads) refuse to load when called upon by the map in-game. I even opened up the darn folder to stare at the name of the file the console said could not be loaded. It was still there. Nothing was touched or modified. I even played the sound file with windows media player. The file was not corrupted in any way. It worked just fine! Same with my soundscape files. All still where they were when they were functioning prior to Scream Fortress 6.
On top of all this, not that this is really an issue but I still want to complain about it: I am very pissed that VALVe made a check that prevents building on trigger_hurt covered areas. I deliberately made it so players COULD build in the underworld so they could sort of 'checkpoint' how far they got from island to island without going all the way back through should they die from any of the sources of danger built into the map, including the withering effect of constant damage which only applies for some islands, but not all.
I would love some advice for not only how to fix my broken soundscape behavior and half my custom sounds randomly refusing not to load in-game, but also some advice on what is the best way to make a whiny noise loud enough that VALVe will hear it and make this stupid trigger_hurt nobuild check be a console variable that is ON by default so I can use a point_servercommand to turn it off JUST for my map wherever it may be played in the future. A simple in-game bug report apparently is not good enough for them.
Any questions you have that may help you help me, feel free to ask. I refuse to release my map with improperly played ambience and broken custom sounds. Any help or troubleshooting is much appreciated.
Here is a quick list of the things I tried that did not work in fixing this issue:
1) Removing all the custom sounds from the folder they were in and putting them back in an attempt to have the game refresh the content it was supposed to be using when that map loaded up.
2) Removing the entire scripts folder from the tf directory (folder that holds my soundscape content, custom and stock), validating the integrity of the game cache, putting the custom soundscapes back and loading up the map.
3) Fiddling with sv_pure, setting it from 1 to 0 and back in an attempt to perhaps get it to recognize the necessary map-exclusive content.
Now if you're still reading this cluster**** of walltext, I greatly appreciate your time, but here is possibly the most important part of all this; what I did that fixed it, but only temporarily:
Seeing as I built the map from the vmf of the official koth_viaduct_event when I started the project of underworld content expansion, they apparently have access to a .fgd file in hammer that provides them with skybox textures that appear in-game for everyone, but do NOT appear in hammer for the average user. At least that is my guess, because when I compile the map, none of the cubemaps are built. I must build them manually by typing the following in console:
mat_specular 0
buildcubemaps
disconnect
mat_specular 1
map <map title>
By entering these commands in this order, it fixes my purple and black water and windows. I have to do this each time I want to test the map with functioning cubemaps.
However, I noticed after my soundscapes and custom sound files broke that doing this process actually fixes the soundscapes. Unfortunately it does not fix the sound files, but it somehow refreshes the game to read the soundscapes normally. My balcony wind works. My volume-reduced underworld soundscape works. My wizard tower interior soundscapes all work. It's all good. At first I thought I found the solution somehow, but the moment I restart the map, the cubemaps STILL work because the .bsp has been modified entirely to include them, but the soundscapes break immediately.
This fix only works once, and that 'once' is during the first play of the map after building those cubemaps with the process above.
This is incredibly bizarre and I have no idea what makes it fix the soundscapes, but because it does, it seems very important to include if I want any hope of getting this resolved without the help that VALVe seems to not want to provide after breaking my project.
Does anyone have ANY ideas? I really am desperate. I put a lot of heart and soul into this map, and surpassed all kinds of annoying issues just to get it into the state it was before VALVe broke it beyond my own ability of quick-fixing or repair.
Many thanks - darktemplar
My map was nearly ready to be officially released, and had custom soundscapes AND custom sound files (both .wav and mp3 variety). These were all working PERFECTLY and had been ever since I implemented them into the map. I had not touched a single darn thing between that point and the point of breakage.
Scream Fortress 6 went live, and during the few days I was enjoying the new content, I happened to join viaduct_event, and noticed that when I went into the underworld it was DEAD silent. The soundscape in that map was no longer functioning at all. It wasn't just improperly loaded. It literally ceased the overworld soundscape, and refused to load the underworld soundscape. I genuinely mean COMPLETELY silent (other than the constant pain noises from my character, obviously).
A friend of mine confirmed this as happening to him too, but another said it was NOT happening to him, which means it's an inconsistent glitch and potentially why VALVe has not fixed it yet considering it effects THEIR work and not just mine.
The map I'd been making was an extension of viaduct_event, specifically in the underworld, providing players a multitude of different islands to get to and fun little rpg-esque objectives just to pass the time as they explored the new content. I loaded up my map to see if my soundscape was still working and I got a strange result.
The custom soundscape I was using for the underworld was playing the WRONG soundscape entirely. It was playing something that sounded like it belonged in the courtyard of 2fort perhaps. This strange misread of soundscape content actually extended to ALL my custom soundscapes. Every single one in the map was playing the wrong soundscape, not just the underworld! Even the overworld soundscape that I didn't even touch was playing the wrong soundscape, as I later realized it was as well in the official koth_viaduct_event (and still is to this day for me) One that used to have perfectly functioning wind noises for a balcony was now playing a zapping noise that I am nearly positive is from the nucleus generator in the center of the map. Each other one played a different soundscape as well which was from VALVes line-up, and not any of my custom ones.
It is worth mentioning that this issue is not just sounds being misread, because I have two soundscapes that are literally exactly the same in the sounds they use. The only difference is one is significantly quieter than the other. After the Scream Fortress 6 update, however, BOTH of these are completely different soundscapes flat-out.
On top of this, some custom sounds that I had created for the map would no longer load in console. The console gave the usual complaint that the file could not be loaded possibly because it was missing from the repository, however this is not the case. Again, I did not touch a single file and ALL files were working perfectly fine before the update. However, now, SOME files in my custom sound folder were not loading, while others would still load perfectly fine.
Mind you, ALL these custom sounds are in the SAME folder, but now a random handful of them (which are the same every time, I don't mean it randomly changes which ones do and do not work each time the map loads) refuse to load when called upon by the map in-game. I even opened up the darn folder to stare at the name of the file the console said could not be loaded. It was still there. Nothing was touched or modified. I even played the sound file with windows media player. The file was not corrupted in any way. It worked just fine! Same with my soundscape files. All still where they were when they were functioning prior to Scream Fortress 6.
On top of all this, not that this is really an issue but I still want to complain about it: I am very pissed that VALVe made a check that prevents building on trigger_hurt covered areas. I deliberately made it so players COULD build in the underworld so they could sort of 'checkpoint' how far they got from island to island without going all the way back through should they die from any of the sources of danger built into the map, including the withering effect of constant damage which only applies for some islands, but not all.
I would love some advice for not only how to fix my broken soundscape behavior and half my custom sounds randomly refusing not to load in-game, but also some advice on what is the best way to make a whiny noise loud enough that VALVe will hear it and make this stupid trigger_hurt nobuild check be a console variable that is ON by default so I can use a point_servercommand to turn it off JUST for my map wherever it may be played in the future. A simple in-game bug report apparently is not good enough for them.
Any questions you have that may help you help me, feel free to ask. I refuse to release my map with improperly played ambience and broken custom sounds. Any help or troubleshooting is much appreciated.
Here is a quick list of the things I tried that did not work in fixing this issue:
1) Removing all the custom sounds from the folder they were in and putting them back in an attempt to have the game refresh the content it was supposed to be using when that map loaded up.
2) Removing the entire scripts folder from the tf directory (folder that holds my soundscape content, custom and stock), validating the integrity of the game cache, putting the custom soundscapes back and loading up the map.
3) Fiddling with sv_pure, setting it from 1 to 0 and back in an attempt to perhaps get it to recognize the necessary map-exclusive content.
Now if you're still reading this cluster**** of walltext, I greatly appreciate your time, but here is possibly the most important part of all this; what I did that fixed it, but only temporarily:
Seeing as I built the map from the vmf of the official koth_viaduct_event when I started the project of underworld content expansion, they apparently have access to a .fgd file in hammer that provides them with skybox textures that appear in-game for everyone, but do NOT appear in hammer for the average user. At least that is my guess, because when I compile the map, none of the cubemaps are built. I must build them manually by typing the following in console:
mat_specular 0
buildcubemaps
disconnect
mat_specular 1
map <map title>
By entering these commands in this order, it fixes my purple and black water and windows. I have to do this each time I want to test the map with functioning cubemaps.
However, I noticed after my soundscapes and custom sound files broke that doing this process actually fixes the soundscapes. Unfortunately it does not fix the sound files, but it somehow refreshes the game to read the soundscapes normally. My balcony wind works. My volume-reduced underworld soundscape works. My wizard tower interior soundscapes all work. It's all good. At first I thought I found the solution somehow, but the moment I restart the map, the cubemaps STILL work because the .bsp has been modified entirely to include them, but the soundscapes break immediately.
This fix only works once, and that 'once' is during the first play of the map after building those cubemaps with the process above.
This is incredibly bizarre and I have no idea what makes it fix the soundscapes, but because it does, it seems very important to include if I want any hope of getting this resolved without the help that VALVe seems to not want to provide after breaking my project.
Does anyone have ANY ideas? I really am desperate. I put a lot of heart and soul into this map, and surpassed all kinds of annoying issues just to get it into the state it was before VALVe broke it beyond my own ability of quick-fixing or repair.
Many thanks - darktemplar
