Adding Creatures Music to Artemiidae
I posted a video on Artemiidae not too long ago, and it sounded like everyone was in favor of watching the updates for this world! It really is difficult to share all of the moments in still images, particularly for a Creatures underwater world. Although not every Artemiidae update will feature a video, I’m pleased to present this first chapter! It also serves as a video tutorial about how to change the music in a metaroom… Plus, I failed in one respect, showing how all Creatures videos can be unpredictable!
Although the video briefly shows the CAOS console with the code necessary to change the music, I wanted to provide text instructions to make things even easier. All credit goes to Grendel Man for originally explaining the process here. The information was a little difficult to find, which is why I wanted to feature these instructions. The ambient music of Creatures 3 and Docking Station can add a lot, especially to metarooms that don’t have a default track assigned! Feel free to simply watch the video for a glimpse into the events of Artemiidae, or follow along to add some music to your C3/DS worlds! Note that there are more involved processes in changing the music for metarooms with tracks, or creating new music altogether. Interested in that information? Leave a comment, and I’ll be sure to cover it!
How to Add Existing Music to a Metaroom Without a Default Track
- Step 1: Open up your C3, DS, or C3/DS world.
- Step 2: Browse through the list of available music tracks.
- Step 3: Open up the CAOS console with Shift+Ctrl+C. (Warning: Be careful! Incorrect use can break a world.)
- Step 4: Make sure the mouse pointer is in a valid room within the metaroom.
- Step 5: Type in the following code: targ pntr mmsc posx posy “File.mng\\Track”
- An example would be “Grendel.mng\\Swamp”
- So long as C3 and DS are installed, the game should be able to locate the tracks in the correct folders.
- Step 6: Hit Enter, close the CAOS console with Shift+Ctrl+C, and enjoy the new music!
Note that in the video tutorial, something went wrong with the process in Artemia Sea. I’m positive it’s something I did, though! If you know the root cause, feel free to share. This process worked fine in all other tests. I recommend keeping a backup copy of your world, though, just in case something goes wrong. Or you might be stuck with DS music… Forever!
Update: Grendel Man helped me out, and provided instructions on how to change the near death music. Nothing actually went wrong with the process: I was simply mistaking that music track for the metaroom track. Thanks, Grendel Man!
I think the problem you’re having with the music isn’t that you’re not setting it correctly; it’s that you have starving creatures and the music’s changing accordingly when those creatures are on camera (it’s also the same track that plays when a creature dies and is one of the two tracks that plays in the Hub).
This theme is changeable as well. If you type this into the CAOs Command Line:
“sets game “engine_near_death_track_name” “events.mng\\NearDeath” rgam”
You can get rid of the old Near Death theme and bring in C3’s, which is much more pleasant to listen to (if still a little annoying).
Ah, that would probably explain it! I’m not sure if it was obvious in the video, but the blue Colortrue Pearl Mermaid Norn hasn’t been taking care of himself. I assume he’s the problem, and the music actually was changing when he was on screen. I’ll definitely look into using that CAOS to see if that helps.
Thanks so much for that information! I still have to laugh at myself, though, as I wasn’t even aware of the DS music for starving Creatures. I’ll likely have an update at some point to confirm that this worked: I have a feeling it will, and then I can escape from some of those awful DS sounds!