I am trying to make a mod for ark to switch the sound for the direwolf, you know, the big dog with the pitiful howl. How does one switch out the sound and make it actually work?
The easiest way is to make a TC mod, and directly re-import your preferred howl into the existing sound media file… or add your own sound files to the cue and put them in a new mod folder that is then referenced by your changes to the main cue file.
The more cumbersome way is to remap the Direwolf to your own version (stackable mod), whilst duplicating the skeleton/animations as well. From there, you can access the sound files that play in the animations and reference them to your own sound files in your stackable mod.
Unfortunately, there is no easy way to change sound files outside of a TC mod… and unfortunately (again!) you can’t stack TC mods (yet?!).
OMG I just played the Direwolf howl cue… and it is a most pitiful whine I’ve ever heard hehe.
If you’ve got a better howl sound bite that you’re willing to share… I’ll look at putting it into my Ultra-Realism: Vanilla Edition mod.
In the meantime, you’ve also inspired me to find a better howl no matter what!
I actually greatly prefer doing the full remap version, which is what I’ve done for most of my mods with mounts in them; all that I have released publicly to date use this method. I love this method because it makes it fully stackable with other mods! Finding where to change the sound files feels a lot like untangling knotted strands of Christmas lights, but tracing a path to the right assets with the Reference Viewer is a huge help. Here’s a link to the tutorial that got me started: HOWTO: Add new dinosaur variants - ARK: Survival Evolved - Epic Developer Community Forums Once you do all of those steps, dig around the animations as that’s where they hide the links to the sound files. If you want to see a mod that uses this method a ton, check out my Ninja Rex mod; it’ll show you some of the fun stuff you can do.
I’ve got a super-secret mod finished and ready to go, just waiting for the proper day for release (exactly 1 1/2 months from now, hint-hint) which is the first one that’s a TC. Seeing how you were asking about the Dire Wolves specifically, I did a quick video of mine from in-game just now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoz6TSxiSPA
I think it came out pretty darn good, if you ask me! Jason, this might be exactly the better howl you’re looking for.