Atmospheric Sound Effects 3.0 Update 4
Created by Duncan
Scripts optimized by CoolDemon

Contents

> Description
> Requirements
> Installation
> New in update 4
> Cleaning a savegame
> Morrowind.ini modifications
> Tribunal vs non-Tribunal versions
> Compatibility
> Users of previous versions (1.2, 2.0, or 2.1)

Description

> This update to Atmospheric Sound Effects 3.0 adds weather effects inside tent, wood, and stone structures. Each type of structure has unique sounds for rain, thunderstorms, and dust/blight storms. Thunderstorms are accompanied by random thunderstrikes and random lightning flashes at windows. Wooden structures creak under the immense wind from dust and blight storms, and tents sound as if they'll blow away with the constant flapping during these storms. Rain and thunderstorms behave naturally with random swells; the rain comes and goes in waves (Tribunal only). Depending on where you are inside a building, the sounds get quieter or louder (Tribunal only). For example, basements are quieter and upper floors are louder.
> The foreboding sounds heard outside of Daedric shrines are now heard inside as well.

Requirements

- You must have ase30.exe, ase30update2.exe, and ase30update3.exe already installed to use this update.
- If you have Tribunal installed, you must have the latest version, which is 1.4.1313, available from the official Elderscrolls website.
- I tweaked the ranges of all sounds using hardware accelerated mode. This option can be found in the in-game audio options menu. The reason I used this mode instead of software is because it sounds much better. If you use software mode, you may not hear some sounds as intended and some sounds might not be heard at all. One example, if you stand on the deck outside Arrille's Tradehouse and you're using software mode, you won't hear the sounds coming from the trees. I attempted to tweak the ranges to accomodate both modes but was unsuccessful. The difference between these modes may be specific to my system, however I don't think it is.

Installation

1. Run and extract ase30update4.exe, a self-extracting rar archive, to your Morrowind data files folder. Note that any files over-written are not game default files, but files put there by previous versions of ASE 3.0.
2. If you are having problems with volume levels, remember to play around with all the volume sliders in the Morrowind audio options.

New in update 4

- Added interior weather sound effects for tent, wood, and stone structures for rain, thunderstorm, and dust/blight storm.
- Added existing daedric sounds to all daedric shrine interiors.
- Added another swamptree sound.
- Added two more bird (eagle) sounds to ascadian isle trees.
- Tweaked the dust/blight storm looping sound to give it a bit more punch and presence.
- Made the photodragons only come out during the day and only if the weather is clear, cloudy, foggy, or overcast.
- Consolidated the object list.
- Updated the uninstall batch files for version 1.2, 2.0, 2.1, and 3.0.

Cleaning a savegame

> Sometimes, a savegame can become unclean from a plugin. This can lead to some strange errors and occurrences ingame. This applies to many plugins available.
> Note that if you have a savegame that has been used with the original ase30.exe, and you want to use this update with it, you must clean your savegame.
> So, if you're experiencing problems, and not necessarily with ASE, here are some instructions for cleaning a savegame quickly and easily.

1. Open morrowind.ini, located in the root installation folder of Morrowind, in whatever text editor you use.
2. Add the following line anywhere under the `[General]` section: `AllowYesToAll=1`
3. Save the modified morrowind.ini.
4. Use the Morrowind Launcher and select Data Files.
5. Deselect all plugins you want a savegame cleaned of.
6. Run Morrowind.
7. Load the savegame you want cleaned.
8. When given the choice, select the Yes To All button.
9. Once the game is loaded, re-save. The savegame is now cleaned of whatever plugins you deselected in step 4.

Morrowind.ini modifications

> Semi-automatic way:

> > The easiest way to make the modifications that ASE uses is to run mini.exe, located in Morrowind's data files folder after this update is installed. This is a program written in Delphi by Vladimir Kraus and he has graciously given me permission to distribute it with ASE. It applies the required morrowind.ini settings for ASE by using a simple text template file. The template files have an extension of .mit (morrowind ini template). Two template files are included: one to apply the the ASE settings, ase30-apply.mit, and one to restore the defaults, ase30-undo.mit.
> > You can make template files for just about anything that morrowind.ini contains. For example, different plugin sets, different lighting values, different color schemes for menus, etc. Look at the included template files to see how to write one.

> Manual way:

> > In the original 3.0 readme file (this update contains an updated original 3.0 readme), I listed many ini entries that need to be changed. However, I wrote in it such a manner that had the comments with default values on the same line as an ini entry.
> > If you copy and paste these entries from the readme into morrowind.ini, the game will crash right after the Bethesda logo. The cause is too many characters (in this case, the characters happen to be spaces) for a sound id; a sound id can only have 31 characters.
> > If you have had or are having this problem, getting rid of all the space characters after a sound id name (e.g. `_ase_water layer`) and putting any comments on a separate line will correct it.

Tribunal vs non-Tribunal versions

> Both versions of this plugin are identical with the following exceptions:

1. Tribunal only locations are not affected in the non-Tribunal version because, well, those locations do not exist in pre-Tribunal Morrowind, obviously.
2. Interior weather effects:
   Tribunal:
   - Depending on where you are inside a building, the volume of sounds will become louder or quieter. For example, basements are quieter than upper stories.
   - Contains random rain swells.
   non-Tribunal:
   - The volume of sounds are constant no matter where you are inside a building.
   - There are no random rain swells.

Compatibility

> Atmospheric Sound Effects 3.0 Update 4 is technically compatible with any plugin available.
> There are some plugins that have conflicting sound entries, but technically there is no problem with this. The newer plugin will override the older one. For example, Morrowind Sound Enhancements has some conflicting sound entries. By default, ASE is the newer plugin file so any conflicting entries will be over-ridden by ASE and will therefore not be heard from MSE. If you want the opposite to be true, just load MSE in the construction set and re-save it. Now any conflicting entries will be overridden by MSE.
> If you are using CoolDemon's True Light & Darkness plugin version 0.5, you will not see the random lightning flashes at windows during the day. I have spoken to him about this and he plans to disable the window lights during a thunderstorm.

Users of previous versions (1.2, 2.0, or 2.1)

> Follow the instructions for cleaning a savegame in this readme.