Hi everyone, trying to add in some taunts, previously it was very simple in AoE HD 2013 on Steam. Now it appears taunts are kept in a BNK file, how do you get past this?
Me and a friend are investigating at the moment, if we get it working Iâll let you know.
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I think it requires a bnk file. There is a Japanese pack up currently which successfully replaces the first 20(ish) taunts with Japanese. You have to subscribe and then it works after you replace the Taunts.bnk file in the actual game folder.
I am able to successfully extract the default .bnk and convert the files to a playable format. But this doesnât achieve much. I assume it needs to be unpacked and then put back together to ensure all original taunts are included also. Any ideas?
Yeah thatâs basically where we got up to. My friend converted a bunch of his taunts into .wem than packed them as a .bnk and replaced the .bnk in his folder with someones editor from github, however all that did is break his taunts. Wwise is the software that creates .bnk files, I have it downloaded, however I believe .bnk files contain some additional data besides just the audio .wems, I need to watch the Wwise tutorials they have on youtube, even then without knowing how the taunts .bnk is structured I donât think I will be able to create a new one.
Wwise tutorial 15 - Creating SoundBanks says the init.bnk contains the general project information. As I have the Windows store version of the game, I am unable to open these files since Microsoft has them all locked down, I canât even open the readmes inside the WindowsApp folder.
Thanks, ok weâre at the same stage. I have steam AoE2 DE, Iâll have a look into it.
You can also try this guide: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=231568439
It shows a more barbaric method of unpacking the bnk, replacing sounds and then replacing it, but I assume if this does work you replace existing taunts, and hence sort of ruin the single player experience (directing the AI to do certain things if using taunts 40+)
Here is the link to the Wwise tutorial.
I FIGURED IT OUT!
Okay, so you will need to download Wwise through their launcher. All the sound effects you want to add to the game you need to convert to .wav files. Then you need to import these files to Wwise and convert them into .wems, this video shows you how
After you that all you need to do is place them in your mods folder
\mods\local\MODNAME\resources\en\sound\taunt
(non english taunts go in the other language folders, i.e \de\ for Germany)
And prefix them with a number. The number they are prefixed with tell the game what number the taunt corresponds to.
1 yes.wem will play when you type 1 into chat,
999 ear_destroyer.wem will play when you type 999 in chat, you get the idea.
There seems to be some requirement for the original mp3 file, as I have gotten some sounds to work, but not others? Maybe bitrate or something I donât know, some sounds just donât play when converted to .wem
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None of the 26 I converted played, but they were acknowledged by the game as being valid, because the chat didnât preface the number with â/â which happens if its outside taunt range
Hi, I made guide about make to Taunts Mod.
I am glad if it would be helpful.
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Iâve gotten them to play outside the 1 to 105 range, but only one of the files I converted to .wem works. Something is going on, there must be some hidden requirement for the file.
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Haha what are the properties of the one file? Also did you use the same filepath you posted above?
Oh, no⊠
The sound files are now a pain to update? Not cool. I was about to update the sound files to make the battlehorn sounds quieter (how Iâm the only person on Earth who finds them annoyingly loud and frequent is beyond me; there really should be volume/frequency sliders in the menu for them)⊠and add my own taunts, like I did with other AoE2s (AoE2:CE, AoE2:FE, AoE2:HD)
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Yes for us simple modders, at first glance its much different to AoE2 HD, due to encoding, and using sound banks, rather than simple Mp3s, but we might have a fix.
Ok so I changed the output settings in Wwise back to âDefault Conversion Settingsâ and then changed âFFT Window Sizeâ to 256. This made the converted .wems very large in size, however testing them in game they work! 
And yes I used the same filepath posted above. If you try overwriting existing taunts, and when you try play them in game if the taunt becomes silent that means the file replacement worked, just that the engine canât play the sound file, so overwriting the default taunts is useful for testing.
I need to play with the output settings in Wwise and find a setting that works and where short soundclips arenât like 1MB in length.
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Me too! Yay, I knew we wouldnât have to amend the bnk file, but it took a bit of screwing around, good job buddy
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Looks like none of the vorbis output settings play in game, only PCM, I need to try converting to opus and see if if they play in game now.
Edit: Nope, opus doesnât work either. Well at least PCM works.
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After you that all you need to do is place them in your mods folder
\mods\local\MODNAME\resources\en\sound\taunt
(non english taunts go in the other language folders, i.e \de\ for Germany)
Hey man, this didnât work at all for me, I placed a .wem file into that, name: 01 yes.wem. Firstly it doesnt even aknowledge my mod, it just doesnât appear in the mod browser and then the default taunt plays when i type in 1.
I tried using the method of FBshokai, which worked, but only if i replace the original file (taunt.bnk) within the game directory. Iâm trying to find a way to replace all the new taunts with the original 42 taunts.
Great work so far!
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Why have devs done something like that? Wouldnât a different, more accessible format managing make it easier for the community to mod the game? If they give us terrible-quality taunts and voice-acting, at least let us mod it with the original onesâŠ
Thank you for the comments!
PCM being the only supported format is a bug which has now been fixed for the future updates. Vorbis will be supported as well (this is the default format used by the game).
I have now created a quick guide that documents all the available Events and their IDs, as well as the replacement of in-game effects and music, and the addition of new and existing sounds into scenarios. Will also try to keep it up-to-date with currently known issues with audio mods.
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Thank you so much for the spreadsheet with the IDs and the guide. This is awesome!
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