Question about inserting music (Cave Story+)

I'm wanting to do some soundtrack replacements, and I've done a bit of research and perusal earlier, and this is what I've found

• CS+ uses a similar music "lookup table" to Freeware Cave Story (with the .ogg versions allowing intro and loop sections)
• Simply editing .tsc files to change the music will work, but only within the lookup table
• Freeware CS has a music insertion tool, but I don't know if it works with .oggs (I am aware of a mod that enables using other music formats), so I'm not sure attempting a CS Freeware mod and then using Plus Porter is viable
• Trying to read the CaveStory+ executable on mod tools that read executables doesn't work because of course not

The reason I want to insert music is so that I can have unique tracks play for when you fight Toroko and when you're in the Plantation instead of default Gravity and Curly, respectively. I thought I could edit the .tsc files to do that, with my findings outlined in the bullet list above.

Is this possible to do, either within CS+ or Freeware CS + Plus Porter?

Thank you.

 

You'll definitely need Mod Loader for using ogg music. That or AVA.

 

The reason I want to insert music is so that I can have unique tracks play for when you fight Toroko and when you're in the Plantation instead of default Gravity and Curly, respectively. I thought I could edit the .tsc files to do that, with my findings outlined in the bullet list above.

Well if there's only two extra songs, you probably could replace Toroko and White. (Alternatively, there's requiem, which only plays for a bad ending? I don't remember if those play in CS+, even with a low hell time. Just edit the TSC to point to those songs which already exist in the lookup table. (I assume actually adding music would involve editing the exe.)

Alternatives: Kaze, which only plays within wind fortress... Not sure if you can find a clever way of replacing silence. Or use Access, which only plays at the start and cemetery might fit the intro scene as a replacement, though it has a different mood... Also plant only plays in that one map in the village. And finally gameover... there are a few tracks that might be appropriate to use instead like bdown or requiem?)

Though using a form of freeware CS would be easier and there are plenty of choices; but for CS+ not sure if someone has another solution?

 

So, I can speak to CS+ since I've worked with that a lot. There are a bunch of different versions of CS+ around, so I don't know if this has changed, but with the version I've worked with, it's possible to add new org songs without replacing existing ones in the "Original" soundtrack. As for doing so for the "New" and "Remastered" soundtracks, I definitely remember that it wasn't working for the "Remastered" soundtrack when I tried adding them in the file system and in the "music.tbl" file, and I think this may have been the case as well for the "New" soundtrack. It was because of this inconsistency that I decided to only have Plus Porter directly support replacing existing songs and not adding any new ones, even though it technically works if you stick to the "Original" soundtrack.

You also mentioned using ogg songs in the freeware game. If you want to do that, you can use the mod loader that Serri pointed you to, but just know that this isn't going to help you very much if your goal is to eventually use Plus Porter to port the mod to CS+. While I did design Plus Porter to work with certain types of EXE edits that involved changing/expanding the maps and other standard game data, the type of EXE changes involved with the mod loader are far more complex and nuanced, so it goes beyond the scope of what's supported by Plus Porter or can easily be ported to CS+ in any standardized manner.

 

Well if there's only two extra songs, you probably could replace Toroko and White. (Alternatively, there's requiem, which only plays for a bad ending? I don't remember if those play in CS+, even with a low hell time. Just edit the TSC to point to those songs which already exist in the lookup table. (I assume actually adding music would involve editing the exe.)

Alternatives: Kaze, which only plays within wind fortress... Not sure if you can find a clever way of replacing silence. Or use Access, which only plays at the start and cemetery might fit the intro scene as a replacement, though it has a different mood... Also plant only plays in that one map in the village. And finally gameover... there are a few tracks that might be appropriate to use instead like bdown or requiem?)

Though using a form of freeware CS would be easier and there are plenty of choices; but for CS+ not sure if someone has another solution?

This is a possible avenue I can use. Replace unused music and reference those IDs instead. Thank you.

So, I can speak to CS+ since I've worked with that a lot. There are a bunch of different versions of CS+ around, so I don't know if this has changed, but with the version I've worked with, it's possible to add new org songs without replacing existing ones in the "Original" soundtrack. As for doing so for the "New" and "Remastered" soundtracks, I definitely remember that it wasn't working for the "Remastered" soundtrack when I tried adding them in the file system and in the "music.tbl" file, and I think this may have been the case as well for the "New" soundtrack. It was because of this inconsistency that I decided to only have Plus Porter directly support replacing existing songs and not adding any new ones, even though it technically works if you stick to the "Original" soundtrack.

Well that's annoying. You piqued my curiosity with the music.tbl file, though, so I'll try fiddling with that to see if I get anywhere.

You also mentioned using ogg songs in the freeware game. If you want to do that, you can use the mod loader that Serri pointed you to, but just know that this isn't going to help you very much if your goal is to eventually use Plus Porter to port the mod to CS+. While I did design Plus Porter to work with certain types of EXE edits that involved changing/expanding the maps and other standard game data, the type of EXE changes involved with the mod loader are far more complex and nuanced, so it goes beyond the scope of what's supported by Plus Porter or can easily be ported to CS+ in any standardized manner.

I'm very new to modding Cave Story, in any capacity, so I wasn't sure which avenue of achieving what I want to do with Cave Story+ would actually work. It feels and seems frustrating that modding the remastered version is less documented, less viable, and not as done as the freeware version, but it does make some amount of sense.

 

I'm very new to modding Cave Story, in any capacity, so I wasn't sure which avenue of achieving what I want to do with Cave Story+ would actually work. It feels and seems frustrating that modding the remastered version is less documented, less viable, and not as done as the freeware version, but it does make some amount of sense.

Yeah, CS+ modding isn't super widely supported partially because freeware modding was already fairly established by the time WiiWare came long, and also due to copyright issues that make more in-depth CS+ mods get into more murky legal territory, so it's not a very large area of interest for a lot of people. So, if I were you, I'd get a bit more familiar with how freeware modding works just so that you're familiar with some of the basic principles that modders will reference. Having a baseline knowledge of freeware modding is useful before getting into CS+ modding. After that, if you do want to learn more about CS+ modding, there's this post I wrote a few years ago that gives a pretty comprehensive summary on everything we know about CS+ modding and what's currently supported by the community to the best of my knowledge.

 

Yeah, CS+ modding isn't super widely supported partially because freeware modding was already fairly established by the time WiiWare came long, and also due to copyright issues that make more in-depth CS+ mods get into more murky legal territory, so it's not a very large area of interest for a lot of people. So, if I were you, I'd get a bit more familiar with how freeware modding works just so that you're familiar with some of the basic principles that modders will reference. Having a baseline knowledge of freeware modding is useful before getting into CS+ modding. After that, if you do want to learn more about CS+ modding, there's this post I wrote a few years ago that gives a pretty comprehensive summary on everything we know about CS+ modding and what's currently supported by the community to the best of my knowledge.

That's very helpful, thank you. ^-^