How to change the "secret revealed" sound and message in prBoom-plus

[Never_Again]

Editors

• For WAD editing get SLADE v3.0.1 or later.
  
• Download and install Visual C++ 2010 runtimes, found at the bottom of the Downloads page, if you haven't done so already. SLADE will not run otherwise.
  
• For EXE editing get HxD, a free hex editor.
  

Changing the sound
The following replaces the sound prB+ plays when you enter a sector with the secret special with the sound of items respawning in Deathmatch 2.0 (-altdeath). If you want to use another sound instead, skip steps 1-5.

1) Open any IWAD (DOOM.WAD, DOOM2.WAD, TNT.WAD or PLUTONIA.WAD) in SLADE.
2) Type dsi into the Filter box located below the WAD's Entries list
3) Two entries will be displayed. DSITMBK is the one we want.
4) Right-click on the DSITMBK entry and choose Export.
5) Save the entry to DSITMBK.lmp (the default) and note where you saved it.
6) Open prboom-plus.wad (found in your prB+ folder) in SLADE.
7) Type dss into the Filter box. This brings up the DSSECRET entry.
8) Right-click on the DSSECRET entry and choose Import
9) A dialog box comes up. Find the file you saved in step 5 and (double-)click it.
10) Save the change - File menu -> Save

Changing the message
The following changes the "A secret is revealed!" message displayed when you enter a secret to simply "secret". Note that although the tutorial deals with glboom-plus.exe, the same steps can be used with prboom-plus.exe.

1) Open glboom-plus.exe in HxD (e.g. by dragging the .exe from Windoze Explorer and dropping it into the HxD window)
2) Go to Search menu -> Replace ...
3) Copy and paste the below into the "Search for" field:

41 20 73 65 63 72 65 74 20 69 73 20 72 65 76 65 61 6C 65 64 21

4) Copy and paste the below into the "Replace with" field:

20 20 20 20 20 20 20 73 65 63 72 65 74 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20

5) Change the "Datatype" drop-down box to Hex-values.
6) Set "Search direction" to All and click the "Replace all" button. You'll receive the "Replaced 1 occurences of ..." notification.
7) Save the change: File menu -> Save.

If you want no message at all but want to keep the sound, replace the code in step 4 above with this:

20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20

HTH

[Ralphis]

What good reason is there to hex edit the binary to change the secret message?

[Never_Again]

I can think of three:
- the message is too long
- it's too ZDoomy
- hex-editing is easier and quicker than compiling your own bins

[blob1024]

thaaaaanks a bunch. loved this sound effect ;)

[bgraybr]

I wish that both ports had a simple menu option to disable the message... I thought that prboom plus had it but I'm almost certain that zdoom doesn't.

[Gez]

If you want to remove it entirely in ZDoom:
1. Make a little wad file with just one lump, named SNDINFO. In it, put just this line:

misc/secret dsempty

2. Now open your zdoom-<username>.ini.
Search for the [Global.Autoload] header and add this line just under it:

path=<path-to-your-SNDINFO-wad>

That's it for the sound!

3. Now for the message. While still in zdoom-<username>.ini, search for all "secretmessage=" lines and delete the rest of the lines, so you remove all the "A Secret is revealed!" stuff.
That's it for the text!

From then on, when playing ZDoom, you will not see the message and neither will you hear the sound.

[Graf Zahl]

bgraybr said:

I wish that both ports had a simple menu option to disable the message... I thought that prboom plus had it but I'm almost certain that zdoom doesn't.

The reason ZDoom doesn't have a menu entry is because there's currently no decent string editing control for the menu. Using the console or INI is easy enough though.

[Grazza]

bgraybr said:

I wish that both ports had a simple menu option to disable the message... I thought that prboom plus had it

From usage.txt:

Additional HUD settings are available here:
Main Menu\Options\Setup\Status Bar / HUD (on last page)

ADVANCED HUD SETTINGS ; HUD settings
Secret Areas ; Display on-screen message and play sound when a secret is registered

[K3K]

Gez said:

If you want to remove it entirely in ZDoom:
1. Make a little wad file with just one lump, named SNDINFO. In it, put just this line:

misc/secret dsempty

2. Now open your zdoom-<username>.ini.
Search for the [Global.Autoload] header and add this line just under it:

path=<path-to-your-SNDINFO-wad>

That's it for the sound!

3. Now for the message. While still in zdoom-<username>.ini, search for all "secretmessage=" lines and delete the rest of the lines, so you remove all the "A Secret is revealed!" stuff.
That's it for the text!

From then on, when playing ZDoom, you will not see the message and neither will you hear the sound.

\

Wait how would you do the path? Like this? C:\gzdoom -file SNDINFO.wad ?
Or what?

[GreyGhost]

No need to mention GZDoom, just where the wad's located - such as Path=C:\Doom2\Wads\SNDINFO.wad

[K3K]

GreyGhost said:

No need to mention GZDoom, just where the wad's located - such as Path=C:\Doom2\Wads\SNDINFO.wad

Oh, thanks GreyGhost! :D

[exp(x)]

Why the balls are you hexediting a binary for an open source program?

[Csonicgo]

exp(x) said:

Why the balls are you hexediting a binary for an open source program?

Because he can.

[myk]

Never_Again said:
Changing the sound
The following replaces the sound prB+ plays when you enter a sector with the secret special with the sound of items respawning in Deathmatch 2.0 (-altdeath). If you want to use another sound instead, skip steps 1-5.

1) Open any IWAD (DOOM.WAD, DOOM2.WAD, TNT.WAD or PLUTONIA.WAD) in SLADE.
2) Type dsi into the Filter box located below the WAD's Entries list
3) Two entries will be displayed. DSITMBK is the one we want.
4) Right-click on the DSITMBK entry and choose Export.
5) Save the entry to DSITMBK.lmp (the default) and note where you saved it.
6) Open prboom-plus.wad (found in your prB+ folder) in SLADE.
7) Type dss into the Filter box. This brings up the DSSECRET entry.
8) Right-click on the DSSECRET entry and choose Import
9) A dialog box comes up. Find the file you saved in step 5 and (double-)click it.
10) Save the change - File menu -> Save

Don't do that. Use wadfile_1 or wadfile_2 in the configuration file to always add a PWAD with the chosen sound lump. It's an order!