Sound problems with MAPINFO

[VoidEater]

So I added a MAPINFO file into my WAD in order to adjust a few things regarding the map settings. And although within the MAPINFO file I haven't tampered with any sounds, all of my door sounds have vanished from the wad. I've tried copying the original Doom II SNDSEQ file, but this doesn't seem to do anything, I have also done the same with the original SNDINFO file, but to no avail. I am unsure as to why this is happening, but have encountered a few other people who are having the same problems as me. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Here's my MAPINFO file:

Spoiler

map 01 "INFESTATION"
{
	LevelNum = 01
	skybox = SKY1
	next = "MAP02"
	sky1 = "SKY1", 0
	cluster = 1
	par = 30
	sucktime = 1
	music = "D_RUNNIN"
}

map 02 "EARTH'S AFFLICTION"
{
	LevelNum = 02
	skybox = SKY2
	next = "MAP03"
	sky2 = "SKY2", 0
	cluster = 1
	par = 30
	sucktime = 1
	music = "D_STALKS"
}

map 03 lookup "MALIGNANT'S SANCTUM"
{
	LevelNum = 03
	skybox = SKY3
	next = "MAP04"
	sky3 = "SKY3", 0
	cluster = 1
	par = 30
	sucktime = 1
	music = "D_THE_DA"
}

map 04 "BLOODY SKIES"
{
	LevelNum = 04
	skybox = SKY3
	next = "MAP05"
	sky3 = "HELLSKY2", 0
	cluster = 1
	par = 30
	sucktime = 1
	music = "D_DOOM"
}

map 30 "LUCIFER'S CRYPT"
{
	LevelNum = 30
	NoInfighting
	skybox = SKY3
	sky3 = "SKY3", 0
	cluster = 1
	par = 30
	sucktime = 1
	music = "DIE"
	AirSupply = 20
	next = "EndGame1"
}

map 31 lookup "HUSTR_MAP31"
{
	
}

map 32 lookup "HUSTR_MAP32"
{
	
}

map TITLEMAP lookup "HUSTR_TITLEMAP"
{
	skybox = SKY3
	music = "PAIN"
	sky3 = "SKY3",0
	par = 30
	cluster = 1
}

[MFG38]

I doubt I'm entirely correct, but I'm guessing the problem is due to this:

map 01 "INFESTATION"

Try doing this and see if it fixes it:

map MAP01 "INFESTATION"
(Type the map's full name instead of just the number.)

[VoidEater]

Thanks a whole bunch dude! I did what you said and it fixed my problem, anything that had missing sounds now have their sounds back.

[Nevander]

How the hell did that cause sounds not to play? It seems like it would have instead dumped you to a console error as soon as you enter MAP01 claiming it can't find a map named "01." The Doom engine is weird.

[scifista42]

Nevander said:

The ZDoom engine is weird.

Fixed (MAPINFO is typical to ZDoom and ZDoom-based ports - a couple other ports also support it, but the OP is most probably using one of the ZDoom-based ones). I, too, have no idea why sounds would be affected by that.

[VoidEater]

It confuses me too, I mean all that really matters is that my sounds are back, but I'm working with Slade and the latest version of GZDoom Builder, so maybe it's something to do with one of those?

[Voros]

Chances are it was a random bug. Rebuild the old MAPINFO in a new wad and see what happens, as an experiment. Not sure how changing the MAPINFO can give you sound related issues.

[scifista42]

OfficialDOOMGuy said:

It confuses me too, I mean all that really matters is that my sounds are back, but I'm working with Slade and the latest version of GZDoom Builder, so maybe it's something to do with one of those?

Definitely not. Editors treat MAPINFO as pure text. The MAPINFO-text-to-game-data parser is built into the engine itself and ran each time upon launching the game.

[VoidEater]

Voros said:

Rebuild the old MAPINFO in a new wad and see what happens, as an experiment.

I did once start on a new project with a completely different MAPINFO and all and I'm pretty sure I had the same problem, as I just used

map 01 "MAPNAME"

to define the maps. Maybe it's something to do with being unable to properly read the map's definition as the map number doesn't include the entire map name?

[scifista42]

OfficialDOOMGuy said:

Maybe it's something to do with being unable to properly read the map's definition as the map number doesn't include the entire map name?

Well, you can check the engine's startup log (also available in the in-game console, you just need to scroll up) if it gives warnings about some part of MAPINFO being detected as invalid and skipped from being processed.

[VoidEater]

scifista42 said:

Well, you can check the engine's startup log (also available in the in-game console, you just need to scroll up) if it gives warnings about some part of MAPINFO being detected as invalid and skipped from being processed.

That's a good point, I'll give that a go and post any related results here.

[VoidEater]

So I had a look through the log after starting a faulty versio of the game up and loading into a map, and there seemed to be no errors regarding the map definition or anything regarding the engine being unable to load sounds at all.

[Graf Zahl]

OfficialDOOMGuy said:

It confuses me too, I mean all that really matters is that my sounds are back, but I'm working with Slade and the latest version of GZDoom Builder, so maybe it's something to do with one of those?

No. The problem you ran into is that "map {number} ..." is the original Hexen MAPINFO format, and Hexen did a few things very differently than Doom, and for ensuring that they only happen in original Hexen maps, some of this behavior is tied to the MAPINFO format. The curse of having to support some strange old quirks.

One of the things in Hexen that are important to know is that you MUST define a set of sound sequences with specific properties so that doors and platforms make sounds and this is precisely what you ran into.