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[Page 1: Dragon's Overview & Quickstart Instructions]
[Page 2: Full Instructions]

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OVERVIEW

To use the sound editor you must first know a little bit on how data is arranged and accessed by the Majesty engine, or CYEngine as we call it.  Data is stored in simple database files called CAMs, located in the DATA directory of the game.  These files have a name extension of .CAM.  Inside a CAM, the data is organized by a type ID and a data ID.  The type ID denotes, as you might expect, the type of data contained in a section of the database.  The data ID is a unique ID for each block of data in the type section.

When Majesty wants a piece of data it requests it by its type ID then data ID.  The database manager then searches through the loaded CAM files for the piece of data that matches the type ID and data ID.  When searching for the data, the database manager starts by looking in the last CAM loaded and works its way backward through the list if loaded CAMs.  This provides a way of 'overriding' data in a CAM by loading a CAM with the newer data, last.  The Majesty loads the CAMs it shipped with first then loads all other CAMs in the DATA directory in alphabetical order.  We can use this trick to change the sounds by making a new CAM that contains WAVE data with specific IDs and placing it into the DATA directory.
 

HOW TO USE THE MAJESTY SOUND EDITOR

Place the Majesty Sound Editor.exe into the Majesty directory and run it.  A window will appear with all the sounds played in Majesty.

At the top is a pop-down menu named 'Description Source' and it starts off by displaying 'All'.  For Majesty there is only one other entry called DATA\SOUNDESC.CAM.  Selecting either item will show you the same entries.  Future expansion sets will add more items to the list.  The SOUNDDESC.CAM database contains a description database for all the sounds in the original Majesty game.  The window below that is a listing of all the entries in the sound description database.

The sound description database contains an ID for the sound object and a set of sound phases that object can produce.  The sound phase contains a reference to a WAVE data block along with a few parameters on how to play the WAVE.  Using the Adept from Majesty as an example.  The Adept sound description ID is AT01 and he has several sound phases he can produce, one of those is EAK0, which is the Attack phase.  His Attack phase references WAVE ID WU22.  So to replace the Adepts attack sound with another sound all we have to do is create a new CAM with a new WAVE with the ID of WU22.  Sounds simple, right?  You don't really have to worry too much about the IDs and such because they are all handled by the sound editor.  All you have to do is look through the list, point the program to a new sound file and then build a new CAM.  One thing to note is that since you are replacing the WAVE data, any sound description / phase that shares the same WAVE ID will use the new sound you added.

There are two steps to making the CAM with the override sounds.  The first is to make a script containing the filenames of all the WAVE files you want to add, along with the WAVE ID the file will be attached to. To change or add an override sound to the script, select the desired database entry then press the 'Browse...' button.  A standard Windows file box will appear.  Browse to the desired WAVE file and select it.  That sound will now be added to the override script.  You can see the filename in the 'WAVE Override File' box or in the last column of the database list.  You may have to use the horizontal scrollbar to see that column. Pressing 'Clear' button will remove the override sound for the selected database entry.

When adding files, please note that Majesty only understands plain, uncompressed PCM wave files.   The sample rate, sample size (8 bit or 16 bit), and number of channels can be anything.  Please note that Majesty internal playback buffer is set to 16 bit, 22050Hz.  You should use sounds sampled at this size and bit rate for the best quality.

Once you are done making the script you can save it for future use and changes by pressing the 'Save Script...' button.  The CAM you will create will have the same name as the script, except it will have .cam as the filename extension.

The second step is to just press the 'Create CAM...' button.  This will go through the script, locate each WAVE file and build a CAM, using the name you game its script, and place it into the Majesty DATA directory.

An example would be, you create a script and save it with the name "Cool Sounds" in the same directory as the Majesty Sound Editor executable.  When you press the Create CAM... button, the file "Cool Sounds.CAM" will be created in the DATA directory for Majesty.  You can save the script in any location, the CAM will always be created in the DATA directory for Majesty.

Do not have Majesty running in the background because it keeps all the CAMs it has loaded open and you will not be able to save over any CAM you have previously created.

To disable any sound CAM files you have created or downloaded, simple take the CAM file out of the Majesty DATA directory by moving it or deleting it.

When uploading files to your friends, just give them the .CAM file and tell them to put it into their DATA directory.  Don't bother giving them your .DES script file because it contains file references that are specific to your system.  They don't need it to enjoy the new sounds in the game either.

You can have multiple CAM files in your DATA directory. Each one will be loaded and used by Majesty. If you have two files trying to change the same sounds, the last one loaded will take precedence.

EXAMPLE:  You have created SCARY.CAM and ZOO.CAM. Both of these files are in your DATA folder. Both files contain sounds for the Warrior. Since ZOO.CAM is loaded last only the Warrior sounds in that file will play in the game.