Tutorial: Action markers

Hello, Ladies and Gentlemen!

Here's how to  add some extra brilliance to your map, means the inclusion of "Action Markers", which are responsible for visual and sound effects on Company of Heroes maps.
First of all, you'll need to own either Corsix Mod Studio or this SGA extractor to unpack the needed files, however I recommend Corsix (you can also use Corsix for modding, SGA packing and other tasks).
The files you need to unpack are "WW2Art.sga" and "WW2Sound", you can find them in "%yourCOHdirectory%\WW2\Archives".
Using Corsix, you have to follow these steps:

1. Go to the folder you have Corsix in and execute "ModStudio.exe"
   
   
   
   


2. Click on "Load Single SGA Archive" in the middle of the window
   
   
   
   


3. Browse to your COH directory > WW2\Archives folder and open the desired file
   
   
   
   


4. Right-click on the line "data" that appeared in the upper left corner, select "Extract all files in this folder"
   
   
   
   


5. It appears a new window, you will choose "Go!" and choose a folder to extract the files to, this may take a while and the program may not respond, ignore this
   
   
   
   


6. When completed, cut the extracted "art"/"sound" folder from where you extracted it to and paste it into "COHdirectory\WW2\Data\
   
   
   
   
   
   

Action markers can be moved, either using the gizmo or simply dragging them aroung with your mouse. For changing the height, you have to use the z axis of the gizmo. Action markers can also be rotated after pressing the "R" key on your keyboard. To get back into the move mode, just one time press "M". The direction e.g. smoke is flying to depends on the wind setting in the maps Terrain Properties, additionally, you can copy an Action Marker, holding LMB on the marker plus the C key, then dragging the marker around will create an exact copy of the marker you selected before.
Now you are able to use action markers in your WB without any problems, however, how that works, I'll describe now:

1. Open your WB, and open an existing/a new project, select the marker tool (small red flag)
   
   
   
   


2. To the right, you can see that "Scar Markers" is selected as default, you'll need to change it to "Action Markers"
   
   
   
   


3. Right-click where you want to have your Action Marker on your map, we'll use a crater as example
   
   
   
   


4. Select the marker and click on "Edit Action" to the right
   
   
   
   


5. Choose, depending on your choice, either fx_attach or sound_attach under New Command
   
   
   
   
   
   


6. To add effects or sound, click on "..." next to "fx"/"sound"
   
   
   
   


7. Browse to your COH directory > WW2\Data\Art\fx or WW2\Data\sound\ambiences, depending on your choice
   
   
   
   


8. Go to "fx_ambient"/"ambiences" folder and select a .bfx/.bsc file of your choice, we will add burning coals to our crater
   
   
   
   


9. Now, if your crater looks like this, you did well (you can elevate and move it to match your imagination)
   
   
   
   

Have fun with this, I hope for many many maps with added sound/effects in the future. :D

Maxi

Last edited February 20, 2012 at 4:00 PM by MaxiKing6

:D
cool Maxi!

Thanks. Hope you can improve Kalach using this. :)

You know, I've never used sound with the markers, I really don't know why. I may go back to the RRS1 map today and mess around with it ;D

Don't mess with your beautiful map, would be a shame :P

Nice tutorial! Should be stickied!

Thanks, but it is already  ;)

Nice Maxi! This will hopefully lead some noobies to put a bit more quality in their maps.  :)

doesnt work when chosing a fx im wb it says invalid file path must be combiner mod or something

1) Where did you put the files?
2) Did you really select fx_attach?

i made a new folder in my documents and stored them there
2. yes i did

Man. Didn't you read my tutorial carefully? It says

MaxiKing6 wrote:
When completed, cut the extracted "art"/"sound" folder from where you extracted it to and paste it into "COHdirectory\WW2\Data\

So paste the folder "art" in this path (if not correct, adjust it):

C:\Program Files\THQ\Company of Heroes\WW2\Data\

Clear?

Nice Tutorial Maxi. EF would benefit from more tutorials of similar quality.

Can action markers be used by the AI in a campaign setting to provide dummy information to the Human player?

Probably you mean Scar markers, which are responsible for triggering certain actions done by AI. You have to ask walki, Rizz or Cope about Scar, I'm not familiar with it.

MaxiKing6 wrote:
Man. Didn't you read my tutorial carefully? It says

MaxiKing6 wrote:
When completed, cut the extracted "art"/"sound" folder from where you extracted it to and paste it into "COHdirectory\WW2\Data\

So paste the folder "art" in this path (if not correct, adjust it):

C:\Program Files\THQ\Company of Heroes\WW2\Data\

Clear?

yes ok

still doesnt work

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instead it says it cant follow root or something

Please post the path of the COH directory, the location you moved the "art" folder to and the error message.

Mattdamon07 wrote:

MaxiKing6 wrote:
Man. Didn't you read my tutorial carefully? It says

MaxiKing6 wrote:
When completed, cut the extracted "art"/"sound" folder from where you extracted it to and paste it into "COHdirectory\WW2\Data\

So paste the folder "art" in this path (if not correct, adjust it):

C:\Program Files\THQ\Company of Heroes\WW2\Data\

Clear?

yes ok

I am having a similar issue. I have tried putting it in my Data directory, even under different names etc but it's just not working for me. Would you like my directory path?

C:\Program Files(x86)\THQ\Company of Heroes\WW2\Data\

That's the folder where all the files are now and I still get the root error. I also tried placing it in My Documents/My Games/Company of Heroes/ww2/Data

Does your folder path look like that after you pasted the sound/art folders in there:


C:\Program Files(x86)\THQ\Company of Heroes\WW2\Data\sound\...


C:\Program Files(x86)\THQ\Company of Heroes\WW2\Data\art\...

Placing it in My Documents/My Games/Company of Heroes/ww2/Data doesn't work at all.

Very usefull tutorial! Thanks  ;)

my Coh directory doesnt have a data folder :\

C:\Program Files(x86)\THQ\Company of Heroes\WW2

Mattdamon07 wrote:
my Coh directory doesnt have a data folder :\

If there isn't one, create it..

Thank you maxiking it works! :D

A small addition to this tutorial: Action markers can be rotated by selecting and press "R".

Right, already knew that but forgot to change it in the tutorial. Thanks for the heads up, Walki :)

Never mind I am idiot  8) It is too early to be working on maps :P

Hyho,
Id like to thank Maxi for this TUT, too!
It works and Ive added some smokes, fires and crows to my upcoming map....


regards
SSonne