Help my dream of custom commentary for Wrestling Legends come to life!

[denbigh7]

It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of Wrestling Legends for WWE2K14. In my opinion it's still the most enjoyable wrestling game, even years after its release. It's also highly moddable/customizable.

I feel as though the only thing that can be added to it at this point to make it even better (aside from extra arenas/wrestlers) is revamped commentary. I know, I know....that's a lofty dream, nigh impossible. But could you imagine having Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura (or perhaps Bobby Heenan) calling the action? I literally daydream about this all the time.

This forum is full of ingenious modders, much wiser and more talented than myself. So, before you automatically shoot this idea down with "it's can't be done!", let's put our heads together and figure out how it CAN be done. 

First off, here's what I'm willing to do: If someone else (or multiple someones) can figure out how to unpack the sound/commentary files and figure out a way to insert new wems (kind of like we do with 2K19 and the Sound Editor), I would be willing to do all the leg work in creating new wems with a new commentary team and take the time to insert them all in their proper slots (trying my best to match commentary calls up with the same moves, etc.)

I realize this could be crazy time consuming. I get it. But I also think it would be worth it. And after playing a ton of WL, I honestly feel like there's not THAT many lines that Lawler and Cole actually use in the game. (Maybe 200 at most?) 

I also realize that the WWise version 5073 (which is apparently the tool used to edit audio files for WWE2K14 in the past) is near impossible to find. Seems like it's turned into the holy grail of modding tools. 

So, here's what we need: 

1. Someone to find an old copy of WWise 5073 on an old computer, an old hard drive, a floppy disk, on the dark web......wherever! If we can locate that, I believe it would make this project much more plausible. This forum is huge. Surely SOMEONE has a copy of it somewhere.

OR

2. Someone to figure out how to unpack the commentary files and insert new ones via hex or some other method. Like I said earlier....there are so many people here much much smarter than myself. If we can figure out how to mod and create all these different things, surely we can figure this out, right?

About a year ago, I was messing around with this idea of custom commentary and I was actually able to unpack the commentary files and turn them into wav files. Don't ask me how I did it, because I can't even remember! I keep going through my old files and I had some ogg to wem extracter or something. I can't remember if it was a cmd command or what, but I'm trying to recreate how I pulled that off. However, being able to unpack them and listen to them is nothing if we can't put them back into a bnk file in the game. 

Give me your thoughts. It's 2022 ya'll....surely there's technology out there to help make this happen!  

 

[XIII XHP]

These guys kind of did something similar for the Call Names in Wrestling Legends with Howard Finkel.  I was one of the guys who helped organize the audio files actually.  Very impressive work from the Wrestling Legends crew.  This is a cool concept that I'm sure Red Rooster & the crew could help put you in the right direction with.

Edited May 27, 2022 by XIII XHP

[denbigh7]

4 hours ago, XIII XHP said:

These guys kind of did something similar for the Call Names in Wrestling Legends with Howard Finkel.  I was one of the guys who helped organize the audio files actually.  Very impressive work from the Wrestling Legends crew.  This is a cool concept that I'm sure Red Rooster & the crew could help put you in the right direction with.

Yeah, there are some great custom calls in WL with the Fink! The British Bulldogs, The Fabulous Freebirds, tons more.......I love it! All the more reason I'd love to edit the commentary to help add to an already amazing game.

Unfortunately, since it was so long ago, it doesn't seem like anyone still has that old version of Wwise. But I'm holding out hope!

I also posted this on the Discord groups I'm in to see if anyone there could help. A friend pointed me to zenhax.com, which is a game research forum. Maybe someone there could help. 

Out of curiosity, what did you organize? The in-game announcer files? Or the Fink calls ya'll inserted?

[XIII XHP]

Probably the call names, I forget.  I just sat through, listened to the audio files & named them.

[DruvCreates]

Might not be perfect, but you could possibly use fakeyou . com

I know it has JR's voice, but I'm not sure who else... it could be worth a try?

[denbigh7]

7 hours ago, DruvCreates said:

Might not be perfect, but you could possibly use fakeyou . com

I know it has JR's voice, but I'm not sure who else... it could be worth a try?

It's not the audio files I'm having a problem with. I've isolated all the commentary files from 2K14 (with J.R.'s line, King and Michael Cole), plus I have scores of Finkel call names files, etc. Plus, I have means of turning old commentary (like Gorilla Monsoon, etc) into commentary.

The issue I'm having is actually replacing it in game. I've had both @Red Rooster and @stlpowercat give me lots of help and tips, (those guys are both awesome!) but I haven't been able to replace one thing in game. I'm not sure if it's because the WWise audio file I'm creating is not compatible or if I'm editing the Hex file wrong. Very frustrating, because I think adding old school commentary would revolutionize and revitalize this game!

Maybe someone else should give it a shot and see if they can get it going. Or if anyone has other tips on how to get it replaced.