I'm not exactly sure where this guide should go, so feel free to plop it where you like (hah, as if you needed my permission...)
Anyway, I've recently come up with a simple way to change the in-game music (and sounds) to whatever you want, so rather than just playing a playlist in the background, you can actually play your favourite music in context with the game. For example you can replace that rather mellow combat music with some heavy death metal
You could even make your own sounds, or import them from other games.
(Note: The only problem I can see with this, is it may be considered an exploit to say, change the somewhat subtle audio cues to more obvious sounds to help you in combat and such, but I don't think it's that much of an issue. There's worse things out there.)
Now, all you need to do this is a program to convert your favourite tracks into the .ogg file extension (the extension used by Planeshift). I used
FreeRIP (click to download), a free, simple, easy-to-use program that can convert .mp3 and .wav files into .ogg (and vice versa). It can even copy from CDs. After you have your converted .ogg file, simply move it into the 'music' directory of Planeshift (originally 'C:\Program Files\Planeshift CrystalBlue\art\music') and replace the original file with your new one (the name must be identical, so don't forget to back-up the original in case you want it back!)
If you still don't get it, here's the process step-by-step (for example, to change the main theme from the log-in screen):
Step 1 - Download
FreeRIP and install it. (If you want to play .ogg files, download
Winamp. That way you can figure out which songs are which)
Step 2a (copying from CDs) - Open FreeRIP. If you have a CD in, it'll read all the tracks on it. You can check which ones you want to copy, and then hit the little button with a picture of a CD and music note (9th from left), but don't do that yet. First click the 'CD' tab, and then 'Options...'. Go to 'Default Encoding Format' and change it to '2-Ogg Vorbis'. Then go to the 'Output Path' tab and change 'Base Path' to where you want the files to be copied to.
Now you can hit the 'rip' button.
Step 2b (converting files) - Open FreeRIP. If you want to convert a single file, hit the button next to the 'rip' button (10th from left), if you want to do multiple ones, hit the one next to that (11th from left). This'll open a new menu. Now choose the file(s) you want to convert on your system. If you want, you can fiddle with the other options, but all you really need to do now is make sure 'Encoding' is set to '2-Ogg Vorbis' under the 'Output Format' heading, then choose the destination path and hit 'Convert'.
Step 3 - Now find the new .ogg file(s) and move them to your Planeshift 'music' directory (Planeshift\art\music). Back-up and replace the original files, changing the names of your new files to match the old file names (e.g. '01-Track-01.ogg' --> 'maintheme.ogg').
Now you're done!
The same process can be used for any sound or music file ending in .ogg!
