0 of 0
About this mod
A sound effect, but primarily music mod that aims to replace many of the tracks used for scripted sequences throughout the game. My goal is to remove as much of the artificial silence as possible, but its not guaranteed the experience will be perfect. I haven't done extensive testing and there's many limitations to this method.
- Permissions and credits
If you've played The Thing before, you'll notice that the game is mostly barren of consistent music or ambience. What I did is replace and increase the length of many audio tracks that are heard throughout the game, to hopefully add more personality and suspense to the adventure.
Highlights:
+ Ambience/music with longer tracks, that should keep the stress higher than before.
+ Boss fights, including the last one now have music and sound effects added.
+ Replaced some minor sounds that I wasn't that fond of; some weapon reloads, grenade launcher, and locked door effect.
+ Ambient wind sound when outside has been changed, and includes Ennio Morricone's Antarctica, Winter 1982 from The Thing film.
(Wind effect is directional when in-doors, i.e. if there's a window, the sound will only come from there. So the music layered might come off as odd, as it amusingly makes it seem like the music is a living entity, somewhere outside. I added two alternate versions. You could also just delete the wind sound in the Mod folder to keep the game's original sound.)
There is some limitations to this mod:
I used music from Extermination composed by Motoki Funayama. The score has great use of synthesizers, orchestral sound, and has that early 2000's feel that fits the era of this game well. Primary music tracks are from Manhunt composed by Craig Conner. I thought the music fit the tone nicely and evokes a lot of suspense; also has some of that John Carpenter essence to it. I've also made some "mixes"/audio adjustments with pre-existing tracks and layered in some sound effects.
Instructions:
It should now work! Remain outside for 10-15 seconds and you should hear music playing, or if you progress enough in a level I'm sure you'll trigger an audio track. One might find some tracks a bit odd or unfitting, but if I have the brain power I might make adjustments.
Future updates:
Currently there are two sections that really bother me that I wish I can add music to, (maybe in the future it will be possible).
If I can figure out how (if it's possible) to natively place music in a level, then a more polished and refined music overhaul would then be probable.
Highlights:
+ Ambience/music with longer tracks, that should keep the stress higher than before.
+ Boss fights, including the last one now have music and sound effects added.
+ Replaced some minor sounds that I wasn't that fond of; some weapon reloads, grenade launcher, and locked door effect.
+ Ambient wind sound when outside has been changed, and includes Ennio Morricone's Antarctica, Winter 1982 from The Thing film.
(Wind effect is directional when in-doors, i.e. if there's a window, the sound will only come from there. So the music layered might come off as odd, as it amusingly makes it seem like the music is a living entity, somewhere outside. I added two alternate versions. You could also just delete the wind sound in the Mod folder to keep the game's original sound.)
There is some limitations to this mod:
- The music is completely unaware of what's happening in the game. Once it starts, It will keep playing until the end of the track or until you load into the next level.
- The big annoyance is that a few scripted moments reuse the same audio file which might cause audio overlap, music become unfitting, or they end up feeling too long. I've tried my best to accommodate this but it's difficult to adjust for.
- Some tracks might not have the proper pitch/speed applied; I've done my best to adjust this.
- If you fail and reload from a previous save, you might have passed a scripted track and will not be able to resume the music from before. So you'll have to live in silence until the next scripted audio, or you'll have to reload an older save/restart level.
- Some original music stingers remain, as I either missed them by accident or found them too redundant to change.
- Sometimes the modded audio will not play and it will silent. Not sure the reason for this, but a previous load or level restart seems to fix this.
I used music from Extermination composed by Motoki Funayama. The score has great use of synthesizers, orchestral sound, and has that early 2000's feel that fits the era of this game well. Primary music tracks are from Manhunt composed by Craig Conner. I thought the music fit the tone nicely and evokes a lot of suspense; also has some of that John Carpenter essence to it. I've also made some "mixes"/audio adjustments with pre-existing tracks and layered in some sound effects.
Instructions:
- Have the Mod folder placed next to the game's exe. (steamapps\common\The Thing Remastered)
- Then you'll want to go to your C:/Users/<Username>/Saved Games/Nightdive Studios/The Thing folder, and find thingconfig.txt
- In there you'll want to add a new line with "ResourceDir" = "Mod" (Now save the file.)
- Launch the game as usual.
It should now work! Remain outside for 10-15 seconds and you should hear music playing, or if you progress enough in a level I'm sure you'll trigger an audio track. One might find some tracks a bit odd or unfitting, but if I have the brain power I might make adjustments.
Future updates:
Currently there are two sections that really bother me that I wish I can add music to, (maybe in the future it will be possible).
- The first level has too many initial audio files that overlap and makes it too noisy given the situation. However removing them would take away audio tracks used later in the game.
- The second level where you're eventually required to perform a blood test on you and your squad. I want to add music right after the cinematic finishes and the blood test begins.
- The last level where you fight the Gen-Inc troopers in-doors. After the cinematic with Whitley explaining his plans, you are left to an abhorrent amount of environmental silence. It would be serviceable to at least hear the usual outdoor wind sound, but you don't even get that.
If I can figure out how (if it's possible) to natively place music in a level, then a more polished and refined music overhaul would then be probable.