[dertyjerzian]

Ok, I saw a bunch of people were having problems getting SA to scan and find their mp3's, ogg's, and wma's (Wma IS supported, srry for those I told I wasn't sure), so I decided to throw together a quick guide that should get everyone going and provide some quick help for anyone else who ends up coming across this issue.

I will not cover any modifications to the way this should be done here. At least not until I know how to make the other stuff work (i.e. playlists etc).

Before I start I want us to be on the same page, so...

First, if you have copied any folders, songs, or shortcuts into your user tracks folder (mydocuments\gta sanan user files\user tracks) delete them (or move the non-shortcut items away, do not use actual files to play your music, ONLY shortcuts). Empty the folder out completely.

Next, if you are running anything lower than Windows Media Player 9 Series, then that is your only real problem. Update your player, and I recommend WMP10 over 9 Series as this is the player I am using for the example. The game will recognize your shortcuts and even reflect changes made in the two data files for your user lists, but simply will NOT play them without a newer windows media player. Again, I would go with Ten

Once you have updated your player:

~Creating shortcuts and scanning for changes~

XP users go into your documents folder and right click "my music" or wherever you keep your music and choose "create shortcut". Cut and paste this new shortcut into your user tracks folder, start the game, go to the audio options menu into usertrack settings and scan for songs. Play the game and give me a cookie .

NOTE: You do not have to make a shortcut to all the songs in your list. Just the folder that houses the tracks you need will do. For instance, if you want album five out of ten, and none of the rest: Rather than a "my music" shortcut, you'd just deeper into the my music folder, into the unknown artist foler, and finally make a shortcut of your selected folder. Also, if you have a lot of folders, or you just wanna be neat about things, you can choose "send to -> Desktop (create shortcut)" so that you can find your shortcuts that much easier.

Other windows types, this should be the same, but you may not have the same default music directory. In any case, just follow the above steps and you should be fine.\



FAQ

Here there will be a faq for any questions that arise here. The entire format of this post will be cleaner soon, but I'm off to try and find solutions for the options/display/advanced crash right now... see ya pals.

EDIT I left out the fact that this is not my own work, only some. I got hints here and there from a few posts across the boards and a few other forums. Thanks everyone who has helped. if you stinky about it enough, maybe ill add ya to this post as credit lol

EDIT

Troubleshooting:

"Won't Play"

1 Our friend Majuub finds that disabling his modem helps. My modem isnt even currently installed, so you may need to try that. Look below for his post.

This post has been edited by dertyjerzian on Thursday, Jun 16 2005, 21:18

[harag]

This has worked for me 100%

I have the following folders: (created by WMP10)

...My Music/CD_Music/ArtistName/AlbemName/*.mp3

I did a right click on the CD_Music folder created shortcut and cut and pasted it into the user files folder for GTA. I just lover there system of using my music - another game I have doesn't use shortcuts and has its own folder for custom music - but thats another story.

again THANKS for taking the time to piece all the clues together. Now to get back into the game and enjoy it.

(btw this worked in the menu options... Not yet tried it in the actual car/game but I bet it will work just as well...)

Alan

[dertyjerzian]

great, glad it worked. I was so glad to read that and not a bunch of hate mail lol.

I wasnt sure when I wrote it, but I had a good feeling, plus it was what worked for me.

anyway. Bump. I see sound users again in the front of the threads.

[dertyjerzian]

bumpo, hasnt been a topic in a bit, i smell one coming.

[Victor]

I did EXACTLY what you said and still I only get the commercials.

I use WMP 10 (although it's not my standard player. I tried if it would work when I turned WMP to my standard player but no success though).

I made a shortcut of a hole map, a selection of MP3's and I copied the real MP3's in the map.
All without any success... Can anybody help me?

Specs:

AMD Sempron 2800+
512 MB RAM
GeforceFX 5200 128mb

Windows XP SP2

This post has been edited by Victor on Wednesday, Jun 15 2005, 17:42

[Finknz]

If someone could help me I would be grateful to them, - I am getting the user tracks to play - but I can't hear any of the ads in between. I know it's not the end of the world! Although it would be nice to hear them

Any ideas?

[DarkKnight]

To answer your ads "problem", the ads aren't coming between each 2 sound tracks, but just once in a while. And when you have set your user-tracks on radio model, it will just keep going, even when you aren't in the car, so it's very easy to miss a track and/or the ad in between.
At first I also thought that something was wrong when i didn't hear any ads inbetween, but yesterday or day before that, I finally heard a few. So i guess you will just have to stay inside a car for a long time to try it out.

And as a comment to this topic: in the first post, the poster said that you shouldn't place the complete mp3 files in the user files, but it's not like that won't work if you do...
In my situation it's better to have the complete files in there, i think. As my music is on an external drive, so it would mean longer access/seeking times and more load for the pc.

[Victor]

QUOTE (Finknz @ Jun 16 2005, 05:04)

If someone could help me I would be grateful to them, - I am getting the user tracks to play - but I can't hear any of the ads in between. I know it's not the end of the world! Although it would be nice to hear them Any ideas?

In the 'User Track Options' menu, put 'sequential' or 'random' to 'radio'

then you should hear the ads

@DarkKnight: This could be an idea, but how many ads do you normally hear between the tracks, because if it's just one ad between two tracks it's still not working for me I've allready heared 2 ads in a row

[Majuub]

Ive covered this in the PC Version thread but ill say it here too.

I solved my User Tracks not working problem by disabling my modem under Sound Video and Game Controllers in Device Manager, seems my modem doubles as a sound card and was conflicting with my Creative Soundblaster Audigy LS :S

Hope this helps some people

[Victor]

thanks for your reply but unfortunately it can't be that since I don't have a modem (I access internet via a LAN connection)

[MichaelCVaughn]

I'd like help with a problem I have. I put shortcuts in my user tracks folder and started the game, started up my savegame and tried to scan for user tracks. (in audio menu) PC worked a bit, then finished. I quickly got a car and tuned in. But there was just some static... and it was on every station. Can someone help me solve that problem?

BTW, sorry for my english. I'm just a german pupil.

[westsidebud]

Uhmm you do know that ya all would have
found this out if ya just read the "readme" right ?

here ill even quote it..

QUOTE

3) USER RADIO STATIONS _______________________ User Radio Files GRAND THEFT AUTO: San Andreas can support the playback of the users own audio files. By default the game ships with support for Windows Wave files (WAV) and Ogg Vorbis (OGG) files. Additionally, with the correct CODECS installed to your computer, you can playback MP3, WMA, M4A, etc. To facilitate playback of these formats you can -   Install the latest Apple QuickTime Player   or   Install Microsoft Windows Media Player 9 OR 10   or   Install a combined CODEC package "User Radio Options" Page _______________________ Play Mode    Radio / Random / Sequential   Radio - User tracks interspersed with radio commercials.   Random - Plays the user tracks uninterrupted and at random.   Sequential - Plays the user tracks in alphabetical order. Automatic Media Scan  On / Off   Forces the game to re-scan for user tracks each time it is loaded. Scan User Tracks   Allows the user to scan the user tracks folder for compatible audio files. Q: Why do I only hear advertisements when listening to the User Track Player? A: Check that any shortcuts in the "My Documents\GTA San Andreas User Files\User Tracks" are valid and that they have been scanned using the Scan User Tracks function in the User Track Options menu submenu of the Audio Setup menu. If trying to playback MP3, M4A or WMA tracks you may need to install Windows Media Player, QuickTime or a third party codec pack. Q: Why does GRAND THEFT AUTO: San Andreas take a long time to start up if I have lots of music files or shortcuts in my User Tracks folder? A: This occurs when Automatic Media Scan is set to ON in the User Track Options. Turning off the Automatic Media Scan will make loading faster and, in sequential mode, will stop the User Track Player from returning to the first track after the game loads. Q: Why does GRAND THEFT AUTO: San Andreas always start on the same track when in sequential mode? A: This occurs when Automatic Media Scan is set to ON in the User Track Options menu. Turning off the Automatic Media Scan will stop the User Track Player from returning to the first track after the game loads.

Note: You may wanna give Rockstar North
some credits in your tutorial

[Victor]

Offcourse I allready checked the readme file, but still no luck...

[FedjaSA]

All the stuff worked for me but i have one tiny problem.

All of the songs work for me but when i import one song,it won't play it.However,i tried rescanning couple of times and still nothing,the game just won't play it.

Any solutions???

[Darksen]

Oo Next problem ;D
First i did everything said in the readme ... didn't work
Then i tried the solution given here ... didn't work...
Can someone tell me what's not right?
A friend of mine just put the music in the folder and it worked ... but at my pc i won't do so >.<

maybe someone can help me @ icq ... my number is 343642274

thx an greetz

darksen

[jasper9]

couple of days ago i could just listen to my own music, but now i opnly hear commercials
i tryed wma, mp3, and wav, but i get only commercials

This post has been edited by jasper9 on Thursday, Jun 16 2005, 18:50

[MichaelCVaughn]

Sorry for bothering you, it works now... don't know what changed, but it works and I'm happy. Again sorry for posting.

These smilies are awesome, by the way.

[TheJkWhoSaysNi]

Does anyone experience a crash when putting a shortcut to their music folder?

Generally i can hear one song, but then randomly it will crash with a send error report dialog.

Sometimes the song will be playing while the send error report dialog is there.

What could be the problem?

-I have ogg, mp3 and wma files.
-I have about 2500 tracks. Could this be the problem?


One other thing i've noticed is that the times when the music has been playing during the send error report dialog it has been a long song (longer than 10 mins). Maybe this causes a problem?

Has anyone else experienced this?

[dertyjerzian]

QUOTE (DarkKnight @ Jun 16 2005, 07:36)

To answer your ads "problem", the ads aren't coming between each 2 sound tracks, but just once in a while. And when you have set your user-tracks on radio model, it will just keep going, even when you aren't in the car, so it's very easy to miss a track and/or the ad in between. At first I also thought that something was wrong when i didn't hear any ads inbetween, but yesterday or day before that, I finally heard a few. So i guess you will just have to stay inside a car for a long time to try it out. And as a comment to this topic: in the first post, the poster said that you shouldn't place the complete mp3 files in the user files, but it's not like that won't work if you do... In my situation it's better to have the complete files in there, i think. As my music is on an external drive, so it would mean longer access/seeking times and more load for the pc.

exactly, you can use the real files of the songs, but why would you want to add double files to your system? Kinda rdundant right? well, im going to read on and add a second post after this, but I saw A few people were having trouble like this already. As a side note, i dont think real tracks work for me, but i didn't feel like playing with it, i just threw my shortcuts back in the User Tracks folder.

I'll learn how to do multiple quotes in one post at this forum soon so i never have to post a second time on purpose. Talking to a couple mods about different things right now, and i know they do this very thing (quote multiples times, not double ad triple post).

[deusvalor]

Hey my problem's kind of different i don't have a User Tracks folder at all! I searched my whole PC and found none. I tried creating the folders and adding in the files but still no luck. Can anyone help?