Using custom Sounds

I can't figure out how to use custom sounds in my map. When I try to add a custom sound, hammer wont let me point it to the right folder. Instead it points me somewhere to the materials folder and a list of sound files I can't find the location of. Can you use custom sounds in HL2 yet?

To find the location of the files just get one of the filenames and search your HDD for it. Then when you've found that folder put your own custom sounds in the same place. Then when it points you to that wierd folder, you can select your own sounds.

Thanks, but I tried that and it can't find the files. I think steam must use some sort of encryption system for most of the files.

I bet it's looking inside one of your GCF files. They're like ZIP files that contain all of your game's files. If you can find the path that is INSIDE the GCF file, duplicate that path by making folders by the same names as those inside the file. Then place your files there. Maketh sense? so if the GCF file is in c:\valve, and inside the GCF there is a directory called sounds\elevators, then create folders in the c:\valve directory to match these so your path will be c:\valve\sounds\elevators. The problem with this is that it still won't let you browse for it. So you'll have to type in the path for your sound manually instead of browsing for it. And of course we know the path would not REALLY be "c:\valve" I've simply come up with that for the sake of simplicity.

Ok I tried my best to locate the GCF files that contain the sound, but I can't seem to find them. I tried placing a wav file in all the folders that I thought might contain the sound files, but I still couldn't use it in Hammer. I thought that when the full SDK was released I might be able to find something about using custom sounds, but I can't find anything. Anybody got any ideas? I also wanted to know how to include the custom sounds with the map so if someone where to connect to my server the custom sounds would automatically download to the correct folder. Perhaps there is way to convert sounds into a GCF file that Steam and Hammer will recognize?

Use GCFscape to browse your GCF's and extract files from them.

Ok thanks, does it allow you to create GCF files as well? For instance, convert a wav or mp3 to a GCF file?