Page 1 of 2

CE idea: set music/sound/graphic

Posted: Sat Aug 05, 2006 6:40 pm
by Sascha
Hello (back from czech republic),
I have an idea:
What about a new CE action: cet music/sounds/graphics set!!
example:

Code: Select all

when pressed by player:
set music set = Set XXX
I think, that would be useful.
regards

Posted: Sat Aug 05, 2006 7:00 pm
by Zomis
I think, that would be veeeeery difficult to implement (or at least it would consume much time for the player while playing) and veeeery much not worth it!

Posted: Sat Aug 05, 2006 8:39 pm
by Holger
To be honest, I have no idea for what this could be good for. Any idea?

BTW: When choosing a subject for a post/thread, it's best to use something that describes the topic! This way it's easier to find it later when searching for it. :-)

Posted: Sat Aug 05, 2006 9:53 pm
by Alan
Changing the music in game is a good idea, easy to do as well! (for the likes of BD2K3's boss tune not starting when the level starts and not using a large wav)

Aren't you supposed to be in France Zomis? :wink:

Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2006 9:41 am
by Sascha
I think, it's useful if you have seperate parts/areas in one level, which need different kinds of music.
For example:
You created a level;
first there is a dark area with many enemies.
A dark, scary music is good for this.

In the next part of the level you're using bright elements (grass or colourful emeralds) and less enemies;
is it very good to have a too depressive music in this area?
A more friendly music would be nice.

So I think: CEs that sets the music/sounds/graphics in game when passing/touching/pressingg/... are very useful.
:)

Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2006 9:45 am
by Sascha
Aah, and one more idea:
The CEs could show the seperate songs from all sets chooseable, not the sets alone.
Or you have to make a set with one kind of music and another with other
kinds of music. :(

Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2006 1:58 pm
by Alan
The CEs could show the seperate songs from all sets chooseable, not the sets alone.
Or you have to make a set with one kind of music and another with other
kinds of music.
I was thinking how Holger would fit this in to the editor, the best way (I think) is to use an action page:- "Set\stop music" and simply a number in the other combo box which refers to each level's tune. You would have to know what number was what piece of music (but you should this anyway since it's your level)

Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2006 6:54 pm
by Tomi
My opinion on this:

Changing music can be useful, but changing graphics/music/sounds *set* definitely isn't. Example: you're playing a level with classic graphics. You press a button, and... loading screen appears. Great. After a while, the level appears again, but everything looks like from BD2K3. Really awesome. (And I don't even think what would happen if the player doesn't have BD2K3 installed.)
Now, do you think adding such feature to RnD would be useful?

However, a change action to change *currently playing* music would really be very useful. In some cases, it can already be done. Use "ambient" CEs with sounds; for examples, see Alan's Pacman ("sound engine" CE) or "the boss" level from BD2K3.

Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2006 5:52 pm
by Holger
> I was thinking how Holger would fit this in to the editor

This is always a *very* good idea, and sometimes separates practical ideas from not so practical ones (with "practical" as in "fits into the currently used concepts).

> the best way (I think) is to use an action page:- "Set\stop music" and
> simply a number in the other combo box which refers to each level's tune.

Sounds like something that could be done that way, yes.

> Changing music can be useful, but changing graphics/music/sounds
> *set* definitely isn't.

That's exactly what I thought myself after reading the last few posts here.

> However, a change action to change *currently playing* music would
> really be very useful. In some cases, it can already be done. Use
> "ambient" CEs with sounds; for examples, see Alan's Pacman ("sound
> engine" CE) or "the boss" level from BD2K3.

Yep, Sascha's initial idea seems to be some sort of "over-generic" variant of this more practical approach. And yes, some stuff can already be done with CEs and sounds.

But maybe (most probably) it would be useful to also affect music, and not only sounds. Maybe it is a good solution to solve this entirely using artwork config files -- start or stop sounds and music depending on the creation of a CE or when a change page condition is true. This would help separating the game engine logic (change actions) from the artwork engine logic (graphics/sounds/music changes according to CE changes, as defined in artwork config files).

I have to think about that a bit more... :-)

Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 8:19 am
by Sascha
Yes, you could do that with CEs that
contents Sounds, which are like music.
When touching the CEs would be activated
and would play the music-sound.

Yes, that would be possible.
But I don't know how to stop the music with CEs.
And I think that is impossible.
Well, well, I think it would be useful
for seperate level areas a.I.s.a.

Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 8:42 am
by Holger
> But I don't know how to stop the music with CEs.
> And I think that is impossible.

I think you're right here -- for this purpose, such additional definitions or change actions would be a good thing!

Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2006 6:33 pm
by Tomi
So, proposed new change-actions:

- start playing music file ABCD.mp3 (or music file #N ?)
- stop playing music (this could be "start playing music file 0")
- play sound ABCD.mp3 (or sound #N ?)

There could be even some interesting options like fade in / fade out to make things nicer.

I like the idea of using some sort of IDs instead of filenames. It allows for bigger filename flexibility, you don't have to add a text input field, CE values/scores can be used etc. The music and sound IDs (#N) would be:
a) determined from directory index, sorted by name. For example, aaa.mp3 would be 1, bbb.mp3 would be 2 and ccc.mp3 would be 3.
b) set in sounds/musicinfo.conf. For example: "dynamic_music_id.002: bbb.mp3"

Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2006 1:35 pm
by Sascha
I thought the music file must be .wav!!?

Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2006 6:23 pm
by Daniel H.
mp3 sounds work, mod sounds work, and MIDI songs (like in BD2K3 and SnakeBite) also work. All of those can be used for music in levels.

Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:19 pm
by Sascha
Midi???
Darkon sent me a midi File, but
it was not running. :o