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The Suggestion...
In most video games, music pieces don't just fade out. With all the great music we are allowed to use at this point, I don't see why it shouldn't be used to its fullest potential. Would it be modification of the original tracks? Hardly. Many of them sound like they were meant to be looped, or at least meant to be used as video game bgm usually is.
Even just starting the song after it's over would be good enough than be left with silence, in my opinion. Or, the game could be made to jump at point A in the song once it hits point B (I'm willing to find out the exact points for seamless looping myself, if needed). The problem for me isn't so much in the looping of songs, but I've just grown accustomed to hearing a catchy tune while playing MR - and after some thinking, prefer it that way.
Comments
Some of the current tunes fade out because they didn't have proper endings so I just trimmed them down. :)
I like this idea in principle. I would need to check if it's actually possible to loop a tune this way in director. You can certainly loop the whole tune, but not sure if you can loop back to a certain point. I think the tunes would need to be lot longer to play continuously and that will increase the size of the game a lot. Already, the tunes make up about 80% of the file size.
I like this idea in principle. I would need to check if it's actually possible to loop a tune this way in director. You can certainly loop the whole tune, but not sure if you can loop back to a certain point. I think the tunes would need to be lot longer to play continuously and that will increase the size of the game a lot. Already, the tunes make up about 80% of the file size.
Yeah, I know that they take up a lot of space (midis are converted into mp3 format as well, right?). That's also a reason to why looping the songs would be better than having longer ones. Of course, if it's impossible in Director we can't help it, since the timing has to be very exact. However, if it's possible..
There's also the possibility of using a file format which has loop points encoded into it, but I don't know how lingo handles playing sounds anyway, so using one might not be feasible. At any rate, it should be possible to cut the mp3 files short at the end point and then tell the game to start playing it from the start point when the song comes to the loop point. If jumping to an earlier point isn't possible, we also could have one file with the intro and another that is just played over and over after playing the intro, for each song.
There's also the possibility of using a file format which has loop points encoded into it, but I don't know how lingo handles playing sounds anyway, so using one might not be feasible. At any rate, it should be possible to cut the mp3 files short at the end point and then tell the game to start playing it from the start point when the song comes to the loop point. If jumping to an earlier point isn't possible, we also could have one file with the intro and another that is just played over and over after playing the intro, for each song.
If I remember correctly, it doesn't actually play mp3s. But mp3s are easy to convert into it's native format.
However, there is another way to play music by streaming it from the web. I never went down that route because bandwidth was so low when I wrote the game.
However, there is another way to play music by streaming it from the web. I never went down that route because bandwidth was so low when I wrote the game.
Wouldn't streaming use almost as much bandwidth (if not more) as loading them does now? I don't really see the practicality.. For a game with eigth-ish songs where a map may have none or all of them, it doesn't seem like a feasible alternative to me. (again, I have no idea how playing music is done in lingo)
At any rate, I don't know if the game already works like this, but the system should check for what songs are used in the map and only preload those, if size is an issue at all.
At any rate, I don't know if the game already works like this, but the system should check for what songs are used in the map and only preload those, if size is an issue at all.
Well I think the idea is the game loads quicker and then you only end up downloading the music that you listen to. If there were eight songs in the game but you only get far enough to hear two, you will have only downloaded two.
That said I don't want to talk you into it. Having the songs inside the game download is simpler, fits better for the offline version, and is all we need right now unless someone starts making a lot of long tunes for the game :-)
That said I don't want to talk you into it. Having the songs inside the game download is simpler, fits better for the offline version, and is all we need right now unless someone starts making a lot of long tunes for the game :-)
Incidentally, not sure if I said this already, but when I first added the tunes in, I did try looping them initially. But I found it quickly became annoying. And I didn't want that because they are great tunes. Playing them once only keeps them fresher I think :-)
Gah, I have missed these two comments completely!
Anyway.. Well, yes, looping is best used on tracks that are longer than two minutes. Maybe playing them at random would be better as a bgm, and then the map tiles could be used to override that if necessary? Or a map tile to play random songs until coming across another tile..?
Also, when you say it like that, streaming makes much more sense. Then again, the music actually is already implemented, whereas streaming would have to be programmed, but it might help with covering bandwidth..
Anyway.. Well, yes, looping is best used on tracks that are longer than two minutes. Maybe playing them at random would be better as a bgm, and then the map tiles could be used to override that if necessary? Or a map tile to play random songs until coming across another tile..?
Also, when you say it like that, streaming makes much more sense. Then again, the music actually is already implemented, whereas streaming would have to be programmed, but it might help with covering bandwidth..
Well as promised, i completely disagree with you :)
Aww man! If you completely disagree with everything I say, how will I ever be able to give constructive opinions with desired effects!?
Oh! I know! I'll just have to make terrible suggestions, and this will ensure that none of them make their way into the game! Hooray!
Oh! I know! I'll just have to make terrible suggestions, and this will ensure that none of them make their way into the game! Hooray!
Hehe :)
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Looping background music in MR - pros and cons?