Music

[Jazz Ad]

Is it possible to change the music for Eufloria on a specific map?
What format does it follow?

Say I make musics and want to implement them into a map, what do I have to do?

[annikk.exe]

I don't know of a way to do this unfortunately.  I think you might need to lobby A&R for that sound effect editor that was mentioned ages ago..

[Aino]

One cool thing for custom music(just dropping it here, cause it is as close as I can get to custom music without creating a new topic is to simply have notes, so you play a specific note like A, C or F at different octaves, so like this:

Code: [Select]

PlayNote(note(or letter),octave,duration,loudness)and example:

Code: [Select]

PlayNote("A",2,5,0.5)
Where "Note" is selfexplained, but the rest can need some info:

Octave/pitch is how light or heavy the note will play, if you play piano you understand this
Duration is how long the not lasts, instead of just a "click" and done with the note you can play longlasting and dramatic notes which then creates more melody and harmony Around 30% of the time should be the "click" you get when you first begin playing the note.
Loudness is the percent of volume the note will have compared to the set amount of volume for music in the game itself(changeable in options ).

So that's just how I want the music system, instead of having to download another song with the map you simple do that

[annikk.exe]

I think that would be quite limiting personally.  I'd prefer to see a system whereby you can put your level file and an mp3 into a zip file, and have the game recognise the zip file as a level.  Then you could refer to the mp3 (or mp3s) from within the lua file.

However LineDrawBehind() is bucketloads more important than this imo.  :P

[Jazz Ad]

What's the current format for the music? Are they prerecorded tunes, tracker or MIDI based, built-in engine? I'm not even sure.

[annikk.exe]

Almost certainly they will be pre-recorded tunes in mp3 or similar format, embedded into the game.  It's possible they loop based on game triggers and such.

[Aino]

Might be limited, but would be a great system to, I'd love to be able to make my own music without an instrument or anything. But both ways won't hurt?

[annikk.exe]

Get a sequencer then.  :>  FL Studio or Reason would be my recommendations.  Reason is quite limited but good for learning.


By the way, does anyone know if there is a command to play sound effects from the game?  EG, I heard there is a PlayWinSound() or similar.  Anything like that available?  I'm particularly interested in the sound the game makes when you issue a command to send seedlings.

[kj]

Might be limited, but would be a great system to, I'd love to be able to make my own music without an instrument or anything. But both ways won't hurt?

Perhaps to a programer that might seem like a really logical way to do music, but me being a music composer I can tell you that it's not worth the effort or time for a few reasons.

1) This is the way music used to be put into games.  If you crack any of the original nes files you'll see what I mean.  It was time intense and not an easy way to write music.

2) This would be so limiting so as to not be worth it.  Since the music would be played in real time, you'd either have to work off the existing midi wavetable (which sounds like crap) or include soundfonts/samples with the map.

If you are worried about size, it might be a good idea just to deal with ol' school trackers (which pretty much automated the system you are talking about anyway) and just include a player, which are really small.  But to be honest, if you hope to have any kind of even reasonable sound, you'll need to use real music and since mp3's are so small in size it really doesn't matter.  5 years ago, adding 3-4 meg to a file size would make a difference.  These days, however, it's just a tiny blip.

If you need music, have someone write it for you.  I've heard enough programers music (and I have a number of programmer friends) to know that music isn't just a math game.

Peace
kj

[kmercy]

PlayAttackSound is most likely the function in eufloria you are looking for i don't know if its accessible but you could try i guess

there is also
PlayCoreSound
PlayDeathSound
PlayPlantSound
PlayNextTune
PlayRandomGameTune
Stop
Play

--

PlayLoseSound
PlayWinSound

^ above are ones which im pretty sure can be used in lua

[annikk.exe]

I've heard enough programers music (and I have a number of programmer friends) to know that music isn't just a math game.

What does that mean?  I'm a programmer and write music...  does that mean my tunes are bad or predictable or something?

[Alex]

He means procedural music; music made by algorithms, rather than music made by people who happen to be programmers

[Aino]

Lol, I wouldn't use math in music making... Other than experiementing...

[annikk.exe]

Oh right, fair enough :>

[kj]

He means procedural music; music made by algorithms, rather than music made by people who happen to be programmers

That is what I meant, mostly.  Procedural music

I also meant that almost all programmers I know (some of whom are pretty savvy and debatably brilliant) are analytical and logical.  Their artistic side is pretty stunted.  This is, by no means, a rule but just my experience so while they are wildly talented programmers, their music is rather simple and not good.