Dynamic music for ns2

louis cardinal

<div class="IPBDescription">you think this is cool? or not wanted?</div>i loved the start up music for ns1 when you opened the game, i loved how it carried on when i just joined a server and coincidentially it comes to a dramatic stop when the fight begins.

the music for ns2 is AWESOME in the menu and i am all thankful for that, its really sick.

question:

in game music... good or bad idea? OR should we not be discussing about this now... perhaps this is the wrong time to discuss things that are WANTED and we should focus on things that are NEEDED.

my signature says "what do you think"...

Harimau

I've seen dynamic music tried before, probably the earliest <b>true</b> implementation was in (the commercial failure) One Must Fall: Battlegrounds (but the music isn't why it failed, obviously). It was a fully-3D multiplayer arcadey fighting game. (The original game One Must Fall: 2097 was a DOS game, and is one of my favourite games of all time.)

It used DirectMusic or something, and dynamically changed the score according to whatever was currently happening, so each time you played the game, the music would be different.
I believe the system worked according to:
-A set of samples (loops, I believe, with maybe some randomisation) corresponding to a set of different circumstances
-A set of transition samples corresponding to transitions between different circumstances.
-(maybe, I'm not sure) An overarching background track.
And there'd be different "tracks" for different maps, I think. I think the total length of each "track" was around the 50 minute mark (as it was comprised of all of the above music samples I listed).

Sounds brilliant in theory, I don't know how well it turned out though.



In NS2's case the tracks should be more ambient than involved; and you could perhaps have one "track" for each Art-set: Refinery, Biodome etc.
(With the option to turn it off.)

SafetyHelmet

OMF ruled.

Most people turn the music off in a tactical FPS. It kills the atmosphere of the game and hearing things going on in the map is a big advantage.

Harimau

<!--quoteo(post=1819304:date=Dec 25 2010, 05:10 PM:name=SafetyHelmet)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (SafetyHelmet @ Dec 25 2010, 05:10 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1819304"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->OMF ruled.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Comrade!

Twiggeh

Having dynamically changing ambient music would be really sweet for immersion, but i think i'd still turn it off just so i could hear faint sounds better.

And putting hours and hours (both with coding and producing the tracks) for something that (probably atleast) half of the players will turn off probably isnt something UWE thinks too highly of atm.

Kouji_San

Like the AI director shenanigans from L4D(2)?

Harimau

What do you mean, Kouji?

louis cardinal

well yes... obviously this isnt something of high importance compared to the other things on the to do list... like making the onos =)