Poll: MUSAK!

[Lancefighter]

another option may be to create some simple ambient music that can be played on certain planets or groups of planets - for instance, in X3, where certain songs played ambiently in systems, then other music was substituted for combat/etc.

[Echo35]

another option may be to create some simple ambient music that can be played on certain planets or groups of planets - for instance, in X3, where certain songs played ambiently in systems, then other music was substituted for combat/etc.

Yeah, shaving music play at certain parts would really enhance the atmosphere rather than the jukebox style way it plays now.

[BobTheJanitor]

Yeah, shaving music play at certain parts would really enhance the atmosphere rather than the jukebox style way it plays now.

I suppose if people are OK with the music staying frenzied even if you're not looking at the planet with the action, that would be OK. Now that I think of it more, that would probably work. Even if you are going back and forth to a peaceful planet, if there are waves or CPAs going on or if you're trying to take an AI world, most of your mental focus is going to be there, even if you do jump back to some other planets temporarily. It would be nice if the music would segue into a hyper beat just as an AI attack comes in. Maybe something that checks for numbers of AI units on your planets, or number of your units on AI planets and decides to kick in some battle music at those times... might be something to suggest for a future expansion.

[Mayjori]

personally i like the jukebox way it is now. I cant see myself liking it being based on what I'm doing, some games that works, and some that dosnt, for this one I cant see it working very well
. If they did that, 94.378293829382% of the time id be listening to just fight music or something. Part of what makes the soundtrack so good is its variety that somehow fits the game, I just want more quantity of that variety .

[Fiskbit]

Your homework assignment is to go make a procedural music creator that won't cause earbleed

Yes, it is possible, but the result is very, very different than any of the composition in our game.

Ball Blazer does a wonderful job with its fractal music. This seems like a perfect fit for the next expansion!!

[Nalgas]

Back in the late 80s, when we still had the Computer Museum in Boston before its remains got shipped off to California, I remember a display they had with computer generated music.  It would play a MIDI track that was either from some classical composer (I forget whether they used Bach or Beethoven) or was generated by the computer in the same "style", and you had to guess who had written it.  Since they obviously excluded the really obviously recognizable pieces, it did a surprisingly good job of fooling the general public, and the running tally at the time was a bit under 60% accurate.  I personally did substantially better, because I was taking classical piano lessons and hearing that kind of music all the time, but even that long ago they were doing some interesting work.

Some of the dynamic music systems in games these days are pretty crazy, too.  They might not quite be at the procedurally generated level, but go look at how they did the music in something like Portal 2.  I'm not sure why they went through that much effort, because most of the music in that game blends into the background so much that you'd never even notice if it sat there looping for hours, but it does let them do some kind of neat reactive "musical sound effect" things in some places.

[Echo35]

Back in the late 80s, when we still had the Computer Museum in Boston before its remains got shipped off to California, I remember a display they had with computer generated music.  It would play a MIDI track that was either from some classical composer (I forget whether they used Bach or Beethoven) or was generated by the computer in the same "style", and you had to guess who had written it.  Since they obviously excluded the really obviously recognizable pieces, it did a surprisingly good job of fooling the general public, and the running tally at the time was a bit under 60% accurate.  I personally did substantially better, because I was taking classical piano lessons and hearing that kind of music all the time, but even that long ago they were doing some interesting work.

Some of the dynamic music systems in games these days are pretty crazy, too.  They might not quite be at the procedurally generated level, but go look at how they did the music in something like Portal 2.  I'm not sure why they went through that much effort, because most of the music in that game blends into the background so much that you'd never even notice if it sat there looping for hours, but it does let them do some kind of neat reactive "musical sound effect" things in some places.

Reminds me of this guy at my prior college who had developed software that he would play some improv jazz piece too (He was a sax player) and the computer would improv back in the same style. Simply hearing it from the lobby I thought there were 2 or 3 musicians in the room playing together, but it was just the one guy and his computer. It blew me away.

[Coppermantis]

Some of the dynamic music systems in games these days are pretty crazy, too.  They might not quite be at the procedurally generated level, but go look at how they did the music in something like Portal 2.  I'm not sure why they went through that much effort, because most of the music in that game blends into the background so much that you'd never even notice if it sat there looping for hours, but it does let them do some kind of neat reactive "musical sound effect" things in some places.

You mean like the Vscripts they used to play a sound effect while you move fast enough/use some testing element? I thought that did add some feel to the game, especially the neat little sound when using one of the gels.

[Nalgas]

Some of the dynamic music systems in games these days are pretty crazy, too.  They might not quite be at the procedurally generated level, but go look at how they did the music in something like Portal 2.  I'm not sure why they went through that much effort, because most of the music in that game blends into the background so much that you'd never even notice if it sat there looping for hours, but it does let them do some kind of neat reactive "musical sound effect" things in some places.

You mean like the Vscripts they used to play a sound effect while you move fast enough/use some testing element? I thought that did add some feel to the game, especially the neat little sound when using one of the gels.

Yeah, all that stuff seems to be tied in with the dynamic music system, so it all fits together smoothly.  As your actions trigger those kinds of sounds, they're synced with the music and blended with it rather than just played as normal sound effects like the portal gun or turret firing sounds.  That particular sound you mention is the one that stands out the most, which I liked, too.

The music itself can have a ton of variation in response to what's going on (with the exception of the couple pre-recorded songs), but it tends to be subtle enough that I never notice it at all while playing.  In a way that's a good thing and probably intentional, because it sets the mood without being distracting, but makes it rather non-memorable musically and also hard to appreciate what they did on the technical side of things.

[Coppermantis]

Of course, the actual creating of the dynamic music effects in Portal 2 maps is very painful.

Also, there is some event-based music in the Light of the Spire expansion, right? I don't own it, but that's what the wiki said.

[Wingsofdomain]

Of course, the actual creating of the dynamic music effects in Portal 2 maps is very painful.

Also, there is some event-based music in the Light of the Spire expansion, right? I don't own it, but that's what the wiki said.

I have LoTS and I haven't noticed any of that so I guess you are wrong.

[Nalgas]

Of course, the actual creating of the dynamic music effects in Portal 2 maps is very painful.

I haven't looked at what's involved in doing it yourself, but just going by what the system is capable of that doesn't surprise me at all.  I bet writing your own music (not just effects) for a system like that would be an absolute nightmare, too, if even possible.

Also, there is some event-based music in the Light of the Spire expansion, right? I don't own it, but that's what the wiki said.

You know, it's entirely possible that it plays specific music when certain things happen with the Fallen Spire, but I haven't really paid too close attention because that's usually when things are getting particularly crazy.  Plus I only have the music on when I'm playing single player (it's hard enough as it is to tell what's going on with five people on voice chat sometimes), which I spend less time with than multiplayer...

[Coppermantis]

Yeah, from the wiki:

Special Tracks
Light of the Spire Title Theme
The Chase (special event-specific music)

[Professor Paul1290]

Having music that comes in whenever there's a lot of action going on would be nice. Perhaps more tense music can start playing when a wave or cross planet attack is about to arrive.

[X1Alpha]

If windows media player can generate visuals from sound; then it should be possible to generate sound from visuals... now finding a person qualified to do this is the hard part