[directmusic] Re: Conflict: Desert Storm - and question
- From: "Ciaran Walsh" <ciaran@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <directmusic@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 30 Oct 2002 15:16:49 -0000
If the triggers the music is going to respond to are really time sensitive
like what you described then what I would do is use secondary motifs that
can be triggered on beats or grids rather than anything that has to wait for
measure boundaries or other widely spaced markers. You could have dramatic
stabs or simple short motifs that can easily and coherently be started and
stopped.
The other thing you could do is use scriptiing so that if you do need to
change the primary music you check a variable to make sure the destination
state is still valid just before the change itself takes place. So you might
have:
Dim Danger '0 = no danger, 1 = danger
sub StartDanger
Danger = 1
DangerTriggerSegment.play AtMarker 'the marker is placed just before the
desired start point of DangerSegment
end sub
sub ResetDanger 'called if danger ceases
Danger = 0
end sub
sub CheckDanger 'this routine is called by DangerTriggerSegment
if Danger = 1 then
DangerSegment.play AtMeasure
end if
end sub
Probably the best thing to do would be combine both approaches so you get
quick responsive motifs for short bursts of danger and changes to the
primary music for sustained periods.
Ciaran
-----Original Message-----
From: directmusic-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:directmusic-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Bjorn Lynne
Sent: 30 October 2002 14:53
To: directmusic@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [directmusic] Conflict: Desert Storm - and question
I was at a friend's place yesterday and he was playing Conflict: Desert
Storm, the first-person squad based war game. The music soundtrack sounded
very much like a DirectMusic job to me; with groove levels etc.
One slight problem I think manifested itself in that game was the response
time of the music when grooves are waiting for the next natural place to
change, it couldn't really keep up with the action in the game. I.e. an
enemy would start shooting at you, you take aim and shoot him dead, he falls
over, and everything goes quiet again. THEN the music would pick up and play
some more dramatic stuff for a few seconds, before settling back down.
Anybody have any thoughts on how to structure a project to best avoid this?
Maybe use more immediate secondary segments and sound effects for short
battle sequences, rather than change the primary music, which can some times
be too late, if the battle was a short one. I felt this problem was
particularly prominent in this game. Other than that, it was nice. :-)
I meant to ask a question as well, but now I've forgot what it was. ;-)
--
Bjorn Lynne - Composer, Producer, Sound Designer
Main music site: www.lynnemusic.com
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