Music Pack Discussion

[Ded10c]

Do you think there would be any problem with including these in mods?

I wouldn't imagine so, but I've fired him an e-mail to make sure anyway. I've been planning to include several of these since I first heard them.

[TheJamsh]

But if I only put 1 music track, will it keep repeating that track?

well.. yeh

[Zax]

But if I only put 1 music track, will it keep repeating that track?

If you had to randomly pick from a bucket with one blue marble, which marble would you pull each time on a random draw?

[GreenGuy]

I just asked if it only would play the track once or repeat it.

By the way, is there any way to make the 1 track play, then another track then make that track repeat itself?

[World]
MusicTrack1=2
MusicTrack2=12
MusicTrack3=12
MusicTrack4=12
MusicTrack5=12
MusicTrack6=12
MusicTrack7=12
MusicTrack8=12
and so on.

^ doesn't work. It will just play the first track and the second one then repeat the first one.

And is there a way to make music play in certain parts of game? In a cutscene for instance. When you rescue Major Manson, where the Scion Dropship takes off from Pluto, when the Rebel Scion show their face for the first time, when the ISDF Carrier gets destroyed etc.

I think for example that the unused_isdf_old4.mp3 fits the scene where the carrier gets destroyed, or the Unused_scion_old3.mp3 fits the first cutscene in the "Transformation" mission and the unused_scion_old5.mp3 fits when the Rebel Scions show up in the "Escort" mission.

I also think that unused_scion_old1.mp3 fits when you hear Shabeyev's voice in "Fanning The Fire" (gives me the chills), and you have to choose between Braddock and Shabayev. But I guess this is impossible to do when it's a part of the mission and not an actual cutscene.

[TheJamsh]

If you want music to play based on in-game events you will have to write a .dll in c++. The BZ2 Scriptor is a viable alternative, but it doesn't handle looping audio very well, so seamless music transitions are a no.

[Ded10c]

Dynamic music is something you'd find difficult to handle with the available resources, I think.

Yet another reason to get a large team together and try to completely recreate BZ2 in its own engine.

[GreenGuy]

If you want music to play based on in-game events you will have to write a .dll in c++. The BZ2 Scriptor is a viable alternative, but it doesn't handle looping audio very well, so seamless music transitions are a no.

But is it possible to write the same track over and over again to make it repeat?

[Zax]

In game music changes...You would want no music track in-game, and I assume you would place a building on map with the track as a very loud ambient sound or a mine or something. Beats me. That's how voiceovers were done in BZ1 IA maps.

[Ded10c]

Using the setting in the TRN files, the game will loop between the specified tracks endlessly. It may be random between said tracks, it may ignore duplicates. Not certain. If there is only one track specified, it will loop that one track.

[Nielk1]

In 1.3, the MP and IA DLLs call a simple function to tell the game that the music should be random from the entire pool instead of just the map TRN list. This random nature also lets it call up tracks that are not named correctly to have a track number and instead are just in a correctly named folder.

[Ded10c]

Bump. I've put some names in myself, please contribute. http://www.bzcomplex.com/wiki/index.php ... Soundtrack

[forgottengames]

Hello,

I forgot to mention, I actually emailed Carey Chico himself some months ago about the making of and influences behind the music-pack and this was the conversation:

My message:

Hello Mr. Chico,

I'm an avid player of Battlezone 2 as well as a fledgling hip-hop musician, and I enjoyed your work on the BZ2 soundtrack as well. I was curious and had a few questions about the making of the soundtrack; I wanted to ask you what DAW you used (if applicable,) if the orchestral sounds were pre-recorded or played using an orchestra, and overall influences of the sound itself.

-Thanks in advance

Carey's response:

Thanks for the question.

All the music was written with samples on gigastudio. While this sample player isn’t available anymore, all the samples are still available in a variety of formats. I use Sonar as my main sequencing software along with Kontakt and samplelord (which can play back my gigs library)

For BZ2, I actually listened to the Homeworld soundtrack for inspiration. Since a lot of the gameplay was building up bases and preparing for combat, it was hard to do fast paced music all the time. As such, I wanted something epic and atmospheric and I zeroed in on a theme and just tried to remain consistent with the themes throughout all the tracks.

The Scion race ended up being more primitive and I just had fun with the ethnic rhythms mixing in with the orchestral elements.

I had enormous fun and creative control on that project.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

-Carey

There you go. Just clearing out my inbox and came across this message, had to get it off my chest.

[forgottengames]

One last thought:

Carey's files are .mp3 files. BZ2 1.3 can play .wav and .ogg formats only. (And, 1.0-1.2 is .wav only). Basically, mp3 is a patent-encumbered file format that requires a licensed decoder, and that costs $$$. On the other hand, .ogg is an open source format that hands out source code and says "please use our code, you don't have to pay a dime." Guess which one I go with?

Good lord, GSH. That last sentence sounds just like my VB instructor. Why is it that ALL programmers have such deadpan, soulless senses of humor? Then again, humor does not compute in the world of string-variables and voids.

Code: Select all

 { void Humor int; cout << "Overlord resolution failed because no soulless dictator expects this number of humorless arguments. } 

Nothing personal GSH!

[Ded10c]

Programmers often become cynical; they know what the inside of the industry looks like, while the average user remains blissfully ignorant.

[General BlackDragon]

I like his sense of humor