Sound engine changes

[Balschoiw]

Hi BIS !

While making a new mission I found it pretty complicated to embedd a mission depending soundtrack that is adjusted by the mission or better say the gaming itself.
Little example:
1. Mission begins, smooth looped ambient track is played
2. Enemy contact, ambient track is substituted by variation of ambient track with more drive
3. Enemies killed, music falls back into pattern 1
4. If enemy contact extends and more enemies show up the music from point 2 is taken to another higher level to increase push of atmosphere

All this music is just faded into each other which makes it one solid tune without any cuts. It´s no big problem to set up such scores or even cut existing tunes into a shape that fits the "situation music awareness" scheme. I tried it and it works pretty well. While scripting all the enemy detectors with getdistance and knowsabout I ran into some problems as there is a little time-offset with the sounds, probably either my fault or an engine limitation with OFP1.
Anyway it would be nice to see such implemented in OFP 2 in a simplier way.
Let´s say, mission editor gets the chance to put the situation relevant files into 3 or 4 subfolders in the sound/music dir that are defined standard by BIS.
something like:

AmbMusic folder
AmbMusic1 folder
AmbMusic2 folder
....


In combination with an embedded script segment to call the code for the situation music awareness that is delivered by OFP2 itself, it would be very easy to implement such for mission makers and for some scenarios it would definately improve the atmosphere during gaming.
It´s not for all missions of course, but I can think of some SpecOps missions where it could be nice to have such, or even other scenarios.

Possible, and worth a look ?

Edit:@BIS If you want to have some 3 musicloops that do fit and demonstrate the idea, pm me.

[Necromancer-]

It does require a very large range of music tracks to support this...

[Balschoiw]

Actually not.
It only requires to have one basic track that is evolving. You simply make segments of the track and let the segments play in loops which gives the impression of a solid track and gives you the chance to adjust the score to the situation.
So no, it doesn´t require more tracks than the ones that came with OFP1 or RES.

[funnyguy1]

The idea is quite nice, however the ingame music is a disputed question.(at least the option to switch it off would be great)

What I want to say is to allow me to add my own soundtrack, (+ the bis soundtrack).

I know, It sounds a bit strange as I`m a musician, but, the environment should be loud enough (Ghost Recon was nice in this case) to focus your attention on the battlefield, without the music.
I mean, the thing is, that there`s not many games are usign the potential of the natural sound and noices. For ex. when you`re in a forest, the decibel`s level is quite high

On the other hand, don`t you think It would complicate a bit the missionmakers` work? (If it`s implemented optionally, there`s no problem of course)
Or the mission files would be bigger?
What about the player, not the missionmaker, decides which sound files to use?

[Balschoiw]

As I already said, it fits for some scenarios better than for others.
For sure it should be just an option, no must. A scripting option to be precise. If BIS can give us the tool (implementation into OFP2 engine) it will save a lot of work for mission editors as the workaround we have to do today is pretty intense and CPU consuming. I guess BIS can make it better and easier and if we are able to call it with a scripting command and a defined structure given by BIS it will be perfect.
I especially have single-player missions on my mind. Cutscenes also could benefit from this as the music doesn´t have to be timed on the sec by editors but adjusts on it´s own by the things that happen onscreen. Let´s call it more fluent and it certainyl will add more atmosphere to some missions/cutscenes.

Quote[/b] ]On the other hand, don`t you think It would complicate a bit the missionmakers` work?

Quite the opposite.
As it should be a scripting command in init it would definately make the thing easy and smooth.
It´s an option, not must.

Quote[/b] ]Or the mission files would be bigger?

In fact the mission files would get smaller as you don´t use complete tracks but only segments that are looped.

Quote[/b] ]What about the player, not the missionmaker, decides which sound files to use?

This is not the intention as the music is chosen for the mission only. If someone wants to change it he can depbo it and adjust it to his needs.

I guess I will set up an example to show you what I am talking about. I guess there is some confusion about it right now.

[Balschoiw]

Here we go. I made 3 samples for the ambient pattern.
They are included in the zip-file. To keep it small I have exported them Mono only. As you can hear all 3 samples fit to each other in tempo and tone but do express 3 different ambient states.
Ambient music loops
While Ambsound 1 is the major loop that is played and looped from the start with nothing special happening, Ambsound3 fires in when enemy is at the scene and fighting erupts. Once the enemy is toast or not in sight anymore this loop stops and music will switch back to either Ambsound1 or Ambsound2.
As this should be handled by engine the score of a mission would be quite lively while playing a mission.
Pls BIS have a look on this. I guess it´s not too hard to implement.
Don´t judge the music itself in this example. It can be done with orchestral or any other type of music the same way. This example is far from beeing perfectly cut but it is a techdemo only.
Ambsound1 can ofcourse be replaced by a more long and complex sample but I just wanted to create a little demo to demonstrate the initial idea.