Sound-scapes and sources

[LJuk]

Physical objects, causing sounds is a concept found in all of the best on-line games. Perhaps sound sources as well as an option of atmosphere-based music could be of great advantage to map designers, as well as make the game far more interesting.

[Winny]

Physical objects, causing sounds is a concept found in all of the best on-line games. Perhaps sound sources as well as an option of atmosphere-based music could be of great advantage to map designers, as well as make the game far more interesting.

Location-based music has been denied, based on the fact that it would be a real bandwidth hog to stream songs over the server to everyone. Missile War 2 takes about 400gb a month of my bandwidth, I can't imagine what streaming MP3's would do.

Also, you'd need to make sure that none of the music was copyrighted, since it's illegal to share music in this way. You'd need to compose your own music, and then play it...

Far too complex.

[blast]

Winny
Put them on an HTTP server and have the client download them. He never said anything about streaming them from the server. Or, if you want to stream, use shoutcast streaming, for instance.

[Tedius]

This is something that I'd love to have implemented. I don't think it would be too complex if we treated the sounds as if they were textures. Include the http link to the sound object or cue in the map file and give the player the option to download the "sound textures." I would also like the option to overide the default sound to a sound that I've created. For instance, the "boing" sound doesn't really fit in my Skate-Park, I would have liked to create my own skateboarding sounds.

Also, you'd need to make sure that none of the music was copyrighted, since it's illegal to share music in this way. You'd need to compose your own music, and then play it...

Indeed we'd have some ugly sound design, but I know of quite a few musical people in the community and this would create another opening for them to be involved.

I'll start working on the Mystic Valley track. :)

[immunogoblin]

It seems like the most bang for the buck as far as bandwidth, utility, and ease of implementation would be to incorporate libmodplug:

http://modplug-xmms.sourceforge.net/

which would give classic game-style event-driven soundscape capability that could be musical or not, and .mod files can be pretty small, a lot less download than the billboards at mofo, even

Just a thought.

[LJuk]

So a positive feedback then?

[F687/s]

> It seems like the most bang for the buck as far as bandwidth, utility, and ease of implementation would
> be to incorporate libmodplug:

Yes, but you're forgetting that .mod files are basically MIDI files with samples, and many of the music files that are around are either in .mp3, .wav or .ogg . Also, that file format is on its way out, being replaced with either .xm files, or the waveform-based files that are popular today. Also, XMMS is (from what I know) a Linux-based product, and it may not be completely portable between OSes.

Just a thought.

[immunogoblin]

Yes, but you're forgetting that .mod files are basically MIDI files with samples, and many of the music files that are around are either in .mp3, .wav or .ogg .

No, I'm not forgetting that. I'm addressing the original post as a requested way for designers to add some type of soundscape elements to maps. The bzflag-as-internet-radio concept has already been nixed; If server operators want to play DJ with existing music for their players, they can set up a streaming server as suggested by blast above.

Also, that file format is on its way out, being replaced with either .xm files, or the waveform-based files that are popular today.

Sorry, should have said "MOD-like" files, since the modplug backend plays many, including .xm files, IIRC. As for "waveform-based", you can include as much waveform in the way of samples as you want in a tracker file, although the idea is generally towards minimalism to keep file size down. The potential for providing long loops of recorded audio for backgrounds is there, though. It's a versatile format. It's also arguably no less state-of-the-art than bzflag itself, both are appreciated for their deeper qualites by plenty of people. Note my tactful use of the term "classic"...

Also, XMMS is (from what I know) a Linux-based product, and it may not be completely portable between OSes.

The backend code is abstracted from the xmms plugin part of the project, and is apparently quite portable seeing as how it's used as the engine in at least one current cross-platform tracker. It looks like that project has even been doing further work on improving the code.

None of which is to say my suggestion isn't a Bad Idea, just that it isn't a bad idea for those reasons. Most likely it's a moot point, if nobody has any interest in actually implementing any of this stuff anyway, but I thought I'd throw it out there as a low-cost way of adding some versatile soundscaping to the game...

[JeffM]

there are many other, better, lower cost ways to add a real sound system to the game. The format is not the issue, it's the rest of the code around it.