PlaneShift
Gameplay => General Discussion => Topic started by: Kuiper7986 on January 03, 2004, 04:14:44 am
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We always talk about graphics graphics graphics. I know graphics are wonderful no question in my mind about that. But what about sound, hows the audio part of the game coming along. Is there going to be surround sound or is it going ti give us full frontal blasts of sound? I\'ll post more. comments? please post.
added edit: here some things to watch out for. for a better experience, I\'m sounding nieve but its just my opinions.
-audio obstruction
-audio occlusion
-audio exclusion
-audio enviromental reflection
-audio enviromental panning
-audio enviromental morphing.
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i agree the sound is an important aspect to a game. not only do you need graphics you must have sound to back it up. i would like to see aweasome battle music and like on an open plan nice serene music as like the sun sets and stuff. i work on music myself but most of it is techno/trance/dance styles but if needed be i could make other stuff :D just so that the devs know. ;)
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I also hope the audio-side of things doesn\'t get too neglected, but we must keep in mind that this is a MMORPG and the developers only have so much time spare to code this thing. What you\'re talking about doesn\'t only sound difficult to code, but also, might it not add alot of information that needs to be sent to all the clients in an area and calculated seperately for each one, every second?...
For a project such as this where players have no other option but to download the client from the Internet, I think complex enviromental audio effects could be overlooked safely... It sounds to me like a major thing that would take years to implement and add a tonne on the download size.
But correct me if I\'m wrong... :) I usually am when I know nothing of what I\'m talking about. Hehe.
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hmmm you have a good point moogie i totally overlooked size. but if done nice and correctly it can be made it to a smaller size. i no hardly anything bout codeing and stuff but music is my catagory and if need be i could do everything in my power to make small file repeative song bases. :D ill get working on some later and put some on a site or something so you guys can hear. ;)
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*Ahem*
Why would the server have to tell clients to change music?
It should be a problem, such things could be done client-side.
Altough, there are many things I\'d rather see first. :)
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Originally posted by Kuiper7986
-audio obstruction
-audio occlusion
-audio exclusion
-audio enviromental reflection
-audio enviromental panning
-audio enviromental morphing.
A lot of the stuff mentioned is really great IMHO, but how much CPU will it take?
It\'s like true raytracing for graphics - nothing so far looks more realistic, but as I don\'t own a computer like \"Earth Simulator\" it\'s just not realistic. The playability on non-high-end computers must not be neglected!
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what I mentioned is just basic audio effects. They\'re on Sound Blaster Live cards and above.
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Wow this thread is identical with my first thread (I got flamed though, *takes note on how you managed to not get flamed ;)*).
Anyway the quality of the game music and audio not just code ofcourse it is the creative work of the music department, and nice code can ofcourse enhance that.
Our 3d engine (Crystal Space) already supports EAX2 so most of these effects can be done already but it has to be intregrated to the game and that is not a priority at the moment.
Creative Labs, the creator of EAX, has not realesed EAX3 and 4 SDK for the public so we can\'t use those fancy features like Envirument Panning and such. and that SDK is availible for game developers who are registered to Creative Labs and it is free so I suppos PS can have it to but it takes alot of paperwork.
*EAX = the API that does all those nice features
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Well download size isn\'t a problem. U can download the music in one format, and then use a simple .bat file to change the format. I\'ve had to do this with various rip addons, and it changed the total file size from 70mb to 900mb.....
From what I\'ve heard, the music and sound side of things are going gr8, and we\'ve got some nice stuff coming in CB. (Don\'t shoot me if I\'m wrong...)
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Hey...the music in MB is already great. For an alpha-test, i would say the music is very advanced.
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awesome! it supports EAX2, cool now it can use more of my sound card.
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if their gonna have good battle music i say it needs to expand farther then 1 kind of music for all mobs, and i know many of you will prob agree with me when i say this but
i think MMORPGs need several kinds of battle music for all types of mobs, not just different species, but im talking about one type for normal mobs, another for quest-type mobs, another set for boss mobs (for the major dungeons), unique mob music, rare mob music, ect.
i dunno if many of you will actually agree with me but i at least think that its needed so you dont get bored with 1 music, and yes i also think that every other update or so, more battle music should be added or even replaced (up to a point) so that way it isnt just listening to the same thing over and over till you go play another MMORPG cause your already one of the top players
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well personally i think that the mute sound feature should be kept at all times. sure the music on the game is ok but after the 300th loop it gets a bit annoying. sometimes i would just rather listen to my soundtrack on winamp playing instead....
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true, i usualy play my winamp soundtrack while i play Q3F (quake 3 mod) but thats why i said more music should be added every other update or so, even though i ment battle music it should go for all music
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yup i agree...we need a variety of music....i was just sayin that usually, a game this early in development wouldnt even have music.
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ya, but i\'d rather have 1 kind of music for this type of game (pre-alpha)
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Originally posted by roguewolftamer
if their gonna have good battle music i say it needs to expand farther then 1 kind of music for all mobs, and i know many of you will prob agree with me when i say this but
i think MMORPGs need several kinds of battle music for all types of mobs, not just different species, but im talking about one type for normal mobs, another for quest-type mobs, another set for boss mobs (for the major dungeons), unique mob music, rare mob music, ect.
Whoa! You wanna download 500MB of audio data with the next release?
Really, we also need to have background music for most of the locations, then some special occasion music, some race music, sound effects, some voices...
Besides, you can\'t fight all the time. :P
i dunno if many of you will actually agree with me but i at least think that its needed so you dont get bored with 1 music, and yes i also think that every other update or so, more battle music should be added or even replaced (up to a point) so that way it isnt just listening to the same thing over and over till you go play another MMORPG cause your already one of the top players
Making people stay even when their avatar is already very skilled is not matter of music, or JUST music.
Anyway, as you have probably heard already, this game is gonna be updated and enhanced as long as people will play it. This applies to all departments.
And don\'t worry, we\'ll have more battlesongs, not just one. ;)
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ya i know its not just music, but music is very nice to have, and if we\'re gonna have it, then it might as well be good, and have a variety of them, but i dont mind 500MB of DLin for music as long as its good music and worth it
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Whoa! You wanna download 500MB of audio data with the next release?
Actually, that\'s be very nice. It\'d only take about an hour or two to download, so I don\'t see the problem there. :D
You guys could make large amounts of music optional though: :O
When u download the game, u get basic music, but the main bulk of music is replaced by lots of \'1kb fake music files\' which don\'t make a sound..... if u wish, u can download the music, and have the installer overwrite the \'1kb files\' with the additional music... this would allow people with slow connections to play the game while they download the music addon....
So don\'t let the download size slow u music guys down or anything.... :P
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Reverb effects can be easily duplicated. Remember the other sound card company, Aureal? They got it down pretty well also. Anyways, for sure music is a must have. Regardless of download size. Thing of Lord of the Rings for example, what made it so exciting is the music. Without music it would be very boring, if Star Wars had no music, hell I like Star Wars because of the music. Just my opinions.
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This brings up another topic. The devs should work VERY hard at a recognizable theme song. Unlike most games this one should have words in it!!! Take a look at a song called \"the bards song\" Its in a flash on http://www.newgrounds.com by charliezero. Its quite good if i do say myself. but planeshift should have a very pleasing VERY catchy tune that will signify it among the MMORPG crowd.
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a lot of voices like an Opera or a someone singing a solo like an album?
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Gah, I can\'t stuff that I can understand the words to. It must be in something other than english, and must have a choral/operaish theme to it, imo.
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beauty exceeds language. Even songs in japanese sound so beatiful that it doesnt matter if you hear the words EX. Theme to .hack//sign and tenchi muyo some other animes. Also songs in spanish and thai sound very beautiful. I really dont have any problem with listening to another language but a song in dutch.... eh i havnt heard any songs in that language personally but hearing the dutch language... I doubt singing is anything beautiful in my oppinion... lol :D
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Originally posted by whemyfield
well personally i think that the mute sound feature should be kept at all times. sure the music on the game is ok but after the 300th loop it gets a bit annoying. sometimes i would just rather listen to my soundtrack on winamp playing instead....
I still not tired of PlaneShift main music...:P...and winamp used ram and as the games takes so mauch already...although built-in mp3 player might be a good idea...
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well even if there was a built in mp3 player the same amount of ram would be used. I mean it wouldnt just dissapear because its part of one program...
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What about the starting sound you hear when you see the splash, that\'s some sort of recognizable tune I think.
Originally posted by whemyfield
really dont have any problem with listening to another language but a song in dutch.... eh i havnt heard any songs in that language personally but hearing the dutch language... I doubt singing is anything beautiful in my oppinion... lol :D
eh, what\'s wrong with dutch songs? :P
*Axsyrus starts singing \"poesje mauw kom is gauw\"*
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Originally posted by whemyfield
well even if there was a built in mp3 player the same amount of ram would be used. I mean it wouldnt just dissapear because its part of one program...
Not entirely true...you see i have noticed that in-build mp3 player use much less that WinAmp for instance...
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sounds good to me, and i like playing winamp during certain games such as Q3F (quake 3 mod), and i think a built-in mp3 player would be good sometime later
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WinAmp only uses about 3 megs of memory (version 2 anyway). It isn\'t going to have any significant impact on your game performance.
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i dont care about performance, soon enough ill be able to get a job and then be able to pay for more upgrades for my computer and not have to worry about it as much
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maybe you don\'t, but there are many other people who don\'t have good computers like that, and they do care about those few extra things that can slow everything down.
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yup i would rather play the game than listen to the music....performance is better...i have an ok amount of ram...but not a whole lot...256 i think...i would much rather to be able to play the game without lag than listen to music
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I\'m not a computer expert but I don\'t think that having music would really lag the game. But if it does I\"m sure there\'s going to be some type of sound options.
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well it uses ram...the more things goin on in your comp...the slower it goes, so its not really lag i guess...
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Planeshift already includes an ogg player, else you wouldn\'t hear any song when playing... For those who don\'t know yet what ogg is: http://www.vorbis.com/ (http://www.vorbis.com/). It has more or less the same quality than mp3 for half the size of the file (but needs a bit more of CPU for decoding).
So no point discussing whether a player should be included in the client, it\'s already done. And of course integrated player like this doesn\'t need as much memory as a standalone one.