Enhanced Music

[Beta Link]

What's going on with the Enhanced Music "feature" in ZQuest? It's been there since... beta... 6? Yeah, I think it was 6. But is it ever going to be finished? If not, I think you guys should just take it out. Is there any specific reason that it hasn't been finished yet, or is it just because it's not exactly on the top of the to do list? I know everyone's questions about this one specific thing is sounding like a broken record, but I really want to know...

[Spiffy Enigma]

So you're basically insisting that we take out a feature that has seemed to work fine since 2.10, and that is a fairly desired innovation to ZC.

Please die.

[Nicholas Steel]

if anything the developers are waiting and/or searching for stuff that is open source and/or portable to the allegro architecture.

[erm2003]

So you're basically insisting that we take out a feature that has seemed to work fine since 2.10, and that is a fairly desired innovation to ZC.

Please die.

You may want to read up before you start flaming here. In one of the 2.5 betas there was support added for SPCs (and maybe more) but I don't believe it was finished because it got a bit buggy. The current 2.10 settings aren't what Beta Link was referring to.

[koopa]

The music system is being worked on, the aim would be to allow you to inlcude video game formats (GB, NES, SNES) like midis in your quest file. It should get done before 2.5 is released as that will be a "complete" version of ZC. Larger files like OGG or MP3 should be possible to play, but they won't be included in quest files.

Spiffy, there would have been better and more acceptable ways to make your point. I hope you understand what I mean.

Edit: The menu option "enhanced music" might well be replaced with something better in the future, I'm not taking anything that works out though.

[Beta Link]

Yeah, I wasn't talking about the feature from 2.10, I'm talking about the option that allows you to save enhanced music in your quest itself, and loop it as you want. I'm glad to hear it's being worked on. :)

[Din]

Yeah, that will be an awesome feature!

[bluedeath]

What is enchanced music:shakeno:

[Revfan9]

Well, in the current betas and 2.10 or lower (not sure how far back it goes), the Dmap editor has an option for "Alternative Music", which lets you use MP3s, trackers, and the such in the quest. However, the problems with this were:

1. They weren't embedded into the quest file.
2. You couldn't pick loop times for them.
3. They made the download for the quest file HUGE.

In beta 6, DN started to implement "Enhanced Music", which would fix the first 2 problems (the 3rd can't be fixed). The option is there in the GUI, but it does nothing now.

[koopa]

My aim is to get GB/NES/SNES misic files to be includable in your quest files and for them to be usable in the same way as midis today - that is, with loop start and end settings. This last point in particular is going to be interesting, to say the least, but I'm confident I'll be able to pull it through. You can use these - and also WAV, OGG and MP3 files - in your quests today but only as dmap alternative music, plus the music isn't saved in your quest file.

I think the "enhanced music" menu item is going to go, there'll just be one "music" item where you can select midi and nintendo formats all from the same screen. (The WAV/MP3/OGG part won't be changed and I promise I'll make sure I don't break the midi options)

[pkmnfrk]

I must point out that I don't think it's critical to support custom loop points in the emulated music, simply because it already has loop points built in. I mean, it won't hurt (hopefully), but I don't think it would be a blocking feature.

[erm2003]

I must point out that I don't think it's critical to support custom loop points in the emulated music, simply because it already has loop points built in. I mean, it won't hurt (hopefully), but I don't think it would be a blocking feature.

What if you want the music to loop at a different point? Not having a loop would be too restrictive. Granted it may not have to be used all the time, but sometimes you don't want an introduction to a particular piece to play every time so looping would let you avoid that.

[Nicholas Steel]

well... having a start, end and repeat flag for points in a song would be helpful.

[pkmnfrk]

What if you want the music to loop at a different point? Not having a loop would be too restrictive. Granted it may not have to be used all the time, but sometimes you don't want an introduction to a particular piece to play every time so looping would let you avoid that.

Yyyes, but you miss my point. I'm only talking about emulated music, not MIDIs, MP3s or any other format.

Take an SPC, a song ripped from an SNES game. SPCs are actually mini-roms for the music chip in the SNES. So, songs on the SNES are actually mini-programs for that chip. These programs already have loop points embedded them, and changing them is either difficult or impossible (you can't tell it not to loop at a given point unless you modify the program).

[Nicholas Steel]

Yyyes, but you miss my point. I'm only talking about emulated music, not MIDIs, MP3s or any other format.

Take an SPC, a song ripped from an SNES game. SPCs are actually mini-roms for the music chip in the SNES. So, songs on the SNES are actually mini-programs for that chip. These programs already have loop points embedded them, and changing them is either difficult or impossible (you can't tell it not to loop at a given point unless you modify the program).

its timed, just tell it to start at 20 seconds into the song, only songs which are streamed can't have this done... and SPC file format doesnt support tho's games that do streaming.

o_O but then again i think im wrong cause i never seen a program that lets you choose where to start playing from =\ but snesamp definatly lets you define a looping point.

[pkmnfrk]

o_O but then again i think im wrong cause i never seen a program that lets you choose where to start playing from =\ but snesamp definatly lets you define a looping point.

That's different. It lets you, for informational purposes, record where the loop point is, and how long the song is overall. But, it's only for its record. Even if you put the loop point at 0:03, it'll still play the full length, and loop where the song tells it to.

[koopa]

Well, I'll first just get them included in the quest file and playable before I worry about the loops. I can let the player produce a soundwave (WAV) from the SNES or whatever file in memory and just loop that if I have to - and if I find no better way.

[Nicholas Steel]

but it is impossible to specify how far into a song it STARTS playing from.