ambient music in starmade

[SkylordLuke]

i was building my ship,then i decided to go explore around my planet and instal some defense stations,and i started thinking,i was having fun,but since the beginning there was always something missing,but i had no idea what,and then it hit me,ambient music

and since starmade is much more complex and bigger that minecraft,we need much more variety in music for all kinds of situations.
-like calm and relaxing music for each planet type,but i wouldnt mind if there was just one :p
-calm alien like and organic music when you are in space
-agressive rock music when you are engaged in battle
-and for when you are in a ship core you get some dark ambient..
something like this -and it would be cool if there was a horror ambient music for null-sec sector s(- . - . - sectors)
something like this
yeah,im not sure if anyone brought up this idea already,but its a good reminder
im sure that once implemented in game it would add to an already amazing experience

thank you all for your time

 

[SkylordLuke]

here is some more of great space ambient music

 

[der_scheme]

yeah,im not sure if anyone brought up this idea already,but its a good reminder

In such a case it's always a good idea to just use this nice search button on the top right. Forum search outputs a few threads, for instance this one: http://starmadedock.net/threads/music.352/
So, no, not a new suggestion.

However, I got one by looking at those pictures, that, as far as I can tell, wasn't brought up before:
We already have procedural backgrounds that aim to make every star system look different. So how awesome would it be if we also had procedural music that made every star system feel different? A quick Google search gave me a ton of research papers, examples, software and whatnot.
For example, it seems that there is already a cool Java library that can do this stuff, called jMusic. Caveat: It's GPLicensed which could make it hard to integrate it with StarMade. However, since schema already implemented procedural backgrounds, he can (if done right) reuse most of this stuff for music.

Procedural music does, contrary to static music, have many advantages. The smallest one being that it can play indefinately and no crossfading is necessary. The biggest one: It can react to the state of the game. I'll list examples below.
But first, take a look at this video. Note: The interesting part is not the music itself (it's only fake piano). It's how it changes. The engine was fed with the current game state and the music changed dynamically.

There are so many factors that could influence dynamically generated music. I'll list some:

• Your Location:
  • Star System
    
  • Space: If you're floating in open space, the music is quiet and soothing.
  • Gravity
    
  • Planet: Planet type and similar factors
• The state of your ship:
  • Weapons: Using weapons or salvage lasers, or being shot at... Or locking SD-BB missiles onto your target
    
  • Being targeted
  • Amount of energy or shields: Low shields -> very dramatic music
  • Speed: Accelerating, decelerating, or simply your traveling speed
  • Being cloaked
• Other factors:
  • Your surroundings: Maybe even the lighting color could have an influence. This would be fun with the upcoming logics system: Red alert -> red lights turn on, white lights turn off -> music that suggests tension. \o/
  • The amount of red/green/... diamonds on your HUD.
    
  • Are you looking into a star? :O
  • ...

So please, schema, get in here. As a fellow computer scientist I know three things: 1. This would be a shitload of work. 2. It would be fun to implement. 3. It would be awesome.

Furthermore: It would be a real unique feature.

 

[SkylordLuke]

that is really cool,the thought of having a proceduraly generated music is just amazing
i just hope its not that hard to implement.

 

[Creeper__God]

+1 this is a great idea although something i would like to add would be an option to have the game play music from your computer. i'm not sure how difficult this would be to implement but it would be a nice feature.

 

[Archer6621]

In such a case it's always a good idea to just use this nice search button on the top right. Forum search outputs a few threads, for instance this one: http://starmadedock.net/threads/music.352/
So, no, not a new suggestion.

However, I got one by looking at those pictures, that, as far as I can tell, wasn't brought up before:
We already have procedural backgrounds that aim to make every star system look different. So how awesome would it be if we also had procedural music that made every star system feel different? A quick Google search gave me a ton of research papers, examples, software and whatnot.
For example, it seems that there is already a cool Java library that can do this stuff, called jMusic. Caveat: It's GPLicensed which could make it hard to integrate it with StarMade. However, since schema already implemented procedural backgrounds, he can (if done right) reuse most of this stuff for music.

Procedural music does, contrary to static music, have many advantages. The smallest one being that it can play indefinately and no crossfading is necessary. The biggest one: It can react to the state of the game. I'll list examples below.
But first, take a look at this video. Note: The interesting part is not the music itself (it's only fake piano). It's how it changes. The engine was fed with the current game state and the music changed dynamically.

There are so many factors that could influence dynamically generated music. I'll list some:

• Your Location:
  • Star System
    
  • Space: If you're floating in open space, the music is quiet and soothing.
  • Gravity
    
  • Planet: Planet type and similar factors
• The state of your ship:
  • Weapons: Using weapons or salvage lasers, or being shot at... Or locking SD-BB missiles onto your target
    
  • Being targeted
  • Amount of energy or shields: Low shields -> very dramatic music
  • Speed: Accelerating, decelerating, or simply your traveling speed
  • Being cloaked
• Other factors:
  • Your surroundings: Maybe even the lighting color could have an influence. This would be fun with the upcoming logics system: Red alert -> red lights turn on, white lights turn off -> music that suggests tension. \o/
  • The amount of red/green/... diamonds on your HUD.
    
  • Are you looking into a star? :O
  • ...

So please, schema, get in here. As a fellow computer scientist I know three things: 1. This would be a shitload of work. 2. It would be fun to implement. 3. It would be awesome.

Furthermore: It would be a real unique feature.

"Procedural" seems to be a rather expensive word for this, and while the idea sounds cool, in the end the music also has to be pleasant to listen to and be non-disruptive, which is very hard to achieve procedurally unless you make a lot of presets for a lot of things, basically making it less procedural.

Basically the music responds to the game's state, something that has been done before in various games and in various degrees.

A very nice example is the soundtrack in Nitronic Rush, it responds to various situations:
-It plays an alert sounds that follows the harmony of the song as you are overheating
-The melody intensifies as you use your turbo button

I think procedural in that sense would work very well, but there has to be some preset base to "build" on that is done by an artist. Also, the more layers you add (the more situations the song can respond to), the more complex it basically gets. You'd have to come up with an unique sound and feel that still fits the "base" for each of those situations.

Obviously, once the system would be in place, accomplished and all, it would be fantastic, I can already imagine the different sound when looking at the sun, a bright sound, or the effect that speed would have (could do some funky stuff with low-pass filters for that).

 

[Jerry_Brinefield]

Oddly enough, this single reason is one of the reasons why one of my good friends feels uncomfortable playing starmade. Ambient music is a great way to set the tone or feeling and is something that really makes a polished product. I would love nothing more than for ambient music to be added to the game. Imagine how great it would be to be exploring a derelict colony ship with nothing more than a flashlight and a blaster as you make your way from one room to another with spooky and ominous music playing in the background. As other users have said, this would be very tricky to implement and would require a very vast library or recorded music as well as a complicated algorithm to determine what music to play for what event. A big problem with space engineers, another voxel based building game, is that you will be sitting there mining for copper and then all of a sudden, violent and action packed music will start blasting for no reason what so ever. it is essential that any music fit the tone and not feel inappropriate in context.

 

[Fuyuko]

Great idea ! Long travels could be less boring with that !

 

[Bc1151]

I completely agree! it is a feature a have felt is missing for a while

 

[Guard13007]

Creeper__God Why not just set up a playlist before you start? I just don't see it as worth it to implement something so trivial to do on your own.

 

[BeefBacon]

Maybe, if there are any budding music creators in the StarMade community, there could be a competition to design music for the game. Schema gets music without having to contract a musician of some kind, and the community gets to add something to the game.

 

[_TheRealAmeRicA]

I can only write sheet music .-.

 

[winggar]

Is there any way I can put this in Music Made?

 

[ResonKinetic]

yeah, with a volume slider that lets you turn it off!

 

[Megacrafter127]

Is there any way I can put this in Music Made?

Yes, download the video, extract the audio, and convert the audio to either .wav or .ogg or another supported codec.

Spoiler: Misunderstanding on my side

yeah, with a volume slider that lets you turn it off!

MusicMade has a volume slider. On the right side next to the track list. Or weren't you referring to my "Mod".

 

[ResonKinetic]

MusicMade has a volume slider. On the right side next to the track list. Or weren't you referring to my "Mod".

no

 

[Megacrafter127]

no

My bad.

 

[aceface]

I agree with you strongly, especially with the ambient