How I process my music (version 3; part 5/5 - low bit rate notes)

[BobbyBoyMini]

lol u used terras theme from ff6! thats awesome

[LegionsOfAnon]

I think some of the larger file sizes you're seeing with VBR are on account of using a VBR profile that's geared toward keeping the lowest possible bit rate still higher than the bit rates you tend to use. If it were me, I'd look into seeing if the encoder supports a VBR preset option that lets me set the baseline lower.

[ulillillia]

Quality 9, the worst, is still far, far higher in quality than what ABR offers. It's as if VBR assumes you're using 44,100 Hz and stereo rather than mono (using mono cuts the data rate in half and I generally cannot tell a difference between stereo and mono as the 2 waveforms are almost always very similar).

[Mephistel]

Do you have any specific criteria that must be fulfilled for music contributions? I have some MIDI tracks that were self-made a few months ago, simply for my own enjoyment. I also have WAV versions with the MIDI sounds rendered to sound like realistic instruments using special software. If you are interested, I can give you the mediafire link to both. None are more than 1min28sec in length.

[ulillillia]

MIDI won't work, but WAV, MP3, and OGG will (the latter 2 must be of very high quality). I also require a minimum of 44,100 Hz, 16-bit, mono. 88 seconds is rather short though, but there are some cases where even 88 seconds is rather long - the overworld, title screen, boss levels, and other such things are expected to be short. There's also sound effects, though I don't have much planning toward that part. See the "audio" section on PM's site for details and guidelines.

[MrAbe345]

If Platform Masters is released, will you make a cd or zip file for the music?

[ulillillia]

That's if I get enough music for one and also if those who contribute it will allow it. In other words, I have no idea.

[machriderx]

@ulillillia contribute it?

have any of your fans composed music for your game?

[machriderx]

@machriderx also I had an idea. there are a lot of talented people on youtube.

there are also a lot of talented people on youtube who really like you.

What if you made a compo where the winner gets their music featured in platform masters?

[ulillillia]

I've got 6 contributions so far for music. I need 24 total tracks. I have zero contributions for sound effects. Audio is my primary weak point in game design. It's a very strong weak point compared to my next weakest point, 3D programming using textures (UV maps), vertices, and other such things. PM is purely 2D so that weakness doesn't apply. Both weaknesses are due to lack of experience. Audio also has lack of motive in addition.

[machriderx]

@ulillillia That's very nice of people to do that for you.

I think if you asked nicely they would help with sound effects too.

Speaking of which, what type of sound effects do you need anyway? I know a lot of independant game programmers tend to use a program called SFXR which creates retro effects (NES or Genesis style).

[machriderx]

sxfr is extremely easy to use too. It's fool proof. Just set a few sliders and it generates the sound.

[machriderx]

sorry, I meant sfxr

[ulillillia]

SFXR might work with a lot of the sound effects I'm after, like selections, cancelations, moving the cursor, jumps, picking up items, clearing a level, and many other such simple, standard stuff. Things like the 3 or 4 variations of explosions or splashes, however, may be too complex for that program.

[machriderx]

@ulillillia Really? Even with the 'mutate' button?

You could always take an explosion sound it generates and mess with the pitch and length a bit. That way it will sound different and distinct.

[machriderx]

using an external wav editor of coarse

[ulillillia]

I haven't messed with SFXR yet. I just got done with the Sentus Mountains world - expect to see the video in about 50 minutes (5:00 PM UTC).

[machriderx]

@ulillillia Heh, you're quite punctual.

[ulillillia]

It's actually calculated. At the time, it was 11:12 AM CDT and YouTube was showing 44 minutes left (putting it at 11:56 AM). Throw in time for YouTube to process the video and noon was in my calculations. I just converted to UTC, the international standard for time designations.

[ulillillia]

I've done very little planning with sound effects. I have 4 to 6 times as much planning with music than I do sound effects and several hundred times more planning on every other aspect of the game than music. PM's site's audio section briefly details what I need. I only have the obvious stuff listed for sound effects. I prefer high quality audio. Sound effects don't have a duration limit like music; still, the details listed only serve as guidelines, except for the "restrictions" section.

[f4Gg0t43]

What language do you use to program Platform Masters? Which libraries do you use? Which IDE? Thanks.

[ulillillia]

I use C (not C++ or C#, just plain C) and Visual C++ 2008 Express. There are several libraries that I use - the one used for AlphaBlend, and another that has the timeGetTime function. I don't recall if there's a separate library that has the GetAsyncKeyState function. I don't use DirectX, SDL, or OpenGL and the only thing I want from these is nothing more than fullscreen and vsync. What my game looks like in fullscreen mode with vsync, that I have no idea....

[Egoplantt]

@ulillillia Why C instead of C++? They are pretty much the same, except C++ has more functionality like classes.

[ulillillia]

I don't know what classes are so I wouldn't know. I can program the entire game in just plain C without problems. The only programming thing I have no idea how to do is robots. I have absolutely no clue how to get a simple light to turn on by changing a variable from a 0 to a 1. In the real world, you just flip a switch, but how to get that to happen by changing a variable from a 0 to a 1, it doesn't seem possible.

[Egoplantt]

@ulillillia Do you mean how the hardware of your computer works? I had this website, that had diagrams of processors and RAM and it explained how it all worked. I could try and find it if you want.

[ulillillia]

Where are you getting that from? I only stated that I had no idea how to program a robot, even the simplest kind. Today, robots interact with the world and react to their surroundings, very complex stuff. I wouldn't have a clue as to how to get even a simple light to turn on by changing the value of a variable. I can get keyboard input to work via GetAsyncKeyState to repeatedly "MyVar ^= 1" a variable to turn the light on and off or I could "MyVar = Time % 2" as well.

[JewTubeUsername]

@ulillillia Do you mean, actual, physical robots? Those are controlled by programmed chips and the like. They use 'game loops' as well, and turning on a light is a s simple as making a circuit that only gets closed if some prerequisite is valid. Said circuit could be governed by its own chip, or controller, and could be connected to the main loop chip, and, for example, if the robot had a sensor for motion, send the lamp chip an intensity and duration, which it processes and lights the lamp.

[JewTubeUsername]

@ulillillia So a class is an automated 'block' of c functions that can be passed structs of data and operate on those structs. with the difference that each instance of the class has it's required structs built in, to create a 'State', if it needs one. So a 'rectangle' class could contrain a struct that holds four ints that define the rectangle, and have a function called 'isInside' that takes a 2D point in space, and returns either true or false if the 2d point falls inside it's rect struct.

[JewTubeUsername]

@ulillillia Also, classes, in the sense of c++, but relating to c are: collections of functions that have access to their own set of memory space for variables. The functions of classes are just like c functions, as in, they take a hidden parameter, the 'this' pointer, which points to the variable space of the class, and operate on the variables pointed to by the 'this' pointer. This makes them behave like logical, encapsulated objects.

[ulillillia]

Classes don't seem like anything of use as I'm, in a way, doing that kind of thing without them. How else am I getting collision detection working (I do need a few tweaks though as there are a few bugs that need fixing)? I'm also almost done with the Sentus Mountains world's scenery. I love the foreground part, the ground decals (if the clouds weren't in the way). I just need the ground decals between the mountains in the background then I'll get a much-wanted video.

[KoRL12]

Are you a religous man Ulillillia?

[wmegaw]

ulillillia are you interested in just intonation tuning?

[ulillillia]

Intonation tuning?  Huh? What is that?

[wmegaw]

@ulillillia It is when musical scales are tuned to exact harmonic ratios. Indian music uses them, for example.

[AndreasKotsamanidis]

Holy hot hell, brother. You're a visionary!

Experiment data, HUH!?

[ulillillia]

What, you can't use the scienfic method to invistigate or figure something out? I take after the Mythbusters (finding the bit rate where a song is indistinguishable from the original is something anyone can do). The Mythbusters utilize the scientific method to investigate various claims.

[notskorn]

@ulillillia You might have a better understanding of what you're talking about if you'd learned it from college rather than a Discovery Channel show about explosions. I seriously wonder how you're going to live when you are finally forced to be an individual.