Trigger music?

[Seven]

Hello DimensionalWitch,

Nehahra showed us how to do this.
It has a high level of ambience and therefore also made use of these audio tricks.
There are some words about it here

You said in your 1st post that the only level you want to play the same track from beginning to end is the start map.
For the other levels you want to switch different tracks, depending on the map areas you are in, right ?
I think you can do this.

What comes in my mind are these commands:
play2
cd

With "play2" you can play cd tracks throughout the whole level.
Be careful that it will play the track in addition (meaning that if another track is running, you will hear both).
So, you should use this command for picking up items for example, that only plays a rather short track.
It will NOT interfere with the already running track, so that is most likely what you want!

With "cd" you can manage pretty everything else.
It interrupts a previously started track when you switch to a new one.
You have multiple optional further commands within, such as looping a track or playing it only once.

Then, you can also compare the already plaid track time with a time you maybe aiming for (if you want to stop the track at a specific point for example, or want to do something special then).
You will be able to do this with DP_QC_GETTIME_CDTRACK
Cobalt is experimenting with this in his mod at the moment.


The above mentioned are commands, so you have to stuffcmd them in your QC mod.
And they are working in SP only, but this is what you are aiming for, right ?

I think with these, you can do quite a lot audio effects in your game.
Having/Using Nehahra�s extensions: playmod/stopmod would allow even more...

Madgypsy will now be able to do the mod for you.

Best of luck,
Seven

[DimensionalWitch]

Thanks everyone! I haven't seen many of the music cues yet but, I do believe most of them are quite short. There are already a few cues written for what I assume are approaching hidden switches as they are named such and the running time on all of them are between 5 and 12 seconds with one being for triggering traps.

I suppose it helps that both me and the guy doing the cues have played tomb raider at one point haha.

I figure nobody uses real CDs to play music anymore in Quake and I never really did when I played Quake long ago because it took long enough to load the game as it were on my slow ass computer.

There is this one mod for Quake I really like but never finished with a few massive levels based on the song "The End" by The Doors. the music was inside (i think it was a pkg file) with no game specific name but one played on intermission and the others on a specific level.

I don't know if it was custom code that told what levels to play which track on or if it was world spawn. I need to download the mod again and take a look.

So far I have planned very few instances of music cues. Fading out will be something that isn't needed. I know already that I want each track to play and finish. Whether or not the guy making the music has it fade out or not is no bother to me but I'd like most cues to be a minute at most with some exceptions.

Here is a rundown for when music is 'supposed to cue'.


Entering a new area.

For example in the blueprints (on white paper haha) for the first map after the hud you have to find a way up on top of a wall. A cue would.. cue here and play throughout just because you accomplished this.

Triggering a trap/surviving traps

I specifically remember some parts in Tomb Raider 2 where you ran from falling ceilings or something to that effect and a little upbeat but not complicated theme played and faded away eventually. It added a sense of excitement to the already exciting moment.

Dying

Obviously when the game ends e.i player getting caught in a trap or being shot by a monster there was going to be a small cue for this. Whether or not it cuts out any other music playing I don't know. I'd like it to. But, if it becomes more trouble than its worth, the death cue will probably be scrapped all together.

So, nothing fancy. Picking up keys/pushing buttons are something I don't plan to have too many cues for because I don't want to over do it.

As for a track playing throughout on start, I might do and I might not. Originally I intended to but I rather like the silence of the map at the same time. I'd post a screenshot of it but it currently has no lights so it would look horrible =P


Seeing as other people are working on something similar it makes me feel better. I thought I would try my best to explain better what I mean by music cues. If they're wavs and not music files in the traditional sense, it doesn't matter to me.

I'll continue doing my bits and pieces of research and I want to say thanks again for the help thus far =D

EDIT

What you're referring to Seven sounds exactly like what i'm talking about. Since I don't plan an actually background track, your idea should work perfectly!

[OMacKnight]

Okay, I don't think I completely understand all of this.

But would a pure dynamic soundtrack affect other players?

Because wouldn't this allow for really cool multiplayer (even story driven co-op) mods?

So a fun cyberpunk deathmatch mod and if you go down an alley into a sewer you get a warped version of a tune but as you leave you play the streets theme with some cool effects over it.

Okay, I'm not sure I understand what I'm saying. But unique audio to the player would be cool.

I may just be talking out my arse and not know what I'm on about so ignore me if I'm being daft.

[MadGypsy]

it sounds like you get it 100%, to me.

[OMacKnight]

Oh, that's good to know. If that's the case, I might try and apply it to a mod later in the year if I can get my current project done in time.

[DimensionalWitch]

Decided to take some screenshots of my first completed map. I spent hours on it though I'm not 100% sure I'll ever actually use it, which is a shame.

I made the map rather large which is something I probably wont do again. It makes lighting a pain and if you're running an older port that doesn't have openGL its timewarp back to PS1 only 100x worse. I'm still not pleased with the lighting and I'm super nitpicking however, there are no leaks so it could be much worse.

No matter how bad the map actually is, it's a start and I actually finished something here. No, it wasn't this complicated on paper =P

start area
http://i.imgur.com/H36VJ5y.jpg

main chamber
http://i.imgur.com/i8dZmat.jpg

easy portal and one big arse skybox
http://i.imgur.com/kNUfKmB.jpg

ceiling view from the second floor
http://i.imgur.com/N07J4o2.jpg

the lonely intermission cam
http://i.imgur.com/8VvLj1l.jpg

[golden_boy]

not bad at all. It's good to get something done.

[Cobalt]

I believe thats the correct operation. If you set the start and end tracks to the same number, it will repeat the same track. By what you coded, I guess it plays 1-2, then starts again at 1, and 2 right?

When the worldspawn () QC executes, it reads the value of .sounds (if any) coded into the map header. If you mean it plays the world sounds track, then you can put: world.sounds = xxx; in that QC function to alter it. Or this code I made to randomize the stock CD tracks:

Inside3d Forums • View topic - Random Cd music

There is also a music_playlist option thats suppose to let you devise your own unique playlist of tracks. I have tried it, and it tends to play corrupted music and give problems. Lord Havok said that feature was never fully tested.

Also be aware of the cdaudio cvar:
cdaudio is "1" ["1"] CD playing mode (0 = never access CD drive, 1 = play CD tracks if no replacement available, 2 = play fake tracks if no CD track available, 3 = play only real CD tracks, 4 = play real CD tracks even instead of named fake tracks)

What the fuck! :mad face:

I can't get this shit to stop! I have a legitimate track01 and track02. I told it to start on 1 and end on 2, but that shit is not ending. Hmmm, maybe I misunderstand the svc.

I'm trying to help you DW and I'm really close but it isn't like there is a lot of code to change here (cause there is none to change). Imma figure this crap out.

[[if R00k, Spike, Seven, Anyone that knows what the hell they are talking about want to chime in here, it would be great, cause I've hit a wall.]]

[Spike]

byte svc_cdtrack=32
byte begintrack
byte looptrack

presumably the cd code was meant to play begintrack once, and then start playing only looptrack in a loop.
except looptrack was never properly implemented and is ignored (a quick browse of DP implies that it is not implemented even there).
quakeworld completely removes that looptrack byte from its protocol.
for best compatibility, you should set looptrack to begintrack.

[MadGypsy]

@Dim_Witch - I like your map. I agree that the lighting is not very exciting but the geometry is pretty good. You need to hilight the faces of the short edges of the red brick "T" and rotate your texture to match the angle. Also where the "T" conjoins is too blank, maybe a light fixture or something would liven it up. This is being super anal, but your angled stone geometry doesn't match the straight line look of the texture. I wouldn't worry too much about that one though. With a little bit more dramatic lighting you could make it look better. I still think your map looks pretty good, especially for a first one. My first map was nowhere near this good.



@Cobalt - thanks for the info

[DimensionalWitch]

OMG you can rotate textures?! Ha! I had no idea! The thing you pointed out in the shot above was driving me insane!

As for the lighting, I figured it out. It isn't that I have too many lights, it's that I have them set too bright I think. It makes that top walkway really glow. I'm glad the map isn't a complete disaster though. It's funny to think that a month or so ago I was just happy to get a single box room to work =P

This talk of the music stuff is interesting. I wish I had more actual coding knowledge.

I do have a question though, regarding maps.

I started working on another yesterday and spent a few hours on it. Its going OK thus far but there is a small annoyance.

The compiler built into Toetag keeps saying it can't perform any vising. No white lines are pointing to where the open brush might be and the camera just jumps straight in the middle of a room I spent a hour and a half or so setting up. It's a pretty simple room, too.

The level plays fine, no walls glitch out and the lighting works. Alas I'm still worried that there might be a problem but I'll be darned if I can find what the bloody problem is!

It throws some mumbo about

---- vis ----
testlevel = 4
LoadPortals: couldn't read /Applications/Quake/id1/maps/DRL1.prt
No vising performed.

Let me know if this is something serious because its bugging me =P

[golden_boy]

"No vising performed" is pretty bad, yeah. This means all of your level will be rendered all the time, as opposed to only the visible parts. This is pretty bad for performance.

The compiler cannot find the portal file. Check if that file really doesn't exist. Also please look towards the beginning of the compiler output - the BSP stage of the process should report a leak. Are you familiar with using a pointfile to detect a leak?

[DimensionalWitch]

No, I have no idea what that is ha. Usually the editor draws a white line in the window mode showing you where the leak is, but, it isn't doing it here.

----- SolidBSP -----
1618 split nodes
687 solid leafs
918 empty leafs
14 water leafs
4689 leaffaces
3946 nodefaces
----- portalize ----
----- FillOutside ----
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
reached occupant at: -1040 -2160 -16
no filling performed
leak file written to /Applications/Quake/id1/maps/DRL1.pts
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

have anything to do with this?

edit: would it help if i uploaded a copy of the map source?

[MadGypsy]

@upload map - not necessary, you have a light or something outside of your map OR stuck in a wall maybe

just open up your map, drop the console and type pointfile. This will make an XYZ rainbow that intersects at the problem. It would be a good idea to turn noclip oon before you do that so you can fly around outside the walls of your map. Alternately you could just go in your editor to the coordinates that were provided (-1040 -2160 -16) and see what is there.

@texture rotation - Tutorial : Texture Alignment

and

Faces
To select a face, hold down SHIFT while you click. The face you click will highlight and you can then change the texture on it by clicking a texture in the texture browser.

cmon, man! (in the timbre of a disappointed friend). I found this in 1 minute right on the toetag site.

[DimensionalWitch]

Ah, I knew how to select a brush face but I wasn't aware you could rotate it it's been a while since I went to the toetag site. Maybe I knew how to rotate at one time because it does sound familiar now. I just must've forgot somewhere between making box maps and the one i posted screenshots to =P

I'll be sure to find that leak though! thanks!