dynamic music: Boon or Bane?

#1 Sounds like a poor implementation, if it triggers whenever a bad guy is just hanging around and not actually firing at you. NOLF2 has dynamic music as well, and I thought it was pretty good. If you sneak up on enemies, the music remains low-key; it's only when you shoot them (and don't kill them) or someone is alerted by it that the music picks up.

For some games (esp. ones that try to be cinematic/movielike) it can be a nice addition, but it's sometimes put in when it shouldn't be.

#2 LucasArts has been using dynamic music (IMUSE) for quite some time now, and doing it pretty well. Take a look at games like the X-Wing series or the Dark Forces games.

#3 Heaps of Games use Dynamic Music.

Metal Gear Solid Sticks out as one. Whenever you were spotted it would go into high alarm. Then when ure alert status went off everything calmed down.

Some games do it real shitty (like having the music come up before you even see an enemy)

YAY, tell me when an enemy is close.

#4 i think that dynamic music is importat for title like james bond that have a deeper cinema feeling.
in rpg (single player), or adventure it makes the difference. in FPS , Pvp games and MMORPG it sucks.

#5 Serious Sam does this.
There are 2 versions of the current level music :
Peace
Medium

Peace is played when there are no enemies near. When there are, Medium is played.
The music is faded in + out, etc.

#6 Another game that did it very well was Zone of the Enders for PS2. When you got closer to the enemy the music became louder with more beats added and such. I feel it helped with the action of the game. I like it. I havent tried Night fire yet and i should cuz im a big bond fan.

Over_burN

#7 In One Must Fall Batthelgrounds (www.omf.com) The dynamic music is quite nice as it changes by wheither or not your winning, if you suddenly get attacked by everyone, an enemy just died, and various other situations. It works out quite well really and the transitions are nice so that you really cant' tell exactly when it changes.

--KallDrexx

#8 Don't get me wrong: I think dynamic music can be an asset. What I don't like, at least in the Bond game, is that it isn't used to heighten the gameplay experience but rather as just another gimmick and (as I mentioned before), an odd, unnatural way to tell there are still soldiers nearby. To top it off, the musical rollercoaster ride that happens is just plain annoying to me. The music is soft and smooth typical Bond fare, then jumps to the quicker one even if there is only one antagonist in the room and the player has quickly smitten him.

Here's what happens in the first demo level: The player is told he must protect a man to wherever his destination in the house is. The house itself is a Japanese dojo, rice paper walls and all. After the first enemy is destroyed, the music quiets down. The player and the other man walk into a hallway with at least three doors other than the open one just walked through. The man tells the player which door to go to. When the door opens, the music changes and three men begin to fire at the player. Destroy them; cut back to slower music.

Now, what I think would be better use of music, as music should underscore the scene rather than detract. What would Jaws be without the shark theme? And how does it affect the moviegoer as it steadily gets faster?

My scenerio would be more dynamic. Something to put the player on the edge of the seat, not knowing what may lie beyond door #3: The alarm had just sounded (play fast music) and the first enemy had broken through and been shot (still fast). The player does not know if more enemies lie just through the open door, in the hall, or if others will soon come through other doors in the same room. The player may choose to barge right into the hallway, or wait it out until all appears calm (fast music for n seconds, then medium pace--perhaps after n more seconds play slow music if there are no dangers in an adjacent room). Now, in the hallway, the player doesn't know what lies beyond the doors (play medium paced music if enemy is nearby but not in the room). It's a warning something is about to happen, but not sure where or if it might be bypassed. Door #1... nothing *phew*. Door #2...nothing *whew* then comes Door #3... bullets fly and adrenalyn pumps (fast music). Three henchmen slain; Time passes(music changes to medium); The player's heart begins to beat once more.

What we are doing is building an experience. That's what this is all about, isn't it? Engulfing the player so as to be part of the game itself?

--Eric

edit: error patrol

#9 I think a lot of the times its hard to blend the music between non-action and action moments. Take Deus Ex for example. One minute the music would be all low key and nice for sneaking around in shadows. If a bad guy saw me the music would crank up to this god-awful techno/rave thing. All this really did this alert ME that I had been spotted.

It didn't blend with the low key piece at all. Ultimately I'd say it's whoever's in charge of the music switch is to blame in these cases.

Ultimately I think it could be avoided by having music that is a medium between the two. I'll use Diablo 2 Lord of Destruction music as an example. As you change whatever area you're in the music usually changes accordingly, but it has a beautiful fade out into the next piece. Even though "The Siege" is a blatant ripoff of Holst's "Mars", it still created a great mood to the game.

And I seem to have gotten off track. I'll just end the post before someone loses and eye.

Ben

#10 "(fast music for n seconds, then medium pace--perhaps after n more seconds play slow music if there are no dangers in an adjacent room). Now, in the hallway, the player doesn't know what lies beyond the doors (play medium paced music if enemy is nearby but not in the room). It's a warning something is about to happen, but not sure where or if it might be bypassed. Door #1... nothing *phew*. Door #2...nothing *whew* then comes Door #3... bullets fly and adrenalyn pumps (fast music). Three henchmen slain; Time passes(music changes to medium); The player's heart begins to beat once more."

The problem is the "n". In movies, "n" is a set value, whereas in games, "n" is a range of values based on the competency of the player and the difficulty of the activity. This poses problems both technically and creatively that are slowly being resolved. NOLF2 and The Mark of Kri are two good examples of dynamic music being used very well as well as being technically executed with a very high degree of proficiency. While I agree that Nightfire doesn't do it really well, I hope that more titles will use this kind of technology.

-dev

#11 To pull off good dynamic music, you need a tight marriage between the game's editing system and the music system. The game needs a generic rule system to handle those unexpected situations, of course, but by and large in a single player game, it needs to have a sort of "soundscape" so the music is controlled by time, location, and level semantics (has this area been cleaned out? Do we want people to feel safe/happy/wary if it has?).

I think that if you take those factors, allowing the audio people to tie the music to locations, events, and times, you'll have pretty good background music.

But don't make it a glorified radar... That's just silly :) (albeit convenient in a weird way.)

#12 Descent 3 used dynamic music well, not just for slow and action events, but also for enviroment changes and the very way you flew around the game. If you went from inside to outside, it changed. If you were using the mass driver to nail robots 500+ metres away, it got this kindof sneaky music...and so on. Probably the best implmentation of dynamic I've seen.

#13 I think one of the problems with dynamic music in games striving for realism is that when I walk to the music building every morning from the parking lot, I usually don't have a soundtrack playing that goes with my every move, building as I approach the crosswalk and going into a John Williams frantic style as I dodge cars. Although I'd like to have a soundtrack dedicated to me, I don't (yet).

So for those games going for "real feel" it could hurt them. Of course it all comes down to personal preference.

I'd much rather hear nice cinematic music for a game than all this techno/heavy metal garbage that shows up in too many games. Yeah yeah I know most of the drooling teen masses of America go for this mindless noise but come on, would Indiana Jones still be good if Britney Spears had a song in it (damn you Disney for making this method popular).

One game that I've played recently: GTA Vice City was great with the changing radio stations. Jedi Knight 2 is also great because you can replace the music in the levels to fit your own preference. You gotta admit, a lightsaber duel with Camina Burana in the background kicks ass.

#14 i guess no one here played Outcast, i think it too used such a musical scheme. It too aimed to be be a very cinematic game. and managed to pull it all off quite well.
Perhaps one of best cinematic-action-adventure style game i've ever played.

Only grip i had with Outcast was the Voxel Gfx, they tend to be bit annoying at times.
But the gameplay and the sound total made up for the lack of visual detail.

#15 Benjamin,

Musical scores have been quite prominent in movies so as to underscore what is happening on screen. One might think the big companies would bring on someone experienced in such music to get the feel just right.

-Eric

#16 Truly, I'd love to play a game scored by Goldsmith or Shore, even if it was a crappy game. The Diablo 2 expansion had a great score (although I'll admit it sounded a lot like Camina Burana and Holst's Mars).

Maybe after Star Wars Epsidoe 3 bombs John Williams can be lured away from movies to score for games (even if it's still for LucasArts), although I understand that he's doing more classical music right now, one being a tuba concerto which is apparently insane.

-Ben

#17 Monkey Island 2 was a great example of the iMuse dynamic music system done by LucasArts. It would use graceful transitions to change the tune based on what you were doing, who you were talking to, etc.. a lot of times, the tunes would be a variation off the current tune, so it might only need a bar or two for the transition.

An example of bad dynamic music is Metroid Prime. Or maybe that's just an example of crappy "scary fight music" e.g. when you fight the ghosts. Perhaps the transitions aren't technically inept. But hearing that same scary music every time I enter a particular room where the ghosts always respawn, no matter how many times I enter it is annoying. The scary music should only play the first time. By the time I go back there, I'm no longer surprised. Disapointing in that game, since its individual tracks were very good.

#18 My friends and I have just gotten into the Torque trolley, and are planning on making a simple co-op game. MY goal is to make dynamic music.

First off, thanks fot eh tips, even before I start. I think many of you are right, dynamic music is not a good thing IN ITSELF; it needs the right context and setting for it to fit right in the game.

Thg game that inspired my friend (who asked me to do dynamic music) is SSX, a snowboarding game for PS2 and I think others. The music follows the drama.

In our implementation, we want the music to follow the excitement of the battle, and be a kind of subtle gauge for the intensity, much as a film score would.

It will be interesting to see how easily this will fit into the torque engine. I already have an uneducated idea of how I want to structure the music controller, but we'll see what Torque has to offer.

#19 Splinter Cell, Metal Gear, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker all use this method for music. I like it. Maybe in 007 Night Fire they didn't use it well because like Eric said, the music was still amped even when there is no combat involved and the enemy is just lurking around. Games like Splinter Cell have 3 levels of music for enemy behavior. Standard patrol, suspicion, and all out attack. Once they lose you it goes back to suspicion and eventually back to patrol.
-Ajari-