I apologize if this has been posted before. I typed in different results and sifted through a few opening posts before deciding to start my own.
I am working on a game where the developer is wanting all the audio to be triggered and operated in FMOD if it’s possible. I’m not sure it is, but I’d like feedback.
A quick overview:
Rather than having programmar code that triggers the Forest Music Event in FMOD, and then another line of code that triggers the Desert Music Event in FMOD, we are hoping that I can get the Forest Music event to switch to the Desert Music Event via some wizardry in FMOD.
Thus all the developer literally needs to do is have one line of code that initiates the music with me handling the rest from there on out within FMOD.
It is possible to make an event that triggers other events through a number of means. You could use command instruments or event instruments, for example. However, I’m afraid I don’t understand what you intend to achieve by doing so.
If you want your game’s sound to react when the player does something in your game, you must inform FMOD that it is time to react. There’s just no way around it: The FMOD Engine knows nothing about the state of your game except what your game’s code tells it. This means that having your events trigger other events would just change the kind of command you need to send FMOD when something changes, not remove the need to send commands.
To use your “forest music event triggers the desert music event” as an example: Presumably you want to switch from the forest music to the desert music when the player moves from a forest area in your game to a desert area. This means that you will have to send a command to FMOD whenever the player moves from the forest to the desert. Having events able to trigger other events just means the command will involve Studio::EventInstance::setParameterByName instead of Studio::EventInstance::start.
So, as far as I can tell, your programmer’s proposal won’t meaningfully reduce the amount of work your programmer needs to do, only the type of work. It will, however, increase the amount of work that you need to do as a sound designer, since you’ll need to build more complex logic into your events to achieve the behavior you want.
On the other hand, I may be misunderstanding what your programmer means. If so, please let me know.