Hello everyone! I am working on a video game project as a composer and I am having an issue I would like to share with you in order to see how I can solve the problem.
The music implementation is easy. The music is composed in 3 different layers:
-1. Layer to be played in the menu
-2. Layer to be played during the game
-3. Layer to be added related to the intensity parameter in the game.
So, its 5 minutes long track that is loopeable. I can manage to activate layer 2 and 3 but I don’t know how to design the project so that layer 1 is played in the menu and when the player hits “play” that the music continues at the same point + the 2. layer.
Could you please help me with this? I tried to make 1. layer work as an intro but that way when it jumps into the play section it does not coincide in time.
Off the top of my head, there are two ways to do this.
The first is to put each layer of music on a different track of an event, and automate the volumes of those tracks such different tracks are audible depending on the value of one or more parameters. This is the method used in the “Music/Level 02” event in the example project included with every copy of FMOD Studio.
The second is to use a transition region that targets a destination region and has its offset property set to “relative.” Such a transition region will cause the timeline playback position to jump to the same distance along the destination region that it was along the transition region.
The second method is easier to set up and consumes less resources, but the former is more flexible and can be easily combined with other automated effects.
Dear Joseph! thanks so much for your answer! I have tried to make the second option you proposed, so I took only 2 instruments for the menu and then in layer 1 we find those 2 instruments plus 3 more and in the layer 2 we find more instruments. The problem is that I don’t know how to to make that transition region (into/menu) to target the layer 1. Where is that “relative” offset property? Here’s a photo of how my project is looking like!
Thanks soooooo much,
Best,
Transitions work by moving the playback position. If you want the playback position to affect only one of your two layer instruments, you must put those instruments on separate sections of the timeline, such that the playback position only over laps one of them at a time.
To find the offset property of a transition region, select the transition region, then look in the deck. (You appear to have hidden the deck in your screenshot, but you can unhide it by pressing the “D” key.)
Note that the offset property only works for magnet regions, and for transition regions that target destination regions or loop regions. It does not affect transition regions that target destination markers, nor transition markers.
Hey Joseph, thanks so much for answering. I am trying to do what you suggested but still having some problems. Maybe I didn’t make myself clear, so I will explain it again
The intro section that you can see in the screenshot is the same as the main section one, with the difference that in the intro section we can only hear 2 instruments and in the main section those 2 instruments+4 more. What I am failing to do in fmod is that whenever the player press plays I would like that the music we hear in the intro continues in the same place but already in the main section.
I created a magnet region in the intro part and the main section one but when I press play it doesn’t jump from the intro to the main section, there must be something I am doing wrong. By looking at the picture would you please be able to explain me what I am doing wrong?
Looking at your screenshot, I can tell that you haven’t given any conditions to the selected magnet region. This means that that magnet region is “always on.” Give it, and that other magnet region, parameter conditions such that only one of them is active at any given time.
If two magnet regions are active at the same time, the playback position jumps to one, then to the other, then back to the first, then back to the other, and so on. This would constitute an infinite loop if it were allowed to continue, so FMOD Studio automatically detects it and disables the logic markers involved to prevent your game from freezing - with the outcome that the playback position appears to be unaffected by those markers.
