What is Magnet Region for?

FMOD Studio
1

Hey Friends,

i am sitting together with my colleague and we try to find a use case for a magnet region.
Do you have any best uses or can you point me to some more information in the world wide web

have a wonderfull day and thank you so much :*

2

A magnet region is the reverse of a transition region: If a transition region tells the timeline playback position to “go over there,” a magnet region tells it to “come over here.”

As for a use-case… Imagine you wanted to make an event in which the timeline was divided up into multiple sections, and you wanted to be able to jump from any section to any other section.

With magnet markers, you could simply create one magnet region for each timeline section, and assign them appropriate trigger conditions.

To make the same event without magnet markers, you’d have to use transition regions and destination regions. To start with, you’d need one destination region for each section. You’d also need a number of transition regions equal to the number of timeline sections times two (so that you could have one transition region leading to a section on either side of that section), minus two (because you don’t need a transition region leading to the leftmost section to the left of the leftmost section, nor a transition region leading to the rightmost section to the right of the rightmost section). You’d then need to assign each transition region appropriate trigger conditions.

Magnet markers make this kind of event a lot easier to make.

3 Likes
3

thank you joseph, it makes totally sense now :slight_smile:

4

Hello Joseph, while on this topic, can you explain the reverted offset? I can not figure it out.
Relative offset i understand, the inner timeline of the loop doesnt stop but the other one i dont understand.
Thanks

5

The easiest way to see the effect of relative offset and inverted offset is to create a transition region that targets a destination region, and then give the transition region a parameter condition.

  • If the transition region’s “Offset” setting is “None,” the playback position will always jump to the start of the destination region.
  • If the transition region’s “Offset” setting is “Relative,” the playback position will jump to a position inside the destination region that’s the same distance from the start of the destination region as the playback position was from the start of the destination region before making the jump.
  • If the transition region’s “Offset” setting is “Inverse,” the playback position will jump to a position inside the destination region that’s the same distance from the end of the destination region as the playback position was from the start of the destination region before making the jump.

For example, assuming a transition region and destination region that are both eight seconds long and a playback position that jumps two seconds into the transition timeline…

  • If the transition region’s “Offset” setting is “None,” the playback position jumps to the start of the destination region.
  • If the transition region’s “Offset” setting is “Relative,” the playback position jumps to two seconds into the destination region.
  • If the transition region’s “Offset” setting is “Inverse,” the playback position jumps to six seconds into the destination region.
2 Likes
6

Honestly, I still dont understand the magnets. If I wanted to create self sustaining loop that randomly jumps to different loops WITHOUT using any parameters - how would I do this without transition regions and markers?

7

That’s why they both still coexist! It’s never mandatory to use magnet regions, but in some cases it’s just more elegant. For example, I had a track where, when triggered by a game event, I wanted to go to a certain point on the timeline, always the same, play a 1-bar sequence, and then go back to a random marker in the main music. Although I could have put a transition region on the whole main music, it’s more elegant to just have a magnet region on the 1-bar sequence.

8

You wouldn’t. You’d use transition regions and markers, because they’re a better fit for the kind of behavior you’re trying to create.

Magnet regions are designed to simplify setting up events that have multiple different timeline sections that you want to jump between based on the value of a parameter. Like other highly-specialized tools, they are rarely useful outside of the specific situation they were designed to address.