Lesson 5

Table of Contents

General Optimization of Layers

Each region Music Segment has between three and ten music layers. Along with the enemy themes, the full number of layers can potentially rise to 25 (combine all the enemy themes, the percussion, and the Dungeon theme) as seen in the Music Layers table below.

Music Layers

 

Enemy Themes

Region Themes

Theme

Evil Head

Evil Spit Plant

Evil Crawler

Percussion

Ambient

Village

Desert

Wood- lands

Dungeon

Layers

3

4

4

4

3

5

4

7

10

Many of these layers are randomized using Random Step sub-tracks, by having a used and an empty sub-track (50% chance of triggering Music Track).

Each of the Random Step Music Tracks are coin-flipped at entry, but could potentially all play at once. To hinder the chance of all the voices playing at once, let’s now move some of the imported music files to the same Music Track, meaning only one of them will be picked at entry.

  1. From the Layouts menu, select Interactive Music or press F10.

  2. In the Platform Selector, select Windows.

  3. In the Project Explorer, expand Interactive Music Hierarchy > Music > Music_Enemies and select the Music_Enemies_Layers Music Segment.

  4. In the Music Segment Editor, scroll down and find the EvilCrawler_Piano Music Track.

    Right above the EvilCrawler_Piano, you’ll find the EvilCrawler_Tuba Music Track.

  5. Click and hold the EvilCrawler_Tuba clip and drag it into the empty EvilCrawler_Piano sub-track.

  6. Right-click the EvilCrawler_Tuba Music Track Title bar and select Delete.

    To keep a clean naming convention, let's rename the new Music Track to something more precise.

  7. Right-click the EvilCrawler_Piano Music Track Title bar and select Rename.

  8. Call it EvilCrawler_PianoOrTuba and select OK.

The two music waveforms will now randomly be selected. If you’d like an option where none of them are playing, simply add another sub-track and leave it empty.

This change is purely a method to optimize and reduce the number of voices; however, it does change how the music varies.


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