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Uploading mp3's into in-games's ship's sound system


Volkier

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I apologise if someone has already started a discussion on this - did a quick search, and while this idea is definitely not 'new', from what I've seen it's usually mixed in as a side-note on a 'bigger and better' idea kind of thing. So I thought it's something worth having a specific look at. 

 

I'll try to keep this simple:

 

System:

 - Ability to store mp3 files that can be played in game to be used on your ship / starbase / hut on a planet, which every other player in the vicinity can hear as part of the 'ambience' of where-ever it is they are.

 

Problems:

 - File size on server.

 - A large number of people uploading a large number of songs / music (ie. bandwidth issues).

 

Solutions:

 - Specific in-game item able to 'store' data (like mp3's). This allows the developers to dictate how much storage space such items can have, how 'common' they are, whether certain items are able to hold more 'data' etc.

 - Spacial 'translation' points, required to 'encrypt' said data of a players system onto the in-game item. This allows the developers to dictate the bandwidth load, designate a certain server (where the area with such a point is located) for such tasks, as well as other configuration-based tasks exclusively etc. 

 - You could further expand this to having such items single use one - ie. once you have 'injected' the item into whatever you ships' player system's are, you will need a 'new' such item if you want to use a different mp3. This will prevent people having a gigabyte worth music library on their ships (which, while would be awesome, is impractical to achieve due to the sheer volume of playerbase vs. server size).

 

Expanding further:

 - Could use same mechanic for .jpg files to include 'holo' portraits in your ships' hallways (if you so chose). 

 

 

Just seems like since you are already building your own ships, it may make sense to make your creations just that extra bit more personal. Also - why not? Someone's gotta / gonna do it sooner or later on such a scale. Why not DU?

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+1 I need this

 

Adding onto it.

 

-Musical instruments that you can either craft for fun. Simply for fun.

I'm thinking it would use .abc files like in Starbound. I remember songs with a bunch of friends around a campfire and having heaps of fun, maybe this could be in DU.

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This sounds good, but will rise lots of copyright problems: how devs will determine that your music is legal? And who will pay royalties to authors? probably effort is not equal with gain, sadly.

 

But this idea can be done in slightly different way: people can upload they own (created by them) music to devs, and they will select it and share in game. In this model, you will have restricted list of available lyrics, from which you can select few.

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This sounds good, but will rise lots of copyright problems: how devs will determine that your music is legal? And who will pay royalties to authors? probably effort is not equal with gain, sadly.

 

But this idea can be done in slightly different way: people can upload they own (created by them) music to devs, and they will select it and share in game. In this model, you will have restricted list of available lyrics, from which you can select few.

 

Make it to where the music is not shared. This would remove any complications such as copyright. Basically make it to where you can replace the in-game music with music from your hard drive.

 

+1 I need this

 

Adding onto it.

 

-Musical instruments that you can either craft for fun. Simply for fun.

I'm thinking it would use .abc files like in Starbound. I remember songs with a bunch of friends around a campfire and having heaps of fun, maybe this could be in DU.

 

Perhaps but I don't see it really being a thing. Ark did something along the same lines and as far as I'm aware no one really used them past the first week they were released.

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Make it to where the music is not shared.

 

Umm, rather impossible - if someone other than you will board your ship, he/she will hear music... and it is kind of sharing. Or, to be more precise, public broadcast - and it is regulated by copyrights. 

 

Anyway, you cannot just turn off music in game and play it from external soft?

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Oh you can't? Cuz I have done it in multiple games. It is quite simple really you just have the in game music play (that is a client side operation not server) from a different file location. A few games even have your music integrated with there's.

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Aw... there are so many different ways this can go wrong and I can't teach you PHP in one post :P


At this point, if the devs manage to make the netcode stable, they can add a proximity/ship comlink,  and you can attach your speakers as your input port and have them playing music non-stop cap'n :P .

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in APB reloaded you could link your car stereo to your last fm account. and i don't think there was any legal issues as that game has lived for years without making very much money.

 

although most people decided to play the most annoying music they could find just to drive all their opponents nuts. then again that game is basically grand theft auto lite.

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Well, we live in a cloud. Why not give the ability to connect to external services that already host and stream music? I would imagine to have LCD screens that sync to youtube as easily too :) I have seen first attempts back in 1997 using VRML language when we were on modems! And I have seen it in Entropia Universe game (former Project Entropia) doing just well.

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I would really like to be able to do this. Or maybe at the very least be able to select different styles of in-game music; hard rock for battles, soft-rock for building, etc.

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Technically there wold be less of an issue than copyrights. 

 

Personally there is nothing better than exploring a bunch of new planets with Cosmic Castaway blasting in my headphones, but unfortunately I don't own the IP so sharing it out to other players becomes an issue... unless of course you have some sort of agreement like YouTube does where they can play ads to pay for it.

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Technically there wold be less of an issue than copyrights. 

 

Personally there is nothing better than exploring a bunch of new planets with Cosmic Castaway blasting in my headphones, but unfortunately I don't own the IP so sharing it out to other players becomes an issue... unless of course you have some sort of agreement like YouTube does where they can play ads to pay for it.

 

I suppose it is a good point, though you are not necessarily 'sharing' it if the other players if you are not giving other players the option to download the file. There is also the argument that if you go to someone's house, and they are listening to something which you overhear, there is no copyright violation as it is not a crime to hear - and as the curtain between reality and virtual reality becomes more and more transparent... well you get the idea. I'm quite sure as long as there are systems in place which would prevent users from "sharing" the files, it is worth a shot. Alternatively, having an 'approved library' of sorts of NCS music that players can submit more to would be a start. 

 

Or alternatively as someone else suggested, connect to services already available. I understand there are many ways to go about the same thing to achieve a 'similar' - though not necessarily exactly the same - result, but if I feel it's something that's worth discussing. It's bound to happen sooner or later after all.

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I'm not entirely sure what you mean my "ambience". Music or just sound effects?

 

For music, there's not all that many situations where I would need music playing though my ship comms. Maybe to pump up the crew before battle? Or be a DJ in a night club? Security alerts? Okay... I guess I can think of a few...  :P  

 

But for sound effects, I'm hoping that each element/unit has it's own stock ambient sound. So If you are standing in near a refinery it sounds mechanical, where as if you are standing next to a warp drive it has a humming noise.

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I'm not entirely sure what you mean my "ambience". Music or just sound effects?

 

 

Why not both? I don't mean 'sound effects' for stuff like doors opening and whatnot, people walking, laser firing -  factual stuff existing in the physical universe, obviously that should never be 'altered' by the player. But why not configure how your ships' various alarms sound for instance?  

 

 

You wrote the composer's name wrong. It's written as Bach. Mozart should get a hike >_>

 

Really? I think Mozart's Requiem Mass in D Minor would perfectly suit the ambience of a crippled battleship floating in space, where the entire crew died and the captain - the sole remaining survivor - sits at the helm of the lone control room, contemplating on the simple question of "why" over several bottles of alcohol, while through the last ditch effort of what is left of the thrusters drifting towards certain doom in a manner of a destructive anomaly, as a final act of defiance and sacrifice. 

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Bach to the Future?

 

But yeah, with Lua scripting I think it should be possible to pull things like Pandora music into the game if that is a supported thing, so I could play classic rock out of speaker elements on my ship so that the crew can groove to the beat while we roflstomp some poor bastard.

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