Utilizing Game Maker for 2D Online Multiplayer

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Pokun
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Re: Looking for a 2D Game-Creating Software for Online Multiplayer

Post by Pokun »

1 is easily doable by just playing WAV samples, you just need one WAV for each variation of the song. But 2 might require some kind of timer that keeps track of the current beat so that MEs can be started on the right beat.
Oziphantom
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Re: Looking for a 2D Game-Creating Software for Online Multiplayer

Post by Oziphantom »

Jedi QuestMaster wrote: Sun Jul 03, 2022 12:13 pm
Oziphantom wrote: Fri Jul 01, 2022 11:07 pmHowever yeah what Poken said, just convert to MP3 etc unless you are trying to do some dynamic engine control
I have a couple of unique features going on:

1. The map screens will utilize the Yoshi's Island method of adding instruments (and even measures) the further the player progresses.
play all the music files at the same time and set the snd_gain to 0 for the other tracks, then fade in their volume when you want them to be "played".
2. In-game stages will utilize the Balloon Fight method of using snippets of music cues in place of sound effects, but at the same time I want there to be a basic triangle bass and noise beat playing the whole time.
just put the snippets in their own file and fire them off on some global timer that matches the beat.
calima
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Re: Looking for a 2D Game-Creating Software for Online Multiplayer

Post by calima »

Oziphantom wrote: Mon Jul 04, 2022 4:51 am play all the music files at the same time and set the snd_gain to 0 for the other tracks, then fade in their volume when you want them to be "played".
Playing 50 mp3 files at the same time -> "why does this 10mb 2d indie game require a 6-core i7 and 2 GB of RAM".
Oziphantom
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Re: Utilizing Game Maker for 2D Online Multiplayer

Post by Oziphantom »

it game maker it needs a quad core anyway. I was getting frame drops in Alwas awakening on my Surface Pro 2 the other day.

playing a mp3 will be done by some hardware layer like DirectSound rather than GML so its probably a lot faster to play 50 mp3s at once, than play 8 notes being decoded and played in a GML based chip tune emulator. If it is doing PSG as well, defiantly better ;)

A P133 not MMX was able to handle decoding mp3 with say MS Word open alright, mp3 is not that expensive any more, especially since SSE.
Pokun
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Re: Utilizing Game Maker for 2D Online Multiplayer

Post by Pokun »

If it's exactly like Yoshi Island it would be enough to simply have different complete variants of the tune and do a branch condition to which one that should be played. That would increase the game's size a bit tough with a copy of each variant.
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Jedi QuestMaster
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Re: Utilizing Game Maker for 2D Online Multiplayer

Post by Jedi QuestMaster »

I think having NSFs for every looping track and mp3s for short jingles is the way to go.

Even if I could just play one NSF at a time, it'd save significant space having all the map screen variant themes be under half a meg.

I still find it odd that there's only one chiptune player extension that plays NSFs. There's another one that plays MOD and another one that plays SID, both by the same person, I think.

If I could just get the chiptune player working, everything would be fine.
Pokun
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Re: Utilizing Game Maker for 2D Online Multiplayer

Post by Pokun »

Maybe you know this, but a chiptune player is basically an emulator of both the audio chip and the CPU that runs the sound engine, so it's not trivial to make. NSF files is not just sound data, it also contains the sound engine code ripped from the game's ROM, this is necessary because every NES game uses its own sound engine and even games from the same company that reuses the same sound engine in several games may still make many changes to it in every game to improve it or remove unneeded things for optimization for example. This is also true for the SID and other similar chiptune formats.
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Dwedit
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Re: Utilizing Game Maker for 2D Online Multiplayer

Post by Dwedit »

Meanwhile, creating brand new NSFs is very easy, as you use the sound engine from your tracker (Famitracker, etc).
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Oziphantom
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Re: Utilizing Game Maker for 2D Online Multiplayer

Post by Oziphantom »

unless you want to play actual music from a NES game, it will be far more efficient, flexible and easier to use a MOD.
Catyak
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Re: Utilizing Game Maker for 2D Online Multiplayer

Post by Catyak »

Oziphantom wrote: Thu Jul 07, 2022 11:51 pm unless you want to play actual music from a NES game, it will be far more efficient, flexible and easier to use a MOD.
The problem is that the only MOD player (available on the extension store) was written by the same guy, hasn't been updated either, and probably won't work. And the impression I get is that writing audio extensions for Gamemaker is basically a black art.
Oziphantom
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Re: Utilizing Game Maker for 2D Online Multiplayer

Post by Oziphantom »

Note: GMS2 version only tested on Windows 7
https://marketplace.yoyogames.com/asset ... mod-player
Catyak
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Re: Utilizing Game Maker for 2D Online Multiplayer

Post by Catyak »

Oziphantom wrote: Sun Jul 10, 2022 12:44 am
Note: GMS2 version only tested on Windows 7
https://marketplace.yoyogames.com/asset ... mod-player
That plugin has gone over 3 years without an update, is by the same author as the chiptune/NSF player, and as a result is probably broken on GMS:2 as well. There is another mod player extension, FMODGMS, but it is also unmaintained and hasn't been updated in years. Have you tried out either of these plugins in GM:S 2 before recommending them?

EDIT:FMODGMS does have a recent pull request for modern GMS2 support, so that may be an option after all.
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Jedi QuestMaster
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Re: Utilizing Game Maker for 2D Online Multiplayer

Post by Jedi QuestMaster »

I'm probably just going to use MP3s and limit the amount of SFX that plays at each stage then.

If I do go with audio, are there ideal compression/filters that replicate an NES using AV out? Hz?
Pokun
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Re: Utilizing Game Maker for 2D Online Multiplayer

Post by Pokun »

I don't know if there are any filters that can replicate that. Different Famicom and NES models may have different "filters" in how their PCB layouts are different with all the laws of physics going on and the like, so each console is essentially its own equalizer.

But as for compression the best compression is lossless compression. FLAC is the best lossless compression audio format that I know of, if Gamemaker doesn't support that you may have to use WAV which is basically raw uncompressed audio data. MP3 is a horribly lossy compression format that audibly mangles the sound IMHO. It's supposedly based on filtering out frequencies that are outside the audible range for humans, but every human is different and depending on the level of compression used it definitely isn't always outside that range. That said, if your MP3 files sounds good to you, there is probably not much point in using the better formats since you save a lot of more space.
Catyak
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Re: Utilizing Game Maker for 2D Online Multiplayer

Post by Catyak »

Pokun wrote: Wed Jul 13, 2022 2:05 pm But as for compression the best compression is lossless compression. FLAC is the best lossless compression audio format that I know of, if Gamemaker doesn't support that you may have to use WAV which is basically raw uncompressed audio data. MP3 is a horribly lossy compression format that audibly mangles the sound IMHO. It's supposedly based on filtering out frequencies that are outside the audible range for humans, but every human is different and depending on the level of compression used it definitely isn't always outside that range. That said, if your MP3 files sounds good to you, there is probably not much point in using the better formats since you save a lot of more space.
He's referring to something like this, not digital compression:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_range_compression
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