Oolite Bulletins

Corny wrote:

Episode 6 is up!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wz7pb85mXUE
Great! Looking forward to Episode 7.

It's been a few days again since the last episode - here's the excuse post.
It's the screen recording software again. Well, I do have a working version, but let me explain.
In a recent ("beta")-update, they said they optimized the whole engine for Mac OS X Lion, the operating system I am using (and have been using as long as I'm making these videos).
Strangely, the cpu load doubles in the new version, resulting in loads of 180-220% when recording Oolite. That's especially ridiculous when you take into consideration that Oolite uses about 40-80% CPU with the OXPs I have.
So I would just stick with the old version and record new material (which I already have, btw), but I also looked for other screen recording software which seems to be much more efficient. To make it short: It looks like I could record in 1080p HD with that software with minor sound lags (on the same machine!!), maybe 720p with no lags at all. The screen recording software I used before produces a bunch lags as well, although I always edit the worst ones out.
That's why I put publishing new episodes on hold for a bit until I'm sure if I'm changing software or not (after all, these cost money), mailing a bit with the support guys etc. After all, I figure it's better to keep you waiting a few days than producing another lo-res video when I could do HD...

Corny, I just saw the update video on youtube and you mention that you can't use music in your videos because of copyright. How is that? If the music is Creative Commons licence with permission to transmit, adapt, remix with attribution then you can use it, just post the appropriate links for credit where you need to. The music that is in the BGS oxp is the same and not sure if the links in the oxp are enough or if you need to post links on the video itself when posting a video with the oxp running the music. Anyone know the answer to this?

I meant copyrighted music which I use when I'm playing without recording - I use all the music that's included in the BGS and I would use other CC music if I knew some good tracks

The best thing to have in a demonstration video for a game is music which is available in the game(core or by oxp). You already have BGS music and that is good for in the station. Famous Planets has music while flying that is instrumental and quite appropriate for music while in flight. The music plays certain tracks only when in specific systems. If you have demonstration videos that have you fly in these systems, the music will be playing if you have the Famous Planets oxp installed. The Hyperspace Radio oxp and expansions have some tracks that might work for you as well. For the future, there is a side project I'm working on involving in-flight music that adapts and changes as events unfold in the player's run between stations. So far it has basic scripted event music changes and 2 different soundtracks. Results are impressive even at this early stage(25%complete) as the score helps flow the emotion and ups and downs that occur in flight, such as combat, and really add to player immersion. This will be awhile though as I want 8 to 12 soundtracks and probably 2x the event change interaction controlling the music that is played. Perhaps a test version will be made available when all the event/control scripting is finalized and at least 6 sound tracks are available. We'll just have to see how things go.

I use the Famous Planet OXP (see first post), but I'm travelling in a different Galaxy now. I might take a look at Hyperradio then - until now, I ignored it since I'm on a mac and can just use iTunes-playlists for ingame music, and before I was recording Oolite for the public, copyrights obviously were never an issue.
Your project sounds pretty cool. Not sure how Hyperradio works, but with iTunes, you have separate playlists for docked, docking and inflight. I heard crossfading for combat situations is not the easiest thing to do

CommonSenseOTB wrote:

For the future, there is a side project I'm working on involving in-flight music that adapts and changes as events unfold in the player's run between stations. So far it has basic scripted event music changes and 2 different soundtracks. Results are impressive even at this early stage(25%complete) as the score helps flow the emotion and ups and downs that occur in flight, such as combat, and really add to player immersion. This will be awhile though as I want 8 to 12 soundtracks and probably 2x the event change interaction controlling the music that is played. Perhaps a test version will be made available when all the event/control scripting is finalized and at least 6 sound tracks are available. We'll just have to see how things go. :)

You could take a look at Cabal_Common_Music. It is event driven too and may help you.

Thanx for the heads up Svengali. I just looked at it and it looks like it has potential. There are 2 events that I'm using in my prototype to control music that aren't in Cabal Common Music and that may change plus or minus. The library might make it easier to deactivate and activate the music to improve "playing nice" with other oxps that use music. In the end I will build in some way to play nice with other oxps. Thankyou very much Svengali, I was not aware of Cabal Common Music and will have something more to think about and consider.

Yep, CCL_Music does not use handlers that are fired often or things that are already in Hyperradio (shipLaunchedEscapePod and generic music) or Frames RandomDockingMusic or handlers which are a job for sounds instead. I've thought about adding something for heated battles, but didn't implemented it, because I think establishing streams is costly and specially in heated situations Oolite has already enough to do. Instead CCL_Music simply uses the alertCondition to start fight music when it switches to red.

The target for CCL_Music is more mission related, though it ships some undocumented things to use playlists with durations for a generic use. This feature will be documented (and the Hyperradio will be changed as well) in case scripts know about the duration of a musicfile - e.g. as returned value when calling Sound.playMusic() - or music gets a .isPlaying property.

As you're already working on that script I can only say it will be interesting to see/hear your approach .-)

@Corny: No worries about the musicpacks, simply mention the authors+license - the [wiki]Hyperradio_Musicpacks[/wiki] page gives you the infos - and everything should be well.-)

Svengali wrote:

@Corny: No worries about the musicpacks, simply mention the authors+license - the [wiki]Hyperradio_Musicpacks[/wiki] page gives you the infos - and everything should be well.-)

Could I just link the page? Or do I have to check for each session what songs are played and give the appropriate info?

Corny wrote:

Or do I have to check for each session what songs are played and give the appropriate info?

I'd think this is the way to go .-)

Okay, everything looks much better now - you can take that literally, see the Update video for explanations.
Part 7 is up!

Very cool, Corny... far out, even. You capture the jump sequence really well.

Thanks!
I don't know what's up with the dredger, though. Looks like an old model to me, and I'm using 2.4.5 :O

Corny wrote:

Okay, everything looks much better now - you can take that literally, see the Update video for explanations.
Part 7 is up!

Nice one, good capture!