Improving on CT's sound

[teh Schala]

OK, what I have here is an idea for improving CT's sound...namely, by adding in better (non-synthesized) music, and having at least the ability to do our own sound effects.  This would give us a great deal more control over the player's reactions since we'd be unlimited in what we can do on sound.

It'd probably be a huge pain in the butt (in fact, I know it would), but tell me what you think, would it be worth the trouble, and above all, CAN we do it?

A standard emulator is designed to play any SNES game, and output the sounds of that game based on the values of the stuff it's told to play.  Of course this means that if the value it's told to play is 02, it plays "Chrono Trigger," song 02, out of the ROM.

But what if an emulator was made SPECIFICALLY for Crimson Echoes?  It would read the ROM as any decent emu would, but when it's told to play song 02, it wouldn't necessarily go to that corresponding place in memory, but would instead reach for, say, 02.mp3 or something along those lines.  The emulator could read other files besides just the ROM, enabling us to use our own music.  Since it's for this game only, we could even go so far as to have the emulator watch one certain address in the game, and when the value of the address is, as said before, 02, it might play 02.mp3 from the same directory.  Does that make sense?

So now the questions, as I said before, are:
What do you think of this?
Would it be worth the trouble?
Do you think the ZSNES or SNES9X team would be willing to help create this modification to their emulators?
Can we even do it?  As in, do we have the coding expertise to make it happen?

If so, we could really bring down the house with this...  Claado Shou and his team could go NUTS on it!  Thoughts?

[Lord J Esq]

This is something you should coordinate with Geiger. It's possible that he is already working on something like this, or plans to in the future. (I know he can already port in foreign .spc data manually.) I expect an automated process for this would be a difficult technical accomplishment, but I say that not from personal knowledge, and instead from the fact that what you are talking about doesn't often appear in tech centers like Zophar's Domain, implying its difficulty.

Given your available manpower, I'd suggest you work on easier stuff for the time being, and divert resources to this at a later time if it becomes feasible.

[Exodus]

My main thought through all of this is to make the demo much more promising; we can attract a hell of a lot more people that way.

[Geiger]

It's possible that he is already working on something like this, or plans to in the future.

It is on the list of things I would like to add to Snes9x.  That is a fairly long list I should note.  It also does not fit well with my policy of only using GSD for debugging / hacking, and not actual playing.  Maybe I could add it for a different project.

Oooh.  Mysteeerious!  :wiggles fingers:

I know he can already port in foreign .spc data manually.

From one specific game to another specific game, one way, yes.  Any decent ROM hacker could do this with some ease if it were to occur to them.

Please do not get an over-inflated idea of what I am capable of.  You would probably be pretty disappointed.  ^_^;

---T.Geiger

[Lord J Esq]

It's possible that he is already working on something like this, or plans to in the future.Please do not get an over-inflated idea of what I am capable of.  You would probably be pretty disappointed.  ^_^;

---T.Geiger

Way to shatter my hopes and dreams! Now I don't believe in nothin' no more... =(

[GrayLensman]

At this point, I think it would be easier to reprogram the entire game in C++ than to modify the existing ROM image.

[Geiger]

At this point, I think it would be easier to reprogram the entire game in C++ than to modify the existing ROM image.

Probably.  But we would have to dissect all the ROM data first in order to produce an exact replica.  

---T.Geiger

[Exodus]

I do like the idea of reprogramming it in C++-- And it just so happens somebody a few days ago who wanted to join the team said they knew C++.

I'll inquire as to how much they know. You never know, it may be a possibility.

[Agent 12]

I'm assuming that you would finish CE, and then transfer it into C++ to add the music......Maybe add a couple sprites.

Knowing both C++ and TF, I prefer TF for 99% of what were doing.  Not only that, right now anyone can pick it up even without any programming experience.  So if you transfer it to C++, yes the current group can do a bit more, but you lose all the people who could potentially be helping.  I would say finish the game using TF and then turn it into C++ for the stuff were having trouble with.

--jp

[sdlvx]

If you can convert SPC to MIDI, do you suppose there is a way to convert MIDI to SPC?

I know midi really good.

[teh Schala]

I don't necessarily want to take this thing out into C++ and all that.  To that end, we'd be crossing the line into remakes.  And since this project's point is to demonstrate all that TF can do with CT ROM hacking, we need to stay in the realm of emulation.  I just would like an emulator that can play MP3s instead of SPCs and give us a broader sound.

sdlvx, I REALLY don't want MIDIs...  MP3s would give us a lot of capability to make the sound precisely how we want it, and it would let us do a broad, overwhelming orchestral sound if we need to.  It would also give us the ability to do voices, though *IF* that were to happen, I don't think voices would be anything more than, say, a cool laugh for Ozzie, a new kick@$$ roar for Lavos, that kind of stuff.

By the way, who are you and how did you get in here? o.O

[Exodus]

Care to explain how we'd be remaking the game if we're using C++ in particular? I'd love to be enlightened on this issue, considering we're already remaking the game.

[teh Schala]

this project's point is to demonstrate all that TF can do with CT ROM hacking

[Exodus]

If that's the case, the project won't go anywhere.

We need a few other editors at present to do a few things TF can't do.

[Agent 12]

If that's the case, the project won't go anywhere.

We need a few other editors at present to do a few things TF can't do.

Anywhere??? I would say that TF can take us 80% of the way there, TF+CTEC or Chrono tweaker 90-95% of the way there.  Music and Sprite issues are really all we need outside help for.  And I'm not even sure about sprites, because I know it's possible (the pendant to a bra, or Zeality telling me we can import Cyan into the Coliseum) I just am not sure what he's using to get it done.

--jp