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About this mod
EMC changes the way Oblivion\'s music is played, adding fading effects and the like, and exposes script commands to allow a mod to control the music.
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- Permissions and credits
Enhanced Music & Control
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Enhanced Music & Control is an OBSE plugin that enhances Oblivion's music playback and provides script commands to further extend manipulation functionality to scripters. Its still a work in progress, but the progress has come far enough along that I'm now ready to get input on it.
This release adds commands for manipulating playlists, allowing you to build your own and replace the default music. Create new music for your mod's world, and swap out the Explore music with your's. Got a maddening boss? Swap the battle music with your boss's theme. Well, you can do that now in this release. Take a look at the Commands List in the download for the list of available commands and their usage.
This release requires Oblivion 1.2.0416 and OBSE version 15, simply because its the version I was working with. I've not tested it with other OBSE versions, but give it a try if you desire.
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What It Does
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What it does passively:
EMC effectivly removes control of Oblivion's music from the game's own code and places it solely in the hands of the plugin. None of the game's functions are used to play the music. A DirectShow powered player within the plugin renders the music in it's place. This gives the plugin absolute control of how the music is rendered and gives the capability of enhanced effects such as fading between tracks and resuming a previous track from earlier.
From a gameplay stand point, some of the first things you'll notice is that the previous track will resume after a battle is concluded. This prevents short Mud Crab beatdowns from interupting the regular exploration music. This is great if you have enjoyable custom music and get aggrevated that it gets cut off by battles before it gets to the good part. You'll be able to listen to the entire track all the way through to the end even if you continue to run into minotaurs and timber wolves over and over. :P This was the main reason I wrote the plugin. Kept stopping my lovely Eternal Sonata music...
Further, short music changes will result in a resume as well. So, if you pop into an Inn (and the music changes as a result) then decide you don't need to do anything there and immediately exit, if it was within 10 seconds, the previous track will resume instead of a new one being selected. It also does it with battle music too, so if you kill one guard and exit battle, then get spotted by some more, the battle music will start back up where it left. Its really cool!
I'm unsure if this was an issue in vanilla Oblivion, but each song in each music type's playlist will play once before you'll hear a song again, and the playlist is automatically reshuffled after each full playthough. You're guaranteed not to hear the same song twice in a row or too quickly in succession (unless, of course, your playlist only has one or two song in it). The more music you have, the better it all works.
Also, tracks will appropriately fade gently in and out instead of a sudden hard change. I find this more pleasing to the ears and disturbs the atmosphere less.
The music control system was designed to try and mimic Oblivion's as closely as possible. You'll still find some things are a little different. Like the title music plays through until you're in game. Not by design, of course, and I'll try and find a way to fix it soon as I can figure out where to place a sensor for the load screen.
What it does for modders:
For modders, it will allow you to control whats being played. Let the player explore your mod's world with it's own custom soundtrack thats completely seperate from Oblivion's by creating your own playlist and substituting your's for Oblivion's where appropriate.
In later releases, there will be an override mode that will allow a plugin to take ultimate control over the music. Tell it to play Battle music even though the game wants to play Dungeon music. Stuff like that. I will attempt to create a compatibility framework so that more than one plugin can perform the override if they are aware of one another.
Reliable GetMusicType commands. OBSE's GetCellMusicType command does not allways return the music that SHOULD be playing for a particular location or situation. I found that in IC's Marketplace district, this command incorrectly reports the musictype as Default (Explore) when it clearly should be Public. While now I realize that it is doing exactly what its supposed to do, it didn't help me any. Now, I'll provide commands that accurately let you know exactly the type of music that is being played, where ever the player is or what ever the player's state.
Cool things I might do with it in the future:
A script command that would affect playback speed would be pretty cool to mess with, seeing as DShow has the ability. Slow down and speed up the music to screw with the player's mind. Perhaps a plugin to make the Shivering Isles' dungeons a little more insane? Or how about an inebriation mod where the music starts speeding up and slowing down irradically? Combine this with The J's OblivionEAX plugin and you can add a powerful echo to the sounds all around you. Ha! That would be awesome!
I was thinking of providing the ability to support multiple Special music tracks. For instance, you could have more than one MP3 for the title music allowing it to play from one randomly. Add more musical variety to the sight of your lifeless body flying backwards after taking that final hit from a Clannfear! Play any one of the many, many different Final Fantasy victory themes (not to mention OverClocked Remixes therein) when you level up! Imagine the possibilities!
Support for more than just MP3s. I don't know how this will work as I don't have any experience in DirectShow graph building. If DirectShow's RenderFile() function builds a poor graph, who knows what will end up happening. Technically, this is supported allready, but not officially. You can change the playlists to select non-MP3 files and it'll add them, but I have no idea what will happen when it tries to play them. Until I get a chance to play around with other music types and make sure they work, I'm not saying its offically supported.
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Final
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This OBSE plugin is not only a modder's resource, but also a general enhancment to the music. That means anyone can download and install it and reap benefits from it without having to get a mod to go with it. If you've allways been a bit dissatisfied with the way vanilla Oblivion handles music, you now have a choice. Do you dislike sudden music changes and your relaxing music getting interupted everytime you walk past a rat? If so, give this OBSE plugin a shot!
--------
Enhanced Music & Control is an OBSE plugin that enhances Oblivion's music playback and provides script commands to further extend manipulation functionality to scripters. Its still a work in progress, but the progress has come far enough along that I'm now ready to get input on it.
This release adds commands for manipulating playlists, allowing you to build your own and replace the default music. Create new music for your mod's world, and swap out the Explore music with your's. Got a maddening boss? Swap the battle music with your boss's theme. Well, you can do that now in this release. Take a look at the Commands List in the download for the list of available commands and their usage.
This release requires Oblivion 1.2.0416 and OBSE version 15, simply because its the version I was working with. I've not tested it with other OBSE versions, but give it a try if you desire.
--------
What It Does
--------
What it does passively:
EMC effectivly removes control of Oblivion's music from the game's own code and places it solely in the hands of the plugin. None of the game's functions are used to play the music. A DirectShow powered player within the plugin renders the music in it's place. This gives the plugin absolute control of how the music is rendered and gives the capability of enhanced effects such as fading between tracks and resuming a previous track from earlier.
From a gameplay stand point, some of the first things you'll notice is that the previous track will resume after a battle is concluded. This prevents short Mud Crab beatdowns from interupting the regular exploration music. This is great if you have enjoyable custom music and get aggrevated that it gets cut off by battles before it gets to the good part. You'll be able to listen to the entire track all the way through to the end even if you continue to run into minotaurs and timber wolves over and over. :P This was the main reason I wrote the plugin. Kept stopping my lovely Eternal Sonata music...
Further, short music changes will result in a resume as well. So, if you pop into an Inn (and the music changes as a result) then decide you don't need to do anything there and immediately exit, if it was within 10 seconds, the previous track will resume instead of a new one being selected. It also does it with battle music too, so if you kill one guard and exit battle, then get spotted by some more, the battle music will start back up where it left. Its really cool!
I'm unsure if this was an issue in vanilla Oblivion, but each song in each music type's playlist will play once before you'll hear a song again, and the playlist is automatically reshuffled after each full playthough. You're guaranteed not to hear the same song twice in a row or too quickly in succession (unless, of course, your playlist only has one or two song in it). The more music you have, the better it all works.
Also, tracks will appropriately fade gently in and out instead of a sudden hard change. I find this more pleasing to the ears and disturbs the atmosphere less.
The music control system was designed to try and mimic Oblivion's as closely as possible. You'll still find some things are a little different. Like the title music plays through until you're in game. Not by design, of course, and I'll try and find a way to fix it soon as I can figure out where to place a sensor for the load screen.
What it does for modders:
For modders, it will allow you to control whats being played. Let the player explore your mod's world with it's own custom soundtrack thats completely seperate from Oblivion's by creating your own playlist and substituting your's for Oblivion's where appropriate.
In later releases, there will be an override mode that will allow a plugin to take ultimate control over the music. Tell it to play Battle music even though the game wants to play Dungeon music. Stuff like that. I will attempt to create a compatibility framework so that more than one plugin can perform the override if they are aware of one another.
Reliable GetMusicType commands. OBSE's GetCellMusicType command does not allways return the music that SHOULD be playing for a particular location or situation. I found that in IC's Marketplace district, this command incorrectly reports the musictype as Default (Explore) when it clearly should be Public. While now I realize that it is doing exactly what its supposed to do, it didn't help me any. Now, I'll provide commands that accurately let you know exactly the type of music that is being played, where ever the player is or what ever the player's state.
Cool things I might do with it in the future:
A script command that would affect playback speed would be pretty cool to mess with, seeing as DShow has the ability. Slow down and speed up the music to screw with the player's mind. Perhaps a plugin to make the Shivering Isles' dungeons a little more insane? Or how about an inebriation mod where the music starts speeding up and slowing down irradically? Combine this with The J's OblivionEAX plugin and you can add a powerful echo to the sounds all around you. Ha! That would be awesome!
I was thinking of providing the ability to support multiple Special music tracks. For instance, you could have more than one MP3 for the title music allowing it to play from one randomly. Add more musical variety to the sight of your lifeless body flying backwards after taking that final hit from a Clannfear! Play any one of the many, many different Final Fantasy victory themes (not to mention OverClocked Remixes therein) when you level up! Imagine the possibilities!
Support for more than just MP3s. I don't know how this will work as I don't have any experience in DirectShow graph building. If DirectShow's RenderFile() function builds a poor graph, who knows what will end up happening. Technically, this is supported allready, but not officially. You can change the playlists to select non-MP3 files and it'll add them, but I have no idea what will happen when it tries to play them. Until I get a chance to play around with other music types and make sure they work, I'm not saying its offically supported.
--------
Final
--------
This OBSE plugin is not only a modder's resource, but also a general enhancment to the music. That means anyone can download and install it and reap benefits from it without having to get a mod to go with it. If you've allways been a bit dissatisfied with the way vanilla Oblivion handles music, you now have a choice. Do you dislike sudden music changes and your relaxing music getting interupted everytime you walk past a rat? If so, give this OBSE plugin a shot!