How to fade out MIDI background music when entering a new room [SOLVED]

[rozojc]

--------------------------------
Edit:
Look at my last posting to see how it's done
--------------------------------
Here I am, third question today (sorry bout that)
Well, I did my homeowrk and search on the forum first, but I did not really find something easy to do what I'm trying to do....
Suppose I make Music 0 play when you enter the first room (which is really a splash screen), right? Once I go into the second room, the music continues to play, and obviously if I just use StopMusic() it stops abruptely. What I'd like it is to slowly fade out completely (as my second room does not have background music).
I tried with a script I saw when I searched the forum, but it used the Wait() command, thus halting the whole game while the music faded out, which is definitely not what I'd like. Then, I made the following function so that it would fade out in 5 seconds and then stop it:

function FadeMusicOut()
{
   int ini,dif;
   ini=GetRawTime();
   while(ini>=(GetRawTime()-5))
   {
      dif=GetRawTime()-ini;
      SetMusicVolume(3-dif);
   }
   StopMusic();
}
However, it seems that the while() loop also halts gameplay completely. Is there any way to fade out the music without having to halt the game?

[strazer]

and obviously if I just use StopMusic() it stops abruptely.

To my knowledge, if you have "Crossfade music tracks" enabled in the General settings, the current music track fades out when using StopMusic().

[rozojc]

To my knowledge, if you have "Crossfade music tracks" enabled in the General settings, the current music track fades out when using StopMusic().

Yep, but  Crossfade music tracks only works if you actually have a track in the next room (or at least that's what it seems. I don't have another track in the second room and the music does not fade)

Modification: maybe it's not because I don't have another background music in the second room, but I just read that it does not work if the music is in MIDI format (which it is)...

Any ideas?

[strazer]

Modification: maybe it's not because I don't have another background music in the second room, but I just read that it does not work if the music is in MIDI format (which it is)...

Yes, I had tested it with an mp3 file and it worked fine. Haven't worked with midi myself.

[rozojc]

Modification: maybe it's not because I don't have another background music in the second room, but I just read that it does not work if the music is in MIDI format (which it is)...

Yes, I had tested it with an mp3 file and it worked fine. Haven't worked with midi myself.

Any ideas on how to do a workaround for MIDI background music?

[strazer]

Your idea was good, but to make it non-blocking, you have to decrease the volume from inside the repeatedly_execute function instead of a loop. Too lazy to code right now.

[rozojc]

Your idea was good, but to make it non-blocking, you have to decrease the volume from inside the repeatedly_execute function instead of a loop. Too lazy to code right now.

Ok, I think I have an idea:
I'll try making a global variable that is actually going to be a flag and it's going to have 0 as a value most of the times. In the rooms where I want the fadeout, I'll make an interaction, that as soon as the player walks into the room, that variable changes its value to '1'. In the repeatedly_execute, I'll have an IF statement, cheking if the value is 1; when it is 1, it will decrease the volume step by step. Once the volume reaches the minimun (-3), it will stop the music, and change the variable back to '0' again... I'll post as soon as I try it, maybe it can be useful if anyone else wants to have a fadeout with MIDI music...

[rozojc]

Ok, I was able to do it, so, in case anyone is interested, here's a workaround so you can make MIDI background music FadeOut when entering a new room (which is not possible with the CrossFading option since it only works with mp3, ogg, etc).

Here's what I did:

In the global script (before anything) I added the following:

int FadeOutFlag=0,ActualTime,EnterRoomTime;

Inside the header script I add:

import int FadeOutFlag;
import int EnterRoomTime;
import int ActualTime;

Inside any room in which I want the FadeOut to happen I add an Interaction "When player enters screen" that runs the script:

FadeOutFlag=1;

And I also have to add an interaction "When player leaves room" with
//just in case player leaves room before fadeout
FadeOutFlag=0;
SetMusicMasterVolume(80);


Finally, inside the repeatedly_execute() I added:

     int TimeDif; //Difference in seconds between
                          // the actual time and the time when
                          //the player entered the room
     ActualTime=GetRawTime();//gets actual time

   if(FadeOutFlag==1) //AKA if the player entered the room
   {
      TimeDif=ActualTime-EnterRoomTime;//how many seconds
                                                               //has the player been in the room
      if(TimeDif>=11)//if player has been 11 seconds inside room
      {
         StopMusic(); //stop music, duh
         FadeOutFlag=0; //flag goes back to normal
         SetMusicMasterVolume(80);  //music volume back to normal
      }
      else
         SetMusicMasterVolume(80-(TimeDif*8)); //lower music volume
   }

[TerranRich]

ADDED to the BFAQ: http://bfaq.xylot.com/#audio07

Thanks for the code!

[monkey0506]

Just a thought, but you may want to change FadeOutFlag to a bool (AGS 2.7 and up), seeing as it should only hold the values of 0 or 1.  It makes it more idiot proof .  Other than that...nice code!

[rozojc]

Just a thought, but you may want to change FadeOutFlag to a bool (AGS 2.7 and up), seeing as it should only hold the values of 0 or 1.  It makes it more idiot proof .  Other than that...nice code!

Yeah, it would work better (as in more "elegant") with a bool, it's just that this is actually the first time I script with AGS so I wan't quite sure on how to do it. In other words, I had just learned how ints worked and was too lazy to check out how booleans worked on AGS  :

Thanx for the "nice code" compliment (really)

Oh, and to TerranRich: thank YOU, I do feel "satisfied" that my first bit of coding in AGS ends up in your FAQ

[monkey0506]

Well I believe that bool is actually a hard coded enumeration like:

enum bool {
  false = 0,
  true = 1
  };

Of course I have never seen the source so I wouldn't know, but with boolean values you can use 0, 1, false, and true (false corresponding to 0, and true corresponding with 1).  That would prevent users accidentally typing "FadeOutFlag = 2" which not work right because the check reads "if (FadeOutFlag == 1)".  And you're welcome on the compliment.  But I'm not too liberal with them, so enjoy it while you can!