This website was created specifically to show off my own work and since my current project is my Master’s Dissertation, I decided that it was about time that I wrote an update.  I have been making small updates to the official dissertation page, but that mostly discusses what the project idea is about.  It has come time to give an update of the project’s actual progress.  For information about the goal of the project check out the aforementioned page, because I won’t be going over that type of thing here.

The first thing to note is that controlling the music and changing game objects based on the musical events are both working features right now.  The examples I have running are extremely simple, but more will come.  The first screenshot, shown above, shows the early level example.  The goal cubes are used to motivate the player through the level, changing the colour of each one by touching it.  The visual style is obviously minimalistic, and won’t be changing significantly, but it is all that is needed to demonstrate the project’s goal.

Variables for testing are shown in the top left corner.

The look is simple but I have a couple key moments planned.  In the screenshot above there is a lit and unlit “goal cube” leading up to the large pillars.  More important are the variables shown.  The camera position is monitored so that the soundtrack can be advanced as the player moves further through the level.  Also shown is the most recent marker passed in the song, both its number (#1) and name (Second), which don’t make sense beside each other.  More descriptive ones will be needed for the final audio.

The last variable in this screenshot is “Chosen”, which indicates whether or not the program has chosen to loop one section of the music based on the players position.  Currently it has not, because the camera’s Z position has not moved past 50, at which point it will loop between music markers 2 and 3 as opposed to playing the whole song.  Simple, and annoying in practice, but good for demonstrating that these parts of the program are working properly.

Expanding the level; this section will be timed with the music.

The final screenshot is of the current setup, meaning the last screenshot I will take before I go eat lunch.  With the music stuff working in an early fashion, I went to work trying to do something more interesting with the visual style.  This is what I had after a couple minutes and I don’t think it looks too shabby.  Plus, the archway changes colour as the music triggers events!  Still not as interesting and complete as the project needs to be, but it is progress.