Making FFVII use random files ?

[Armorvil]

I've been thinking about this, lately. Let's say that you have three battle musics, all in the same format (MP3, midi, or PSF). Do you think it would be possible for FF7Music to randomly read one or the other at the start of a battle (for example) ?... I mean, the three tracks could be named 10 - Fighting_1.mp3, 10 - Fighting_2.mp3 and 10 - Fighting_3.mp3. And when a random battle is initiated, FF7Music would randomly play one of them. It would make random battles less repetitive, and I'd love to see that.

Same idea, but with character portraits. Now, I think pulling it off would be harder - since I *think* that the game puts this kind of data in memory at start-up. But it would be nice, if at the end of every battle or every time you press Triangle (the Menu button), a random avatar would be displayed. As an example, all of Tifa's avatars would have to be named tifa_00.png, tifa_01.png, tifa_02.png, etc... ...That would be cool in my book.

What's you're take on this ?

[pyrozen]

i think a program like ff7music could easily do this if it read from directories that were named according to the original music files. I'm still waiting for some intrepid idividual to tackle a new FF7music, because the one we have now is totally broken IMHO and it's just a pain to configure, use, and troubleshoot.

[Furzball]

Might be possible with the music but definantly not the portraits. After all the music is from an outside program overriding the originals.

[Armorvil]

Might be possible with the music but definantly not the portraits. After all the music is from an outside program overriding the originals.

Yeah, that's what I thought.

i think a program like ff7music could easily do this if it read from directories that were named according to the original music files. I'm still waiting for some intrepid idividual to tackle a new FF7music, because the one we have now is totally broken IMHO and it's just a pain to configure, use, and troubleshoot.

I just tried naming a directory "10 - Fighting.mp3", and putting mp3s inside, but, as expected, it doesn't work : no mp3 is played

But any program able to rename certain files into something else every 5 or 10 minutes, would do the trick. Renaming the battle music some gibberish, and renaming another song 10 - Fighting.mp3... ...I'll try searching the web for something like that.

[pyrozen]

I just tried naming a directory "10 - Fighting.mp3", and putting mp3s inside, but, as expected, it doesn't work : no mp3 is played

it was doubtful that would work, FF7music doesn't have this type of support. I'm not sure how hard it would be to hack it in, but ficedula has been gone a loooooonnnnnggggg time now, so i wouldn't plan on it.

[Covarr]

ficedula has been gone a loooooonnnnnggggg time now

Not as gone as you might think. Last active, January 2010. Just six months ago.

But I'm not sure occasional lurking really counts as "here".

[Touph Guy]

Regarding extra music, maybe you could replace riku, comical, lb2_awe and other unused songs with your intended battle themes, and edit the flevel.lgp to call them up randomly for battles. Or if that's not possible, set different battle music for different areas. Considering how many re-arrangements of the FFVII battle theme there are, perhaps you could just use different versions of it - i.e, play the normal version in Midgar, use the Advent Children version in the Northern Crater, and the piano version in the Forgotten Capital.

[Armorvil]

Just so you guys know, I found an easy way to make battle music not boring ! All with Audacity and FF7Music.

I just created a really long MP3, comprised of many battle themes I like (tracks from the Black Mages, the battle themes of Shadow Hearts 1 and 2, the battle themes from Unlimited Saga, Romancing Saga, from other FF games, etc...), named it "01 - Fighting.mp3", and told FF7Music to resume after all songs. That way, the battle tracks resume after each fight So, after a couple battles, the music changes

[Furzball]

Just so you guys know, I found an easy way to make battle music not boring ! All with Audacity and FF7Music.

I just created a really long MP3, comprised of many battle themes I like (tracks from the Black Mages, the battle themes of Shadow Hearts 1 and 2, the battle themes from Unlimited Saga, Romancing Saga, from other FF games, etc...), named it "01 - Fighting.mp3", and told FF7Music to resume after all songs. That way, the battle tracks resume after each fight So, after a couple battles, the music changes

Wow, that makes alot of sense *pulls off shoe and sharpies "genius award" on it*, here ya go!

[Armorvil]

Thank you furzball. But... ...maybe you were sarcastic ? I sometimes have trouble detecting sarcasm, especially in English 

[Opine]

Thank you furzball. But... ...maybe you were sarcastic ? I sometimes have trouble detecting sarcasm, especially in English 

I think he was serious. I know I am. That's a great idea! Thanks 

[Furzball]

Thank you furzball. But... ...maybe you were sarcastic ? I sometimes have trouble detecting sarcasm, especially in English 

Moreso an inside joke me and alot of friends used to share. No not sarcastic though, just a goofy image. Basically what it's saying is you thought outside the box and did something neat cause of that. Shoe award is a weird thing me and friends thought up when we found a large box of brand new white sneakers on side of the road. We each had two pairs and sold the rest lol (we didn't have the shipping information so no means to return the shoes anyways). Anyways one pair would be for outside and the other, inside. We'd always mix up who's was who's for the inside shoes since they were left by the door. So when one of us sharpied their initials, other two did the same. We eventually got to the point where we punished and rewarded eachother via shoe sharpi. We also ended up doodling alot on some of the spare shoes lol.

[Armorvil]

Oh I see, thanks for the clarification

[Marc]

I just tried naming a directory "10 - Fighting.mp3", and putting mp3s inside, but, as expected, it doesn't work : no mp3 is played

it was doubtful that would work, FF7music doesn't have this type of support. I'm not sure how hard it would be to hack it in, but ficedula has been gone a loooooonnnnnggggg time now, so i wouldn't plan on it.

Dziugo is probably the more knowledgable person about this on these boards and his programs usually are fairly bug free.  Perhaps he could be convinced to get into a project like this if there's a strong demand for it.