adesyndicate
New member
EDIT: Disregard everything because I am an idiot who used the default music player instead of an emulator!
Hi, My name is Alex! I'm trying to do the soundtrack for a game in the upcoming Byte-Off 2019 competition, but I'm having difficulties wrapping my head around the limitations of the built-in sound engine. I understand that NESMaker uses a modified version of GGSound by homebrew dev Gradual Games. I also understand that the full potential of what can be achieved in FamiTracker by itself does not match the potential what can be achieved with GGSound. Generally, the more complex the sound engine, the less complex the game. (That is a gross simplification, by the way. I am but a mere composer, not an NES dev, so take what I say with a grain of salt.)
DISCOVERED LIMITATIONS OF FAMITRACKER-NESMAKER SOUND ENGINE
After two days of testing, this is the list of limitations I discovered.
Keep in mind that these are the limitations I discovered in testing using 0CC-FamiTracker 0.3.15.3 and NESMaker 4.1.0, using the default music player. Surely, there are ways to work around these limitations with some creativity and ingenuity on the composer's part. Joe Granato said in Part 11 of his Getting Started series that he's plans to add a music and sound effects composition tool built right into NESMaker itself. Hopefully with that tool the disparities and errors between FamiTracker and NESMaker will disappear or at least be less frequent.
If I missed a limitation or am just plain wrong about something, please let me know and I'll add it to the list! That way, more composers will be less frustrated and able to figure out what they are capable of pulling off!
Hi, My name is Alex! I'm trying to do the soundtrack for a game in the upcoming Byte-Off 2019 competition, but I'm having difficulties wrapping my head around the limitations of the built-in sound engine. I understand that NESMaker uses a modified version of GGSound by homebrew dev Gradual Games. I also understand that the full potential of what can be achieved in FamiTracker by itself does not match the potential what can be achieved with GGSound. Generally, the more complex the sound engine, the less complex the game. (That is a gross simplification, by the way. I am but a mere composer, not an NES dev, so take what I say with a grain of salt.)
DISCOVERED LIMITATIONS OF FAMITRACKER-NESMAKER SOUND ENGINE
After two days of testing, this is the list of limitations I discovered.
- All instruments must have a volume envelope assigned or else the instrument will not sound at all.
- Speed can be changed from 1–31.
- Tempo can be changed from 32–255.
- When speed is set to 1 and tempo is set to 255, nothing will sound. When speed is set to 31 and tempo is set to 32 however, it will play.
- Notes above around B-5 in FamiTracker will sound very dissonant and chaotic (for lack of a better term). However, the triangle wave can play up to B-7 perfectly fine.
- Notes below A-1 will not play.
- Vibrato, when implemented as a separate instrument and not an effect, does not work. It will be ignored.
- Pitch envelopes do not work, whether sweeping up or down, whether looped or not. They will instead play as the note you input into the tracker.
- Hi-pitch envelopes do not work even with vanilla GGSound, whether looped or not. They will instead play as the note you input into the tracker.
- Arpeggio envelopes do not work, whether looped or not. They will instead play as the note you input into the tracker.
- Only noise type 0 is supported. Any notes with type 1 will play as type 0.
- Noise pitches do not match with notes input in the tracker.
- Using DPCM samples is technically possible, but requires ASM knowledge to use.
- Frame looping does not seem to work, even when the Bxx effect is applied to the first four channels or to all five.
Keep in mind that these are the limitations I discovered in testing using 0CC-FamiTracker 0.3.15.3 and NESMaker 4.1.0, using the default music player. Surely, there are ways to work around these limitations with some creativity and ingenuity on the composer's part. Joe Granato said in Part 11 of his Getting Started series that he's plans to add a music and sound effects composition tool built right into NESMaker itself. Hopefully with that tool the disparities and errors between FamiTracker and NESMaker will disappear or at least be less frequent.
If I missed a limitation or am just plain wrong about something, please let me know and I'll add it to the list! That way, more composers will be less frustrated and able to figure out what they are capable of pulling off!