"Jamming" preloader at load screen

[parastroke7]

Imagine, if you will, the long load time in GH1 and GH2 after choosing a song. Instead of having a flying cassette tape, or an amp with turning knobs, imagine this.

For each person with an instrument, a certain pre-loader interface would determine what their instrument does.

For singers, you would either be able to sing or tap the mic to produce an on-screen sound, such as your voice or a tambourine / cowbell.

For guitarists, every fret button would have it's own designated note combination and scale. You'd get a different scale every time, and the lower fret buttons would have their own sounds and combinations. It'd be like a "drum machine", only for guitar. It wouldn't be too solid, but it'd still be something interesting to tool around with while the song loads.

For drummers, you'd basically have a drum machine type interface. Each pad would have a set sound (the hi-hats would probobly always be on the same pad), but it would rotate between different kit setups that you'd have to discover and get used to. Different pieces would be like splash cymbals, low toms, hi toms, china cymbals, vibra slaps, piccolo snare, etc.

Realistically, if they could make this work, instead of the screen saying "loading", it would say "sound test", and you'd be able to jam around for however long it takes to load a song.

If you played co-op, everyone would be able to somewhat free-form, and work together to try and sound good during the "sound test" screen.

If you played solo mode, you could just play around with it by yourself. Either way, it would help the load time seem almost non-existent. You'd actually wish the song would take longer to load just so you could play with the instrument simulation screen.

Now, as usual...ahem...*zzzip*...fire-proof kevlar is functioning at 100%. GO! Flame, praise, criticize, eat a donut, do whatever.

[Keebler]

Imagine, if you will, the long load time in GH1 and GH2 after choosing a song. Instead of having a flying cassette tape, or an amp with turning knobs, imagine this.

For each person with an instrument, a certain pre-loader interface would determine what their instrument does.

For singers, you would either be able to sing or tap the mic to produce an on-screen sound, such as your voice or a tambourine / cowbell.

For guitarists, every fret button would have it's own designated note combination and scale. You'd get a different scale every time, and the lower fret buttons would have their own sounds and combinations. It'd be like a "drum machine", only for guitar. It wouldn't be too solid, but it'd still be something interesting to tool around with while the song loads.

For drummers, you'd basically have a drum machine type interface. Each pad would have a set sound (the hi-hats would probobly always be on the same pad), but it would rotate between different kit setups that you'd have to discover and get used to. Different pieces would be like splash cymbals, low toms, hi toms, china cymbals, vibra slaps, piccolo snare, etc.

Realistically, if they could make this work, instead of the screen saying "loading", it would say "sound test", and you'd be able to jam around for however long it takes to load a song.

If you played co-op, everyone would be able to somewhat free-form, and work together to try and sound good during the "sound test" screen.

If you played solo mode, you could just play around with it by yourself. Either way, it would help the load time seem almost non-existent. You'd actually wish the song would take longer to load just so you could play with the instrument simulation screen.

Now, as usual...ahem...*zzzip*...fire-proof kevlar is functioning at 100%. GO! Flame, praise, criticize, eat a donut, do whatever.


I love this idea. It's kinda like in FIFA, where you can screw around by dribbling the ball or shooting it at a goal while something is loading.

[scarecrow521]

I love this idea, but I think it would be really hard to implement in the game. With all of that going on AND the song being loaded, our load times could get pretty damn long.

Of course, I'm no programmer, so someone feel free to contradict me.

[parastroke7]

I love this idea, but I think it would be really hard to implement in the game. With all of that going on AND the song being loaded, our load times could get pretty damn long.

Of course, I'm no programmer, so someone feel free to contradict me.

Actually, 3/4 of the way through the post, I realized that the game may not have the resources at this point to create all of those noises, especially with multiple players. It may, in fact, make the load time longer (which almost defeats the purpose of having the pre-loader, as some may grow tired of it rather quickly). Who knows. Perhaps a programmer can comment on this? Any takers?

[ababypenguin]

I am not a programmer, but here are my thoughts
It sounds like a cool idea, but it sounds like it could be a game in itself, I would rather mess around with that preloader than play a song on the set list. I like the idea, as long as I can also play this minigame/preloader for an unlimited amount of time.

[ZkDotNet]

Honestly, I doubt it'd have much effect on the loading times (assuming no 3D characters were being animated along with it). It doesn't take much processing power to play a sound clip, and it'd most likely be on a different processing thread than the loader.

[crunchyoverseas]

No, you could keep it toned down graphically wise and it wouldn't have an impact on load times. It would have to be pretty basic, but it would still be cool...

[bounchfx]

awesome idea!! put it in the ideas section ASAP.

I'd LOVE to see this implemented or at least an option (sound test loading on/off)

[ductyl]

I am a programmer, and adding this in would increase load times. How greatly it would increase it depends a lot on how they have their code laid out, but it would increase it at some level.

Depending on how their code is written, they might be able to lessen the additional overhead if they loaded the musical interpreter first(to decrease the impact they'd basically have to use the sounds from the "jam session" of whatever song you're loading). Still, even if they load the musical interpreter first, then they have to run it while trying to load everything else.

You're spending time to load something before it is needed, and then spending CPU cycles to process 4 instruments and output the sound. True, it doesn't need to run the 3D graphics(I'm pretty sure the next gen's all have a seperate graphics processor anyway) but it's still taking away from the primary purpose of loading.

For an example, think about your PC when it's loading something. When it's *really* trying to load information, the mouse cursor stops moving smoothly. This is because it is deemed a lower priority than the loading process. If they instead decided to make the mouse have priority, it would take longer for your file to load whenever you moved the mouse. The reason you can move it smoothly most of the time while loading is that there are enough spare CPU cycles to process both the mouse and the loading without you noticing.

I suspect that the Harmonix guys want to get their code so optimized that the loading process uses 100% of the resources while it's loading, resulting in the quickest load times.

My vote instead is for many more witty loading sayings in this version... maybe even have some new ones bundled in free with the DLC songs. ;)

- ductyl

[ThePaska]

Amazing idea, Jam sessions for loading screens, so cool. It would be like an ending jam or the fills throughout the songs and you can just mess around and play what you want. Seriously cool idea, I love it. I think it needs to be in the game. This is something very original, I have never thought of it, seriously cool idea!

Now obviously loading screens in this game are probably about 5 seconds long or so, I mean thats basically what they were in Guitar Hero, basically long enough to read the funny sentence they had there. It would be a good idea to have it so even when the song was loaded that you would have to go to the song by willingly continuing, so you could jam as long as you wanted!

[tf5_bassist]

Although I think that this would be an amazingly fun little time-killer, it would probably affect the loading times just enough to make it not worth it. I mean, c'mon, acting like a midi sequencer isn't hard. You register input "A" and play sound "A". Yeah, you're looking at 16 different inputs, basically (five on each guitar, five on the drums, and one on the mic), but still... 16 midi input triggers ain't nothin'. I can use a keyboard with 88 keys on a 700mhz P3 pc running Cubase and still trigger wav files just fine while recording.

But I think it's too much extra code functions that would be fun, but aren't "necessary". If it does get implemented though, I'll have a blast with it.

[ductyl]

I mean, c'mon, acting like a midi sequencer isn't hard. You register input "A" and play sound "A".

While this is true, and the code would likely be trivial to write, you're looking at(as someone else pointed out here) a total load time of only a few seconds. If you're loading up an running a midi sequencer on top of the loading process, you could add another second or two to the load time, which would be a shame.

If the game came with an option for just a midi sequencer, you wouldn't expect it to load instantly would you?

A jam-mode option might be alright... but I suspect it wouldn't be nearly as much fun as you think. A big part of the game is having the amazing hits of rock being played because of your actions... some of you might be able to come up with some amazing licks and beats on your own... but I sure can't. (Also, you couldn't do a jam session remotely... there is no way for the software to "predict" what you're going to play next, so depending on how far you were from different people you could have four different beats going on in the same jam session)

-ductyl

[tf5_bassist]

Oh guaranteed, without truly rewriting a full sequencing software package, this "jam-session mode" would more likely be a cacaphony of random sounds, with the exception of the drums (if the person behind the kit could actually play without the guidance of the game, that is).

If the guitars acted the way that the guitars that The Guitar Zeroes (http://www.theguitarzeros.com/) built, then it'd be a matter of interpreting the midi commands, triggering a wav file, and the hell with "predicting what you're going to play".

And no, I don't expect anything on any game to just load up instantly, unless it's a menu of some sort lol. It'd probably take 1.5 secs tops to load a sequencer, but then it also has to be dumped out of memory, which would tack on probably another 1.5 secs max, and that just adds to overall load time. 3 secs isn't that bad to me, especially if i'm making noises pissing off my wife every loading screen lol, but it's extra code being developed, and taking time away from DLC.

which is really what matters from here on out.

[ductyl]

Agreed, DLC is what I'm after ;) They can toss Jam Sessions into Rock Band 2, along with the keyboard attachment and two pedal drumset.

- ductyl

[tf5_bassist]

Agreed, DLC is what I'm after ;) They can toss Jam Sessions into Rock Band 2, along with the keyboard attachment and two pedal drumset.

- ductyl

indeed, indeed.

I'm going to look at modding mine to add a second kick pedal, if the triggering system allows for double-kick sensing.

[Apples]

Definately a cool idea to take advantage of "dead" loading times.

Unforunately (or fortunately perhaps) the game is so far along I wouldn't expect any new features like this to get added.

[Akaymay]

It's an awesome idea. It sucks that the loader is already made. Here it is:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v672/Akaymay/QR.jpg

I would imagine that there would be different loaders for different Band members, and different facts at the bottom.

[logicalnoise]

why not a tuning mini game and if you do well your rock meter is more full at teh start of a song. maybe vice versa if you do bad.

[sporkBrigade]

Love the idea, but it is way too late to see it implemented. Maybe some hot sequel action?

[ductyl]

I'm going to look at modding mine to add a second kick pedal, if the triggering system allows for double-kick sensing.

I suspect that will be a very popular write-up if you do ;) Also... possible third-party add-on action. You should totally contact Pelican with the idea if you get it working.


why not a tuning mini game and if you do well your rock meter is more full at teh start of a song. maybe vice versa if you do bad.

I like this idea a little better than the jamming one... probably because it would have some sense of order to it. It might still sound awful, but I'd be more likely to participate in something that had a goal to it. That and I want to see my singer going through scales... "do-re-mi-fa-so...".

It would also add to load times, unfortunately, but most people don't seem to mind this. So I guess if they add it to the next version, they should put an option in for jam-session, tune-up, or standard loading screens, then everyone can be happy ;) (Hopefully by that point they'll have a better "sense" of what constitutes a "good" jam)

Maybe a sound check(jam) section at the beginning of a set, and then a tune-up between each song for a different instrument? Most bands don't all tune their instrument at the same time, and I don't really want the load times to be stretched out to give enough time for four seperate tune-ups ;) You could even have multiple tune-ups for each instrument, where a random one is chosen between sets. Maybe scales for one, a simon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_(game)) style "follow the pattern" game for another...

I like the idea of a reward system for doing a good job... I'd say either rock power or maybe a starting multiplier. Another idea to consider would be to give the bonus to:

1. Everyone in the band
2. Everyone in the band but you.
3. A particular member of the band.(Not you.)
4. Just you.

It could either be random, a selection by the individual, or maybe a group vote sort of thing(the mic might need to use the attached controller to cast their vote). I kind of like the idea of the other band members depending on you to get tuned-up properly.

I'm liking this idea more and more now... the programmer in my was just focused on the inefficiency of *adding* features because the load time was too long. The Rock Star in me is loving this idea.

- ductyl

P.S. Actually I really like the vote idea... each band member is given 20% of the aquired bonus to vote with, except the member who did the tune up, they're given the remaining 40%. Each instrument(if you count the controller on the mic) has green, red, blue and yellow input on it, so you just show those colors under each of the 4 people's names, and you press that color button to cast your vote. The other band members could cast their vote while the one was tuning up. Maybe some extra bonus if the band all decides to help the same person.

[parastroke7]

I would like to stick this in the ideas section, but how would one go about doing that? Could someone have it moved there for me?

[Sons_of_Kyuss]

Neat idea, but it is probably too late to implement this in the game now...unless they already thought of it.

[parastroke7]

Harmonix is too busy not implementing another foot pedal and / or allowing instrumental songs to have thought of this.

[AeroTrain]

Great idea!

I wouldn't even be concerned about 'making music' during a load, just let me bang around a little. It even adds a little realism as you often hear a band banging around before a concert as they tune up or re-tune between songs.

Imagine playing a 'set list', as has been mentioned as part of the career mode in rock band and instead of silence load screens between songs your play around and retune, maybe the vocalist could say a few words for audience banter.

Great idea!