Q&A--

 

From the freetar hero forums:

 

 

#freetarhero on irc.efnet.net

 

 

 

Gtenkspowerturk:

Within about a 6 month radius, when can we hope to get a demo or beta version of Freetar hero?

 

 

AntonStruyk:

I would hope that - barring any unforseen crazy stuff - I should have the Game portion at

least in a playable state well within 6 months. That is, at least you should be able to

'launch' a song (maybe not from a pretty menu) and play through it - with some scoring and

whatnot.

 

 

AntonStruyk:

Right now I'm trying to hammer out the exact details of the game design and doing the

background work for it.

 

 

Hell_Ashes:

is it going to have the basic layout GH has?

 

AntonStruyk:

Yes - vertical scrolling (if thats what you mean). Probably a similar point-scoring system as

well. I'm looking at building the game to support 2-player as well (not networked, same PC),

but that might not make an initial release. Its definelty a design concern though.

There's some other features that I'd really like to get integrated with the game - but I'll

wait until I see if they'll be feasable or not before I start yammering on about them and get

myself into trouble if they don't make it in

 

 

AntonStruyk:

The whammy bar seems to work for some PS2 adapters, and not for others. I have 2 different

PS2 adapters now, and one detects the whammy bar just fine, and the other doesn't. Whammy'ing

won't likely make it into the game in the first release - until I am able to clear up some

technical issues with it. But I'd like to do SOMETHING with it eventually...

 

 

Partack:

how will you be handling star power?

Will that eventually be implimented, or are you going to give it a miss?

Also, how will that effect the editor?

 

AntonStruyk:

I'm planning on adding some kind of star-power system. I'm not sure exactly if it will be the same as the GH style, or if there's some other 'bonus' mode that would work. I'm open to suggestions if you have any ideas.

 

As far as specifying these notes in the editor is concerned, you would likely either select a range of notes and 'set as star notes' or specify a time-range and the program would automatically mark any notes within that time-range as the 'star' notes. Of course, I have to decide what exactly I'm gonna do before I start adding editing features for it Smile.

 

 

AntonStruyk:

Points will definetly be in there

 

 

Partack:

will you be releasing updates of your progress somewhere? wether it be on this website or a

blog of some kind?

 

AntonStruyk:

I took some 'breaktime' at work today, and fixed myself up a blog.

http://www.antonstruyk.com/blog/

Hooray for jumping on the blog bandwagon!

 

 

sh-tbuster:

could you give each note you put in a song that clip of the track, so when you miss that note it'll mute that part of the song?

 

AntonStruyk:

Well, when I get around to working on this, I'm thinking of applying a DSP effect for the 'muted' portion (between the note you missed and the next note you hit) that will cut out some of the high-range of the music. The intent is to 'muffle' the sound, without actually making it dead quiet (otherwise you won't be able to hear the beat in the background to get back on track). I've got to see if this is possible with the sound-engine I'm using, but I think it is....

 

nikhilio:

And also, you know how GH makes that click noise when you get it wrong? That would be cool if that was implemented too.

 

AntronStruyk:

Thats the plan - play an 'error sound' (like a the guitar 'squeak' that GH does) and mute/muffle the music until the next playable note. I think this should give some feedback similar to the GH style.

 

Hell_Ashes:

Will that be in both or just the game?

 

AntonStruyk:

Eventually both - game first.

 

 

gigermagus:

Most of you are undoubtedly already privy to this by now, but I wanted to barf it out there for all to see because it certainly helped me and I wanted to share the wealth :D

 

If your 'home' MP3 isn't matching up with a .sng file and you think all hope is lost, never fear:

 

Ctrl+A is here!

 

And then just use the right or left arrow keys to position the entire song's content at a different spot superimposed over the actual MP3. Experimentation led me to believe that the best way to sync up a file (that is, if the .sng is accurate to the actual song) is to line up the last strummed pitch(es) of the .sng with the last strummed pitch(es) of the .mp3. If the tabber did a good job, the rest of it should fall in line perfectly. I am wholeheartedly enjoying Billy Talent's 'The Ex' because of this nifty serendipity.

 

Knock yourselves out!

 

 

gigermagus:

All right, the last one was a no-brainer, but THIS one could very well be news to at least one person's ears!

 

This is a procedure for honing in on the exact tempo of any song to the point where you can fill in the value for the BPS and have an evenly-charted demarcation of the beat and its subdivisions at all times as it scrolls by!

 

First, find the actual tempo in BPM of the song. A metronome with a 'tap' function like a Boss "Dr. Beat" works perfectly in this situation, but if you don't have one of those just download a metronome program from Cnet or use a metronome of your own to find as close to the actual tempo as you can get. When you have this value...

 

Divide it by 60 to obtain the true BPS for the song. Then, finally...

 

Multiply this BPS value by whatever subdivision of the "quarter-note" beat you would like to have represented visually for you on the scale at the bottom of the editor screen. Most of the time sixteenth notes (multiply by 4) work just fine, occasionally thirty-second notes (multiply by 8) if you're trying to nail down a rippin' solo. Or eighth notes (multiply by 2), if that's your preference and the song works mostly in block chords or is just plain simple.

 

Hmmm...perhaps I should include a guarantee of some sort in this post that I won't continue barraging the forums with tips that I'm assuming most folks have discovered already :P

 

In any case, I hope that this is able to help some of you expert tabbers out there with your wonderful work! Until Anton can work his magic and create a tempo utility of some sort, this is about the best that one can do aside from being really familiar with a song, strumming the entire thing on a keyboard/controller, and being secure in their rhythmic stability as a human being ;D

 

Cheers!

 

 

AntonStruyk:

The speed of the scrolling notes (and subsequently the 'time' you can see ahead) will be set in the game depending on the specified difficulty of the song. Hard songs will have the notes scroll faster than easy songs.