The importance of Mood/Atmosphere

[Phoenix]

Umm, that's one of the graphics styles and about coherency of graphics, still does't means realistic graphics especially in combination with realistic shadows, realistic lightings etc are obsolutely useless to conjure up certain atmosphere.

[Hell Kitty]

Umm, that's one of the graphics styles and about coherency of graphics, still does't means realistic graphics especially in combination with realistic shadows, realistic lightings etc are obsolutely useless to conjure up certain atmosphere.

Realistic shadows and lighting (and physics and such) isn't what photorealism is about. Photorealism is just what the name suggets, graphics that look at good as a photo of real life. Max Payne 2 is a recent example of photorealism, with the textures and models made to look very much like the real thing. Silent Storm is an example of a game with realistic lighting and shadows, but a stylised, more cartoony look to the world and characters.

[chaosprism]

I'm sure there probably isnt the money available to profession composers to make music specifically for a computer game (I dont really know maybe there is)

 

But I could certainly see certain tunes that are hidden away of a movie soundtrack (and often never heard at all) that are pretty good and not even used in the original movie sometimes that would make good scores for computer games.

 

 

Games are using some semi-professional actors now to voice over characters, it wouldnt be such a huge leap to see a semi-professional or more composer making scores for a game, it's probably even been done sometimes without our knowledge.

 

RPG's these days are and should epic constructions with many paths that have to come together like a movie to be successful, I guess the money is just not there yet to justify it. But sometimes I wish the art of it was enough to lure some creative people away from high monetary return persuit into something they are then proud to be part of and at least gives them something in return.

[Powerslave]

The lack of everything that has been described as "atmosphere" in posts above is what makes Morrowind inferior to Daggerfall, IMO ("Bah, did that geek have to mention TES series again? Damn him!" <_<

 

Sure, Morrowind has some top-notch graphics. But it just can't capture the dark atmosphere of Daggerfall, the feeling that this world is in decline and danger lurks everywhere.

 

In Daggerfall you enter a city at night riding a horse, snow showers around you, hearing only the galloping of the horse and that excellent dark/melancholic music in the background that just makes you wanna enter an inn to rest and escape the dangers that lurk in the darkness.

 

In Morrowind, on the other hand, you...run in the desert/shores/tundra, hearing every 20 seconds the nerve-wrecking *screetch!* of those stupid lizard-birds that where apparently conceived by some sick person and whose only purpose in the game is to slow the player down and give him Blight disease. Gah!

 

Daggerfall still has the best ambient sounds and music selection, IMHO.

[Mark Nazzal]

A great example of how music can make the atmosphere of the game outstanding is Fallout, and especially Modoc, New Reno, and The Den.

I used the Fallout Music as ambient in our RPG-session yesterday, it was very cool.

 

Mark Morgan rules!

Which music exactly did you use?

Almost every tune from the Fallout 1 soundtrack, New Reno, Modoc and Redding from the sequel and a couple from PS:T.

 

We were playing a Post-apocalyptic, Swedish RPG called "Mutant".

"Mutant" sounds quite interesting :ph34r:

 

I'll try to dig up a bit more about that.

 

PS. personally, I think that "The Den" soundtrack is the best one I've ever heared, while at the same time the "Modoc" soundtrack is the most scenery-compatible one I've ever heared - it has a sense of harmony and peace, and at the same time, it makes you feel that there is something wrong with the city, and that it's inhabitants have their own little problems.

[Peregrinus]

For me, the aspect of a RPG that adds the most atmosphere in neither music nor graphics, but actually the NPCs.

[Dabrinko]

"Mutant" sounds quite interesting  :ph34r:

 

I'll try to dig up a bit more about that.

 

PS. personally, I think that "The Den" soundtrack is the best one I've ever heared, while at the same time the "Modoc" soundtrack is the most scenery-compatible one I've ever heared - it has a sense of harmony and peace, and at the same time, it makes you feel that there is something wrong with the city, and that it's inhabitants have their own little problems.

It's in Swedish, so If you're not Scandinavian or Able to speak it, it's no use actually. Well, you can look at the pretty pictures:

Http://www.mutant.nu

 

("nu" is "now" in Swedish)