I think it would be interesting to be able to play a song in a loop. When I practice a song, I find it annoying that I have to press retry with my mouse everytime.
An alternative to the loop option would be to use the MIDI keyboard as input for the menus.
Loop option/Midi input
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No explicit, hateful, or hurtful language. Nothing illegal.
So, looping the entire song (or a smaller part of a song) accomplishes something similar to having a rewind/fast-forward option. When I start building the "training mode" features, I had intended to include both.
As a small shortcut for getting to the "Retry" button in the meantime, pressing "Enter" will always behave like clicking the button in the bottom-right and pressing "Escape" should always behave like pressing the button at the bottom-left. For example, to quickly exit the program from the song-statistics screen, you can just tap Escape three times. To press "Retry", you just have to press "Enter". That may or may not be better than having to use your mouse.
Regarding your other suggestion, using MIDI input to navigate menus is a neat idea. I've been wondering for a while how I might make something like that work best. Requesting that the user play an "Eb dim7" chord to go to the next screen seems a little unfair to beginners. But even using a single note-press still means you'd have to indicate on-screen which note to press. Having a tiny thumbnail of a single-octave piano next to each button with one key lit up would work, but it seems like it might clutter the interface a little. (I couldn't say how it would impact the interface's speed or usability either because I don't think I've ever seen another program use that kind of input.)
As a small shortcut for getting to the "Retry" button in the meantime, pressing "Enter" will always behave like clicking the button in the bottom-right and pressing "Escape" should always behave like pressing the button at the bottom-left. For example, to quickly exit the program from the song-statistics screen, you can just tap Escape three times. To press "Retry", you just have to press "Enter". That may or may not be better than having to use your mouse.
Regarding your other suggestion, using MIDI input to navigate menus is a neat idea. I've been wondering for a while how I might make something like that work best. Requesting that the user play an "Eb dim7" chord to go to the next screen seems a little unfair to beginners. But even using a single note-press still means you'd have to indicate on-screen which note to press. Having a tiny thumbnail of a single-octave piano next to each button with one key lit up would work, but it seems like it might clutter the interface a little. (I couldn't say how it would impact the interface's speed or usability either because I don't think I've ever seen another program use that kind of input.)
My game uses midi input. The keys to the left of middle C are 'go left', the keys to the right are 'go right', middle C is the 'OK' button and the black notes are the 'cancel/go back'. To be honest, it's pretty good once you get used to it. There is even a high score board entry screen that uses all the keys:
The graphics need to be cleaned up and so on but it works well too. It does take a bit of getting used to though, and I didn't include any graphical explanation for the players.
The graphics need to be cleaned up and so on but it works well too. It does take a bit of getting used to though, and I didn't include any graphical explanation for the players.
Trust me, I'm a doctor.
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angedelamort
- Posts: 7
Yeah, that might be complicated, but for really simple menu (like ok/back), left side of the keyboard could be for an option an the other side for the other option. I don't think I want to choose a song or write my name with a MIDI keyboard, but for quick access, using the MIDI input would be really appreciated (at least by mequesting that the user play an "Eb dim7" chord to go to the next screen seems a little unfair to beginners.
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Every superfluous hand movement grieves my lazy mind, so I've been thinking on those things for a bit. I would also request a loop-function. I'm imagining something like using insert to put the start and end marks, shift-space to play the loop, whereas space would still play through the song as usual. But I'm sure Nicholas will have a good solution when the day comes.
For midi input to control game commands, maybe one possibility would be to let the user himself assign key combinations to specific commands. If I want C+C#+D to pause/play for instance. As opposed to using the left side of the keyboard, this wouldn't neglect people with smaller MIDI keyboards (having to switch up and down between octaves). And it's also possible to change your shortcut the day you run into some evil jazz song that uses your wierd key combination.
For midi input to control game commands, maybe one possibility would be to let the user himself assign key combinations to specific commands. If I want C+C#+D to pause/play for instance. As opposed to using the left side of the keyboard, this wouldn't neglect people with smaller MIDI keyboards (having to switch up and down between octaves). And it's also possible to change your shortcut the day you run into some evil jazz song that uses your wierd key combination.
I mailed Nicholas this suggestion for a loop/navigation interface that could be used in training mode a few weeks ago when this forum didn't yet exist. What do you think of the concept?
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Songs learned using Synthesia:
CT: Wind Scene, The Trial | FF7: Prelude | SMB: Overworld, Underwater | Tetris: Theme A | Zelda: Lost Woods | Other: Für Elise
CT: Wind Scene, The Trial | FF7: Prelude | SMB: Overworld, Underwater | Tetris: Theme A | Zelda: Lost Woods | Other: Für Elise