In-game external music player controls

[Filmgeek47]

I know this is a long shot, but the single best thing you guys could do to improve the game would be to add an ability to control music and podcast playback from within the game menus.

As a longtime VR player, the biggest drag for me has been those long trips in the game where you basically just sit in silence waiting to get to your destination. Having the gal-net integration has been HUGE for me, because it gives you something to listen to without forcing you to alt-tab out of the game (which is especially tough in VR). Even just an option to feed a different audio source into the play/pause button for gal-net would work in a pinch.

It may seem like a small thing, but having external audio that isn’t aware of in game hails or audio warnings utterly breaks immersion, and it’s inherently awkward to try and juggle between the game and another program.

I’d happily take some sort of .ini hack that allows me to replace the gal-net feed with a program like iTunes, but the best scenario would be a separate play/pause for “music” or better yet some sort of system modders could use to customize an extra control panel.

 

[BinaryFu]

I know this is a long shot, but the single best thing you guys could do to improve the game would be to add an ability to control music and podcast playback from within the game menus.

As a longtime VR player, the biggest drag for me has been those long trips in the game where you basically just sit in silence waiting to get to your destination. Having the gal-net integration has been HUGE for me, because it gives you something to listen to without forcing you to alt-tab out of the game (which is especially tough in VR). Even just an option to feed a different audio source into the play/pause button for gal-net would work in a pinch.

It may seem like a small thing, but having external audio that isn’t aware of in game hails or audio warnings utterly breaks immersion, and it’s inherently awkward to try and juggle between the game and another program.

I’d happily take some sort of .ini hack that allows me to replace the gal-net feed with a program like iTunes, but the best scenario would be a separate play/pause for “music” or better yet some sort of system modders could use to customize an extra control panel.

When I saw the title of this I thought, "I have that, it's a button on my keyboard I have mapped for media..." but then you said two letters: V R and that just made me do a 180 turn about. I couldn't imagine what it would be like to have to try and ALT+TAB while in VR, or handle your keyboard, or...well a lot of things.

It's not as terrible of an idea as the title suggests. You may be onto something.

 

[Dsign]

If you have media controls on your keyboard, apps like Spotify will detect said controls.

You don't have to alt-tab out of the game, controls work when game is running.

Easy

 

[Filmgeek47]

Obviously there are workarounds for the issue. I just wanted to express my support for something built into the game, both for convenience and immersion purposes when in VR. Keyboard controls are okay, but trying to distinguish media keys isn’t easy when you can’t see the keys.

 

[Para Handy]

An in-cockpit media player has been asked for many times - I totally support the provision of this.

[up]

P.S. Gamemusicpacks for E D includes a voice-controlled media player if you are interested.

 

[Dsign]

I would assume that anything directly built ingame would cause trouble with ownership rights concerning the songs and tracks you'd play in said built in player ?
Look at GTAV for example, they had to buy the rights to the songs we hear on the various radio channels. When the players started to add custom playlists in those channels, the devs had to block the feature do to copyrights issues.

 

[trollson]

There seem to be plenty of ways players can access their own music while playing the game - so why spend developer time on it?

As far as I recal... A lot of effort was expended in creating the soundscape for Elite, with the background music generated (or assembled) on the fly to reflect the events in the game -- so the background music conveys information to the player as well as simple ambience.

(Unless FD didn't bother with this and just faked it...)

 

[znôrt]

I would assume that anything directly built ingame would cause trouble with ownership rights concerning the songs and tracks you'd play in said built in player ?

not at all!!

but i can see how someone could get a hard on with the sole idea.

unless ofc they wanted to build a media platform around it. galaxify anyone? but a regular player to listen to your own stuff or even free podcasts or radio? not a problem.

 

[Orvidius]

The solution I've been using isn't ideal, but works-- I look through the nose-gap of the VR headset, to use my phone's iTunes remote control app.

Oculus Dash also lets you put a window right into your cockpit, which is great, but it still has some issues. I don't run it currently because it has this "black screen of death" thing going on, where only a reboot will get the headset working again.

An in-game API would very welcome indeed.

 

[777Driver]

All you need is voice attack or Oculus dash, I use both. Have a 50" screen on-board my ship to browse the forum, check Inara or use my media player. You can resize the window or put it anywhere inside the ship.

Pretty sure the vive has the same thing

[video=youtube;SvP_RI_S-bw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvP_RI_S-bw[/video]

I would assume that anything directly built ingame would cause trouble with ownership rights concerning the songs and tracks you'd play in said built in player ?
Look at GTAV for example, they had to buy the rights to the songs we hear on the various radio channels. When the players started to add custom playlists in those channels, the devs had to block the feature do to copyrights issues.

Not for a media player, plenty of games allow you to play your own tracks. The legal issues come when you try to stream or upload videos with copyrighted music.

 

[Happy Daze]

Using Steam, right? In-game, Shift-Tab to open the Stream stuff, I went to Screenshots and "Set Shortcut". In this window there is a Music Tab where I scanned and included a bunch of Star Trek theme music. Once everything was imported, I closed that window and at the bottom of the Steam stuff is a Music link. I selected a bunch of Star Trek music and started playing. You can create a queue and play the music you want. Worked great, except it continued to play after I closed the game, so there is a checkbox somewhere to stop that.

Once you are happy with your new in-game music, you may have to turn off the game music so they don't play over each other. I didn't have time to check that and I didn't have a lot of time to play with this, being at work, but some fine-tuning and I think it will work fine.

As for copyright, since you are not charging people to watch your videos (I hope) you can have whatever music playing in the background.