The hills and valleys of your favorite song, visualized by oscilloscope , might work well as the terrain of a computer game (preferably a two-dimensional side-scrolling one).
In order for the hills and mountains to work if your tank battalions are only rated to 20 degree unpaved inclines, you would have to stretch out the song significantly. a two-minute song might easily make an epic, twenty-mile map, depending on your scale. The smaller spikes (usually percussion instruments that go "pshhh") could be translated into pine trees of varying sizes. Some songs have square-looking oscilloscope readouts, so those could be city levels, although that's a stretch.
A song with certain characteristics (instrumentation, key, rhythm) would produce a huge map with distinctive traits. Thus, when selecting a map generation seed, a player could pick a song of a certain type.
The system could create three-dimensional maps by averaging through a grid of two-dimensional maps and then possibly using a smoothing feature after first mapping the areas of high tree density.
The levels would have clear patterns (unlike most random number generators, if that's how you generate your terrain) that might appear more realistic. If the game were military-based, you could name your battles after the song, or worse, play the song while you use the map!-- Ketchupybread, Nov 15 2007 Vib-Ribbon for PS1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vib-RibbonThis idea sparked the memory of an old import favorite from way back. [ironfroggy, Nov 17 2007] very good, now program it
really, program it, this would be great
[+]-- evilpenguin, Nov 15 2007 <crackly field radio>
HQ: "Can you see what's beyond that ridge?" Scout: "Just the chorus again."
</cfr>-- pertinax, Nov 15 2007 would be awesome to experiment with, also for 3d maps you could have two or more songs used, more songs, more 3d variety. awesome game for this type of thing is worms [+]-- xxobot, Nov 15 2007 <crackly field radio>[scout] We're just coming up to the bridge, sir.-- AbsintheWithoutLeave, Nov 15 2007 With millions of songs to choose from, this would ensure that you would rarely have the same terrain.
Could fractal technology be used to make this a 3D adventure?
I like this. [+]-- Klaatu, Nov 15 2007 Good but baked. See my link.-- ironfroggy, Nov 17 2007 Vib-Ribbon level generation shares some similarity with this idea, but its in-game output doesn't as closely resemble the song as my ideal generated terrain would. [xxobot], I would be delighted if you used it. Link us the final product if you end up using it. I've done some programming, but I'm not proficient enough to execute this within the framework of a fun, useable game. Can a game be fun even if it's written in MATLAB?-- Ketchupybread, Nov 18 2007 Like excitebike meets scared cockroach brainwaves! [+]-- quantum_flux, Feb 10 2008 / <crackly field radio> [scout] We're just coming up to the bridge, sir.
AbsintheWithoutLeave, Nov 15 2007 /
excellent.-- bungston, Feb 11 2008 random, halfbakery