Creating DirectMusic Embellishments: Intros, Ends, and Breaks

DirectMusic intros occur when the player starts a game, at the beginning of each level, and when resuming a paused game. Ends occur when the player completes a level, the player quits, or the player wins a game. We use breaks whenever the player pauses the game. DirectMusic embellishments are created just as other patterns in a Style. They are simply tagged as an embellishment in the Pattern Properties window. The groove range indicates when an embellishment pattern is called. For instance, an intro pattern with a groove range of 1 to 17 plays if the music is to start from any of the first 17 groove levels. Likewise, an end pattern with a groove range of 10 to 20 will only play if the game calls an end while any groove from 10 to 20 is playing. This allows you to tailor multiple intros and ends for different patterns of music. For example, Spin Cycle utilizes six intros and five ends. Their groove ranges span all of the composition's groove levels from 10 to 45.