May 12, 2009

Drum Trigger - Microphone

After many failed attempts with the Piezo, I asked for help from Joel Murphy and the people of Super Uber. Both of them suggested me to use a microphone instead.


In this case, the microphone embedded in the drum pad can connect to the PC directly through a phone plug.

The microphone can pick up the volume of the drumbeats. The fact that it's inside the drum pad also helps eliminating audio input that doesn't result from the drum beating.
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Drum Controller - Piezo


Many DIY tutorials suggest embedding a Piezo sensor inside the drum pad, which picks up vibrations. To stabilize the sensor's reading, additional circuits using an OpAmp module are also recommended.

The output of the sensor is sent to a microcontroller, which in turn is connected to a PC using a Serial-USB cable.

For the microcontrollers, I have tried an Arduino and a PIC16F88 chip. On the PC's end, I have attempted to visualize the data with openFrameworks and Processing.

The results indicate that the input from the Piezo sensor can be noisy and unstable. So far, connecting the Piezo sensor directly to the Arduino produces the best results; nevertheless, the data requires filtering and edge detection before it could be used.

On the other hand, when the sensor is used with an OpAmp module, the microcontroller will get a reading that doesn't change even when the drum is hit.
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Stage 2: Talking Drum

The hero was traveling across a plain when a military officer demanded for his assistance. They belong to a scouting team from a nearby fortress and has discovered traces of enemies heading towards the fortress, but sending a messenger to warn the fortress will be too late. The military has a certain drum code that they use to communicate with other, by which the hero must use to warn the people in the fortress.

Game Play:
The drum code works similarly as a Morse Code; different patterns of the drumbeats stands for a different message. The player thus has to play the pattern with the matching rhythm.

Similar to how Guitar Hero, Rockband, and Taiko no Tatsujin, the pattern which the Drummer needs to relay is shown over a timeline as keys. As the score rolls along, the player has to beat the drum according to the keys.

The player wins when he can perform the patterns with few or no mistakes.
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Stage 1: Beast in the Village

A boar is discovered at the vicinity of the hero's village! The hero has to stand off against the beast with his drumming until the beast leaves.

Game Play:

A Tug-O-War mechanism is applied in this game. On one end, there's the boar from the forest; on the other, there's the Drummer and his village. During the gameplay, the boar attempts to approach the village, while the Drummer tries to drive the boar back into the forest.

The Drummer will advance or draw back based on his vigor, which is represented by the gauge. This gauge's value will increase with every drumbeat. Hence the louder and faster the drumming, the more imposing the Drummer appears against the boar, and the better chance he has in forcing the boar backwards. If the Drummer fails to induce enough vigor, however, he will be pushed backwards instead.

The game ends when either the boar reaches the village or when the Drummer succeeds in driving the boar into the forest.



Previous version:
This stage is about the tempo of the drum beating, and a gauge meter will indicate the tempo required to keep the beast at bay. The goal is to keep the gauge meter within the Safe Zone. If the tempo is too slow, the beast will proceed to rampage the village. If the tempo is too fast, the beast will get intimidated and aggravated and pounce on the hero.

The range of the Safe Zone will also change during the course.

The player wins when he succeeded in holding off the beast through a given period of time.

This idea had to be changed; in real life, when drumming is used to chase away animals, intuitively it will be best for the drumming to be as loud and frequent as possible.
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Precedence

A list of existing projects and works where this project is based upon....



Taiko no Tatsujin
Namco

A music rhythm game where player plays a Taiko (Japanese for "Large Drum") to a selected music score.

http://www.ntsc-uk.com/review.php?platform=ps2&game=TaikoNoTatsujin


Rockband
Harmonix Music System
A game that recreates the band performance experience, where players may perform with guitar, bass, drums, or vocal. For the first three instruments, special controllers are used. To play the drum, for example, requires an external drum set.

http://www.rockband.com/


Ouendan & Elite Beat Agents
iNis/Nintendo
An NDS game about cheerleaders, whose performance is driven by the player tapping the screen in accordance to the music. Compared to the previous precedence, these games put more emphasis on the narrative.

http://ds.ign.com/objects/746/746980.html
http://www.gamespot.com/ds/puzzle/elitebeatagents/index.html


Patapon
Sony Computer Entertainment
In this PSP game, patterns of drum beats are played to maneuver an army.

http://www.us.playstation.com/patapon/


Loom
Lucas Arts
An adventure game where the main character casts spells by playing different notes. The act of playing a melody is given new meaning in this world.

http://www.lucasarts.comgames/

http://www.salikon.dk/loom.html


Interactive Drums
Super Uber
Interactive Drums is a project that has appeared in many exhibitions. The beating on the drum controls the visuals of the installation.

http://www.superuber.com.br/


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User Test on Stage 1

Most people who played Stage 1 appears to be able to make the connection that hitting the drum will make the beast move backwards.

Divine Beats - User Test - Stage 1 from Ingrid Wu on Vimeo.


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SWF Demo Available for Download

The swf files for Stage 1 and 2 are hosted and availabe for download here.

Ideally, the two stages should be played with the drum controller (using a microphone input). A drum beat can also be simulated by pressing the 'h' key.

Enjoy~
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About Divine Beats

Divine Beats is a music rhythm game that simulates different situations in which human civilization utilizes percussion instruments. The narrative and gameplay will stem from how people have used percussion instruments in entertainment, signaling, warfare, rituals, social gatherings, and more. It is a collection of mini-games that, like other games of this genre, provide the enjoyment of performing; on the other hand, the mini-games also serve as narratives that recreate the experience of performing for different purposes.
The story takes place in a Chinese-themed fictional realm. The main casts include a greenhorn Drummer, who has just obtained his own drum for his birthday, and a Drum Spirit, who resides within this new drum. With his own agenda in mind, the Drum Spirit forces the Drummer onto a journey. The ensuing plot is made up of episodes where the duo has to resolve situations with their drum performance.


This game will utilize a drum controller similar to the Taiko no Tatsujin arcade machines. The drum controller takes the shape of a drum and relays the drum beat data to the game engine.
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