Over the past couple of weeks I have sampled a variety of freeware, shareware, and commercial products that might be of interest to those wanting to use multimedia in their games.
Music / Audio
Hammerhead Rhythm Station- This is a great program for making your own drum loops. It delivers high quality .wav files that are a reasonable size. It is an extremely fun program to play with. *****
Easy Music Composer- EMC is a nifty piece of shareware, though I don't see any differences from the freeware version. Despite what it says on the page, you can save your midi files with the freeware version. No talent is needed, other than being able to select a note and hit compose. There are many options and instruments available. ****
Anvil Studio- AS is probably one of my favorite programs to use for creating music. It is very simple to use, and you need very little talent to throw together an interesting piece of music. Unlike EMC, Anvil Studio doesn't autocompose music for you, but it is a ton of fun. *****
FL Studio -$199 - This is more of a Digital Audio Workstation [DAW] (hence the price) but it is a professional one. If you're serious about music, this is the one to get. It's quite complicated and will take a while to get into it but some of the sounds it can produce are amazing. There are many video tutorials on how to use FL Studio so even a beginner can start tinkering.
Ejay Dance 7 - £19.99 - Another DAW but nowhere as sophisticated as FL Studio. This is one I'd recommend as I've used it to produce game music.
Octamed Sound Studio -£18 + postage - This is what started me of in music waaaaay back on the Amiga! And excellent, simple, tracker program that is extremely easy to use and come with a dvd full of samples to get you started.
Audacity - simply genius for all your recording, mixing etc. open-source, all platforms.
AKoff Music Composer: http://www.akoff.com/ - You just sing , hum or whistle but i just hum into the microphone ...and it creates midi. You can choose pitch bend control and all the midi instruments .
Image Editors
InfranView - This imagee viewer and editor is one of my favorites. It also supports mutimedia sound as well. It has a ton of features , but a couple of my favorites are the ability to capture the screen and convert to and from a variety of image formats. I've used it for years and use it on a regular basis. It is a must have. *****
Adobe Photoshop - Hands downs, Adobe PS is my favorite image editor. I've been using 5.5 for ages, and am sure that I seriously need to upgrade. It has so many features and you can do some pretty amazing things with it. You just have to try it out for yourself. *****
Corel Painter - I recently gave CP 8 a try, and have to say I was quite impressed with the features this program has. Though it isn't freeware, if you were interested in purchasing commercial imaging software, this is definitely one for consideration.
Oriens Enhancer- This sharware image editor is packed with features that rival some of the best commercial packages available. It supports over 50 different image formats (That's a lot!) and can convert between many of them. It is well worth a look.
Paint.NET - Paint.NET is free image and photo editing software for computers that run Windows. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools. An active and growing online community provides friendly help, tutorials, and plugins.
GIMP - infinitely superior to photoshop, paint shop pro etc. open-source, all platforms.
Sites offering free music
If you're not up to creating your own images and sound, there are many sites that offer free music for you to download. This is a really spotty area as far as copyright is concerned. Just because a website offers a song or music clip/sound effect for free download, doesn't necessarily mean it is free. Before using sound and images in your work, it is your job to make sure the file is in the public domain, or you have expressed written permission from the copyright holder. (It never hurts to ask) Always read the terms and condidtions and copyright information on websites that offer music. Here are some links that offer free images and sounds- Please read their terms and conditions before downloading any content.
US Copyright Laws
NOAA Photo Library- Excellent resource for some amazing images. See About Images for terms of use.
NASA- Is another great resource for some amazing images. Image Use Guidelines
Bjorn Lynne- Some amazing compositions by Bjorn Lynne. I've used a few of these over the past couple of years, very nice!
Bob's Mighty Midi- This site has some very nice, original compositions.
There are literally hundreds of websites that offer free clipart, and midi/wav sound effects, loops, background music and more. If you find a great site, please share it.
3d Programs
I love graphics, moreso, I like to create my own. If you have ever been interested in learning about or creating your very own 3d images, these are some programs that might interest you.
Strata- Though it is commercial, I have been using Strata products for a few years now, and can't say enough about it. It is simple to use and you can create some stunning 3d graphics. There are free model/texture downloads, and you really have to check the gallery and see just what Strata can do.
Blender- Blender is an amazing FREE 3d program. Though it has an extremely complicated interface, there are some great step by step tutorials to guide you through.
Anim8or- This is another free 3d program, and a small download to boot. Don't let the cheesy graphic on the main page fool you. You can create some fantastic 3d models and scenes with this. They have a support forum and if you are just getting started, there are some great tutorials to get you through. (You really have to try the eggplant tutorial) Best of all, you can export your models in 3ds format to use in other programs.
If you're looking to model buildings in 3d or want to map out a simple floorplan, there are also come great resources out there.
CadStd- Free version available.
Cadvance 6.5 Orginally released in 1995 and retailed for $1950, but now available for free. I have not tried this program as of yet.
Design Workshop Lite- Nice freeware program to do 3d modeling and build houses/buildings. I tried this out a long time ago, and thought it was a nice program, especially for free.
A9Cad-2d Cad program. Looks interesting, though a large download. I'll try it out and see how good it is.
Mapping Programs
MASTERPLAN
Masterplan is an adventure planning / campaign design tool for Dungeons & Dragons (4th edition).
Answer this question: When you're preparing a D&D 4E game, what do you need to do?
* Organise your plot?
* Detail the campaign world?
* Create interesting, balanced encounters?
* Build dungeon maps?
* Design engaging skill challenges?
* Distribute level-appropriate treasure parcels?
* Create stats for custom creatures?
* Create campaign-specific game mechanics?
Whatever your answer, Masterplan helps with that.
You can also use Masterplan during game sessions, displaying all sorts of game information to your players, such as:
* Maps and handouts
* "Read-aloud" text
* Combat encounter maps
* Initiative order
* Creature stats
* Campaign background information
I haven't tried it but it's free! MasterPlan Website
Ye Olde Map Maker
You can go there and design a flash based map and then print it out for your game. If you want to save your map, you have to register at the site. You can either save the maps as private or public. A public map means anyone who is registered and wants to load a map has the ability to see and use yours. If you alter the map, you can save it under another name and thereby add to the collection available to use. http://yeoldemapmaker.com/
Game mapper: http://trizbort.genstein.net/, found by Po. Prune. Good catch.
Dave's Mapper
A nifty online program that creates random maps for you. This one is a little different as it's made up of hand-drawn sections like you would do if you were creating a map, this makes the map look far better than 'square' rooms and 'long corridors', definitely worth giving it a look.
http://davesmapper.com/
Others
WriteItNow
"The WrIN4 application, available for Mac and Windows, is deceivingly simple. The menus and tabs are easy to understand and use, but behind these screens are added drag-and-drop features that make editing almost fun. The Tools menu has helpful things in it like “Create Random Character,” which will create a character for you based on typical story archetypes."
On a personal note this is the most easy-to-use and comprehensive pieces of software to create books / novels / background info. I urge you to at least try the demo and you'll see what I mean! I have it and it's invaluable.
http://www.ravensheadservices.com/index.php
Here's something I'm working on.
How to Host a Dungeon
Basically, How To Host A Dungeon is a solo game that creates a dungeon, it's history, and a semi-usable map (actually a cross section) that can be converted fairly easily for actual use. It's free and in pdf format:
http://planet-thirteen.com/images/dd/Ho ... ungeon.pdf
If you have found a program that you think would be of interest to Drifter's, please tell us about it. If you have found a great site for free images or sound, please share them.
