Tutorials · Sound and Music · Chapter 9

Pause

Two more interface sounds

1. Copy open_002.ogg and close_002.ogg from Interface Sounds, which chapter 6 downloaded, into your project’s audio folder, and press Refresh in Assets.
2. Leave their Stream on Auto: each is a third of a second, and Auto holds it whole.

/// Escape, which the input map calls pause, pauses the game: everything that
/// runs with the game stops where it is, and the pause menu, which runs only
/// while the game is paused, takes over. It sits on the crypt itself, which
/// runs with the game.
component PauseKey {
    fn loop() {
        // Escape presses pause on the step it goes down.
        if pressed("pause") {
            pause();
        }
    }
}

pause and resume

pause() pauses the game at the end of the step: every node whose Process Mode lets it runs on, and the rest stop where they are. resume() lets the game go on at the end of the step.

Process Mode, in a node’s Advanced fold

Whether the node runs while the game is paused: Inherit, as its parent does, the default; Pausable, stopping with the game; WhenPaused, only while paused, as the pause menu’s canvas does; or Always. Every node of the crypt inherits, so all of them stop with it, but the pause canvas, which the starter set to WhenPaused.

The menu, heard

1. Select pause_menu, under pause. Press Add component and choose AudioSourceComponent. Leave Clip empty and Bus on Sfx; set Volume to 0.4, and untick Positional.
2. Add a trigger open, its Clip open_002.ogg, and a trigger close, its Clip close_002.ogg.
3. Replace everything in pause_menu.rgs with the script below, and press Ctrl+S.

/// The pause menu, over the crypt. Its canvas runs only while the game is
/// paused, so it shows itself on the first step of each pause, and hides
/// itself on the step Resume lets the game go on: once the game runs again
/// its hooks stop, and a menu left showing would sit over the crypt.
///
/// It is heard too. As it opens it plays its open sound and asks for the
/// paused mix, the music muffled behind the menu; as it closes it plays its
/// close sound and hands the mix back to the room: to the zone he stands in,
/// or to the room's own.
component PauseMenu {
    /// Whether it is showing, so it shows itself once a pause, not on every
    /// step.
    #[hidden]
    open: bool = false,
    /// How long the mix takes to become the paused one as the menu opens, in
    /// seconds.
    into_pause: f32 = 0.25,
    /// How long the mix takes to go back to the room's as the menu closes, in
    /// seconds.
    out_of_pause: f32 = 0.5,

    fn loop() {
        if !open {
            show();
            open = true;
            play_sound("open");
            set_mix("paused", into_pause);
        }
        // A click on Resume, Enter or Space while it holds the focus, or
        // Escape through its Shortcut, presses resume on the game's next step.
        if pressed("resume") {
            hide();
            open = false;
            play_sound("close");
            clear_mix(out_of_pause);
            resume();
        }
        // A click on Title, or Enter or Space while it holds the focus. A
        // change of scene ends the pause, and lets the paused mix go: the
        // title opens on its own.
        if pressed("title") {
            play_sound("close");
            change_scene("title");
        }
    }
}

set_mix

Slides the mix to the snapshot of that name over the seconds given, and holds it there: no zone moves the mix until the script lets go. Here set_mix("paused", into_pause), a quarter of a second.

clear_mix

Lets go of the mix set_mix holds, sliding over the seconds given to the snapshot of the zone the listener stands in, or else to the room’s default. Here clear_mix(out_of_pause), half a second.

A dim behind it

1. Select pause_menu, press + Add node and choose Panel. Rename it pause_dim. Its Rect stays as it comes, so it fills the menu, which fills the canvas.
2. Set its Panel Color to 63, 38, 49, the dark brown of the art’s outlines, at half alpha, 128.
3. Press Add component and choose ThemeRoleComponent. Set Role to Custom, so the canvas’s Theme leaves its colour alone.
4. In the Hierarchy, drag pause_dim to the top of pause_menu’s children, above pause_name: the first child is drawn first, under the rest. Press Ctrl+S.

The Panel’s Color

The colour the panel is filled with, red, green and blue from 0 to 255, and its alpha, how much of what is under it it covers: 128, about half, so the room shows through, darker.

The Theme Role’s Role

Which of the canvas’s Theme colours the node takes. Custom takes none, so the Panel keeps the Color you gave it.

Two slots for the pause

1. Select mix. On Music, press + beside Slots: a second slot. Make it a LowPass, Cutoff 500, Resonance 0.707, and untick its Enabled.
2. On Sfx, press + beside Slots: a fifth slot, after the Delay. Make it a HighPass, Cutoff 400, Resonance 0.707, and untick its Enabled.
3. Open each of the snapshots cave, passage and well, and press + once beside its Music Effects and once beside its Sfx Effects: six presses. Each adds the new slot’s switch as the slot itself is, unticked.
4. Press Ctrl+S.

The HighPass’s Cutoff

Below this, in hertz, the sound is rolled away; above it, it passes: the LowPass turned over. At 400, a rumble goes and a hiss stays: what makes a sound come through a wall, or out of a radio. From 20 to 20000.

The HighPass’s Resonance

As the LowPass’s: 0.707 is flat, rolling away smoothly; higher lifts a peak at the Cutoff.

Music’s LowPass at 500

Lower than the passage’s 800, and on Music alone: the music is heard from behind the menu, its melody dull and far, and the room’s sounds are left as they are.

The paused mix

1. Press + beside Snapshots: a fourth snapshot, empty as the first was. Name it paused.
2. Give it the presses the others have now: + beside Master’s Effects twice, beside Music’s twice and beside Sfx’s five times, each press a switch as its slot is; and once beside its Send Amounts, an amount at the row’s own 0. Then tick Music’s second, LowPass, and Sfx’s fifth, HighPass. Its switches now read: Master Compressor on, LowPass off; Music Gain and LowPass on; Sfx Compressor on, Panner, Reverb and Delay off, HighPass on. Leave every Volume at 1, as a snapshot comes.
3. Press Ctrl+S.

The waterfall roars on

1. Select waterfall. In its Node section, open Advanced and set Process Mode to Always. Press Ctrl+S.

The pause, heard

1. Press Run game, and Play. In the hall, press Escape; wait; press Escape again, the Resume button’s Shortcut.
2. Walk to the bell chamber, and do the same.

held, in the Sound tab’s Voices

A voice the pause is holding where it stood, to play on from there at Resume.

Who decides what you hear

The pause

Check it works