ELIAS Software, the Sweden-based company committed to bringing greater immersion to the video game industry, today announced the release of the ELIAS Music Engine and ELIAS Composer’s Studio v1.6.
This latest version delivers new features targeted at further fine-tuning the customisation options already present in the engine. This update also applies to the ELIAS Unity plugin so users will need to download the latest version from eliassoftware.com
Something that becomes more obvious with each new release is how passionate the people behind ELIAS are about not only the music but how game developers and gamers alike can experience movie-like immersion in their games. The ELIAS Music Engine is equally accessible for seasoned developers as it is for composers with little to no programming experience. This enables a wide assortment of creative minds to come together and produce their dream projects, whether on an indie budget or triple-A. The plan from the very start was to bring video game music up to the same level as movie scores – soundtracks that could follow and adapt depending on environment and events.
The biggest hurdle, says CEO, Kristofer Eng were “motifs” which are musical themes connected to a specific character, setting or event and when played should seamlessly integrate with the existing harmony. Now, the ELIAS Music Engine has made this possible through one of its new functions; “stinger specific agility beat points” which enables tonal stingers/motifs. “For the first time on the ELIAS journey, I feel like I can write video game music from a musical standpoint and create a score that is totally integrated into the game’s story.” – Kristofer Eng, CEO
Another new function is the inclusion of a shuffle mode which allows for better variability for stinger variation selection. The ELIAS Composer’s studio now supports Ogg Vorbis playback and if the user prefers, the studio can now automatically convert all audio files in their project to Ogg when exporting. Streamlined and enhanced with features specifically chosen to give even more control and usability to the musicians and programmers working behind the scenes, version 1.6 promises a bigger leap forward for adaptive game music.
“This is a massive updating of the already competent ELIAS Music Engine” – Kristofer Eng
About ELIAS Software
ELIAS Software is a company based in Stockholm, Sweden. Founded by Kristofer Eng, a trained film music composer and music theory teacher together with his former student, now Head of Development, Philip Bennefall, the company is dedicated to providing innovative solutions in the field of video game music rendering. ELIAS, Elastic Lightweight Integrated Audio System, is a music engine which attempts to change the way we perceive and experience interactive music in video games. With ELIAS, composers and game developers can easily collaborate to create musical scores that adapt based on the player’s actions in the virtual world.