- "The image I came up with is a feather that is first blown vigorously into the air but which then calmly floats down. The music follows parallel lines -- frenetic when you are under attack and more peaceful when the threat is gone -- and I call it fight music and stalk music. The goal is for the player to be consciously unaware of this movement but to feel it as he moves in and out of battle."
- ―Clint Bajakian about the soundtrack of Star Wars: Dark Forces
iMUSE (which stands for Interactive MUsic Streaming Engine) is a game engine specifically designed to synchronize music with visual action in a video game. The point of iMUSE is to dynamically make the music fit the scenes, characters and moods of the game, much like a movie soundtrack. LucasArts patented it under US Patent No. 5,315,057. It was added to the SCUMM engine in 1991.
Michael Land, Peter McConnell and Justin Graham were responsible for the evolution of the iMUSE system.[2] The first game to use iMUSE was Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, and it has been used in all LucasArts adventure games since. It has also been used for some non-adventure Star Wars LucasArts titles such as Star Wars: X-Wing, Star Wars: TIE Fighter, Star Wars: Dark Forces and Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance.
Philosophy and technique[]
A typical example is in the flight engine of X-Wing: While the player is flying, the engine plays the normal soundtrack, loosely based on the Star Wars theme. When a Rebel or Imperial craft enters the area, the music is interrupted by a brief "Rebellion theme" or "The Imperial March" cue.
Other cues play when a mission objective succeeds or fails, when the player hyperspaces back from a mission, etc.
The interruption of music, insertion of short cues and continuing of the music uses a sophisticated algorithm which makes a smooth and almost unnoticeable transition. The result is like a unique, flowing piece, with its own variations that match the story.
