[Petrarch of the VBB]

I have proposed this before, but it never received much of a response. However, I will try again.
I propose the following: In-Engine cutscenes. Those who play Homeworld, Operation Flashpoint, and Starlancer will know what I mean. And they can be made in a similar way to those in Flashpoint, using the game’s own editor, but the player replaced by a fixed viewpoint.
As it turns out, little new code is required, as they can be made as a mission in FRED, but the player’s ship be rendered immobile (either by damage, or preferably a new tbl entry), and the player simply watches the action unfold. However, from a fixed viewpoint this can get a bit dull, so there needs to be a way to view from other ships. I know that we already have this in the form of /,* and so on, on the numpad, but I request SEXPs for it. I would also require a SEXP for toggling the hud on and off, as I don’t want it in the way of the action.
So, I request the following SEXPs:
View-from-ship-internal (pilot view)
View-from-ship-chase (behind view, normally achieved by pressing *)
Toggle-hud-on
Toggle-hud-off.

It would also be useful if the rotatable external view could be worked into a SEXP, but I don’t know how the rotation could be made to work, unless the angle is defined in the SEXP, rather like the way the location of background bitmaps is (bank, pitch, heading)

I have already made a tbl entry for an immobile ship. It and a sample cutscene mission can be found here: www.3dap.com/hlp/hosted/14_year_war/PoVBB/Fscutscenemission.zip (the music in the mission is actually a comm. message, as I dare not meddle with the music tbl. You will have to substitute the music yourself, as it is a very large file. However, the pace of the cutscene follows the music, so it can be downloaded separately, here: www.3dap.com/hlp/hosted/14_year_war/PoVBB/FScutscene_mission_music.zip , for those who care, the track is “Darken” by Seventh)

To insert these cutscenes into a campaign, they would simply be part of the chain, like a regular mission, but they would have to be made without a debriefing.

[Petrarch of the VBB]

Just realised. the mission I've posted is the wrong version. I'll correct it tomorrow. It only has two cameras, you see, not the four I need.

[Stunaep]

the widescreen view should also be easy, since it is used in the death screen

[Petrarch of the VBB]

Is that all people have to say?!?

I spent a whole day making that cutscene!

[Terorist]

This would be very nice.
I haven't checked that example mission, but the idea ought to work... To be able to turn and move the camera to follow objects or to move the focus to some other point without "cutting" would be required... Perhaps with the same object moving method that has been proposed. Besides, I've always wanted to be able to keep watching the action after deaths, move that camera among the action and enjoy the show!
(So far it has been quite impractical; using the different targeting buttons to change point of view, hoping to get a good shot, and trying to get closer by riding chase cam...)

[karajorma]

I`ve said this before and I`ll keep saying it EVERY time someone suggests in-game cutscenes. Make them Skippable. And I don`t mean wait until the entire thing has loaded and started playing but I mean have an option the player can choose to turn them off completely.

I personally HATE in game cutscenes on almost every occasion. In general they ruin the sense of immersion I have in the game and can often force you to watch them over and over again each time you get killed in a mission.

Petrach mentioned Starlancer which is probably the best example of how cutscenes can ruin a mission. It cuts in on you every five minutes to play a cutscene at you which you can`t even skip easily. So every time you get killed you have to sit and watch the damn thing.

[Petrarch of the VBB]

Well they wouldn't be in the middle of a mission, but the same place as the cutscenes are now. They would be skippable, like the training missions. You can have a button saying "skip sequence" or something.

[Petrarch of the VBB]

Although as I said elsewhere, they would be part of the chain of missions in a campaign, like a normal mission. They would have a breifing, describing tha ction of the scene, and you could watch it if you wanted. There would be a button in the top right corner, like the training missions, and you would click it to skip the cutscene.

[karajorma]

Okay. That I have no problem with. I don`t mind cutscenes as long as they don't interupt the flow of the game.
 What you said at the top of the thread sounded more like having cutscenes appear in the middle of a mission like they do in Starlancer.

[Petrarch of the VBB]

Nonono. I wouldn't wish that on anybody.

Anyway, I have uploaded the updated version of the cutscene, and this time the zip includes the pof for the camera ship. (it is the countermeasure pof, with an eyepoint). Would someone please D/L and run it, and give me some feed back.

Here's the link again if you can be botheed to look up.

FS In-Engine Cutscene

[Stryke 9]

Homeworld got away with ingame cutscenes because the engine was beautiful, whereas the real cutscenes weren't for much. And they still were kinda dissapointing at times- you felt things would be so much cooler if they actually used some full-poly models and nice effects such as can't be handled by a game engine. FreeSpace kinda has the opposite thing going- whether you like to admit it or not, the graphics are pretty grunky throughout most of the game (they're all right for gameplay, and look kinda cool when you have things to think about other than whether something looks movie-quality or not, but as soon as you hold still and just watch the stuff go on, particularly these days... well, FS ain't no I-War, and the ships are one hell of a lot bigger than those ants of vessels you could barely see in HW), whereas it has the ability (and this community has the innate skill) for some stunning cutscenes.

I dunno, I just don't see a case in which I'd welcome ingames.


However, what might be handy and related to this is the ability to switch from ship to ship (or ship to camera, for cutscenes). Not only would this give cutscenes an actual function, but it'd be a useful game tool- anyone remember the REM-control from I-War? Stuff like that.

Ooh! And guided missiles!

[Anaz]

the easiest way to do ingame cutscenes would be to say hell with all of that other "immobile ship" crap. Just be able to force the player ship to go places, and have a SEXP to turn off the hud. Also one sexp which allows you to force the player's position.

Example:

game_cutscene_start_delay
-30
move_ship
-Alpha 1
-Waypoint Path 1
-30
-GTC Fenris 1
game_cutsceene_end_delay
-60


in the above example, the HUD is turned off, a cutscene starts at 30 seconds after the mission starts, Alpha 1 is teleported to the start of waypoint path 1, and moves the length of waypoint path 1 for 30 seconds, facing GTC Fenris 1, and at 60 seconds, the cutscene ends, and Alpha 1 is teleported back to its original position. Seems simple enough for me

[Terorist]

The impression I got from the start was just a parallel option for the pre-rendered cutscenes, not some mission interrupting nonsense. I guess the "in-game cutscene" threw people off, I only thought about it as a "game-engine-using cutscene". Let's see what the pros and cons are...
Good:

• Relatively easy to make, and because cutscenes can be very nice narrative aids for a campaign, we would see them more often. (Also, see next point...)
• Very efficient downloading-wise, no need for huge video files! (Everyone could use and release them if needed.)

Not so good:

• Probably need bughunting at creation... Problems can arise from the fact that they too will change if, for example, tables are tweaked by user... Can't be blamed on the creator, though.
• Limitations for what can be done, so no supernovas or character models...

Just some preliminary pondering.

[Stryke 9]

Since MPEG-4 compressed (DivX, Xvid, all that crap) movies are extremely small, load times aren't an issue, though. However, they would be easier to do.

Anal Amazon: Sure, if you combined it with a function that shut off player controls and put the player on autopilot, so to speak. Otherwise, blah. It'd be nice to move the ship around, but, let's face it- in half of the scripted sort of things that would get turned into cutscene (things like the Belisarius showdown, that dream sequence in Derelict), the player is looking in completely the wrong direction when whatever happens, happens, because there's other stuff to look at or just because nothing's happening and they're trying to get in a better position to watch the fun.

[Petrarch of the VBB]

Will someone PLEASE download and run my example. Tell me what you think of it!

And Analazon, I don't mean them to be in the middle of a mission. If you'd read what I'd posted you would see that they would be self-contained, like a normal mission, part of the chain in a campaign. they would fill the place of a mission, and would be a narrative type thing, like Stryke said.

[Inquisitor]

BTW, your PM box is full...

[Petrarch of the VBB]

Ahh, time for some deletage then.

Ok, try any resendage.

[kasperl]

i've watched it, and all i saw where some herc's killing of three tritons. not sure if that's all that's supposed to happen.

[Petrarch of the VBB]

That about sums it up, yes. It's not much of a mission, just a test bed for the immobile ships. I am also testing my scripting skills, like having the ships fly above and below camera. I am awaiting those SEXPs in the next SCP release to make it work properly.

[DTP]

stand-alone Missions that are Ai-scripts will require the programming of the following

new sexps, kind a mentioned above, not that efficiant, since we already have a camera to use(remember the supernova). so i would add an extra sexp(do type)

sexp Camera-pos
----ship(we need an ofset, this is the easiest)
-----location(+ for front, -for behind) like -100 or +100
------orientation(need a target, like a ship), or the ship we use for location.

it would also require

New mission Type(Scripted sequence), to skip weapon/ship selection & Scramble->launch buttons.

to bypass checks that there are player wings, player ships.

to to to, and i could go on and on.

its a huge task, anybody willing to pick it up .

I think in-mission ai scripts where the player´s View is transfered to a camera for an amount of time is the Easier/quicker way.