[SCVanguard89]

ok, so i have 2 main questions:

1) do cut scenes NEED to be recorded in game, or can i film a cut scene with actors and use it in the game?

2) can i make a mission where you are in the atmosphere of a planet, or even better, close to the surface? something like dogfighting over an enemy base, or bombing a spaceport? i've seen the "Shadows of Lylat" demo, so i know they figured it out, but can it be done without the revised engine?

[FUBAR-BDHR]

1) Yes did it with FS2 didn't they?

2) Yes again.  No gravity though and you'll need to make a model for the planet and probably a skybox to go with the land. 

[The E]

What FUBAR meant was, it's definitely possible to do prerendered or live-action cutscenes and play them at various places. They need to be in ogg theora format, and they need to be defined in a table, but it's definitely doable.

[karajorma]

2) can i make a mission where you are in the atmosphere of a planet, or even better, close to the surface? something like dogfighting over an enemy base, or bombing a spaceport? i've seen the "Shadows of Lylat" demo, so i know they figured it out, but can it be done without the revised engine?

Hang on a sec, what "revised engine"? Shadows of Lylat uses the standard FS2_Open engine. You'll need that to do anything with cutscenes or planetary missions.

Bear in mind that planetary missions require an enormous time commitment. SoL have quite a large team and have been working on their game for 6 years!

[FUBAR-BDHR]

Or a cheap repeating landscape with a base model

[karajorma]

I'm referring more to the work on the sky, gravity, aerodynamics, etc. It was easy for TBP cause those missions are in space and not even that bad for SoL since they appear to have ignored gravity same as the games they are based on.

[Axem]

Or a cheap repeating landscape with a base model

Hey now, that was just a test model.

[SCVanguard89]

isnt the out-of-ship with those square targeting things infront of the ship not stock FS2 Open?
i figured that it was a revised engine

[FUBAR-BDHR]

Scripting I believe.  All doable in FS2_Open.

[Mongoose]

The out-of-ship view can even be accomplished in retail FS2, though I'd imagine not in the exact same way that the Shadows of Lylat team handles it.

[Reprobator]

well if you don't care about gravity and such and just want to make atmospheric mission that works perfectly, only one thing , having debris in atmospheric mission flying around looks a bit weird.
It lacks a "no debris" flag in mission spec (or i may have miss it)

[Dragon]

It would be great to have such flag.

[Sushi]

Isn't there an "Affected by gravity" checkbox for ships in FRED? Does it not do anything?

I was under the impression that gravity in missions was possible without scripting...

[Reprobator]

I ve tried it a long time ago and it didn't worked.
Anyway even if it worked, we should have some option to give the direction of gravity too...