[Starman01]

Is anyone here familiar with the cutscene SEXP's ? I created a creditmission (mostly so that I can play the campaign outro correctly), but those SEXP still give me a headache. I tried many cool ideas (in my opinion ) but I always failed creating the entire mission because at one point the SEXP didn't worked anymore (i.e. the fade-in fade out stuff stopped working after a camera move  ) However, I'm confident that they will be fixed sooner or later, if they haven't been already My current question is this:

I created that creditmission and display only subtitles with that SEXP. They look like this :

Code: [Select]

-true
--show-subtile
----425
----420
----text
----4500

I used the trial/error method to find a more or less central position of the screen using 1024x768. But now when playing in 1280x1024 of course everything is out of place. But the SEXP-Explanation tells about more values,
and No. 7 is "center horizontally".

But how can I enter value 7, when I don't need/have to enter value 5 "image name" and value 6 "fade in time".
Can anyone tell me how to use/insert  the "center"-values ?

[CP5670]

Yeah, I ran into the same scaling problem with the subtitles a few months ago. It's best to just avoid that sexp and use training messages instead.

I have not had any issues with the fade or camera sexps though. I think there is some problem with those on D3D, but that shouldn't be used at this point anyway.

[Admiral Edivad]

simple question: does a cutscene-tutorial exist?
for example, is there a way to show, in the cutscenes bars, the dialogues between pilots and their heads?
is there a way to move the camera at such a speed that it will seem to follow a fighter?
thanks

[Mobius]

About moving the camera,I have nver tried it but it should be:

set-camera-position
X
Y
Z
time...it should be the time spent to move the camera position from the one actually used to the coords specified in this SEXP.


You're right.There are no cutscene SEXPs tutorials.
At least there should be something that shows the true potential of those SEXPs...

[Admiral MS]

Code: [Select]

-true
--show-subtile
----425
----420
----text
----4500


Code: [Select]

-true
--show-subtile
----425
----420
----text
----4500
----0
----0
----true or false
----true or false

I used it this way in a mission and had no problems, but I'm not sure how it really works

set-camera-position
   Sets the camera position to a spot in mission space  Takes 3 arguments...
   1:   X position
   2:   Y position
   3:   Z position
It doesn't say anything that there is an optional argument where you can put the time in.

[karajorma]

I think he's mixing up set-camera-position and set-camera-facing

[Mobius]

uh you can add two more datas to set-camera-position and they're both numbers so I guess that the first is the total movement time and the second is the time spent accelerating/decelerating like other cutscene SEXP.

[Admiral MS]

And how should the camera move to the new position? Can't really imagine it as it would look really strange.

[Scooby_Doo]

Could it be possible to create a path for the camera?

[Goober5000]

Could it be possible to create a path for the camera?

Definitely possible.  We could define some spline paths for the camera to follow, which could include timing and acceleration information.  Not sure how much work it would take, though.

[Starman01]

Code: [Select]

-true
--show-subtile
----425
----420
----text
----4500
----0
----0
----true or false
----true or false

Hm, I tried that, but i can't get past the two zero's. After I inserted the sixth operator, I can't use the function "add data" anymore. Anyone knows why ?

[IPAndrews]

Or you can tie the camera position to the movement of a ship. eg:

every-time
   set-camera-position
      get-ship-x(someship)
      get-ship-y(someship)
      get-ship-z(someship)

Sorry if I use the wrong sexp names there. I don't have the game here to check.

[Admiral MS]

Code: [Select]

-true
--show-subtile
----425
----420
----text
----4500
----0
----0
----true or false
----true or false

Hm, I tried that, but i can't get past the two zero's. After I inserted the sixth operator, I can't use the function "add data" anymore. Anyone knows why ?

True and False are operators, so you have to use "add operator" for these two. 

[Mobius]

Or you can tie the camera position to the movement of a ship. eg:

every-time
   set-camera-position
      get-ship-x(someship)
      get-ship-y(someship)
      get-ship-z(someship)

Sorry if I use the wrong sexp names there. I don't have the game here to check.

It's a good option but this will position the camera at the center of the ship. You could see nothing but pieces of that ship.
Anyway it's ok if used with a Boanerges...

[karajorma]

So you just do the same thing but subtract 200m off one of the axes.

[Starman01]

True and False are operators, so you have to use "add operator" for these two. 

Ah, thanks I was afraid to use that because of the "op" standing infront of it. ( I wish I would have known this sooner, it would have saved me fiddling out the positions for nearly 100 textlines  )

[Admiral Edivad]

other question: is there a way to create a zoom effect (without doing sth like set-fov 45; set-fov 44; set-fov 43..... and so on every second...)

i still can't get the fade in-out to work as I wanted...

@ AdmiralMS: nice signature, I would dream of this too... but to FRED a cutscene (a GOOD cutscene) you have to set waypoints for almost EVERY fighter... i find it much more complicated than normal fredding...(but i like it )

[Admiral MS]

I don't think there is a zoom effect, but this could (and must?) be done by moving the camera. So we need a move-camera sexp

I tried to fred a mission where an invasion through a jump-node takes place while GTVA defends this jump node and the player sees the whole fight in cutscenes, because he is really far away  ... didn't look that good but maybe I'll finish the mission later and upload it.

I'm not really sure, but cutscenes seem to look very different when playing them if you use 800*600, 1024*768 or something else...?

[Admiral Edivad]

I don't think there is a zoom effect, but this could (and must?) be done by moving the camera. So we need a move-camera sexp

I tried to fred a mission where an invasion through a jump-node takes place while GTVA defends this jump node and the player sees the whole fight in cutscenes, because he is really far away  ... didn't look that good but maybe I'll finish the mission later and upload it.

I'm not really sure, but cutscenes seem to look very different when playing them if you use 800*600, 1024*768 or something else...?

If I move the camera i only get rotations, not zoom. However I achieved a quite good result by coordinating fighters' movements and camera rotation, but i think this will not work with capitals/large ships.

for your mission, i hope you haven't used set-fov... from the player's position! I think the best opportunity cutsecnes offer is to focus the camera on the details of a battle (like to see the bombers when they drop bombs just in front of te camera...  to see a fighter wing that flies at very short distance from a capital, surrounded by enemy fire...)

Another question: is it possible to set the coordinates of a fighter so that it shows loopings,  fast turning....?(to make it like a REAL pilot= ALPHA 1)?

[Admiral MS]

When I used camera-rotation the last time it didn't work at all, it was always doing the same... rotating weird around and stopping always after 10 seconds.
And in my mission, the cutscenes show mostly battles between cruisers and corvettes, beams firing, flak and some fighters around them.

Another question: is it possible to set the coordinates of a fighter so that it shows loopings,  fast turning....?(to make it like a REAL pilot= ALPHA 1)?

Is the fighter AI smart enough to perform like Alpha 1? Would be very difficult or even impossible in my opinion.