[CaptainX]

Greetings all.

I just finished my first attempt at a cutscene using the SEXPs in FRED2. I think it came out pretty well. I packed the mission itself and the other files needed into a VP file, so hopefully that'll work for everyone.

Check it out and give me your opinions, I plan to use cutscenes like this in the campaign I am designing. Any suugestions would be most helpful.

... Yes, I know the carrier in the scene is VERY overpowered, but I was going for a big movie scene effect... it won't be that powerful in the campaign 

[Cobra]

Err, good for you, but you don't have to post two threads.

That said, I'm downloading it now and I'll watch it a bit later.

[CaptainX]

I was going for a wide audience 

[Dark Hunter]

Just FYI, it's generally a bad idea to post multiple topics on the same subject. I know you said you were going for a wide audience, but most of the people who check the modding forum are going to check the FRED forum too.


That being said, I'll download this thing and check it out.

[Admiral Edivad]

I plan to use cutscenes like this in the campaign I am designing.

damn! another one! (i'm doing the same thing for another campaign, Steadfast...)
i'm interested in cutscenes, and i'm curious to see what sexp you have used for the camera movements. maybe i'll learn something.
unfortunately i have very little time for FRED now, so i'll open your mission in the next weeks...
anyway, downloaded.

I was going for a wide audience 

  BTW, are you doing a campaign all alone?

[TrashMan]

What ships feature in the scene?

[karajorma]

Topics merged.

[CaptainX]

Guys, my apologies, I made that VP last night while under the influence of sleepyness LOL.

Other than stock ships, the cutscene uses the GTI Bretonia and the GTCa Warlock (a modified version of it). I forgot to put the Bretonia into the VP, so it's not going to work for anyone who doesn't happen to have it.

The GTI Bretonia is too large to post here on the forums.... below is the download link. It's a simple VP as well, so installation will be a snap for anyone who wants to see the cutscene.

http://hades-combine.com/web/index.php?ind=downloads&op=entry_view&iden=245

Sorry about the trouble there 

[CaptainX]

BTW, are you doing a campaign all alone?

Yes, I'm going to take a shot at it. I used to design FRED missions for fun all the way back to the original Freespace. I wish I had kept some of my old missions... some of them took days of work and were well received by some of the FS2 community.

That cutscene was fairly simple, once I figured out how the SEXPs work. For this campaign, I'm going for a different kind of approach. Each mission will actually be 3 missions.... a cutscene, a launching from the carrier scene, and then the actual action scene.

Once I finalize the planned storyline, I'll post it here and see what you guys think.

[karajorma]

some of them took days of work

Amateur. You can't complain about the amount of work a mission took until you're into a month's work at least.

and were well received by some of the FS2 community.

Single missions or a mini campaign? Did you release them here or just pass them out to a few people. What username did you use back then?

I ask cause there is a reasonable chance that someone still has them.

That cutscene was fairly simple, once I figured out how the SEXPs work. For this campaign, I'm going for a different kind of approach. Each mission will actually be 3 missions.... a cutscene, a launching from the carrier scene, and then the actual action scene.

Sounds good but please don't fall into the trap of having unskippable cutscenes at the start of every mission. It gets rather annoying by the 3rd or 4th time you're replaying a failed mission. It's not hard to make cutscenes automatically skip after a certain number of plays.

[Colonol Dekker]

oRLY?  please tell me how   It would come in very handy on a certain *cough,*ing* cough*ander thing i'm working on.

[CaptainX]

Sounds good but please don't fall into the trap of having unskippable cutscenes at the start of every mission. It gets rather annoying by the 3rd or 4th time you're replaying a failed mission. It's not hard to make cutscenes automatically skip after a certain number of plays.

This won't be a problem, because the cutscene is a completely separate mission that is marked as completed when it is played through the first time. Then the launching mission loads, where the player sees the main briefing. They launch from the carrier, and then warp out, and then the actual action mission loads, using the Red Alert/No Briefing settings. This gives the appearance of launching from the carrier and conducting operations in another area.

If anyone ever played the Wing Commander: Prophecy PC game, I'm going for that kind of feel. Briefing, launch, jump to mission. In fact, that's why the carrier is named the Midway... it's a subtle tribute to one of my all-time favorite games 

... However, by typing that explanation, I just discovered a bug.... once the player does the launching mission, it'll be marked as completed and it won't come up again. So if they fail the action mission, they won't get to see the briefing or weapon loadout screen again. When they replay, it'll immediately drop them into the action mission

I might have to rethink my plan. Thanks for pointing that out, I wouldn't have realized that until later.

[Admiral Edivad]

Each mission will actually be 3 missions.... a cutscene, a launching from the carrier scene, and then the actual action scene.

ah, hem, are you a friend of Mobius? because this seems quite familiar to me... it's exactly what he did for some missions of Steadfast...

Sounds good but please don't fall into the trap of having unskippable cutscenes at the start of every mission. It gets rather annoying by the 3rd or 4th time you're replaying a failed mission. It's not hard to make cutscenes automatically skip after a certain number of plays.

Interesting... you're right. how do you do it?

Amateur. You can't complain about the amount of work a mission took until you're into a month's work at least.

true ... also if i'm not very experienced ... i started a cutscene-mission about 1,5 months ago, and it isn't finished yet...

[Colonol Dekker]

It's not hard to make cutscenes automatically skip after a certain number of plays.

Any subtle hints ?

I'm out of shape Fredwise with all these new fangled variables etc.......

[CaptainX]

ah, hem, are you a friend of Mobius? because this seems quite familiar to me... it's exactly what he did for some missions of Steadfast...

LOL No, actually.... it just seemed to me to be the most logical progression of what I planned to do.

I wanted to have the player based on a supercarrier that operates alone, behind enemy lines. Like I said before, my inspiration for the basic idea was Wing Commander: Prophecy.

In this particular campaign, the storyline will progress with the carrier conducting strike missions against pirate targets in the remote and dangerous areas of several systems. The carrier is designed to operate alone, and won't have much help from the GTVA during its missions. Most likely, the carrier is going to be the one seen in the cutscene, the GTCa Warlock class, slightly modified (with proper credits to the original author(s) of course).

[karajorma]

oRLY?  please tell me how   It would come in very handy on a certain *cough,*ing* cough*ander thing i'm working on.

There are two ways I can think of that are pretty easy.

1) Create a Persistent Player Variable (i.e a standard variable but select the player persistent option). Call it MissionPlaythroughs

Then add these SEXPs

When
-true
-modify-variable
--MissionPlaythroughs[0]
-- +
---MissionPlaythroughs[0]
---1

when
- <
--MissionPlaythroughs[0]
--3
-All the cutscene stuff

when
-or
--Cutscene done
-->
---MissionPlaythroughs[0]
--2
-Set up the mission ready to play

That's the simple way. But if you don't mind seeing the cutscenes every play through you're out of luck since it will stop playing after the second viewing.

2) Choose a key (space is a good choice) to skip the cutscene. Then time the length of the cutscene and make a persistent variable called SkipCutscenes. I tend to prefer to use string variables if I'm setting up my own boolean test but most people simply use numbers because strings have a bug that requires a minor error in notepad if you set them up incorrectly.

when
-and
--key-pressed
---Space
-- <
---mission-time
---Length of the cutscene
-reset-key
--space
-Modify-variable
--SkipCutscenes[false]
--true

Now set up the cutscenes in the same way as above except you use

when
-string-equals
--SkipCutscenes[false]
--false

as your trigger.

[Cobra]

Guys, my apologies, I made that VP last night while under the influence of sleepyness LOL.

Other than stock ships, the cutscene uses the GTI Bretonia and the GTCa Warlock (a modified version of it). I forgot to put the Bretonia into the VP, so it's not going to work for anyone who doesn't happen to have it.

The GTI Bretonia is too large to post here on the forums.... below is the download link. It's a simple VP as well, so installation will be a snap for anyone who wants to see the cutscene.

http://hades-combine.com/web/index.php?ind=downloads&op=entry_view&iden=245

Sorry about the trouble there 

Awesome, ther GTI Bretonia.

[Colonol Dekker]

oRLY?  please tell me how   It would come in very handy on a certain *cough,*ing* cough*ander thing i'm working on.

There are two ways I can think of that are pretty easy.

1) Create a Persistent Player Variable (i.e a standard variable but select the player persistent option). Call it MissionPlaythroughs

Then add these SEXPs

When
-true
-modify-variable
--MissionPlaythroughs[0]
-- +
---MissionPlaythroughs[0]
---1

when
- <
--MissionPlaythroughs[0]
--3
-All the cutscene stuff

when
-or
--Cutscene done
-->
---MissionPlaythroughs[0]
--2
-Set up the mission ready to play

That's the simple way. But if you don't mind seeing the cutscenes every play through you're out of luck since it will stop playing after the second viewing.

2) Choose a key (space is a good choice) to skip the cutscene. Then time the length of the cutscene and make a persistent variable called SkipCutscenes. I tend to prefer to use string variables if I'm setting up my own boolean test but most people simply use numbers because strings have a bug that requires a minor error in notepad if you set them up incorrectly.

when
-and
--key-pressed
---Space
-- <
---mission-time
---Length of the cutscene
-reset-key
--space
-Modify-variable
--SkipCutscenes[false]
--true

Now set up the cutscenes in the same way as above except you use

when
-string-equals
--SkipCutscenes[false]
--false

as your trigger.

Now that makes perfect sense

Cheers Karajorma, I shall give this a try
I have to say i've never really released a full on -campaign, just little snippets of event'ish experiments, but i reckon my first release will be happilyt recieved.


 


I hope........

[TrashMan]

Why not just have space skips cutscenes? Simple, effective... at least thats's how I'm doing it

[karajorma]

The more complex your cutscene, the harder it becomes to skip at any point.