[Hellequin]

I've been playing around with cutscenes, setting up cameras around ships, in their paths, etc. I was wondering, would it be possible to have a camera shake effect timed when a ship passes real close to a camera position?

[Mobius]

Place a waypoint in the exact coordinates of the camera and trigger the event with distance <

[Hellequin]

You're saying there is a camera shake sexp in FRED?

[Mobius]

Ah, sorry...that "shake" confused me.

I thought implementing it would have been a good idea, but...no air in space. There are no "straight paths", but...

When the ship is, let's say, 20 meters from the camera...the camera points to certain coordinates.

Repeat the procedure by setting lower distances to trigger the SEXPs(15, 10, 5...). Choose different coordinates...the camera should "shake". Adapt the distances to your needings(spacecraft are faster than ships).

[Hellequin]

Cool. Thanks. ^_^ I had the same thought. I play BtRL and I just think it would be cool to be able to do that considering how cameras are set up in the show, if you've seen BSG.

[Mobius]

No problem

I have not seen BSG but I remember Colony Wars' flyby effects

[Goober5000]

Or you could use the set-camera-shudder sexp, which is in the cutscenes subcategory.

[Mobius]

Eh?

What are you talking about? That must be 1) a new or 2) an unexistant SEXP!

[Hellequin]

I should say I'm using 3.6.9 if that helps.

[haloboy100]

Eh?

What are you talking about? That must be 1) a new or 2) an unexistant SEXP!

Rule: Everything Goob says is true in some shape or form. Period

[Hellequin]

Here's something I found odd. I placed three ships in FRED: Red 1, Blue 1, and Blue 2 where Red 1 is set as the player ship. I used Red 1 as a camera ship. At one point in the scene, I wanted to change view from the camera ship to an external camera right in the path of Blue 1. I was planning to do the camera shake here but I decided to check it out first. So after I made an event that placed Red 1 way out in the distance out of the external camera view (In my first try, I got a command message telling me that desertion is punishable by death  so I disabled command msgs in the next try), I went ahead and ran the scenario. But as soon as Blue 1 got to the external camera, game said I was killed from a collision with Red 1. How can that happen when Red 1 was way out at 10000000, 10000000, 10000000? And moreover, how is it possible for a player to collide with his own ship?

In any case, I tried it again, this time placing Red 1 a bit closer (somewhere within 10000 m of the other ships) and that ended up working without me getting killed from a collision.

As far as simulating a camera shake, it's not so simple to do. Especially in what I'm trying to do which is have the camera track the passing ship as well as shake as the ship passes close. Would really be nice to actually have a camera-shake sexp. I'll keep working on it though.

[Goober5000]

What are you talking about? That must be 1) a new or 2) an unexistant SEXP!

Well, it's only been around since May of 2007...

It's not in 3.6.9, but it's in all the recent builds.

[karajorma]

In my first try, I got a command message telling me that desertion is punishable by death  so I disabled command msgs in the next try

Basically the game doesn't like the player flying more than a certain distance from 0,0,0 and starts sending messages to you. It will self destruct you if you stay out there too long.

The distance is large enough that it's unlikely the player will hit it unless the mission has set up with the player far away from the origin point.


You can stick other ships where ever you like though.

[Hellequin]

Self-destruct? So that's what happened. Although it should've said Red 1 self-destructed, not player got killed from collision. Anyway, I got it fixed. I did away with the external camera since I didn't know how to switch from that view back to the ship anyway. Plus I don't know how to move an external camera if that's even possible. Now I use Red 1 as the camera ship full time. And I'm using 3.6.10 now so I can shake the camera.  I gotta say, I'm giddy like a 10 year old school girl. This stuff's gonna make for some great cutscenes.

EDIT: I did notice a problem with the Viper Mk II texture during one of the closeups. The right side shows the name "Galactica" and the serial number backwards. I'm sure someone's commented on that by now. Hopefully that won't be overlooked in the final.

[Mobius]

Eh?

What are you talking about? That must be 1) a new or 2) an unexistant SEXP!

Rule: Everything Goob says is true in some shape or form. Period

I'd say Karajorma...and Goober wasn't right when he locked a certain thread... *cough* *cough*

What are you talking about? That must be 1) a new or 2) an unexistant SEXP!

Well, it's only been around since May of 2007...

It's not in 3.6.9, but it's in all the recent builds.

Ah, ok...thanks for the info

As far as simulating a camera shake, it's not so simple to do. Especially in what I'm trying to do which is have the camera track the passing ship as well as shake as the ship passes close. Would really be nice to actually have a camera-shake sexp. I'll keep working on it though.

Depends on the cutscene. Is it stable or dynamic? Stable cutscenes are "normal" cutscenes...dynamic ones display events that could happen on the battlefield(like showing the death of a pilot...a spacecraft can be virtually everywhere). Dynamic cutscenes require more attention. What kind of cutscene are you designing?

In the first case it shouldn't be difficult. Admiral Edivad isn't an expert FREDder and managed to design cutscene missions in which fighters pass close to the camera(I don't like that effect so I don't implement my cutscenes with it)...al you need is to follow the directives I posted above..."distance" and "<" are what you need

Is the camera supposed to remain immobile? It's not the case to use a fighter...

Basically the game doesn't like the player flying more than a certain distance from 0,0,0 and starts sending messages to you. It will self destruct you if you stay out there too long.

The distance is large enough that it's unlikely the player will hit it unless the mission has set up with the player far away from the origin point.


You can stick other ships where ever you like though.

Uhm, I can move the player to 300,000-300,000-300,000 without having problems if there are no hostiles in proximity of 0-0-0(i.e. landing and take off cutscenes when you break the ship limit and need to place only one carrier/destroyer far from the battlefield ).

[karajorma]

Given that the limits are 700,000 and 750,000 that's not really surprising.

[Mobius]

Wow...I got close to the limit more than once, then(x=y=z=600,000 in certain missions)...

[Hellequin]

Depends on the cutscene. Is it stable or dynamic? Stable cutscenes are "normal" cutscenes...dynamic ones display events that could happen on the battlefield(like showing the death of a pilot...a spacecraft can be virtually everywhere). Dynamic cutscenes require more attention. What kind of cutscene are you designing?

In the first case it shouldn't be difficult. Admiral Edivad isn't an expert FREDder and managed to design cutscene missions in which fighters pass close to the camera(I don't like that effect so I don't implement my cutscenes with it)...al you need is to follow the directives I posted above..."distance" and "<" are what you need

I'm doing the first kind if what you meant by "normal" is a scene that can happen only one way. I've put something together that looks pretty sweet. I did run into something else I couldn't figure out. The set-object-facing sexp has an option "bank" data. My guess is it lets you specify just how much the object banks (bank left, bank right). I made a test scenario to compare with and without bank using numbers ranging from 100 to 5000 but I couldn't tell any difference. If it is indeed what I think it is, it would be very helpful if I need the camera to be level with the horizon or oriented in some specific way. Right now, I'm at the mercy of however the camera ship behaves when turning. If the "look points" are not setup right, I could end up making the player upside down relative to the wingman. Not a problem in space, but a problem here since the turning is supposed to represent the player looking around in the cockpit but not actually turning the ship itself.

[Goober5000]

Goober wasn't right when he locked a certain thread... *cough* *cough*

And which thread was that?

[Snail]

I guess he thinks you're the Hammer of HLP 0wnage.

Oh, BTW, whoever posted this:

DEAR FREIND

I MUST INFORM YOU OF A RECENT AQUISITION OF THE UTMOST IMPORTANCE.  I HAVE RECENTLY COME INTO POSESSION OF THE GRAND SUM TOTAL OF ONE (1) GTVA GARGANT MODEL AND TWO (5) GTVA LATONA MODELS.  FOR A NUMBER OF YEARS I HAVE MANUEVERED TO TRANSFER THESE ITEMS OUT OF THE INFYRNO PRIVATE ARCHIVES TO MY PERSONAL FILE SYSTEM BUT HAVE BEEN STYMED BY THE BLOCKADE OF EDDIE "SETEKH" WOOMEISTER OF HARDENED LIGHT PRODOCUTIONS.  IF YOU WOULD BE WILLING TO ASSIST BY TRANSFERRING TO MY ACCOUNT THE SUM TOTAL OF 20 (TWENTY) BOXES OF COOKIES AND 200 (FIVE THOUSAND) DOLLARS, I WILL ACT SPEEDILY TO INTRODUCE YOUR REQUEST.

PLEASE TO BE ENSURINGEST YOUR GREATEST THANKS TO OUR ENDEAVOUR.
HLP HAMMER OF 0WNAGE

is a genius.