[karajorma]

After talking to The_E it occurs to me that I never actually posted openly the details on how to use the new cutscene code I added a while back. In fact unless you've stumbled across it elsewhere the only clue to its existence is a comment in my changelog

So anyway, here's how things work.

There's no GUI for this so all work will have to be done in notepad for the moment. The FRED build however should be able to load and save everything correctly, it just doesn't have a clue how to edit it.

Syntax is as follows. (placed just before the #Command Briefing or Fiction Viewer stuff)

Code: [Select]

#Cutscenes

$Cutscene Type: Cutscene File Name
+formula (Since the editor doesn't work you'll have to make a formula somewhere it does work and paste it in here. MissionBrief or Goals Editor for instance)

#end
Valid types are

$Fiction Viewer Cutscene:
$Command Brief Cutscene:
$Briefing Cutscene:
$Pre-game Cutscene:
$Debriefing Cutscene:

All of these are played before the rest of the stage they mention.

The game will work it's way through the list of cutscenes looking for any who have the correct type for the stage of the game it is at. If it finds one it will then test to see if the formula (i.e the SEXP) is true. If so it will play the movie. It will then continue down the list. If multiple cutscenes are valid they will be played in the order they were parsed in from the mission.

So for instance this code

Code: [Select]


$AI Profile: FS2 RETAIL

#Cutscenes

$Fiction Viewer Cutscene: intro.ogg
+formula: ( true )
$Briefing Cutscene: endpart1.ogg
+formula: ( true )
$Briefing Cutscene: bastion.ogg
+formula: ( false )
$Briefing Cutscene: mono2.ogg
+formula: ( true )

#end

#Command Briefing

Will play the intro if the mission has fiction (followed by showing the fiction viewer) then it will play endpart1, skip bastion, play mono2 and then show the briefing (Due to the way the code works it would show those whether or not you've turned briefings on or off actually but that's kinda useful so I'm not going to tinker with it).

The cutscene info is stored dynamically so the only limit on the number of them is memory. Theoretically you could use this feature to completely replace briefings and debriefings but I dread to think what filesizes would end up like if we did that.

[KeldorKatarn]

Will a commandbriefing cutscene be played even if there is no command briefing stage? I mean it would be a little useless if one would have to have an empty command briefing to be able to use the cutscene that's supposed to replace it.

I didn't really get how that is supposed to work.

[The E]

It's set up right now in such a way that the engine checks whether a cutscene is defined for a stage before actually entering that stage; if yes, it will play that cutscene.

If you define a pre-command briefing cutscene in a mission without a command briefing, the game will simply ignore the pre-command briefing cutscene.

[karajorma]

Will a commandbriefing cutscene be played even if there is no command briefing stage?

IIRC, no. Since no command briefing is specified in the mission file the code never enters the section to play a command briefing cutscene.

I mean it would be a little useless if one would have to have an empty command briefing to be able to use the cutscene that's supposed to replace it.

But why would you ever do that when you could just as easily play it as one of the pre-briefing cutcenes?

All you have to do is make sure it's the first one on the list of cutscenes.

And it should play pre-briefing and pre-debriefing cutscenes even if the briefing/debriefing is tuned off.

[KeldorKatarn]

ok

[karajorma]

The rule of thumb I use is to always stick the cutscene in front of the last thing I can. So if I was playing fiction but planned to have cutscenes instead of my command briefing and mission briefing I'd simply stick them all as pre-game cutscenes and make sure the name of the movie file made it clear if they are mission or command briefings.

The name of the cutscene type was only meant to denote where you can expect it to be played, not the contents of the cutscene itself.

[origin]

I tried using this system but I am having some problems.  After the .ogg is played the game freezes on the last frame of the cutscene.  Here is the begining of the mission file.  I am running in debug and I am not getting any errors.

Code: [Select]

#Mission Info

$Version: 0.10
$Name:  XSTR("Gateway System, 06:00 hours, 26", -1)
$Author: dan
$Created: 07/13/08 at 12:36:36
$Modified: 07/16/10 at 11:04:03
$Notes:
This is a FRED2_OPEN created mission.
$End Notes:

$Mission Desc:
 XSTR("Put mission description here
", -1)
$end_multi_text

+Game Type Flags: 1

+Flags: 4194312

+Disallow Support: 0

+Hull Repair Ceiling: 0.000000

+Subsystem Repair Ceiling: 100.000000

+Viewer pos: -48542.078125, 921.952942, 67150.718750
+Viewer orient:
0.999996, 0.000000, -0.002893,
0.002887, 0.064830, 0.997892,
0.000188, -0.997896, 0.064830


$Skybox Model: sky1.pof

$AI Profile: xc

#Sexp_variables

$Variables:
(
0 "AutoNavTime" "0" "number"
1 "FlyByActive" "0" "number"
)

#Cutscenes
$Briefing Cutscene: nowwhat.ogg
+formula: ( true )
#end

#Command Briefing

#Briefing
$start_briefing
$num_stages: 2
$start_stage
$multi_text
Code tags FTW --The E

[The E]

Could we get the full debug log?

[origin]

Here is the log file.

[attachment deleted by ninja]

[The E]

Okay.

First of all, you need to learn a bit about FS2 mod installing.

The mediavps belong into a folder called (surprisingly enough) mediavps. Oh, and MV_Complete should not be used, because it's unsupported. Go to the mvp release thread to get the latest working ones.

Second, this command line:

Code: [Select]

-mod wc,wc, Mediavpsis so wrong, I lack words to describe it. "wc" should not be there twice and the space in front of the mediavps shouldn't be there.

Third, please set the display colour depth to 32 bits.

Make the required changes, and try again.

[origin]

I have made the changes except for the double 'wc' which I have no idea why it is showing up twice.  Do you have any ideas why that would happen?  I have checked the launcher and the cmd lines and can find no where that there is an instance of 'wc' showing up twice.   This is another opportunity for you to treat me like a worthless piece of crap for not knowing enough and having to asking questions - enjoy...

[General Battuta]

Don't mind The_E, he's just a grump.

[Jeff Vader]

What is this whole "wc" business anyways? It doesn't seem to serve any purpose, as far as I can see.

I have made the changes except for the double 'wc' which I have no idea why it is showing up twice.  Do you have any ideas why that would happen?

Since you seem to be using \wc\ as a mod folder, check if it contains a file called mod.ini. If yes, open it and see what is written on the line that begins with the word "secondarylist". Or "secondrylist" if it still contains that ancient and unneeded "fix".

[origin]

I copied my mod data folder and ini over to a new mod folder named 'bob' and now the log read out is not doubled - kinda wierd.  I will try to run the cutscene tonight - I need to get some work done before I get fired here...

[QuantumDelta]

Karajorma; any reason this can't be used in multi?
*not suggesting xfer for the cutscene though..

[origin]

Well, i'm lost(er).  Now that I have changed the mod folder to 'bob' I am getting a double 'bob' in the log file and the game continues to freeze at the end of the cutscene.

[attachment deleted by ninja]

[The E]

What does the mod.ini in the "bob" folder look like? Post it here, please.

Also, please create a new, empty file in your data directory named debug_filter.cfg. Then run the debug build again. Note that the resultant log will be quite huge, and the engine much slower to react.

[origin]

Here are the files, I changed the extensions to .txt to upload them.  The debug filter is not a large file though...

[attachment deleted by ninja]

[The E]

*palmface*

Please upload the fs2_open.log.

Also, check the custom flags field in the Launcher for any -mod arguments, and remove them if any are present.

Should that not fix the "multiple mod folders" issue, please delete the cmdline_fso.cfg in your data folder.

[origin]

Well I did have the mod in the launcher which I am assuming was a rather egregious error... and now there is no double bob.  Of course the game still freezes after the cutscene.  I have the ogg video in the movies folder and is not referenced anywhere else except in the mission.

[attachment deleted by ninja]