[Cobra]

Is it possible to have FS1's "briefing draw" effect in FSO? FS1 originally used a separate .ani that was triggered before the briefing started. Would be useful for the FSPort.

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[WMCoolmon]

You could probably hack it in with scripting by adding a hook that plays an interface-sized animation over the entire interface screen.

But the effect is probably done manually and it would be fairly difficult to do it with that level of quality without requiring an artist to go in and make the animation by hand.

[mjn.mixael]

But the effect is probably done manually and it would be fairly difficult to do it with that level of quality without requiring an artist to go in and make the animation by hand.

Piece of cake

[pecenipicek]

But the effect is probably done manually and it would be fairly difficult to do it with that level of quality without requiring an artist to go in and make the animation by hand.

Piece of cake

I for once agree with mjn.mixael. its not really much of a problem if you have any experience with animating in 3D packages.

[The E]

However, given the way FSO handles these things, a big-fullscreen ani or eff is a _really bad idea_ (Not to mention, not supported at that stage). The only option you have will be to have an ogg cutscene playing before the briefing, which will lead to scaling artefacts on resolutions that are non-1024x768.

[taylor]

The code for this is till in there, left over from the original FS code.  I'm using it with the icculus.org FS1 port.  You just have to uncomment a few little blocks of code and upgrade it for 1024x768 support (missionui/missionscreencommon.cpp, look for Background_anim).

[Cobra]

Interesting. Would this mean that the FSPort would have to get its own executable if we brought this feature back?

[taylor]

No, it could be made conditional quite easily.  It would just check for "BriefTrans" (or "2_BriefTrans" for 1024x768) when loading the briefing screen and if it's found it would use it, if not then it would be like now.  There is a special multi-player version of the animation too, so that is extra.

I'm not volunteering to work on it of course, just saying that getting it working with FSO is pretty trivial.  Most of the code is already there but commented, and adding non-hackish hi-res support and the file check could probably be done in less than 15 lines of code.  It's less than 5 minutes of work.

[WMCoolmon]

But the effect is probably done manually and it would be fairly difficult to do it with that level of quality without requiring an artist to go in and make the animation by hand.

Piece of cake

I for once agree with mjn.mixael. its not really much of a problem if you have any experience with animating in 3D packages.

What I meant was that generating it automatically for an arbitrary interface screen "with that level of quality" ie context-sensitive to all of the text, borders, checkboxes and so forth is a pretty difficult problem. Not only would you have to develop a method of separating the interface objects out from each other and make it able to separate borders from background, you'd also have to write the code to generate the cool Tron-ish effect for any arbitary shape. And then render all of that.

So, no, solving the problem is not a piece of cake, you just don't understand what I said in my first post. In fact it is doing just what I said the other option was: "requiring an artist to go in and make the animation by hand." Which you'll notice I didn't postulate a difficulty for, either.

[CommanderDJ]

YES. Oh man, YES! Can we PLEASE HAVE THIS? I will seriously perform oral sex on the person(s) who manage(s) to get this back in there.

[karajorma]

Well that's a good way to never get a feature implemented.

[CommanderDJ]

...or I won't, as the case may be. Whichever is more suitable.

[Galemp]

What I meant was that generating it automatically for an arbitrary interface screen "with that level of quality" ie context-sensitive to all of the text, borders, checkboxes and so forth is a pretty difficult problem.

Nobody's arguing THAT. After all it's not the way did it in FS1, they just rendered a full-screen ANI. The artists can recreate that effect easily, if the code supports it. (And as an artist, I speak from experience that this would not be difficult to do.)

[Goober5000]

No, it could be made conditional quite easily.  It would just check for "BriefTrans" (or "2_BriefTrans" for 1024x768) when loading the briefing screen and if it's found it would use it, if not then it would be like now.  There is a special multi-player version of the animation too, so that is extra.

I'm not volunteering to work on it of course, just saying that getting it working with FSO is pretty trivial.  Most of the code is already there but commented, and adding non-hackish hi-res support and the file check could probably be done in less than 15 lines of code.  It's less than 5 minutes of work.

In fact, a conditional interface enhancement like this is already done in at least three places in the code: the fiction viewer, the command briefing scroll buttons, and the apply-loadout-to-wing button.  I'd do it myself (provided that CommanderDJ stays far, far away), except I'm on vacation.  It wouldn't be hard for someone else to figure out.

[CommanderDJ]

In fact, a conditional interface enhancement like this is already done in at least three places in the code: the fiction viewer, the command briefing scroll buttons, and the apply-loadout-to-wing button.  I'd do it myself (provided that CommanderDJ stays far, far away), except I'm on vacation.  It wouldn't be hard for someone else to figure out.

We live in different countries (I think), so don't worry about it.

[WMCoolmon]

What I meant was that generating it automatically for an arbitrary interface screen "with that level of quality" ie context-sensitive to all of the text, borders, checkboxes and so forth is a pretty difficult problem.

Nobody's arguing THAT. After all it's not the way did it in FS1, they just rendered a full-screen ANI. The artists can recreate that effect easily, if the code supports it. (And as an artist, I speak from experience that this would not be difficult to do.)

Yeah, I'm constraining myself to not speaking on the ANI part, just the pie-in-the-sky implementation plan I mentioned.

I didn't expect there to be so much enthusiasm to do it manually.

[pecenipicek]

What I meant was that generating it automatically for an arbitrary interface screen "with that level of quality" ie context-sensitive to all of the text, borders, checkboxes and so forth is a pretty difficult problem.

Nobody's arguing THAT. After all it's not the way did it in FS1, they just rendered a full-screen ANI. The artists can recreate that effect easily, if the code supports it. (And as an artist, I speak from experience that this would not be difficult to do.)

Yeah, I'm constraining myself to not speaking on the ANI part, just the pie-in-the-sky implementation plan I mentioned.

I didn't expect there to be so much enthusiasm to do it manually.

When you're used to doing approximately 78% of everything manually, you get used to it.