[15thRampage]

can some one make of the favor of adding the avility to create in-mission cutscense code for the game, sortof like StarLacer, the G.E. Team will reallyy appresiate that , plz plz plz:nod:

[vyper]

I've been crying for this for a while - don't get your hopes up. ( No offence guys)

[Ryx]

Technological Superiority had something like it. They disabled the player's ship and then scripted things. Worked pretty well, IMO.

Play TS ep. 1.

[penguin]

Since we have no cutscenes available in the source (neither in- nor -out-of-game), it wouldn't make much difference at this point...

I think someone is working on getting a Divx codec for playing cutscenes; after that, we'll see what people want.

[15thRampage]

DVIX??!!! WOW that will be really cool

[BlueFlames]

Just to toss an idea out...

FS2 does have an option to change your view point to a chase view and a target's-eye view.  Maybe you could make a FRED2 sexp that would make the player ship invulnerable (dying in a cutscene SUCKS) and seperate the viewpoint from it, the 'camera' could then follow a waypoint path while action continues.  With some slick fire-beam and add-goal scripting level designers could make rudimentary in-game cutscenes this way.  Once a certain event happens (i.e. a major ship gets destroyed), the viewpoint returns to the player ship.

It might take a little bit of creative coding, but you guys seem to like challenges.    The only real disadvantage to this is that the cutscene could pan out differently each time the mission is played, or it would take some extraordinarily intense event scripting in FRED2.

[Darkmage]

how's this, make a camera object with no hud... that way no external view is needed, or you could do an external view on an invisible ship as your camera, once that's done, it'd be best if a scripting language was incorporated into fred AND freespace 2.... coders could script to their heart's content and everyone else can do frame by frame using a modified FRED.

[vyper]

Originally posted by BlueFlames
Just to toss an idea out...

FS2 does have an option to change your view point to a chase view and a target's-eye view.  Maybe you could make a FRED2 sexp that would make the player ship invulnerable (dying in a cutscene SUCKS) and seperate the viewpoint from it, the 'camera' could then follow a waypoint path while action continues.  With some slick fire-beam and add-goal scripting level designers could make rudimentary in-game cutscenes this way.  Once a certain event happens (i.e. a major ship gets destroyed), the viewpoint returns to the player ship.

It might take a little bit of creative coding, but you guys seem to like challenges.    The only real disadvantage to this is that the cutscene could pan out differently each time the mission is played, or it would take some extraordinarily intense event scripting in FRED2.

God knows I'm not one to stifle input but all this has been said before. I personally support the above option, always have, but its up to the coders and the majority rules.

[Flipside]

If you are working at source code level, then it might even be possible to use those different views on the different ships in the same mission, or rotate around them, the hard part is probably not the graphics, to get a truly flexible cut-scene editor you would need precise scripting, which a a whole stretch of code.
DivX or the like is not a bad idea for animations, after all, I think it's free if you do not plan to make a profit, and since modders aren't allowed to make money from their work, it suits us perfectly, the hard part would be integrating it into the FS2 Engine properly

Flipside

[Star Dragon]

Sorry if this changes the subject but those discussions were before my time.

My question is not so much about cut-scenes, but more to briefings and command briefings. I have many Avi's from Robotech videos and want to make my missions better. Is there a way to use them in the briefings? I know nothing of Programming except beginner ship table files so K.I.S.S. ... I got the Audio waves working but with no corresponding imagery.(kinda dull)
Any help would be appreciated!

[15thRampage]

well you can conver those videos to .ANI files with the Ani maker or ani converted that can be found here at HLP, and BTW yuo can use those video in mission to like cutscense too

[Thor]

Is there a way to make your hud invisible?  Or is that a super complex code thing?  I wanted to make a teaser trailer.

[vyper]

Originally posted by 15thRampage
BTW yuo can use those video in mission to like cutscense too

Wot?

[Thor]

I think he's talking about an in mission cut scene

[aldo_14]

There's already some code for 'in-mission' cutscenes - namely the supernova stuff.  I don't really understand how it works, of course, but it's there I s'pose.   Of cours,e I don't think there's any code for starting an in game sequyence from a  remote camera and then returning to the players' ship........

[Thor]

How about an invisible hud?

[BlueFlames]

Thor, if all you're interested in is making the HUD invisible, take a look in the Options menu.  I'm pretty sure that nearly every HUD feature has the option of being turned off.  If you've got some insane flying skills, you could also try editing a ship to have a whole load of backward thrust and fly with the rearview turned on.  

I think the in-mission cutscenes are a pretty good idea, if they can be made to work, since it's a somewhat more elegant way for the source code team to show off their graphical improvements and a much more efficient way for level and campaign designers to get certain plot points across than making some unwieldy movie file.  DivX or not, movies in 640x480 or 1024x768 are always huge without major sacrifices in video quality.  I've yet to see a mission file hit a full megabyte though.

[Thor]

Oh, that was simple.  Thank you.  now I can use that to make any ship a flyable camera.  Thank you, I'll try that

[Star Dragon]

Thank you Rampage...

I'll screw around with that until I get it to work! Now maybe my briefings will get the plot points across better...
I'll let you know how it turns out.

[Flipside]

As has been mentioned before, FS2 already has code for zooming in/out and rotating around your ship (using the various views keys). And, even better, FS2 uses matix multiplication to work out it's views, which is a damn sight easier than the other way (Whose name evades me at the moment).
The easiest way, I suppose, is some kind of subroutine that will obey a set of simple text commands, you would have to start off by defining where the camera starts, rubber banding from your own ship to another ship would be a bit of a nightmare, so the engine would probs have to start with telling the camera what ship it is looking at, the cameras X/Y/Z rotation compared to the central axes on the ship, and how far from the centre of the ship the camera is, then you could possible use sexp's to script the ships behaviour, while using the new code to control the camera properly.

Either way, big can of worms