Rigging videos inside the game?

[sumoftwosins]

I'm needing the make a video game, but not exactly gameplay. I need to rig a cutscene or something similar that has a camera shot. If I use fraps and jump in as the player, it is hard to get smooth footage since your are walking the terrain and what not. Not to mention having the NPC's you are using in the video reacting to and looking at you.

 

I was looking at the camera shots and things like that, but in the path option it uses an Nif. Most of that seems to be vats related and even if I could put in my own camera shot, I wouldn't have any idea how to get in that view.

 

Anyone have any experience with rigging up videos in game or know of where I might be able to find info to jump start me.

[Guest]

I've been looking into camera stuff as I've been working on a Fallout 3 Machinima and camera options were one of the first things I wanted to investigate. Some of this stuff isn't rocket-science and you probably know it already, but I figured I'd put what I've found out there, in the case that some of it is useful.

 

Since you can remove menus (tm in console) and holster your weapon (holding R) to get a clean screen, it's tempting to record from there, however, as you noted, the terrain you walk over practically ruins any shot you may want to do. There's also hostile NPCs to deal with, or friendly NPCs running up and interacting with you. There are a couple of ways around these problems:

 

- For starters, godmode (tgm in console) can be used to eliminate any damage and blood spatters you may take while filming. Furthermore, switching off collisions (tcl in console) will ensure you move exactly where you want to go: no more bumping over terrain as you walk over it. However, I've found the collisions method to be quite temperamental, with my character slowly sinking into the ground on more than one occasion. It is useful for getting the player into hard to reach positions though, for instance, the top of Tenpenny Tower.

 

- Instead, I usually use the free/flying camera (tfc in console). This allows you to completely disconnect the camera from the player and move it around where ever you want. You can edit the movement speed of the camera by using (sucsm #) in console, where # represents the speed (1 is quite a slow smooth movement, 50 is very fast). If you use the tfc command while in first-person view, the player will turn invisible, removing them from shot, but will still be attacked by hostile NPCs. If you use the tfc command while in third-person view, the player will remain in that particular position until tfc is entered again. While this is usually how I film, it is not without it's drawbacks, namely, the inability of player movement while in this mode. With the normal third-person "chase" camera that is automatically implemented in the game, you can pan round the player while he/she is still moving. However, since the free camera uses BOTH movement keys and mouse to move around, there is no way of moving the player from their stationary position. The most they can do is jump, duck, block/aim, shoot/attack, reload and holster their weapon. If NPC/Player movement/action is pre-scripted, then static camera shots using the free camera are very viable, but if the movement is on the fly, I do not know of a way of making the player move while staying in free camera mode. Another warning while using the free camera: if you plan on using it to move around the world and thereby away from the player, it might be worth switching off collisions and setting a high movement speed (setgs fMoveRunMult # - where # is 4 by default) instead. By using the free camera, you don't move the player, and so the further you move away from the player, the poorer the detail of the landscape will become (since it isn't fully rendered). Don't set movement speed too high with no collisions though, as it will crash your game due to too much terrain rendering in such a short space of time.

 

- So far, the only way I've been able to implement a static type of shot while still moving the player on the fly is by "jamming" the third-person view camera against a solid surface, like a wall or a bus, and then moving towards/away from it. It is a very crude way of creating a static camera, but until a mod comes out that lets you use VATS type shots or allows you to move the player while in free camera mode on the fly, I cannot see any real way of implementing it in-game.

 

- As for NPCs reacting, they won't react to the flying camera, which is cool. Furthermore, you can switch off either specific or all NPC AI by using the toggle AI command (tai). This will make NPCs "freeze" however, which is quite unrealistic in filming terms. I believe there is also a restrain command, but I have not tested this myself. For filming hostile NPCs where you want the player in shot, but don't want to be attacked, you can use the toggle Combat AI command (tcai). Unlike tai, tcai cannot be applied to a specific NPC (to my knowledge).

 

I hope at least some of this stuff is helpful to someone out there. I only have a bit of Blender experience with creating poses, so I feel a bit out of my depth when it comes to camera stuff, but this is a start. From a Machinima point of view, I'm very interested to see if anyone else posts additional info regarding camera shots in-game; I know I for one would find it very useful.

[sumoftwosins]

Thanks for the info. It definitely gave me some things to consider. I didn't think about using tfc. My main problem now is the scene I have with a person being executed. I'm making an in world activator (hidden swtich) that I can use to start the npc's and record. I think the TFC option will allow for the best "shot".

 

Thanks again.