Creative scripting to make "cutscenes" in a mod

[Jeux]

I was thinking of ways for the player to engage in fake "cutscenes" like with other games. Not cinematic ones, obviously, but just certain portions of a quest when the player triggers a sequence. A moment when the player will become detached from the courier observe something else.

 

I was pondering on how one could achieve this, and here are some ideas I came up with:

 

0) Player walks into trigger (begins script).

1) Disable most player controls (forces first person, holster weapon)

2) Either a fade to black or fade to white animated Imagespace Modifier.

3) Move player to the "viewpoint" marker (xmarkerheading) for a cinematic perspective. Like a slanted overhead rock, or the sort.

4) Imagespace Modifier to fade in from black or white

5) Activate your scripted sequence. NPC(s) talking, rocks falling, NPC shootout, monster(s) appearing....whatever you want to happen that is in the player's new view.

6) (Optional) Move the player to a different viewpoint during the scripted sequence.

7) When scripted sequence is over, fade to black or white

8) Move player to trigger.

9) Fade in from black or white.

10) Enable player controls.

11) Set whatever control variable you have to a false condition, so the trigger won't happen again. As routine.

 

The first thing that comes to mind would be how a Halo cinematic is after completing an objective. The Chief usually puts his weapon away and the screen fades to black, then a movie plays. What if one could do the same thing, but move the "camera" aka the player to a new viewpoint and play your "movie" aka scripted sequence? I know it won't be as immersing, but it is still worth a try.

 

All of this is purely conceptual. I'm only sharing my thoughts here so I can get feedback from other mod authors. What would be the best approach? The biggest issue would be "timing" all of those events and commands in a fluent fashion. Example being the doctor script where the doctor npc plays an animation on a certain time as the imagespace modifier is applied, then done again to fade back.

 

Another thought would be Fallout 3, where Elder Lyons and the Brotherhood gang at the Citadel talk in the main bunker area as the player approaches, and their "sayto" commands are scripted timely.

 

I'd like to take all of this to the next level. Feel free to correct me on as much as you can, for like I said, this is all conceptual. Thanks.

[Quetzlsacatanango]

Sounds like it should work.

[Jeux]

Do you have any suggestions to improve upon this concept?

[Quetzlsacatanango]

Maybe rotate the player to simulate looking through a security camera.

Before that you should try what you have to see where the kinks are. You are bound to find some with this game.

[PaladinRider]

Also, you can make relevant videos for the cutscene with third party programs. I used fraps and used RadTools to convert the video into a bink file. If you have the video in the Data/Video/ directory, you can use the PlayBink MyVideo command. I used this method to mimic security cameras from a terminal.

 

So you can set up a scene how you want it, and turn it into a small video. It can't be long but this way you guarantee that the cutscene will work the right way for everyone.

 

Edit: clarify

Edited January 5, 2012 by PaladinRider

[Jeux]

PaladinRider, that's always an option. My first thought, really. But the mod I'm creating demands quite a few scripted sequences, so making movie files for all those parts would be inefficient when considering the file size in the end. But yes, this method would ensure that it happens the same way for everyone, every time.

 

That's what worries me about taking the former approach. There could be certain mods installed that interfere with the scripted behaviors set to happen. Perhaps bad navmeshing, bad coding, or incorrect player positioning could mess it up, too. There's a number of things that could go wrong with it.

 

I made a test "cutscene" last night. The fundamental goal was accomplished, but, of course, not without a number of faults. I had scripted one of my GIANT elephant creature to activate and travel to an x marker after the player walks into a trigger and does all the stuff I mentioned in the first post. After the creature travels, mercs spawn on some other side of the cell and assault the creature (natural AI instinct). The elephant creature kills the mercs, then the script checks to see if the mercs are dead before returning the player to origin and enabling controls.

 

The biggest flaw was timing, as I predicted. Everything was a bit off and awkward....sort of like my grade school acting in plays. Same could be said about the imagespace modifiers' ques. The movement of the giant beast was actually fluid though, and the mercs died one by one naturally...it all just felt too synthetic. The numerous timer scripts chained together just didn't fit well. Sure, I could take the time to play with the GetSecondsPassed numbers till everything happens on cue, but that isn't very ideal for me, given the number of scripts I'll have to produce like this.

 

Wish there was another way....wish the GECK handled thing like this better.

[avianrave]

Just gonna put my 2 cents.

 

Have you tried settings some of the timers to 0? Delays might be causing some of your issues.

 

Is it sequenced to occur in a linear fashion? Maybe sequence some events in a non-linear fashion, like having the raiders spawn and move independently from the elephant. Say instead of having the raiders spawn and then attack, have them spawned already and attack when the elephant moves to its correct location.

 

I would also try and keep the cut-scenes as short as possible with as little as possible in them to get the point across.

 

Any chance you could make a recording of that test cut-scene, as I don't know what you mean by it being too "synthetic."

 

Lastly, if it is too "synthetic" you could just roll with it as a stylistic choice: ie make it seem out of place on purpose to draw the players attention to something. One thing I can think of is like dot HACK, they make infected worlds look unnatural even within a game. So you could explain later on that those raiders are an evil robot race or something ridiculous.

 

Normal

http://www.the-nextlevel.com/reviews/ps2/dot_hack_mutation/dot_hack_mutation_6.jpg

 

Infected

http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/dothack3_outbreak_052903_016_640w.jpg

Edited January 7, 2012 by avianrave