Wasn\'t there a way to insert cutscenes?

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Wasn\'t there a way to insert cutscenes?

Post by Nemesis »

I thought I was remembering that I read something about the possibility to insert cutscenes in Arvoch Conflict. I searched the board two days ago, but I was not able to find anything. All posts I found suggested, that it is NOT possible. Is there a way? If yes, what is the correct format?
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Wasn\'t there a way to insert cutscenes?

Post by Maarschalk »

I have no Idea what you are talking about...:o?, Maybe some other players who still own and play Arvoch Conflict might be able to help. I'm currious though..what is a cutscenes insert?
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Wasn\'t there a way to insert cutscenes?

Post by Nemesis »

Cutscenes are what made "Wing Commander" a legend.
Rendered and later filmed sequences told the entire story, turning the game into an interactive movie. Acquaintances of me own a video-company, which is able to film bluescreen-captions. If there is a way to insert filmed cutscenes into AC and if I like the quality of their work, I will ask Vice if I may set up a "movie pack" for AC.
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Wasn\'t there a way to insert cutscenes?

Post by Vice »

Although not a supported or fully tested feature, AVI videos can sometimes work (depending on codecs on the system) with the custom mission system. Just as with the 'importX.wav' and 'missionsX.wav' options for the mission system, you can also specify 'importX.avi' and 'missionX.avi' to attempt to play a video instead of a sound file.
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Wasn\'t there a way to insert cutscenes?

Post by Nemesis »

Thanks, Vice.
Did I get that correctly? If I want to play a cutscene between mission 4 and 5 I would have to rename mission 5 to mission 6 and enter the cutscene as mission5.avi and then edit a mission-file that only plays the video and moves on to the next mission?

[Edited on 7-3-2010 by Nemesis]
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Wasn\'t there a way to insert cutscenes?

Post by Vice »

You can attempt to play a video (matching number) prior to an individual or campaign mission (as though a mission briefing) and also after a mission is finished (using the 'EndingCutScene' command directive in the mission file itself).

[Edited on 3-7-2010 by Vice]
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Wasn\'t there a way to insert cutscenes?

Post by Nemesis »

OK. I was too late with my edit...thanks for your quick response. I'll try to get that working...
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Wasn\'t there a way to insert cutscenes?

Post by MMaggio »

Hold on there Nemesis, just be sure you share your scenes with the rest of us! Sounds like it could be a very interesting project.
I know I'm not the only one interested in how it comes out.
Good luck!:):cool:
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Wasn\'t there a way to insert cutscenes?

Post by Nemesis »

MMaggio, don't panic! This project is for everybody...I have to see that it works first, then have a meeting with the video guys, order the uniforms...it will take time, but if it works it will definately come, if Vice gives his permission. I am thinking of cutscenes for the original Arvoch Conflict or a brand new mission pack...I am not sure yet.
There will come a day, when those, who are Vonari, strengthen their claws to join the hunt.
We are Vonari. Ours is the prey, ours is the honor.
Our enemies shall shiver at the sound of our voice, when we take revenge on those who tried to crush us at the dawn of our race.
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Wasn\'t there a way to insert cutscenes?

Post by Nemesis »

My first attempt of playing a cutscene failed.
In the AC-folder I created a folder 'cutscenes' and copied the file assembled.avi into that location.
After that I modified the cutscene-line in the mission-file as follows:
EndingCutScene=\\cutscenes\\assembled.avi
After completion of the mission the game just went on as if there were nothing...any idea what went wrong?
Video is playing fine on my machine, appropriate codecs are installed...
There will come a day, when those, who are Vonari, strengthen their claws to join the hunt.
We are Vonari. Ours is the prey, ours is the honor.
Our enemies shall shiver at the sound of our voice, when we take revenge on those who tried to crush us at the dawn of our race.
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Wasn\'t there a way to insert cutscenes?

Post by Maarschalk »

Yes, I would be interested to see the final product...good luck with your project and thanks for the info...;)
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Wasn\'t there a way to insert cutscenes?

Post by Vice »

My first attempt of playing a cutscene failed.
In the AC-folder I created a folder 'cutscenes' and copied the file assembled.avi into that location.
After that I modified the cutscene-line in the mission-file as follows:
EndingCutScene=\\cutscenes\\assembled.avi
After completion of the mission the game just went on as if there were nothing...any idea what went wrong?
Video is playing fine on my machine, appropriate codecs are installed...
Couple of ideas:

- Try removing the additional slash before the target, so: EndingCutScene=cutscenes\\assembled.avi

- Try specifying the full path, so: EndingCutScene=c:\\sw3dg\\ArvochConflict\\cutscenes\\assembled.avi

- Try no path route and put the file with the binary, then: EndingCutScene=assembled.avi

Even if you can get it to just display an error or crash, then you'll know the target is working with the game. From there, it should be possible to adapt the AVI to the video system.

[Edited on 3-8-2010 by Vice]
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Wasn\'t there a way to insert cutscenes?

Post by Nemesis »

Thanks, Vice, now the video is being played...but in its native resolution and upside down! OK, nothing that can be fixed by reencoding, but can I get AC to play the video in full screen and with the correct orientation...whether what will be you answer, I'd say, let the game begin...

Vice, some time ago you said something about a plug-in that could enable AC to handle dynamic campaigns:

http://www.starwraith.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1907

IIRC there are no plans for an AC successor (squad based military sim)...couldn't we have the plug-in instead? There is a couple of players who like this idea...and there is another point: Having a dynamic campaign capability, it would be much more fun for me to film cinematics for a game. What about a mission pack "Arvoch Conflict - Vonari Vendetta"? A dynamic campaign with filmed cutscenes. What do other players think about that idea?

[Edited on 13-3-2010 by Nemesis]
There will come a day, when those, who are Vonari, strengthen their claws to join the hunt.
We are Vonari. Ours is the prey, ours is the honor.
Our enemies shall shiver at the sound of our voice, when we take revenge on those who tried to crush us at the dawn of our race.
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Wasn\'t there a way to insert cutscenes?

Post by Vice »

Thanks, Vice, now the video is being played...but in its native resolution and upside down! OK, nothing that can be fixed by reencoding, but can I get AC to play the video in full screen and with the correct orientation...whether what will be you answer, I'd say, let the game begin...
The game should play the video in whatever encoded resolution it is in relative to the game resolution. So if the video is 640X480 and the game resolution is 1280X1024, the video will cover about half the screen and I don't think there is a way to upscale it to fill the screen. If desired, you can force the game to a full screen resolution you want to better align with the video by altering the sw.cfg file (as part of the mod install), but that then removes the default 'Optimized' mode where the game adapts to the system.

Not sure about the orientation, that me be some codec specific issue. When I tested it many years ago, the videos played right-side-up iirc.
Vice, some time ago you said something about a plug-in that could enable AC to handle dynamic campaigns:
IIRC there are no plans for an AC successor (squad based military sim)...couldn't we have the plug-in instead?
There is no such plugin that I know of. What I was referring to there was the game's ability to accept dynamically created mission text files, which could be loaded while the game is running. That simply means a separate stand alone application could be running along with or before the game and create mission files 'on-demand' for dynamic or randomly built campaigns.

Here's a breakdown of how such a system -could- work. You'd start with the first two or so missions of your campaign. The application would monitor a desired pilot profile. When it detects a change, it knows the player probably just completed a mission, so it opens and parses data from the file to analyze the results. Then based on the results in can generate a new mission or missions starting from mission 3 (so that the game is still allowed to load the next mission [2] uninterrupted). It would probably be tricky to set something like that up, so an external mission system would probably be best (that is, an application that runs either before or after the game to generate mission content, perhaps starting with an initial mission or campaign, then 'updating' at some point to build new missions from that point on). The application could also be some kind of updater that runs each time the game launches, downloading the latest mission content as it is released.
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Wasn\'t there a way to insert cutscenes?

Post by Nemesis »

Originally posted by Vice
There is no such plugin that I know of. What I was referring to there was the game's ability to accept dynamically created mission text files, which could be loaded while the game is running. That simply means a separate stand alone application could be running along with or before the game and create mission files 'on-demand' for dynamic or randomly built campaigns.
I understood that there is no plug-in yet, but you proposed, that it is possible to program one. What I was thinking of was less complicated. If you survive a mission but fail to complete it, you could still go on with the game (choose between Retry and Go on). Success or failure determine with which mission you go on. That means I could generate a bunch of 50 or 60 missions but depending on my performance I would see only let's say 25 during my way through the game. That doesn't mean I can go on after every lost mission and there may be a point from where are still missions to fly but no way to win the game any more.
Is it possible to manage this?
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Wasn\'t there a way to insert cutscenes?

Post by Vice »

Not sure, but an initial guess would be probably not (unless you're good at coding programs to monitor memory points). My recommendation would be the 'updater' style of mission system where there would be some kind of launcher for the mod that downloaded the latest custom missions, something like an episode setup where each set of missions is like a 'chapter' and the player can choose which direction(s) they want to go by selecting a set of missions.
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Wasn\'t there a way to insert cutscenes?

Post by Nemesis »

Originally posted by Vice
My recommendation would be the 'updater' style of mission system where there would be some kind of launcher for the mod that downloaded the latest custom missions, something like an episode setup where each set of missions is like a 'chapter' and the player can choose which direction(s) they want to go by selecting a set of missions.


Sorry, I didn't get that...could you explain it, please..?
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Wasn\'t there a way to insert cutscenes?

Post by Vice »

The modder creates a stand-alone application that launches (via its own desktop icon perhaps) prior to the game. The application lets the player select which mission set they want to download or play. The mission/campaign they select is then placed/downloaded in the game's folder and the game can then be launched.
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Wasn\'t there a way to insert cutscenes?

Post by Nemesis »

This sounds very complicated...

Wouldn't it be easier just to determine whether the mission was a success or a failure and then go on with a specific ext mission (if it wasn't a forced-success-mission)?
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Wasn\'t there a way to insert cutscenes?

Post by Vice »

It would still require the use of an external program (for a dynamic structure at least), unless you could come up with some other way to create and save the text files for the missions.
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Wasn\'t there a way to insert cutscenes?

Post by Nemesis »

Which video-player is used to playback the cutscenes? I am still trying to fix the upside-down issue...
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Wasn\'t there a way to insert cutscenes?

Post by Vice »

I think it just routes it through WMP, but I'm not certain.
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Wasn\'t there a way to insert cutscenes?

Post by Nemesis »

OK, I worked further on the video issue. Cutscenes will be in WMV-Codec for optimal compatibility...stay tuned for new information in the next weeks...I will open a new thread soon...
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