[DEVELOPMENT] Campaign 4 Development Thread

[Goth Zagog-Thou]

I haven't, yet. All I've done is make audio-only test sequences. There's lots of screen capture apps (many of them FOSS) that can be used for this purpose. I'll be using that for the storyboard. The FMV's exist in my head, still.

Does the 'manual piloting' thing in Warzone work only in Master? I can't seem to activate it in 2.3.7 - and this will be absolutely critical if I have to do it using screen casting.

[Rman Virgil]

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Machinima is not going to happen for us. The software is proprietary, and expensive. The "demo version" provided by someone else is a scam... at BEST. I nearly hosed my machine installing the crapware they switch you to. We'll need to figure another way to do FMV's.

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Goth - what software did you use to record /capture the game running ?

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I haven't, yet. All I've done is make audio-only test sequences. There's lots of screen capture apps (many of them FOSS) that can be used for this purpose. I'll be using that for the storyboard. The FMV's exist in my head, still.

I'm confused.

Machinima simply means a FMV made from FMV video screen capture / recordings of a game running (with or without capturing audio).

Or more formally:

Machinima is a loose hybrid of the words “machine” and “cinema” and is used to describe the process of creating real-time animation by manipulating a videogame’s engine and assets.

Yes, there is tons of software that captures screen stills but I was not referring to that.

There is a score that captures FMV video running on your screen and it is only that software I thought you were referencing in your post on your Machinima experience... which is why asked which software did you try out of the score of apps out there.

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[Goth Zagog-Thou]

There's a designer app for it called "Machinimation", but it's proprietary and expensive.

I was looking for an "easier" way to make the FMV's. Guess there's nothing "easy" about it.

Blender might be the way to do this -- between that and The GIMP. There's been plenty made with those two programs. Sintel, Big Buck Bunny to name a few. I'll look into how and what they used in addition to Blender. And I've messed around in it enough to feel comfortable with trying it.

[Rman Virgil]

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Been a part of the http://www.machinima.com/find community for a good 6 years.

You should check it out.

Your experience with that app is NOT representative of Machinima in any way, shape, or form.

Making a world class Machinima is not easy.... but it's a lot easier than re-creating the WZ game world in Blender / Gimp.... which is why Machinima came into existence many years ago now..

How you make the cut-scenes is certainly up to you..... I just care to have Machinima accurately represented, is all really & if you check-out the link above you'll see why.
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[Goth Zagog-Thou]

Ok cool, I was a little put off but I guess I didn't look around there hard enough. That was the first place I went to (machinima.com), and didn't see anything so I kept searching and ended up somewhere else. Eh.

I will definitely check it out, thanks.

And I agree with you about the Blender stuff. It looks INSANELY complicated, and I'm like a deer in headlights at basic stuff that involves more than Object Mode.

[Goth Zagog-Thou]

Rman, I think it's best if you handle the Machinima and FMV side of things. Audio I'm good at. Mapping, average. Video stuff -- no f'n clue.

[Rman Virgil]

Ok cool, I was a little put off but I guess I didn't look around there hard enough. That was the first place I went to (machinima.com), and didn't see anything so I kept searching and ended up somewhere else. Eh.

I will definitely check it out, thanks.

And I agree with you about the Blender stuff. It looks INSANELY complicated, and I'm like a deer in headlights at basic stuff that involves more than Object Mode.

Machinima.com has become VAST - it was actually a lot easier to nav 6 years ago than it is now especially for tools and tuts.

My apology for taking for granted that it would be easy to find stuff - I've been around it for so many years, and seen it grow every step of the way, I forget that for someone just coming upon it for the first time there is much that is not obvious. Actually, while the design of the new site is pretty slick I think it is flawed in not having an obvious channel for newbs to get oriented on some basics and evolution of the art form.

Early on, before Machinima.com there was Machinima.org which was more how-to oriented... like for example this link:

http://www.machinima.org/machinima-faq.html

Aside from in-game tools, there are 3 basic tools you need to make machinima: a video capture program, a video editing program, and a voice/sound fx program.

There are close to 300 Screen Video Capture apps - about 100 are free (usual good & crap mix).... video editing progs present a similar scenario ...... audio I'm sure you have covered.

- L8r, Rman.

EDIT:

Rman, I think it's best if you handle the Machinima and FMV side of things. Audio I'm good at. Mapping, average. Video stuff -- no f'n clue.

After I get ahead on the M1 - M5 Gibbs Voice-overs, I'll make a quick sample for you to evaluate the tech/quality. You may still prefer doing it another way and that's cool too, because this is essentially your baby & just helping a bit, here & there, to realize your total vision is my humble role really... nothing more.


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[Goth Zagog-Thou]

@ Rman: Oh, you're part of this TOO! You know, name in the credits as 'Developers' and 'Voice Actors' and all that guff?

@ Milo: playSound([file],[player]) does NOT work as advertised. Neither does using actual NUMBERS in the command

Code: Select all

orderGroupLoc(ReconGroup, DORDER_SCOUT, 70, 114));

. See the tile coords? Crashes the game outright. No stderr OR stderrout. playSound results in a 'syntax error' and/or 'expected something-or-other' -- and yes, I've got an /audio folder in the copy of the mod *I* have with the proper filenames and stuff. /music works fine. /audio? nope. Any idea? Do I need to declare it as a variable in the .vlo? Which seems like extra fluff to me.. should just be able to plug in xnumber and ynumber and have it work. Using Notepad++, if it makes a difference, showing line numbers and all that.

Argh. Stressed. This is the majority of the problems I've encountered trying to script. Runtime errors without any really useful information, if it dosen't outright crash.

And what's this other guff about 'OggVorbis can't decode file' -3. I'm using .ogg throughout.

[Goth Zagog-Thou]

Sorry for griping but I'm ... really grumpy.

[Rman Virgil]

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Update On Making WZ Machinima:

I can make good, raw, Machinima of just about any retail game out there. WZ presents 2 fundamental hurdles that most retail games do not.

1.) "In-game tools..." - WZ's are rudimentary at best - like controlling the camera & drive mode, for example. However, over the years, when staging shots I've gotten the hang of dealing with the shortfalls effectively.

2.) Unlike most retail games, WZ no longer utilizes DirectX which is key to using the best recording mode for games in my Vid Capture proggy (it has 4 modes, all told).... so I will have to experiment with 2 of the other modes of capture. The thing with DirectX is that in Game Mode capture the data in the buffer used for DirectX is used to create the recording which allows me to capture very quickly & to achieve 60 FPS. I'll start experimenting with the other 2 capture modes next week - I really want to stay focused on audio this week.

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Goth, your dealing with a hell of a lot different things & holding it all together effectively practically all the time as I see it. Debugging WZ script can be incredibly trying, time-consuming and frustrating. It's ok to be grumpy.

- RV
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[Jorzi]

Here is a quick short I made a while ago using blender.
It took a few hours to make, most of the time trying to get the fire simulation working
(frame cache, correct voxeldata mapping of the smoke domain, volumetric material settings, simulation parameter tweaking and ensusing that the fire-emitting particles actually hit and stick to the bunker).
Anyway, as you see there is no landscape, since you'll have to do the landscape manually (you can use premade heightmaps, though)
The main benefit with blender over machinima is that you have absolute control over everything, as well as advanced lighting and ray tracing, with the drawback that you will have to set up exact animation/physics for everything that is to move.

[Rman Virgil]

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That's really cool Jorzi. Thank you for creating that sample.


Here's a little recap on the Cut-Scenes:

First.... we're looking, roughly, at about 30 minutes of footage in total.

Second.... how Goth & I got to this point is because no one has volunteered to help create the FMVs (at least, to date) and we were just thinking -

"Well, nobody has volunteered or seems to be interested in cut-scene production, so maybe we'll just have to do it between the 2 of us..."

Now I would say that if there were 1 or 2 folks willing to take on initial production of the FMVs, Goth & I would limit our involvement to supporting roles (as in story boarding and post-production processing/editing/audio creation & integration).

So... are there any volunteers ?

- Regards, Rman

EDIT: There are tons of fine Machinima out there but let me recommend 2 old chestnuts which I'm especially fond of for different reasons.

1.) BloodSpell here: http://www.bloodspell.com/

2.) Borg War: http://www.borgwarmovie.org/downloads.htm

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[Goth Zagog-Thou]

@ Jorzi: Nice! You're definitely a pro. Thanks for creating that! Are you volunteering your services to the cause?

@ Rman: You said it all. The two movies you linked are very interesting. In-game footage, eh?

Now that I've had a good sleep I'm in a MUCH better frame of mind to try debugging my script. It was nothing important, I just wanted to expand my skill-set and it didn't work out for me. Maybe the change to the scripting language will treat us all a little better.

[cybersphinx]

2.) Unlike most retail games, WZ no longer utilizes DirectX which is key to using the best recording mode for games in my Vid Capture proggy (it has 4 modes, all told).... so I will have to experiment with 2 of the other modes of capture. The thing with DirectX is that in Game Mode capture the data in the buffer used for DirectX is used to create the recording which allows me to capture very quickly & to achieve 60 FPS. I'll start experimenting with the other 2 capture modes next week - I really want to stay focused on audio this week.

The wzgm fork had integrated video dumping, not sure if that could be adapted for a current version. Camera control sucks, a UFO mode (completely free movement) would be nice.

The scripting debugging is bad, yes, that's a main reason for the move away from the custom wzscript.

[Goth Zagog-Thou]

Many questions regarding the new scripting stuff, but it's early still. I'll save questions for when it's in the game.