Implement video sequences between levels

by zheddo on 10/07/2008 09:35, 19 messages, last message: 10/16/2008 15:50, 2182 views, last view: 05/05/2024 10:37

Hi folks,

im currently doing an apprenticeship for film and 3D, and I must warn you in advance that I possess no programming language. To keep this thread short, Ill get to the point straight away.

1. Ive seen some SP maps hooked together, eg. you beat the level, walk into the crystal, and the next level loads.

is these levels hooked together by a code, or does the next level load simply because it would come up next in line because its alphabetically listed that way in the SB directory of maps?

2. How hard would it be to change the source code to add the possibility to play a movie by activating a string or something, eg something like:

"if level beaten = play movie XY.avi"
(of course in C++ language hehe)


Thanks for your answers in advance,

Cheers Phil

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#1: ..

by a~baby~rabbit on 10/07/2008 09:55

1/ Have a look at the .cfg file for the map.

2/ It can be done - 'easy'/'hard' depends on your programming ability (sorry, I do know that's not a useful answer). It also depends on your OS and/or what video playback libraries you can utilise.

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#2: ..

by zheddo on 10/07/2008 11:25

hehe, ok to clearify:

1. I have no programming abilities,

2. I guess nowadays .avi files (with a little plugin that most users have) are pretty crossplatform?

3. Im actually writing from work, but I will have a look at the .cfg file when im back home.

to rephrase my question more accurately, would anyone be interested in creating a few lines of C++ to implement movies that can be called upon with a string or at the end / between levels, or something?

If not Im just gonna drop it ;) But I thought It would be an extremely great addition to the allready superb Sauerbraten :)

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#3: Re: ..

by Quin on 10/07/2008 14:12, refers to #2

1) Oh well.

2) No, it doesn't quite work like that.

Sorry to say, not gonna happen, at least in Sauerbraten. I've looked at it myself, and it seriously is not worth the headache. You might be interested in MovieCube though, which has "scripted scenes".

http://sourceforge.net/projects/moviecube

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#4: ..

by zheddo on 10/07/2008 15:32

To bad... Well thanks anyways for the fast and straight forward answer.

Cheers, Phil

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#5: Re: ..

by Maxime -Max of S2D- Lebled on 10/07/2008 18:48, refers to #3

Eisenstern developers have shown interest in implementing MovieCube, AFAIK.

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#6: Re: ..

by offtools on 10/08/2008 02:36, refers to #5

short answer from moviecube:

i intend to implement ffmpeg for movie playback into moviecube [soon ;)]

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#7: Re: ..

by Quin on 10/08/2008 07:54, refers to #5

Beside the point, PlatinumArts Sandbox has it now too - but credit is given where credit is due.

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#8: ..

by Acord on 10/08/2008 08:13

It looks difficult enough to implement a good movie player that we'd all be better off with some top notch machinima.

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#9: Re: ..

by Maxime -Max of S2D- Lebled on 10/09/2008 19:29, refers to #6

Just thinking- what about implementing OGG Theora? Just THAT one.

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#10: Re: ..

by Quin on 10/10/2008 03:38, refers to #9

How about giving me a million dollars? Just one million, nothing more. :oP

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#11: Re: ..

by Acord on 10/10/2008 07:53, refers to #10

You have been hanging out around eihrul too much.

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#12: ..

by adobemedia on 10/13/2008 01:21

I think being able to move the camera AND trigger sound AND freeze input via scripts would be enough to create some nice cut scenes. Although you could actually create a cinematic in 3DSMax, it would be much faster to do in Sauer. (3 million times faster.) And, Sauer has some damn nice graphics it self, so the cut scenes would look pretty nice.

ALTHOUGH

Being able to play QuickTime or AVI files would be very, very, very useful for making intro sequences. (Like showing company logos before the game starts, or showing credits, or what ever.)

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#13: ..

by a~baby~rabbit on 10/13/2008 02:58

I'd rather game loaded faster - rather than slowed down to show credits/play videos... but that's just my opinion :P

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#14: ..

by a~baby~rabbit on 10/13/2008 03:09

More seriously - it can be done, probably more easily if it did not have to be cross-platform... e.g. on a Mac I would use CoreVideo to decode the movie, and then render on a layer above the window/screen thus side-stepping the issues of making sauer maintain adequate fps whilst loading level assets... but you still need programming skills to do all of this.

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#15: ..

by jzman2 on 10/13/2008 06:33

I was thinking about porting this (http://nehe.gamedev.net/data/lessons/lesson.asp?lesson=35) to sauerbraten with two commands. One to allow videos when the game starts, and another when a charecter walks with in range of an entity. But, this may be a really stupid question, can someone tell me how to add a command. If i can get it too work i'll post the mod.

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#16: Re: ..

by offtools on 10/14/2008 13:33, refers to #15

@jzman2

the linux version of this tutorial uses libavifile. For some reasons its not a good idea to use this: it's a wrapper for windows dll's, last release is from March 2006. I really think ffmpeg should do the job, it works on MAC,LINUX and WIN. You can find a good tutorial, how to use it here:

http://www.dranger.com/ffmpeg/

i intend to implement ffmpeg for moviecube, so maybe we could do this together.

Commands:
see engine code for instance texture.cpp, look for "COMMAND" there.

offtools.

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#17: ..

by Adobe-Media on 10/15/2008 04:23

@a-baby-rabbit
Just make it so when you click it skips the cutscene. ;)

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#18: Re: ..

by jzman2 on 10/16/2008 01:15, refers to #16

Thanks.

ffmpeg seems really good, so im going to go through the tutorial and build the sample app, and i'll get back with you. Also how soon do you plan to implement this into moviecube?

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#19: ..

by zheddo on 10/16/2008 15:50

phew wow! Didn't actually think someone was going to go for it :)

Peoples enthusiasm surprises me over and over again. Makes me happy!

:)

Cheers Phil

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