Cutscenes

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Morden
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Cutscenes

Post by Morden »

We have a cutscene towards the climax of our Stirk quest. An outline of the actual events can be found here:

http://tamriel-rebuilt.org/old_forum/viewtopic.php?t=16020&start=0

Go down to 'VI. Quests Outline (Stage D)' point number 5.

The player will be immobilized, but will have freelook while a conversation and other actions take place around him.... like when you meet Juib at the start of Morrowind.

For the sake of planning, and my own curiosity...what's the best way to go about this? Is it just a disable menu command?

If you want to discuss any of the other scripting details needed during this scene please comment.
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Lud
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Post by Lud »

The functions used for doing this in chargen (in Morrowind) are pretty simple, it's just a case of enabling a certain mode. I'll try to find the name of the commands now, wait a sec.

Edit: Ok, here's what was possible in Morrowind:

DisablePlayerControls
This makes it so that the player can only move the mouse to look around-no walking, activating, menus, etc.

DisablePlayerFighting
DisablePlayerMagic

Stop player using magic or fighting-bugged in Morrowind-probably fixed for OB

DisablePlayerJumping
DisablePlayerLooking
DisablePlayerViewSwitch
DisableVanityMode

Disable all the above abilties

NOTE: all above functions also have GetPlayerblahblah to check if the function is enabled and EnablePlayerblahblah to trun it back to normal

PCForce3rdPerson
PCForce1stPerson

Forces the PC into the respective view mode.

In Morrowind there were commands for enabling pariticular menus, (magic, inventory, etc) but no commands for disabling, hopefully this is fixed in Oblivion, allowing the use of radically different gameplay sections (making full use of Oblivion's physics engine)
Eg: running out of collapsing ruin as havok rocks fall and hurt you. Could be interesting to provide a different experience this way.
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Morden
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Post by Morden »

I'm really interested in the use of cinematic elements to improve the quality of our mod. Thats why i'm curious about the different ways we could execute this cutscene.

'DisablePlayerControls' seems like the easiest option, we just have to make sure the script doesn't activate until the PC is in the proper position. Eventhough you've still got freelook, it would be bad is if you were standing right behind an NPC or a pillar, and couldn't see everything that's going on. Or worse, the PC might be facing the wrong direction entirely because they were walking backwards, and they're only able look at the door they just walked through, while the scene plays out.

Which brings me to the next question. Forgive my lack of scripting saavy but i'm trying to get an idea of what's possible. ;) What's the best way to get a cutscene to activate in this situation, without talking to an NPC? Maugrue is inside a large chamber, and the PC enters through a door. Should we just make this its own interior cell and have the script activate upon entry?
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Post by Stalker »

Morden wrote:What's the best way to get a cutscene to activate in this situation, without talking to an NPC? Maugrue is inside a large chamber, and the PC enters through a door. Should we just make this its own interior cell and have the script activate upon entry?
In SLoad's outline everybody must take their seats. Activate the script when player activates the chair :)
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Post by Morden »

Excellent point. :D
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Gez
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Post by Gez »

Enable/DisablePlayerControls works with Oblivion.

The cutscene will have to be perfectly debugged, though. I got a freeze in one of Oblivion's quests (the one with Kurdan the usurer and the manhunt in Fort Grief), upon leaving the Fort, Kurdan was supposed to attack and kill Whatshisname the missing husband, right in front of the eyes of the hapless player character that couldn't do anything to stop it because player controls are disabled.

Except that when I played it, due to bogus placement, Kurdan was unable to attack Whatsisname (they were inside each others, and I don't mean that in a merry way, so they couldn't position to attack and Oblivion's two-faced collision system prevented them from separating).

So, uh, time passed. After a few minute of watching both character move frantically and creating all sorts of graphical oddities, I got tired, enabled my controls with the console, and proceeded to move toward this fiasco. Kurdan then started to speak with me, claiming to have been killed Whatsis who was still jerking around uncontrolably, and then miraculously after the dialogue, these weird siamese twins finally separated from each others.

Now there's a still living guy stranded on an island, whom everybody thinks dead, and who rants about keys when I talk to him.

So, beware of removing player controls without some sort of check to make sure they come back even if the scripts fail somehow.
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Post by Stalker »

Had the same thing :)
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Post by Xui'al »

This should be done by somneone that has a powerful PC, so that everything the can be done very nicely, in the most optimized graphics, view distances, and frame rate. Stuttering in this would look terrible.
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Post by Stalker »

Xui'al wrote:This should be done by somneone that has a powerful PC, so that everything the can be done very nicely, in the most optimized graphics, view distances, and frame rate. Stuttering in this would look terrible.
It will be done on game engine. It won't be a movie.
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Post by Morden »

Keeping it in the game perserves the immersion best. ;)
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Post by Assassinace »

The most effective way to do it is to teleport the PC where you want him and then disable controls. This is what the game does for most of it's cutscenes (end game, portal opening, dark brotherhood, ect)
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Post by Sload »

Well, there will be stuff running the whole time they're in the cell, Oranos leads, everyone follows, and Maugrue tells the player to sit down. However, this is probably all AI, so the way to load the little cutscene is definitely through the chair.
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