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#1 02/12/07 02:02

Mango
Member
From: VIC, Australia
Registered: 01/20/07

Custom Cinematics

I know that the movies and such throughout Oni are scripts as well as a lot of other things. I have examined the scripts and thought it would be great if we could make our own movies with different settings, dialogue and actions (you can put in sounds with OUP, right?).

I am going to practice scripting a bit more so that one day I can do this, but for now I want to know if anyone has yet, or is willing to try.

I think that it would be cool if we could do this with 1 Minute Oni.


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#2 02/12/07 04:02

geyser
Member
From: beyond the veil
Registered: 01/14/07
Website

Re: Custom Cinematics

I think that it would be cool if we could do this with 1 Minute Oni.

Indeed. But I think that as a "gamic" it would be less time-consuming. Quite in line with iOni, too smile

Custom cutscenes force you to use the original animations. Thus the character setup is rather limited.
Another limitation is that the voiceovers, too, are down to the originals. All you can do is display custom messages.

Up to now, perhaps the nicest custom cutscene is Osiris's remake of the first cutscene in AN INNOCENT LIFE.
It's not a big deal from a scripter's point of view, but it's the closest we ever came to Red VS Blue smile
I definitely want to give custom cutscenes a try, and you're certainly welcome to practice and help/DIY.
I want these for "promotional" AMVs (Stamina Rose, Super Beast, etc). They could also be OTA bonuses.

Last edited by geyser (02/12/07 04:02)


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#3 02/12/07 04:02

Mango
Member
From: VIC, Australia
Registered: 01/20/07

Re: Custom Cinematics

So are you saying that you have to use camera setups that are already in the game? Does it also have to do with flags in where the people stand? I think I saw somewhere that you could insert your own flags, but I'm not sure where.


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#4 02/12/07 11:02

geyser
Member
From: beyond the veil
Registered: 01/14/07
Website

Re: Custom Cinematics

OUP makes it possible to use custom flag lists: either modify existing flags in-place, or create a new (possibly larger) list and import it. Same for characters and other level-specific entities.
Cameras don't use flags, though. They use the same kind of "object animations" as moving trucks/bikes/helicopters etc. Basically, translation and rotation paths stored as looooong lists of keyframes rather than an individual keyframes to interpolate between.
So there's no easy way to "author" custom camera animations, even less so if you want to add them alongside the original ones.
There's one way, though. Instead of detaching the camera you focus it to dummy (invisible, no-clipping, whatever) chars and then use combinations of character movement and cm_orbit commands (oh, and cm_height and cm_canter and all that)
In the new core of OTA (WIP forever smile ), that's how I "create" a camera that shows you a rotating view of every arena while you cycle between them.
That's an easy way to achieve "travelling" cameras (e.g. moving ahead of a walking (group of) character(s), facing backwards at the subject). Etc.

Last edited by geyser (02/12/07 12:02)


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#5 02/12/07 23:02

Mango
Member
From: VIC, Australia
Registered: 01/20/07

Re: Custom Cinematics

Well, you could do it a bit more like what they do in Red VS Blue and use the flying dev-mode cam to film it, while having a script playing in any place of the map. That would fix the problem about having cameras to worry about. You wouldn't have the special movie letterbox neccessarily, but you could add sounds later, again like RVB.

By the way, what is "Osiris's remake of the first cutscene in AN INNOCENT LIFE"?
I just want to know what's possible.


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#6 02/13/07 06:02

geyser
Member
From: beyond the veil
Registered: 01/14/07
Website

Re: Custom Cinematics

It should be possible to record custom camera movements (in dev mode) and then play them back, although I never tried. Not sure you can play them back "fromhere", i.e. detach the camera wherever it is, and take only the orientation and increments from the recorded track.
Anyway, that's not something you can call from scripts. I mean, just because you can record movements of the player character as "films" doesn't mean you can cast those "films" onto characters from scripts. At least not easily. You can play back the last recorded "film" with a hotkey, but that's all.
You can also look up the file "saved_film####.dat" that got dumped in your Oni folder. Those temporary files have the same format as FILMs, and they actually make it possible to author new FILM resources for Oni to use. But that's a lot of hacking ATM. I'd wait until OUP can repack whole level flawlessly.
Oh, and I'm not sure whether there's a similar "dump temp file in OBAN format" for cameras or whether it's defunct in our version of Oni. Never actually tried. So maybe what works for FILMs won't work for OBANs.

Then again, if you mean "our own movies" to be more than scripts that everyone could play back with an original (or slightly modded) version of Oni, that is, if you want to actually postprocess/splice/whatever the video after it's recorded, then runtime playback of movements recorded right there and then is OK.
For Stamina Rose (I ought to make a project page for that one so that everyone can participate), for example, I can make a speed run through Rooftops SP1 with Konoko, record that, play it back as many times as I want to, and meanwhile orbit/detach/whatever the camera and record her "checkpoint" run from a variety of viewports. Those different recordings can then be spliced in the movie editor in sync with music, etc, etc.

BTW, letterboxing can be turned on and off at any time. Thus we can display custom subtitles in a near-professional fashion. No problem whatsoever.

Osiris called his stuff Dr. Kerr learns the folly of too much scientific inquisitiveness. Attachments of the previous OCF are not visible unless you're logged in, so log in, then search for "laughed my ass off" (if needed) smile
Osiris's script has a little "bug": you're supposed to have Kerr spawned early on. Osiris didn't notice because he uses ai2_spawnall all the time.
It would be good practice for you to fix that bug, and a few others (cam/anim sync etc), and then release a "final" version of that script here.
Attachments still don't work though. You're already hosting iOni pictures somewhere, but if you're Serious about the AMV/RVB business, I suggest you get an oni2.net account.

One last thing. Bungie's Oni Multiplayer may be dead... but for all I know, "resurrection is-a-gonna come". Possibly maybe smile

EDIT: Darn it, I sound so f##king pretentious again... Sorry.

EDIT2: HERE is an example of "custom subtitles". I used dprint, obviously.
And HERE ARE FOUR MORE custom screenshots that go in the same direction as Osiris's script.
More HERE. And HERE, of course. I haven't done anything "funny" but screenshots like those. No "cutscenes".
(as you can imagine, such screenshots are much easier to arrange than movies; and they can be pretty rewarding already)

Last edited by geyser (02/13/07 06:02)


Behold the power of that which is yet unborn! For the swirling images that flow forth from the Chrysalis are only a shadow of the sleeper's true power.

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#7 02/13/07 21:02

Mango
Member
From: VIC, Australia
Registered: 01/20/07

Re: Custom Cinematics

Ok, maybe on the weekend I'll practice some scripting. Theres still a lot I don't understand about it all, but maybe I will have a look at that script.

I think filming with FRAPS or something would be a better solution at the moment, as hacking data isn't my thing.

Maybe I'll get a bit more knowledge before I think about getting a oni2.net account.

PS: Do you mean you can capture films through Oni?

EDIT:
Oh cool! Those scripts with Kerr are what gave me the idea in the first place! Here's a tip: play the part with the reservoirdogs cheat enabled and there's a twist at the end...

Last edited by Mango (02/14/07 00:02)


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#8 02/14/07 15:02

Phydur
Member
Registered: 01/13/07

Re: Custom Cinematics

geyser wrote:

OUP makes it possible to use custom flag lists: either modify existing flags in-place, or create a new (possibly larger) list and import it. Same for characters and other level-specific entities.

eh, heh...
um... where could i find more informaiton on this... like how to do it... sorry if it's a stupid qutestion.


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#9 02/14/07 18:02

geyser
Member
From: beyond the veil
Registered: 01/14/07
Website

Re: Custom Cinematics

Do you mean you can capture films through Oni?

Heck no. Of course not. Well, there's Ctrl+L (dumps every drawn frame) but that's "absolutely not recommended".
No, I (would) record with FRAPS or Taksi. But before I do, I'd rather have the action set up so that it can play on demand. Like Konoko wouldrun along a set path, and I would only choose where to place the camera. Or even the camera would be animated with some scripted/preset sequence: no real-time input from me whatsoever.
In the case of Osiris's cutscene, for example, you can clearly set it up so that it loops upon completion, or rewinds on demand. Makes debugging easier and less time-consuming. And then, when everything works fine, you can launch the script one more time and record it with FRAPS or whatever.

The biggest problem with FRAPS is the watermark. Of course you can trim every frame down to the letterbox if you so wish (RAD Video Tools do that quite easily), but then it's no longer 4:3, and it won't fit YouTube etc so well... I guess one could add black borders in the same way, though... Never tried.

I think filming with FRAPS or something would be a better solution at the moment, as hacking data isn't my thing.

Whatever you film with FRAPS, you have to set up the scene somehow. And if that scene has nothing to do with the original cutscenes, that's rather heavy scripting anyway, and possibly binary hacking, too. To my knowledge, no scripter has ever included any essentially new cutscene arrangements in his mods, with the possible exception of Loser's Warehouse. At any rate, it's a lot of work, and you should definitely be "ready to hack" smile

As I said, static pictures are relatively easy to craft as compared to movies. To my knowledge as well, I'm the only one who indulged in massively scripting/hacking funny scenes together, from A to Z, "just" to take a snapshot of them.
Since you do anything you want with a static camera, and almost anything you want with static characters (thus, in dev mode you can completely freeze the animation for a character, independently from the single-step mode), you can set up pictures that will speak volumes.
Once the screenshot is done, you can process it with GIMP/whatever, add artistic filters and such (sorta like the OCR thingie you've shown in the iOni thread). Of course you can add bubbles, fancy fonts, sound effects etc. If you play your cards right, the cartoons you obtain that way will be worth hours of "movies".

So I'd say single-screenshot cartoons, or "gamics" are most adapted in terms of the time/quality ratio. Once you've mastered those, you may feel like "animating" them (slideshow + sounds). Windows Movie Maker and others make it possible, but Flash would probably be best. And if you want Flash tips, SektorZ is the man.

Theres still a lot I don't understand about it all, but maybe I will have a look at that script.

Even if you follow that "advice" of mine and focus on "gamics" rather than movies, it will still be very useful to debug Osiris's "You don't know that for sure" script.
First, because it's only visible to logged-in members of the previous OCF, and that it deserves to be re-published.
Second, because it's awesome and deserves a flawless rendering.
Third, because there could be more of those, equally simple to script, that we could set up for ingame playback (as I said, OTA/ONK bonuses, ideas for ONK missions, etc).
Last but not least, because some of the elements used in cutscene scripts will also be relevant for "gamics".

@Phydur. Of course it's not a stupid question. I feel guilty for not having detailed those (rather easy) modding how-tos on OG. But well, what do you expect, I'm "Japanese" (work work work work) smile
Basically, you want to get OUP, and edit the RAW parts of the level-specific OBJC BINA ("what's he saying?") smile
Those are arrays (collections) of similar objects, each consisting of a possibly large number of fields, the values of which distinguish the object from all the others. You can thus have a collection of FLAG objects, each FLAG having a 3D position and rotation and some other stuff. Or a collection of CHAR objects, each CHAR will correspond to a character you can create with ai2_spawn (mostly the stuff documented by ssg HERE). Same for other stuff like consoles, turrets, pre-spawned powerups, pre-spawned weapons, laser triggers, etc.

You can throroughly document the original stuff like ssg did, but you can also modify those lists rather easily. If you modify an existing "object" (flag, character, whatever), the size of your Oni files is not affected, so you just modify the minimal required stuff in-place, and enjoy. More interestingly, you can export the RAW part of the OBJC you've modded, and then share it. It's totally compatible across versions: even Mac people will be able to import the "collection" quite simply into their respective level resources, and no changes will have to be made to fix the resource hierarchy (offsets, file IDs etc). That's because the changes are all in the RAW part, which doesn't link to any other resource in a version-specific way.

It's a bit harder if you want to put a new (larger) collection together. Most probably you'll have to generate a valid hex chunk externally, with some hex editor or another. Then you can import that chunk just as you would for an original-sized chunk, except now OUP won't modify the stuff in-place (since that would overwrite the data stored after the original chunk). Instead, the new data is appended to the RAW/SEP file (which will grow larger, obviously), and the link in the DAT part is updated accordingly.

Anyway, expanding RAW chunks is not recommended. Before you do so, try and look up "unused" flags for a certain level, and modify those. SAme for characters. There are usually a few dummy ai2_spawnable characters that aren't used by original scripts, and thus asking to be customized smile

Err, those tips (especially those to Phydur) I should definitely put on OG somewhere. I'd hate such details to fall away into oblivion smile

Last edited by geyser (02/14/07 19:02)


Behold the power of that which is yet unborn! For the swirling images that flow forth from the Chrysalis are only a shadow of the sleeper's true power.

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#10 02/14/07 22:02

Your_Mom
Member
From: Canada
Registered: 01/31/07
Website

Re: Custom Cinematics

Hmmm....adding new data altogether. That would be a lot easier if we weren't HEX-editing this in ourselves, and had some sort of tool to extract or import data into these storage files...sadly, we have none of that available as on now.

If it is indeed possible to import data into the RAW, and update the DAT, then wouldn't it be theoretically possible to add CHARs and TURRs as we please, as well as FLAGs...that would open up...many...possibilities, since we are able to almost totally re-work the existing CHARs - health, model, and move set, as well as their AI... And adding new sets of flags will allow us to not have to use the "chr_location" method which was not possible on Mac, was it? Whatever it was, there was some kind of limitation...As Far As I Remeber...


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#11 02/15/07 01:02

Mango
Member
From: VIC, Australia
Registered: 01/20/07

Re: Custom Cinematics

@geyser
I have a camera which I can connect to the computer and record what's on the screen. It's a much better alternative.

As for the rest, maybe scenes in the already-there places would be better. I can imagine getting some good results with sewing them together. For now, that's what it seems I'd be able to do... once I learn a few more commands...


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#12 02/15/07 04:02

geyser
Member
From: beyond the veil
Registered: 01/14/07
Website

Re: Custom Cinematics

OUP lets you do pretty much stuff already. Export/import of BINA/OBJC/whatever chunks works just fine. And Mac folks can import them too, as I said.
But of course whatever changes you do you have to do in hex. There's no neato GUI for that.... yet. There might be one, pretty soon smile
We'd call it META Editor smile

If it is indeed possible to import data into the RAW, and update the DAT, then wouldn't it be theoretically possible to add CHARs and TURRs as we please, as well as FLAGs...that would open up...many...possibilities

Yeah. Yeah. That's what I'm talking about smile  The level-specific BINA are rather easy to mod, you may recall.
And you also may recall that "almost totally reworking the existing CHARs" was more or less the idea behind BIP in the first place...

@ Mango:
If your camera records sound, and has no limitations whatsoever, sure. Usually, though, Oni takes only a tiny part of my screen (640x480 window), and the good point is that FRAPS/Taksi record only that: no need for trimming/resampling after the recording is done.

As for the rest, maybe scenes in the already-there places would be better. I can imagine getting some good results with sewing them together.

I told you: they're hell to debug... Oh well, just fix up Osiris's thing and then we'll talk smile
I dunno when I'll have the time to document more scripting commands. I'm thinking of a complete rehaul of OG's namespaces, that would make it closer to wiki standards and easier to search for anything you need. Stay tuned.


Behold the power of that which is yet unborn! For the swirling images that flow forth from the Chrysalis are only a shadow of the sleeper's true power.

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#13 02/16/07 01:02

Phydur
Member
Registered: 01/13/07

Re: Custom Cinematics

geyser wrote:

(Buch o' stuff)
Err, those tips (especially those to Phydur) I should definitely put on OG somewhere. I'd hate such details to fall away into oblivion smile

if you make a wiki page for it, i'll coppy/paste/edit it for you... when i have time... which i dont think i'll have any time soon... hmm

or if you tell me what to name it i could make it myself.


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