[SP Scripting : Misc. Problems]

(aVe) #1

Hi !

While building test intros for an upcoming machinima, I wasn’t able to solve problems related to level management. (Some of theses questions has been posted @ mapcenter, but wasn’t answered).

I tested everything I found into Gray Matter Scripting Definition document and Karloff’s Night of the Opera (more betties !), so this is the proud remaining part.

In order of appearence :

  • How to remove / change the FMV “An ID Software Game…” at the beginning of the session ?
  • How to bypass / ignore the “clickme” at the end loading screen (levelshot) ? So intro-levels might chain by themselves. (Tried to add “playerstart” in “spawn” method…)
  • How to launch FMV during a gameplay (like the two animated screens @ Karloff’s) ?
  • How to have text displayed “on screen” (as subtitles) instead of displayed “in the console” (like : “AI (Nazi) -> blahblah”) ? I searched Karloff’s scripts about the “You still have something else to do” (or something) that appears when you try to open the opera author room. Is that a brush-based triggered text ?

And the winner is :

  • How to shut / remove the magnificent “mission success” ta-da at the end of the level ? (Brutal method is to edit the wave file to mute it… but it still brutal, and we aren’t brutes, are we ?) :moo:

Regards

(aVe) #2

(Addition)

  • Ok, solved the “winner” by using -silent (Thanks to DemonSpawn OEE) So no sound files were harmed.

New questions :

  • How to have the camera “bank” ? Actually they are quite always “balanced” but I’d like to unbalance some to enhance characters movements.
  • Is there a way to save a game with a specific name at the end of the level ? That will act as a “story pointer” and spectators could just load up where they stopped playback.
  • I don’t really get the difference between .ai & .script files. There are “level orders” in .ai and “ia orders” in .script. I’m puzzled.

Thats’ all for the time being :moo:

(kat) #3

There’s an entry in one of the script files in th UI folder that actually sets the FMV to play when the game starts, I don’t recall which one it is off hand though. In theory if you can find it, it’ll load your own FMV once changed.

You can’t bypass the ‘click to start’ arrow unless you do a bit of coding, it’s a *necessary item to start the game. You could replace the graphics if you wanted though.

Not sure about FMVs during gameplay

For text onscreen you’ll need to use the script command ‘print’ (or something, again I can’t recall offhand what it is), the command entry needs to be in the *.script file.

For the end level thing you could remaster the ‘blank’ sound file to 22khz so it’s converted to the same format as the music files. Just make a script call to that instead of the ‘ta-daa’. They use a similar trick when they want to silence an event ingame by making a script call to the blank noise (it’s in the scenaric/general folder btw)

(kat) #4

when you say ‘bank’ do you mean to twist the camera angle slightly (similar in some repects to player ‘leaning’)? If so then you can’t by default do that unless you set up some complex camera targets in your *.camera file

You can’t create a savegame in the middle of an FMV (obviously). To do what I think you’re thinking of you’re going to need to provide ‘breaks’ in the FMVs so that one plays, ends, loads a mapfile (or teleports the player to a certain position in a map) then loads another FMV based on a scripted event.

The main difference between *.ai and *.script files is this. *.ai mainly controls events based around the characters, getting them to move from A>B, speak, shoot and so on. The *.script acts as a controller, events happen sequencially based on how script blocks are read from this file - it also controls ingame events and AI characters and *.ai scripts blocks.

(aVe) #5

Hi Kat ! Happy to see you there :slight_smile:

  • For the opening FMV, as far as it isn’t a major concern, I’ll live with it…

  • OK for the “click to start”. I think it’d be better for me to ask coding help when 2 or 3 “reels” would be ready

  • After replaying Karloff’s N@O and rechecking its scripts, I think FMV are actually a trick.

  • I tried “print” in the .ai file and this is probably why it was displayed in the console rather than “as subtitles”. Will make a short .script file to check this… I found the wm_announce command in “Scripting 4 Newbies” but it wasn’t a valid command for AI.

  • Actually I used -silent as a music bypass.

//

  • About banking the camera, yes I mean rolling it ; something similar to leaning. Is it possible to have complex target setup in .camera files ? I thought only one target could exist actually.

  • About the savegame, sorry for misunderstanding. Maybe I shouldn’t use FMV term then. I don’t want to display pre-rendered animation (movie files) but let the story unfold in real time, as successives sequence. The ground concept is : one sequence, one level, one script. Once finished, you jump to the other sequence (next level). So here are my concerns : spectators might want to break the playback and take it later, so I thought of saving a “story pointer” at the beginning of each sequence, then it’s easy for the spectator to load up almost at the position the story halted.

  • Thanks for helping me out on .ai & .script ; all the tutorials I’ve made about SP AI scripting weren’t focused on .script. From your experience, is it preferable to set camera animation in .script or .ai ? And, most of all, is it possible to trigger an event in the .script file directly from the .ai file ?

I’ll have a look @ OEE and N@O scripts asap :moo:

Regards

(kat) #6

If you downloaded my 1st effort, MagesSkulls, take a look at the stuff related to the very 1st map, this is just a camera map which plays a sequence and then loads the next map which is that players start point. The other maps you’re looking at are examples of camera sequences that load/play based on ingame triggered events.

Generally speaking the actual scripting for the camera (the commands to start/stop certain sequences) goes in the *.ai under the ‘player’ script block. You can trigger the start of a sequence from the *.script file but the actual camera calls come from the *.ai script.

I’ll need to think about the ‘story pointer idea’…

(aVe) #7

Hi Kat ! I missed Mage Skull even if I searched the web about RTCW SP maps. DL now and I’ll come back after I’ve played / scrutinized it :slight_smile: (Are Generator & Castlekeep other SP mods ? I think I saw them in “Screenshots of what you’re doing” @ Q3W forums…)

I tried to contact Karloff directly too about some Opera scripting details.

Best regards

(aVe) #8

@ Kat > Karloff redirected me to your forum, KoS. See you there !
(BTW, is that normal that Castlekeep ends after the first level ?)

(kat) #9

yeh, it’s basically a ‘test’ and ‘sample’ map so it’s pretty short. I am working on something that’s longer but that’ll take a long time.

(aVe) #10

OK. It makes sense now.