Singleplayer Story Mode - Ideas/Development [Spoilers!]

[ai]

we NEED a pre-rendered cutscene..at least at that point if not other places in the game as well... something of such an epic scale could never be done in-engine..

What you mean, machinima?

[[-z-]]

Darkplaces has video support for it's own format, dpv. Which is quit similar to an animated gif from what I understand. It's not great and filesizes are large.


http://svn.icculus.org/twilight/trunk/dpvideo/

[MC SE7EN]

we NEED a pre-rendered cutscene..at least at that point if not other places in the game as well... something of such an epic scale could never be done in-engine..

What you mean, machinima?

no..like..if you look at some games, they have some cutscenes using the in-game graphics, but they also have some using graphics superior to those used in the gameplay, with animations that couldnt be pulled off using the game's graphics engine. machinima would be in-engine, but videos made using other programs and exported as a single video file that would be triggered as a cutscene at some point...

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/M ... leCutScene

[some-guy]

Couldn't darkplaces just use liboggplay (like firefox), to render the videos(if of course, it uses a *proper* format and not some engine-specific-hard-to-use one). It looks like it would be much less work than directly trying to use libogg.

[ai]

Well, don't expect any videos like that Mc Seven. The magnitude of the entire scope of creating such a thing, even a small one with a few seconds is beyond easy work, that is, if you would want good looking cinematics.
Those kind of videos are just not possible. The only viable option, if you want cutscenes are in-game graphic type.

[MC SE7EN]

Well, don't expect any videos like that Mc Seven. The magnitude of the entire scope of creating such a thing, even a small one with a few seconds is beyond easy work, that is, if you would want good looking cinematics.
Those kind of videos are just not possible. The only viable option, if you want cutscenes are in-game graphic type.

if we had someone dedicated who wanted to do that, then it would be possible. i understand its not easy. that goes without saying. but some of the things being described here just CANT happen using in-engine graphics due to their huge scope..

[ai]

if we had someone dedicated who wanted to do that, then it would be possible. i understand its not easy.

If we barely get people to do models for the game I don't think we'd get any 'dedicated' enough to do top-notch 3D cinematics for free. Even expecting artists to do it for free is seriously disrespecting and looking down on them. This kind of work is VERY valuable, no self-respecting artist would do such a thing unless the payoff was of equal value to the work.

Besides, unless you have a team of such dedicated people this will never happen anyway. It would take years for one or two people to do, working only during their free time. I think you underestimate just how much work (and time) it would go into doing something like that.

One would just have to make do with the in-game engine. Break it up into smaller pieces and whatnot. Or, tell the story with drawings and voice audio, it has been done before and worked well.

[Sepelio]

I'd be willing to help put together more 'machinima' style cutscenes if people are willing to help. I realise the ingame videoplayback is lousy but if there is any hope of it being improved I'm sure willing actors wouldn't be too hard to find within the community.

[Mizu Kitsune]

in game cinematics can be done by making the smds for the character that the specific script for the specific scene would use, using the 360 camera auto-rotation via the script again for pan, move, etc, .wav .mp3 or .ogg sound files scripted, different hud. i suggest that the hud also be different not just for cutscene but for single altogether, along with a SP gametype that supports all nodes including nexball nodes, this will allow more features and openendedness.

[Flying Steel]

Okay here is the rewritten part of the backstory covering the Arena:

Trial Era

After millennia of expansion, the Exosilex empire was reaching a breaking point. The Exosilex now managed too many dozens of diverse and increasingly unruly species for them to dominate alone.

Their first solution was to bolster their ranks with Auxiliary forces pulled from their greatest subjugates, but first they needed a way to determine which were greatest among them. So on the southern surface of the Northern Pole, the Arena was created. Here all subjugates could send their most elite examples of technological and martial prowess, to try out for the position of Auxiliaries. In return, all who achieved this status and continued to fulfill its duties would be given back control of their local space and have their tribute requirements minimized. Of all those that fought and were tested in the Arena, only three species achieved the rank- the Hallurchin, Cephadarian and Arthrolid.

With their new Auxiliaries, the strength of the Exosilex was more than doubled. But as time went on and even more subjugates were acquired the problem reemerged. This time instead of creating a solution to counter the problem, they attacked the problem directly. They gathered up their Auxiliaries and systematically crushed each of their other subjugates into pre-civilized bands of primitives. The issue was solved.