Cutscene
A cutscene or event scene (sometimes in-game cinematic or in-game movie) is a sequence in a video game that is not interactive, interrupting the gameplay. Such scenes are used to show conversations between characters, set the mood, reward the player, introduce newer models and gameplay elements, show the effects of a player's actions, create emotional connections, improve pacing or foreshadow future events. Cutscenes often feature "on the fly" rendering, using the gameplay graphics to create scripted events. Cutscenes can also be pre-rendered computer graphics streamed from a video file. Pre-made videos used in video games (either during cutscenes or during the gameplay itself) are referred to as "full motion videos" or "FMVs". Cutscenes can also appear in other forms, such as a series of images or as plain text and audio.
Overview
Svengali, Oolite's dramatic genius, produced this demo back in 2012 for Oolite trunk v.1.76. It needs a trunk version and Cabal Common Library.
Detail
After a little bit more tweaking (see Screenshots) a demo cutscene for trunk users is available - to make appetite for more...
The goal for the demo was to create a set of shaders for cutscenes. As you can see (filenames) it started as addition for the Vector OXP, but the shaders will be moved into Cabal_Common for the next version.
- Older Oolite versions with trunk variants
- Cabal_Common_Library1.6.1_r95.zip (1004.4 KB)
- Svengali_Animation_Demo0.95.zip (4.1 MB)
The advantage is that the scenes are real in-game mechanisms - using the same rendering engine has a pretty nice binding to the look and feel of other game mechanisms. The next step is to make the demo v1.76.1 compatible and sort out Audio stuff.
Cutscenes require some more work than just displaying a model on a missionscreen. To make things look right you need mechanisms to move elements (subentities), to sync movements and to get effects. E.g. models on missionscreens don't have speed == no exhausts. Via shader you can simulate these effects and framecallbacks can be used to move elements. Combined with overlays (or HUDs) and some dirty tricks you can create complete animated scenes. The demo shows some possibilities with a different lighting situation.
I've made available [url="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Sj6owZbgQvw2QYL5xf_4-jwkx6OYVOrF/view?usp=sharing"]here[/url] a video recording of Svengali's OXP with this setup:
Although you can watch the file in-place (with whatever Google Drive player quality settings will give), if you download it you'll be able to see it at its original capture settings (mkv format with 1600x900/60fps) |
| (Commander_X (2021)) |
Links
- BB Thread (2012)
- Cabal Common Library (CCL)
- Library - the modern replacement for CCL
- Svengali
- Brilliant but broken...
