ES Forum Archive > Morrowind Mods > [QUESTION] Cutscenes...
Just a random question to all skilled modders out there. I've seen things accomplished which are unheard of in the vanilla game (such as horse riding) via scripts.
Now just out of curiosity, is it possible to create ingame cutscenes within Morrowind?
I don't mean like the one at the beginning of the game where the NPC's talk to you and you see it through 1st person view, but like the kind you'd find in many linear RPGs of today, when you view all characters (including yours) moving around and talking to each other from different camera angles and pans, usually setting up an important event or a scene where actions speak louder than words.
If no-one has any definate answers, than feel free to speak amongst yourselves about possiblities and theories on how such a thing could work.
Once this has been debated long enough, depending on the outcome I may or may not ask another related question.
But please, no posts complaining about how such a thing shouldn't be done because it's "immersion breaking", everyone has the right to customise their Morrowind experience to their liking. This topic is more for those who like their experience to be a bit more cinematic.
Please note I myself am not too familiar with the CS. The most I have done is change an NPC's clothes and to change the meshes of one race to another.
Now just out of curiosity, is it possible to create ingame cutscenes within Morrowind?
I don't mean like the one at the beginning of the game where the NPC's talk to you and you see it through 1st person view, but like the kind you'd find in many linear RPGs of today, when you view all characters (including yours) moving around and talking to each other from different camera angles and pans, usually setting up an important event or a scene where actions speak louder than words.
If no-one has any definate answers, than feel free to speak amongst yourselves about possiblities and theories on how such a thing could work.
Once this has been debated long enough, depending on the outcome I may or may not ask another related question.
But please, no posts complaining about how such a thing shouldn't be done because it's "immersion breaking", everyone has the right to customise their Morrowind experience to their liking. This topic is more for those who like their experience to be a bit more cinematic.
Please note I myself am not too familiar with the CS. The most I have done is change an NPC's clothes and to change the meshes of one race to another.
I have been wondering the same thing. I think it is possible by disabling player controls and forcing a 3rd person view, and heavy scripting. Not sure how easy it would be, but it is possible I believe.
Yes Cutscenes are possible. For an example see the Reign of Fire Mod availble on PES.
One cool place where I would like to see a cutscene is when traveling by boat or strider. The cutscene could display the map and trace out the travel path. When it ends you will be at your location.
One cool place where I would like to see a cutscene is when traveling by boat or strider. The cutscene could display the map and trace out the travel path. When it ends you will be at your location.
Children of the Night also has cutscenes. It can be done. I have no idea how, of course...
Vampire Embrace *sort of* has one too, whenever you try to embrace/enslave/kill the NPCs.
Also Fliggerty's Fargoth mods both have *semi*cutscenes which are quite interesting, it is possible, but seems to be very hard, why don't you ask one of the scripting gods (Fliggerty, yacoby etc.)if it's possible?
Look at Wizard's Islands. Get to the part where you go to the main island. Beautiful, simply beautiful.
You can disable player movement/force first person and move the player around through scripts as if he were a camera, even make the camera pan and scroll by placing the player on a moving platform. You could script NPCs to walk around and have them talk to one another with message boxes, all the while changing the camera view to get closeups of their faces and stuff. Unfortunately theres no way to adjust the angle of which you would view the scenes
None of it is really complicated scripting but it would take quite a bit of testing to get it to turn out right, which can be quite frustrating and is probably why cutscenes dont exist in many mods.
None of it is really complicated scripting but it would take quite a bit of testing to get it to turn out right, which can be quite frustrating and is probably why cutscenes dont exist in many mods.
Sorry about the quick reply. Quite busy at present.
As nikki said, you can move the player around as if it were the camera, I don't know how easy it is to manipulate the players view (Where is looking) however, it is (I think) possible to do with MGE. (It may be possible to do with vanilla MW
)
However, if you are going to do this, a lot more foolproof method is to record a video with FAPS or whatever, and then convert it to a bik (Using free tools) and then just use MW to play that. That way it will work as you want it every time, without needing a huge amount of scripting.
I was thinking about video with the player doing things, and it suddenly gets very complicated (although it would be a lot easier using OBs scripting engine)
For Morrowind, I had a couple of thoughts.
Move the player around using keypresses, you can do this with MGE. It would however be hard and annoying to do, and the end result wouldn't look good.
Another option is to place a duplicate of the player (placeatpc, playersavegame, 1, 1, 1 (IIRC)) and move that around. I have never tried manipulating the duplicate, and it does have some drawbacks. The duplicate is (IIRC), a clone of the PC from the last save, or from when the game was loaded. You may be able to get MGE to press F5 and (If required) F9 to get the most recent version. It will also vanish on loading, with would have to be taken into accound.
I have never seen the clone of the player manipulated, though it should be possible, even if MWSE is required to deal with the exact ref.
You could then manipulate the clone, and move the real player around in the way that nikki suggested as a camera. That way you could see yourself talking, fighting, whatever. Which would be really cool
.
I would be interested to see if anyone else had some thoughts...
Loads of mistakes in the above probably, but got to to back to RL.... Maybe more later.
As nikki said, you can move the player around as if it were the camera, I don't know how easy it is to manipulate the players view (Where is looking) however, it is (I think) possible to do with MGE. (It may be possible to do with vanilla MW
)However, if you are going to do this, a lot more foolproof method is to record a video with FAPS or whatever, and then convert it to a bik (Using free tools) and then just use MW to play that. That way it will work as you want it every time, without needing a huge amount of scripting.
I was thinking about video with the player doing things, and it suddenly gets very complicated (although it would be a lot easier using OBs scripting engine)
For Morrowind, I had a couple of thoughts.
Move the player around using keypresses, you can do this with MGE. It would however be hard and annoying to do, and the end result wouldn't look good.
Another option is to place a duplicate of the player (placeatpc, playersavegame, 1, 1, 1 (IIRC)) and move that around. I have never tried manipulating the duplicate, and it does have some drawbacks. The duplicate is (IIRC), a clone of the PC from the last save, or from when the game was loaded. You may be able to get MGE to press F5 and (If required) F9 to get the most recent version. It will also vanish on loading, with would have to be taken into accound.
I have never seen the clone of the player manipulated, though it should be possible, even if MWSE is required to deal with the exact ref.
You could then manipulate the clone, and move the real player around in the way that nikki suggested as a camera. That way you could see yourself talking, fighting, whatever. Which would be really cool
.I would be interested to see if anyone else had some thoughts...
Loads of mistakes in the above probably, but got to to back to RL.... Maybe more later.
I notice the fact that you can't adjust the angle of the 'camera' has been brought up. Perhaps there is a way to force the player's view to lock onto an object. That way you could place small spheres inside of an NPC (such as the head) and then force the 'camera's' view to lock onto the sphere from wherever the 'camera' is standing.
Because this discussion has been quite successful, I shall add an extra question into the fray. In many games (and even Oblivion to an extent), the camera automatically changes when talking to an NPC. In the case of modern RPGs like Kingdom Hearts, this may be a camera shot showing both the player and the character they're talking to. In the case of Oblivion, it centre's onto the NPC's face so you can see who you're talking to. Is there any way to alter the camera for just an NPC conversation, and then to have it return to normal when the player says Goodbye?
Because this discussion has been quite successful, I shall add an extra question into the fray. In many games (and even Oblivion to an extent), the camera automatically changes when talking to an NPC. In the case of modern RPGs like Kingdom Hearts, this may be a camera shot showing both the player and the character they're talking to. In the case of Oblivion, it centre's onto the NPC's face so you can see who you're talking to. Is there any way to alter the camera for just an NPC conversation, and then to have it return to normal when the player says Goodbye?
.bik files are quite 'funny', though - I tried to make a cutscene myself once and got a nice black screen for my trouble! You need to get everything exactly right in terms of format and frequency, and even then ... I think it was an incompatibility with my videocard in my case.
This is why it's not done very often.
Plus, cutscenes are often seen as being a bit 'old-fashioned' - scripted sequences can be far more effective. Compare the cutscenes in Morrowind - such as in the Cavern of the Incarnate - with the scripted bits - such as the end of Tribunal. I much prefer the latter, to be honest.
But, yeah, there are at least two mods to feature cutscenes - the other is The Goblin Lab.
--
:edit: The question about camera angles - there is a function called DisablePlayerLooking - I think that forces the player to look straight ahead. The oft-used DisablePlayerControls allows the player to look in any direction but they cannot walk forward or perform any actions - they are effectively paralysed.
The method in scripted sequences is generally to move the action around the player, rather than vice-versa.
This is why it's not done very often.
Plus, cutscenes are often seen as being a bit 'old-fashioned' - scripted sequences can be far more effective. Compare the cutscenes in Morrowind - such as in the Cavern of the Incarnate - with the scripted bits - such as the end of Tribunal. I much prefer the latter, to be honest.
But, yeah, there are at least two mods to feature cutscenes - the other is The Goblin Lab.
--
:edit: The question about camera angles - there is a function called DisablePlayerLooking - I think that forces the player to look straight ahead. The oft-used DisablePlayerControls allows the player to look in any direction but they cannot walk forward or perform any actions - they are effectively paralysed.
The method in scripted sequences is generally to move the action around the player, rather than vice-versa.
*deleted doublepost*
The Predator mod has good cutscenes when you get facehugged.
MW uses a program called Bink Video, I believe, which is used by many other games such as OB and Sid Meier's Civilizations. I think it's downloadable for free from the official site, but i'm not sure.
QUOTE(SailorTaurus @ Jun 1 2007, 03:07 PM) 
I notice the fact that you can't adjust the angle of the 'camera' has been brought up. Perhaps there is a way to force the player's view to lock onto an object. That way you could place small spheres inside of an NPC (such as the head) and then force the 'camera's' view to lock onto the sphere from wherever the 'camera' is standing.
There isn't a function to do what you suggest.
The only way I can think of is to use MGE to move the mouse until the player is facing the coordinates that you want the player to look at.
QUOTE(princess_stomper @ Jun 1 2007, 08:07 PM)
.bik files are quite 'funny', though - I tried to make a cutscene myself once and got a nice black screen for my trouble! You need to get everything exactly right in terms of format and frequency, and even then ... I think it was an incompatibility with my videocard in my case.
This is why it's not done very often.
This is why it's not done very often.
Strange, I myself had no problem converting uncompressed AVI files to .biks and getting them to play in game. You might be right about the needing the right AVI settings, but I assume the converter manual would tell you.
I didn't play around with it much.
QUOTE(princess_stomper @ Jun 1 2007, 08:07 PM)
Plus, cutscenes are often seen as being a bit 'old-fashioned' - scripted sequences can be far more effective. Compare the cut scenes in Morrowind - such as in the Cavern of the Incarnate - with the scripted bits - such as the end of Tribunal. I much prefer the latter, to be honest.
IMHO it depends on the quality of the cut scenes. Morrowinds cut scenes are nothing compared to Blizzards cut scenes, which beat the hell out of anything scripted.
e.g. Diablo 2 - Lord of Destruction End Cut Scene (Spoilers)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=0WnodcSgBk4
That's nice-looking, but unless you were an animating whiz, you couldn't do anything like that e.g. by cutting together bits from Morrowind to make your movie.
Something like this cutscene, from Guild Wars, could probably more appropriately be rendered in the form of a Tribunal-style scripted sequence:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=o5EEJ7WQVD8
Something like this cutscene, from Guild Wars, could probably more appropriately be rendered in the form of a Tribunal-style scripted sequence:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=o5EEJ7WQVD8
QUOTE(princess_stomper @ Jun 2 2007, 12:27 AM)
That's nice-looking, but unless you were an animating whiz, you couldn't do anything like that e.g. by cutting together bits from Morrowind to make your movie.
Something like this cutscene, from Guild Wars, could probably more appropriately be rendered in the form of a Tribunal-style scripted sequence:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=o5EEJ7WQVD8
Something like this cutscene, from Guild Wars, could probably more appropriately be rendered in the form of a Tribunal-style scripted sequence:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=o5EEJ7WQVD8
Yah, something like this was kinda what I had in mind, cutscenes using ingame graphics that are shown from a point of view other than the player's.
QUOTE(Yacoby @ Jun 1 2007, 03:21 PM)
There isn't a function to do what you suggest.
The only way I can think of is to use MGE to move the mouse until the player is facing the coordinates that you want the player to look at.
Strange, I myself had no problem converting uncompressed AVI files to .biks and getting them to play in game. You might be right about the needing the right AVI settings, but I assume the converter manual would tell you.
I didn't play around with it much.
IMHO it depends on the quality of the cut scenes. Morrowinds cut scenes are nothing compared to Blizzards cut scenes, which beat the hell out of anything scripted.
e.g. Diablo 2 - Lord of Destruction End Cut Scene (Spoilers)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=0WnodcSgBk4
The only way I can think of is to use MGE to move the mouse until the player is facing the coordinates that you want the player to look at.
Strange, I myself had no problem converting uncompressed AVI files to .biks and getting them to play in game. You might be right about the needing the right AVI settings, but I assume the converter manual would tell you.
I didn't play around with it much.
IMHO it depends on the quality of the cut scenes. Morrowinds cut scenes are nothing compared to Blizzards cut scenes, which beat the hell out of anything scripted.
e.g. Diablo 2 - Lord of Destruction End Cut Scene (Spoilers)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=0WnodcSgBk4
Well, that's because, well, they're Blizzard. IMO Bethsoft/Zenimax/whatever it's called these days, SquareEnix and Blizzard are the best gaming companies out there. Each of them has their own forte; Beth does awesome stuff with open-ended RPG games, and Blizzard leans towards doing 3rd person RPG and RTS games, both with outstanding Cinematic cutscenes. I think Beth just started really getting into the groove of cutscenes with Oblivion, personally. Blizzard goes for graphics and Beth for immersion, to put it simply.
And Square? Well, they're the Final Fantasy guys. Nuff said, lol.
