Bombing Mission Cinematics

[SpooX]

Results from thread Here in Tech Related.

I think it better fits here as it is relevant to the bombing mission


The funny thing is that it is hardcoded, that the view is jittery at the end.
(I already noticed this by trying to track the camera of the movie)


Click on the image to see a quick preview with only the walkmesh...
The camera path as exported from opening.cam (PC version)

Above the actual camera path (as already shown in the related thread, most of the camera positions are blank..unfortunately)

as the movie is 320*224 and the rendersettings is set to 512*512, the walkmesh is a bit off.

 

[BlitzNCS]

Finally, some results  ;D

Some questions though:
Is the movement smooth, or do you just get one camera position per frame? (at the low-ish framerate, that's not too good). If so, is there any way to make it smoother?
Also, what do you mean when you say most of the camera positions are blank?

 

[SpooX]

Also, what do you mean when you say most of the camera positions are blank?

See the following quote (Am I allowed to quote myself...? I do wonder )

Oh Yeah...progress...  8)

the cam files so far seem to follow the exact same format as the camera part stored in the psx-dat files.

as an example the opening movie:

MD1STIN has the camera position:
pos:[3645.043,26981.36,403.863]

as we look in (PC) opening.cam we get for the position:


Code: [Select]

Name Size Frames Time(s)opening.cam 71680 1792 119frame x y z1 0 0 02 0 0 03 0 0 04 0 0 05 0 0 06 0 0 0

followed by a lot of zero's untill...

Code: [Select]

1591 0 0 01592 0 0 01593 10377,97 -28726,81 27670,451594 9914,54 -27449,72 27358,421595 9476,735 -26188,21 27048,491596 9047,121 -24944,17 26737,111597 8643,798 -23723,99 26431,11598 8252,699 -22528,11 26122,061599 7873,735 -21352,95 25815,131600 7527,675 -20191,94 25509,731601 7188,344 -19060,5 25211,29

(skipped another part till nearly the end....)

Code: [Select]

1750 3666,385 26835,74 458,94141751 3664,919 26858,08 448,98781752 3660,714 26879,67 437,23931753 3661,381 26900,13 428,28391754 3653,734 26918,06 421,2081755 3651,654 26933,62 417,03561756 3654,436 26947,35 413,54441757 3649,675 26959,18 411,04591758 3649,726 26969,06 408,14891759 3649,729 26975,61 403,96751760 3647,795 26979,12 405,06911761 3645,043 26981,36 403,8631762 3645,043 26981,36 403,8631763 3645,043 26981,36 403,8631764 3645,043 26981,36 403,8631765 3645,043 26981,36 403,8631766 3645,043 26981,36 403,8631767 3645,043 26981,36 403,8631768 3645,043 26981,36 403,8631769 3645,043 26981,36 403,8631770 3645,043 26981,36 403,8631771 3645,043 26981,36 403,8631772 3645,043 26981,36 403,8631773 3645,043 26981,36 403,8631774 3645,043 26981,36 403,8631775 3645,043 26981,36 403,8631776 3645,043 26981,36 403,8631777 3645,043 26981,36 403,8631778 3645,043 26981,36 403,8631779 3645,043 26981,36 403,8631780 3645,043 26981,36 403,8631781 3645,043 26981,36 403,8631782 3645,043 26981,36 403,8631783 3645,043 26981,36 403,8631784 3645,043 26981,36 403,8631785 3645,043 26981,36 403,8631786 3645,043 26981,36 403,8631787 3645,043 26981,36 403,8631788 3645,043 26981,36 403,8631789 3645,043 26981,36 403,8631790 3645,043 26981,36 403,8631791 3645,043 26981,36 403,8631792 3645,043 26981,36 403,863

if we take a look above....
pos:[3645.043,26981.36,403.863]
1792   3645,04326981,36403,863

So we have a match  :-D

thanx to the reversing of Akari i must add.

https://www.ff7catalog.com/threads/3440/
for reference.

Finally, some results  ;D

Some questions though:
Is the movement smooth, or do you just get one camera position per frame? (at the low-ish framerate, that's not too good). If so, is there any way to make it smoother?

The current framerate is 15 fps (as original) to check if the data matches up to the movie.
The movement is not really smooth at least in the PC version, I haven't put any time in researching the psx files, but if you take a look at the final part of the intro in game, you'll notice some wobbeling shinra guys who try to stand still, so it is a bit jittery.
The data has positions per frame, so an extrapolation (or stretching of the frames and compile back into an 60 fps movie should not be a problem, how it holds up in the game....
But to make it 60fps Also the camera data needs to be altered, as in there the positions are stored to render the objects in front of the movie.

 

[sl1982]

Well interpolating the frames of the camera to 60fps should be easy to implement. But for the rest of it (eg the guards) the game would need to be run at 60fps as well. Which would screw up every other field animation in the game.

 

[Timber]

Just throwing this idea out there:

Would it maybe be easier to just remove the in-game stuff from this sequence altogether?
I mean, just have the gaurds, etc, in the actual movie, and have the camera start where the gameplay starts.

 

[sl1982]

Just throwing this idea out there:

Would it maybe be easier to just remove the in-game stuff from this sequence altogether?
I mean, just have the gaurds, etc, in the actual movie, and have the camera start where the gameplay starts.

Possibly, although i wouldnt have the faintest idea how to go about it.

 

[Timu Sumisu]

wouldnt it involve editing the field scene in something like makou reactor, and removing everything up until the frame the movie stops? compensate for the extra length of the movie clip so that the game starts rendering field at the right time. (or mess with the video length during animation). Regardless, great work spoox.

 

[SpooX]

Just throwing this idea out there:

Would it maybe be easier to just remove the in-game stuff from this sequence altogether?
I mean, just have the gaurds, etc, in the actual movie, and have the camera start where the gameplay starts.

Possibly, although i wouldnt have the faintest idea how to go about it.

wouldnt it involve editing the field scene in something like makou reactor, and removing everything up until the frame the movie stops? compensate for the extra length of the movie clip so that the game starts rendering field at the right time. (or mess with the video length during animation). Regardless, great work spoox.

I personally don't think, removing assets in this sequence is an option, as the next sequence (MKUP) involves zooming in on Cloud and later turning the camera towards the reactor. ( or do you want to get rid of Cloud all together, I know it wil save some time.... :-Dif we go that way, we should get rid of Midgar then I'm done  : :evil:)

To even out the camera movement of this should not be that difficult as long as the sequence remains the same length (replacing value A with B), however, and there is a challenge, is How.

I could try to make an exporter out of Max, and write back to a camera file....as long as the start and end positions are the same, it should work i think. But now for converting the camera data into FFVII data.....hmmm

 

[Cyberman]

The primary problem is the frame to frame jitter not the frame rate correct?
15fps is not great and itself 'jittery' but I believe solving one problem at a time is the best approach.
What I noticed is that the update of the object positions does not seem to be in sync with the camera.
It appeared the camera moved first then the walk mesh was translated. Since the frames are 'close' it isn't noticeable at a distance or when close, it's quite noticeable during the last bit of the pan into the train station.
This may be a bug in the FF7 engine more than anything however. The sequence appears to be, video frame, camera then 3d data.   It would seem to me it should be just the camera moving (but watching everything else update after the video frame then the camera seems to indicate this is not the case).

Just my observation, I could be wrong (wouldn't be the first time LOL).

Cyb

 

[Tsetra]

wouldnt it involve editing the field scene in something like makou reactor, and removing everything up until the frame the movie stops? compensate for the extra length of the movie clip so that the game starts rendering field at the right time. (or mess with the video length during animation). Regardless, great work spoox.

This is exactly what you need to do if this is what you want to do. Increase the frame count in MR or Meteor so the movie can play out further, edit the two guards so they start out already knocked out, and remove the scripts of Barret, Wedge, Biggs, and Jessie altogether, and finally edit Cloud so he starts out already on the ground. It's 100% possible and done properly there will be no errors.

 

[Timu Sumisu]

could it be done so the scripted movements get partially taken out? like take out the soldiers movement during the camera pan, and have it start with the 2 guards standing, then queue avalanche whopping them.

 

[Timber]

could it be done so the scripted movements get partially taken out? like take out the soldiers movement during the camera pan, and have it start with the 2 guards standing, then queue avalanche whopping them.

Yeah, this is what I meant.
I wasn't talking about extending the video or anything, just putting the stuff that you can see is on top of the video (the guards), inside the video instead.

Since you guys will be using the same model for videos and in-game, should look fine.

 

[Tsetra]

could it be done so the scripted movements get partially taken out? like take out the soldiers movement during the camera pan, and have it start with the 2 guards standing, then queue avalanche whopping them.

You mean basically hide the guards during the movie so they can be rendered in movie instead of on top of the movie? That's even easier, I can't remember which opcode it is, but there's one that allows you to bring events either on top of or behind the movie while it plays. Just change it for the two guards and you shouldn't have to mess with anything else. Qhimm Wiki has it listed.

If nothing else, one can add in VISI [ 0 ] at the very beginning for the guards and then VISI [ 1 ] set to go as soon as the movie frames are up, so that they appear immediately when the movie ends. It's technically "messy" but it performs the same visual task.

http://wiki.qhimm.com/FF7/Field/Script/Opcodes/A4_VISI

 

[sl1982]

I can actually see this working quite well. Especially if we use the field models we make for the MP's in the render. Could theoretically be totally seamless.

 

[BlitzNCS]

...Apart from there being an enourmous difference in the rendering capabilities of a 3d suite's rendering engine compared to FF7's field rendering engine.

I'd suggest having a sort of cool flash edited in right at the end of the video, then a fade-in to the actual gameplay part (or an image of the gameplay part if fading isn't an option) so that there's not a blatant seam.

 

[sithlord48]

with better models the seam won't be so noticeable..  and yes if the videos are remade from the same models we use ingame it should be very seamless.

 

[Tsetra]

...Apart from there being an enourmous difference in the rendering capabilities of a 3d suite's rendering engine compared to FF7's field rendering engine.

This is already the unfortunate issue with the game itself in how it was designed. The seam was just as blatant to me in the original, and the guards overlaying the movie just looked horrible. I have to agree that with a sufficiently high-res movie this shouldn't be an issue as the models and the background will be totally identical, but the lighting would have to be made very carefully in the cinematic render so it doesn't look weird when it switches to real-time.

An optional add-on solution (outside the Team Avalanche scope) would be to make the intro a 3-part movie - the first part being the train rolling in, the second part being Avalanche running off and Barret waving to Cloud, and the third and final part would be a recreation of the end of the PS3 tech demo with Cloud jumping off the train, landing, and ready for action. This would allow for a perfect fade into Cloud standing with his back to the camera and Barret saying "C'mon newcomer, follow me" and you assume the controls.

 

[Overseer X]

An optional add-on solution (outside the Team Avalanche scope) would be to make the intro a 3-part movie - the first part being the train rolling in, the second part being Avalanche running off and Barret waving to Cloud, and the third and final part would be a recreation of the end of the PS3 tech demo with Cloud jumping off the train, landing, and ready for action. This would allow for a perfect fade into Cloud standing with his back to the camera and Barret saying "C'mon newcomer, follow me" and you assume the controls.

That's an excellent idea.

 

[SpooX]

Mind you that we're going for original and improve, not implementing/injecting CC or AC parts within FF7.

 

[Overseer X]

Mind you that we're going for original and improve, not implementing/injecting CC or AC parts within FF7.

Well that would be really amazing.. I was thinking a few cutscenes could be cut from AC to save time.. like Sephiroth walking through fire and a few others. Because in reality those Cinematics are short and recreating them could be painful.. but hell if TA is up to it you'll have my support!

Edit - Personally I think the intro video should be recreated, FMVs that have models overlaying the video and cinematics that have chibi models.