Are they possible? And if so, how?
Note that I'm not just talking from a certain camera angle, I mean with fp arms as well.

Potentially though I am not sure. There's a command in hs_doc:


If that works, you could maybe get FP cutscenes by doing the following:

You would animate the cutscene in FP in 3ds max, moving bone24 with the camera linked to it. You would create a custom scenery object whose model is a combination of the FP arms and weapon that is being held. The animation would then be applied to the scenery object via script.

Then, you would (presumably) export another version of the cutscene animation with only frame bone24, and use that as the camera's animation graph. If you combine these two you *should* in theory have a working FP custscene.
Edited by teh lag on Jun 2, 2011 at 02:34 PM

Hi lag!!!!!!!

I know that first person cutscenes are possible, and I think that this cutscene was: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMngZquE5TI. I dunno, the biped's never actually seen.

Also, I agree with teh lag (guess who's a huge fan!).

Go into devmode during that cutscene, there was no one there. xD

They just had an AI moving a command and set the FP to the AI

There wasnt a Biped there at all. go into devcam during that cutscene

Still, you could have an AI moving to commands. This would be possible with an AI version of the player, something already used in Halo cutscenes. If you do a little tinkering, the player is actually hiding during cutscenes while an identical model acts them out. It's hilarious where the hiding places were. In the first level of Halo 2, the 'Chief was hiding behind a pillar on High Charity. In the council chamber with the Covenant Council and the Prophets. Hell, if you could play there you could've destroyed the Covenant a game early! XD

That doesn't matter. There might have been no model or something; but it was an AI running a recorded animations (the AI was running a premade run)

(object_create_anew jenkins )
(object_create_anew marine_2 )
(object_create_anew x50_pelican_1 )
(camera_set_first_person jenkins )
(object_pvs_activate jenkins )
(recording_play jenkins jenkins_pelican )

The biped was there, but the command they use for FP cutscenes (camera_set_first_person [object]) hides the biped's geometry. Even in debug camera mode, the player's camera is still set to FP on the biped, so it remains hidden.

So, bone24's rotation determines the camera angle, and its position determines movement?

I am not sure; it could be that the command for using an animation graph to control the camera doesn't work at all. That's my best guess though. You might need to rename it to something else.

I believe me and dratt tried attaching the camera to a animated biped before and it didn't work. I might be wrong though, not exactly sure how Dratt did it.

I don't see why it would work by animating the fp arms separately (as a biped) and making the camera follow the arms without attaching. If the arms move up, point the camera up (with it's position still the same.)

Alright, I just experimented with some stuff. The short version: my method does indeed work.

First, I imported a BSP into 3ds and animated a lone frame (called "frame bone24") flying around. I then exported it as a .jmw (world-relative) and compiled into its own tag. I then merged that animation onto a pair of FP arms and then created/exported a new animation with them (also as a .jmw); this was also compiled into its own tag. Then, I placed my FP arms model into a dummy .scenery tag, which was then placed in the level. The arms animations were played on the scenery using the (scenery_animation_start) command. The camera animation was played using the (camera_set_animation) command. Lo and behold, the arms were perfectly in sync with the camera.

The only potential problem I could think of is if H1's smooth camera interpolation interferes with longer, more complex animations - though since all the movement is coming from individual keyframes I don't really see how it could.

...And so there's your answer. I may post a video tomorrow to demonstrate this when I can get something a bit more elegant than randomly-flailing fingers hovering over Timberland.
Edited by teh lag on Jun 3, 2011 at 12:11 AM

Does that mean I'd need to animate the BSP as well?

....No? You just need it for reference so you know where stuff needs to move in the animation.

:|
this looks hard, but ill need to try it someday for my SP