Tram tunnel flythrough menu

BeigeAlertBeigeAlert Texas Join Date: 2013-08-08 Member: 186657Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Diamond, Reinforced - Shadow, Subnautica Playtester, Pistachionauts
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=254723100

I've created a main menu loop that's a fly through of the main tunnel in tram. I removed the north and south doors at the edge of the map and duplicated some geo so it's a seamless loop, as if the north and south were linked.

If this is popular enough I may try to smooth out the camera movement a little bit more. It's a bit linear-feeling right now. All I did was hit record, and right-click + wasd through the tunnels, and then delete 90% of the control points on the tilt and yaw curves, otherwise it was REALLY jittery.

Comments

  • BeigeAlertBeigeAlert Texas Join Date: 2013-08-08 Member: 186657Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Diamond, Reinforced - Shadow, Subnautica Playtester, Pistachionauts
    Just published a new version that's been smoothed out significantly. Almost none of that "linearness" remains.

    I'm thinking of adding a battle to hub, and having a few aliens/marines running around through the tunnels, what do you guys think?
  • McGlaspieMcGlaspie www.team156.com Join Date: 2010-07-26 Member: 73044Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, Squad Five Gold, Reinforced - Onos, WC 2013 - Gold, Subnautica Playtester
    Nicely done sir! I've been considering making an elaborate menu cinematic for mvm for some time now. Seemed appropriate.

    How did you go abot smoothing the turns?
  • BeigeAlertBeigeAlert Texas Join Date: 2013-08-08 Member: 186657Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Diamond, Reinforced - Shadow, Subnautica Playtester, Pistachionauts
    McGlaspie wrote: »
    Nicely done sir! I've been considering making an elaborate menu cinematic for mvm for some time now. Seemed appropriate.

    How did you go abot smoothing the turns?

    I ended up having to cut it down to about 4 keyframes per channel for the rotations, and just use their crappy spline interpolation. :( Works well enough for this situation though.
  • SamusDroidSamusDroid Colorado Join Date: 2013-05-13 Member: 185219Members, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Gold, Subnautica Playtester, NS2 Community Developer, Pistachionauts
    Great working GIF is great
  • BeigeAlertBeigeAlert Texas Join Date: 2013-08-08 Member: 186657Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Diamond, Reinforced - Shadow, Subnautica Playtester, Pistachionauts
    edited May 2014
    It is working... :P

    (ninja edit!)
  • McGlaspieMcGlaspie www.team156.com Join Date: 2010-07-26 Member: 73044Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, Squad Five Gold, Reinforced - Onos, WC 2013 - Gold, Subnautica Playtester
    Really looking forward to where this goes.

    Oh, please post any sort of Tips-n-Tricks you learn about working with the Cinematic editor. It really strikes me as under utilized in ns2 modding, in general.
    Good luck!
  • Soul_RiderSoul_Rider Mod Bean Join Date: 2004-06-19 Member: 29388Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue
    @BeigeAlert‌ You do realize that if you fail to publish meaningful how-to's about what you are learning, all the modders are going to come to you to create menu, trailers and other cinematic editor based stuff.

    Not putting any pressure on you at all.... :P
  • SamusDroidSamusDroid Colorado Join Date: 2013-05-13 Member: 185219Members, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Gold, Subnautica Playtester, NS2 Community Developer, Pistachionauts
    edited May 2014
    I could probably write a wiki on the cinematic editor but that would just be a waste of time when you could just do it for that person ;)
    Maybe if I'm bored I will write something.
  • KelrathKelrath Join Date: 2013-06-03 Member: 185459Members, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow
    Looks awesome! Though is that gif at the actual speed in game? If so, I think it's too fast and may be distracting when trying to use the menu. Perhaps if the camera moved at half that? Idk, I'll try it next time I'm home.
  • BeigeAlertBeigeAlert Texas Join Date: 2013-08-08 Member: 186657Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Diamond, Reinforced - Shadow, Subnautica Playtester, Pistachionauts
    Kelrath wrote: »
    Looks awesome! Though is that gif at the actual speed in game? If so, I think it's too fast and may be distracting when trying to use the menu. Perhaps if the camera moved at half that? Idk, I'll try it next time I'm home.

    Unfortunately there's not much I can do to slow it down. It would take a loonnngg time to space out the keyframes more, as the camera's x axis has a keyframe at pretty much every frame. It would also mean I would have to redo the marines running to be longer, and that was already a big enough pain in the butt. Then later, that would mean the battle in hub would have to be a bit more detailed, and the cinematic editor doesn't really allow for this. For example, I still have no clue how I'm going to get marines to have their weapons up and firing at certain targets... I think I'll just have to make due with having all the aliens running straight at them so the marines don't have to be aiming.
  • BeigeAlertBeigeAlert Texas Join Date: 2013-08-08 Member: 186657Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Diamond, Reinforced - Shadow, Subnautica Playtester, Pistachionauts
    Okay now I've got a pack of 5 skulks running through north tunnels, an onos and gorge at platform, an exo blasting a lerk in hub. I'll keep adding more and more, but WOW is this a pain in the ass... ESPECIALLY the exo.

    What I did was animate the lerk first, then I animate the exo to move and aim at the lerk. To aim an exo, you have to rotate the exo, and it has to have an animation going... so my exo is walking. BUT I want it to fire as well... unfortunately you can't have two animations playing at once, mixed together, but what you CAN do is play the walk animation, then play the fire animation with a long blend time. It sort of works... but only because we only see it for a brief glimpse here. THEN, I had to worry about the muzzle flashes on the end of the guns, easy. Just use "add cinematic" and use the gun barrels as attach points. But then I had to manually add two lights for the exos 2 guns, animate a crazy flickering, and animate the movement of the lights so they line up with the tip of the gun barrel as it moves (no parenting system in the cinematic editor!). I had to do the same thing with a particle system to get the shells ejecting out the sides. Pain in the butt, but looks pretty good. Problem is, the exo slides along the ground because it's rotated to where its aiming, not where it's moving. Luckily, there's an option under "pose parameters" that let's you rotate the bottom of the exo. "Body yaw" I think it was...
  • SamusDroidSamusDroid Colorado Join Date: 2013-05-13 Member: 185219Members, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Gold, Subnautica Playtester, NS2 Community Developer, Pistachionauts
    edited May 2014
    You need to use models/cinematics models, they have guns.
  • McGlaspieMcGlaspie www.team156.com Join Date: 2010-07-26 Member: 73044Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, Squad Five Gold, Reinforced - Onos, WC 2013 - Gold, Subnautica Playtester
    @BeigeAlert If I recall correctly, you can set animation pose paramters via Keyframes. So, you can have the Exo rotating its torse and walking a different direction, or have a marine looking up. If you create two keyframes one at "default" and another at the final position, I think the Cinematic editor willl auto-tween those values for you. It's been quite a while since I've messed with it, but I'm wanting to say I got that working before. Worth a try at least. Oh, and yes, working with the Cinematic editor is a PITA...

  • BeigeAlertBeigeAlert Texas Join Date: 2013-08-08 Member: 186657Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Diamond, Reinforced - Shadow, Subnautica Playtester, Pistachionauts
    edited May 2014
    McGlaspie wrote: »
    @BeigeAlert If I recall correctly, you can set animation pose paramters via Keyframes. So, you can have the Exo rotating its torse and walking a different direction, or have a marine looking up. If you create two keyframes one at "default" and another at the final position, I think the Cinematic editor willl auto-tween those values for you. It's been quite a while since I've messed with it, but I'm wanting to say I got that working before. Worth a try at least. Oh, and yes, working with the Cinematic editor is a PITA...

    Yup! That's exactly what I did. What I was talking to was how you can't normally have the exo walk animation playing at the same time as its firing animation is playing. Cinematic editor doesn't let you blend them together like that. The only way to blend them is using the blend time, and that's designed to work as a transition from one animation to the next, not as a means to have two animations playing at the same time. But I can exploit this by just having the exo appear very briefly... and its back is turned to us, so it's not obvious that the animations aren't exactly playing correctly.
    SamusDroid wrote: »
    You need to use models/cinematics models, they have guns.

    Yea, but unfortunately the rifle marine's gun just floats in front of him during the walk animation, whereas the shotgun behaves correctly. Oh well... shotguns and flamethrowers it is!
  • [=Alex=][=Alex=] Join Date: 2008-12-25 Member: 65866Members, Squad Five Blue
    @BeigeAlert this is the best menu I've ever seen.... Spectacular!
  • ScatterScatter Join Date: 2012-09-02 Member: 157341Members, Squad Five Blue
    This is really good, but very hypnotic !
  • BeigeAlertBeigeAlert Texas Join Date: 2013-08-08 Member: 186657Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Diamond, Reinforced - Shadow, Subnautica Playtester, Pistachionauts
    I still need to put a particle system on the front of the exo for the bullets. Does anybody happen to know which .material to use for the exo's tracers? I've looked around quite a bit and haven't been able to find it.
  • McGlaspieMcGlaspie www.team156.com Join Date: 2010-07-26 Member: 73044Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, Squad Five Gold, Reinforced - Onos, WC 2013 - Gold, Subnautica Playtester
    It's not a material, it's another cinematic, same for the muzzle flash.
  • lwflwf Join Date: 2006-11-03 Member: 58311Members, Constellation
    Infinitram!

    Don't think I could use that as a menu background, the GIF made me almost seasick, but very cool. :P
  • OlmyOlmy Join Date: 2003-05-08 Member: 16142Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor, NS2 Developer, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Diamond
    Hah, this is awesome. I love the gif version.
  • BeigeAlertBeigeAlert Texas Join Date: 2013-08-08 Member: 186657Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Diamond, Reinforced - Shadow, Subnautica Playtester, Pistachionauts
    lwf wrote: »
    Infinitram!

    Don't think I could use that as a menu background, the GIF made me almost seasick, but very cool. :P

    Oh dear.... hate to see you lerk! :P
    Olmy wrote: »
    Hah, this is awesome. I love the gif version.

    I am honored to have drawn Olmy out of hiding. :D
  • BeigeAlertBeigeAlert Texas Join Date: 2013-08-08 Member: 186657Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Diamond, Reinforced - Shadow, Subnautica Playtester, Pistachionauts
    Just realized that I had a new version of this just sitting around, ready to go, and hadn't published for like 2 months.

    So now there's an extra lerk that'll show up. Not much, but figured I might as well post it if I've got it.

    Is anybody using this at all?
  • NordicNordic Long term camping in Kodiak Join Date: 2012-05-13 Member: 151995Members, NS2 Playtester, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Silver, Reinforced - Shadow
    It is really awesome, but I do not use it. I should though, I really should.
  • caperpcaperp TSF quick reaction team "ELOgain" Join Date: 2014-02-05 Member: 193823Members, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Shadow
    I'm using it. I think it should be made official. Much better than the rather boring vanilla one.
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