TresCom Forums

Well, here are just some ideas for cutscenes:

-intro: balloon crashes, Annes POV.
-elevator: short anim, from interesting viewpoints (like inside shaft)
-when entering crater: shows some interesiting stuff, dunno yet
-lighthouse: as you reach the tower platform cam moves outside does a nice pan, shows pteros and finally goes back to Annes POV.
-explosion sequence at SS Venture
-tunnels/caverns: falling rocks blocking tunnel (one of the dead ends)
-something with the B29 wreck (while inside; raptor jumping on wing or something, rocking the fuselage about?)
-outtro anim: no ideas yet

Of cource, to stay true to the style and ideas of the original game none of these should show parts of Anne other than her arm, torso etc.

Other applications:
-animated plant leaves (can anims be looped?)
-pteranodon
-birds
-elevator? (might solve some issues Rebel?)

There probably are tons of other things we can use this for. Post your ideas...

Interesting ideas, though I have no problems with the elevators, they work fine. Please don't make me touch them again, I'll cry!

intro: Balloon crashes. That can actually be worked into a generalized view of the island during, so that could satisfy both our angles.

SSVenture: Explosion sequence. Could be a zoom in here, though I think that might depend upon how realistic the hull of the ship breaks up as to whether or not we should key in on the flying debris.

Elev Shaft: seems like a good locale for a camera shot.

Lighthouse: Had similar idea, so thumbs up here too.

Caverns: Yea, we need something a bit more here. I'd still love to script an explosion down here, debris flying. Perhaps a stick of dynamite left protruding from a part of the cavern wall. Idiot player shoots at it, Kaboom.

B29: Seems like another good area for this.

Outro: Sounds like it's worth considering before the end of level and loadup of promo (dummy level).

Great ideas, and no doubt this discovery of Andres has given us yet another welcome innovation to work into tc isle, but I do think that we need to be careful and not overuse it.

*an initial test seems to point to not being able to loop these play animations.

_________________
TresCom Anthology _FINAL_CE Only (04/16/21):
https://www.trescom.org/download/tresco ... -act-i-iv/

tc_prequel walkthru: https://www.mediafire.com/file/8s0cspop ... u.txt/file

Trescom Anthology_Final_CE Only - Tc_Prequel Patch 1.2 (05/25/2022): https://www.mediafire.com/file/zzjdkjdn ... 2.zip/file

Sure, the balloon crash intro will allow us to show the island (though not too much). Maybe we can also add some voiceovers before we crash, like Anne asking herself which island this is...

Yeah, I agree with you not to overuse it. Players want control over the game, the character they are playing. Intro, outtro don't matter much, and in some sequences where you are waiting (like the elevator) you can't do much anyway.

When you 'unlock' a new location (crater, lighthouse, SS Venture maybe) it would be nice to see it from angles, positions you'll never be able to get to. Sort of get a chance to plan ahead, see dangers. Tomb Raider is a nice example.

Also whenever there's a dino around or if there's some form of danger you'll need to be able to save Annes a$$.

* Yeah, you're right, the elevator works, and we like it. Wasn't sure whether there where still things 'bout it you where having some problems with.

Nah, it actually works nicely. I even got the call back (returns both elevators to original positions) working, so if a player teleports out of the caverns, they can recall the elevator to take a return trip.

_________________
TresCom Anthology _FINAL_CE Only (04/16/21):
https://www.trescom.org/download/tresco ... -act-i-iv/

tc_prequel walkthru: https://www.mediafire.com/file/8s0cspop ... u.txt/file

Trescom Anthology_Final_CE Only - Tc_Prequel Patch 1.2 (05/25/2022): https://www.mediafire.com/file/zzjdkjdn ... 2.zip/file

I realized we can also create nice animated particle effects using 16bit transparant textures and animation scripts.

Can create, say a dozen, billboards with transparant (and animated) textures. And animate those using a particle system in 3dsmax.

Will create one with dust, for use in the falling rock puzzle and the explosion at the SS Venture. Will look much better. Can add additional flying debris later when I got the ship modeled...

Maybe a pre-animated collapsing rock floor will solve the buggy physics aswell Rebel?

* Oh, watervapor near the waterfall would look great too...and oh my God, how about clouds up the mountain? Yeah, that would rock.

Oh, and I think there's a way to loop animation scripts.

Can create an object that rotates slowly, timed, so exactly when the animation ends, it enters a trigger which plays it over again...

Love to see animated palms on the beaches.

Maybe there's a better solution?

I don't know about that. Then, it might become too predictable. You can make the call later though, once you actually go through the puzzle in testing stages.

*Mist for the waterfall and dust for explosions crossed my mind, too.

**Swayin' Palms: I'm certain there's a solution here, but do we really need these anims to run constantly? Meaning, if player is nowhere near area, should we allow that anim. to run? I'm still constantly aware of fps. We have no such control over certain standard anims, meaning they need to run, but for the newer play animations we seem to be able to exert more control over these. Would a continous run drag the fps down, or are their useage inconsequential as it appears with the stand. anims.

_________________
TresCom Anthology _FINAL_CE Only (04/16/21):
https://www.trescom.org/download/tresco ... -act-i-iv/

tc_prequel walkthru: https://www.mediafire.com/file/8s0cspop ... u.txt/file

Trescom Anthology_Final_CE Only - Tc_Prequel Patch 1.2 (05/25/2022): https://www.mediafire.com/file/zzjdkjdn ... 2.zip/file

Yes, that could be a problem. We'll have to test it I guess.

I created clouds for the level. They look very cool:

http://home.planet.nl/~buijs512/trescom/clouds1.jpg
http://home.planet.nl/~buijs512/trescom/clouds2.jpg

Models, textures, values here:

http://home.planet.nl/~buijs512/trescom/clouds_v1.zip

There are a few small glitches:
-intersecting clouds cause minor rendering artifacts
-clouds intersecting with terrain cause seams in the terrain
-low texture quality, 16bit but maybe perfect grayscale looks better (ones included in the zip have a blue-ish tint)
-clouds face camera only on Y axis
First two are very small issues, there are much worse visual errors in the game. Last one can perhaps be fixed thru t-scipts? I hope (almost assume) that DW included something to make objects face on both the X and Y axis...

Animated clouds, cool! Not sure if one could specify the 'face' axis...

Well, they are not animated but it is possible...

I'd definitely switch them to grayscale Rem, though the idea itself is rather cool. On the blue sky used in your screenshots, seems fine, but doesn't blend well with cloudy skies. Perhaps we could just use these in and around areas where the player can't actually walk to close or thru them, eg. the lighthouse hang (you have those) and clinging it the crater's slopes which are too steep for the player to actually reach, which hanging in and around the steep terrain is where they'll actually be most noticeable.

_________________
TresCom Anthology _FINAL_CE Only (04/16/21):
https://www.trescom.org/download/tresco ... -act-i-iv/

tc_prequel walkthru: https://www.mediafire.com/file/8s0cspop ... u.txt/file

Trescom Anthology_Final_CE Only - Tc_Prequel Patch 1.2 (05/25/2022): https://www.mediafire.com/file/zzjdkjdn ... 2.zip/file

Yep, I already tried to position them high enough so you wouldn't be able to get to em. Few need to be moved to a better spot, like you said, over steep terrain.

Andres, maybe it would be nice if you'd render blended 16-bit textures in TresEd? If the textures are ~85% transparant you can't see em (alphatest).
No depth-sorting required I think, just using glDepthMask would be sufficient since there won't be much object with these textures in a level anyway...

Okay cando, I was actually just adding an option for making triggers half-transparent, so it'll be easy to use proper transparency for the 16bit textures (I'm depth sorting transparent objects, but not individual polygons, and I won't be handling intersecting polygons. But triggers might still look okay, especially if they aren't near others.)

Sounds great.