[Unproven Theory] Cutscene Methods - Advanced Tutorial

[McJobless]

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WARNING: THE FOLLOWING TUTORIAL IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION!

This tutorial has multiple flaws, including level specific animations which can be triggered in other levels, and heaps more. I'm working on fixing these errors as I fully grasp the cutscene tech I'm using. Bare with me.

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Welcome! Here, have a cup of tea, sit down, and enjoy the tutorial!

Today we shall learn two methods (unproven as of yet) to implement cutscenes into the First Person mode of your game. These two methods are simple (or not) to use and give you the power to either choose whether you want your player to be able to move or not during the cutscene.

Method A: Non-Player Control

NPC mode is harder to set up, but is much cooler in the long run (unless you want to have it act like game like Half-Life or COD).

1. First of all, you need to create an AI. Create in light wave a polygon on the floor as big as you want the trigger point to be. Flip it so that it isn't visable from player perspective. Export it to LegoRR in an new folder.
   
2. Create an .ar file called "SpiderSB.ar". In the .ar file, create only one activity, the stand still activity. Put the scale upto 1.0.
   
3. Open up the .cfg. For the specific level that you want to have the cutscene for, you need to add the following code:
   

   
   	GenerateSpiders					FALSE
   
   	Stats {
   
   		SmallSpider {
   
   			Levels			1
   
   			RouteSpeed		0.0
   
   			TrackDist		10.0
   
   			CollRadius		0.0
   
   			CollHeight		0.0
   
   			PickSphere		6.0
   
   			CauseSlip		TRUE
   
   			CrossLand		TRUE
   
   			CrossLava		TRUE
   
   			CrossWater		TRUE
   
   			DontShowDamage		TRUE
   
   			DontShowOnRadar		TRUE
   
   		}
   
   	}
   
   
   	RockMonsterTypes {
   
   		SmallSpider				[INSERT FILE-PATH HERE]		
   
   	}
   
   

   
   Replace "[iNSERT FILE-PATH HERE]" with the folder path to where you create the .ar file.
   

4. Use Map Creator to place the object IN THE DEAD CENTRE of where you want the cutscene to be triggered. Make sure you use the obect name "SpiderSB".
   
5. Go back to lightwave and create the animation you wish to use. You'll need to save this as the animation LegoRR uses when a Minifigure falls down after tripping on a spider.
   
6. Test in your level.
   

Tutorial will be continued soon.

[Cirevam]

You keep saying .ar, but I'm pretty sure you mean .ae unless you've found some special file format LRR uses. Anyways, this looks very feasible. What you might want to do to prevent cross-level contamination is create a minifig class for every cutscene you want to do, with the falling-down animation being the only difference. I don't know how many LRR will support before it causes problems like when there are too many monsters, but this could happen.

[McJobless]

You keep saying .ar, but I'm pretty sure you mean .ae unless you've found some special file format LRR uses.

Ah, another problem I need to fix! Thank you, Mr Modding File Name Nazi...loljks

Anyways, this looks very feasible. What you might want to do to prevent cross-level contamination is create a minifig class for every cutscene you want to do, with the falling-down animation being the only difference. I don't know how many LRR will support before it causes problems like when there are too many monsters, but this could happen.

That is what I'm assuming will be the final method, but I'll obviously take a deeper look into this problem.

[Cirevam]

Oh, nerp. Of course you're using the raiders as the base for the animation. I thought you were going to use the spider for some of it, but you're just blanking it out.