Opening Video and Secret Origins

[BentonGrey]

Howdy guys, I'm looking on information on whether or not it is possible to change out the opening video that FF plays when you begin a new campaign.  If it is possible, how might I go about it, what format does the video need to be in, etc.  Also, is there a way to create custom "secret origins?"

[JKCarrier]

From what I can tell, the opening and origin scenes aren't videos at all...they're actually NIFs with animations that play "live" in the game engine. You can find them in the art>library>cut_scenes folder (or in cutscenes.ff, if you haven't unzipped it). Theoretically, you might be able to skope out all the animated bits and be left with flat squares that you could re-skin into a simple scene.

[GogglesPizanno]

Yeah, he's right, they are just animated nif's.
You could theoretically replace them with something simple like you do with loading screens etc, though I think you would have edit either a python script somewhere or in FFEdit (im not sure where) to disable the soundtrack audio file it is linked to. Maybe try replacing the soundtrack file with a short blank audio file.

Anyway it should totally be doable.

[hoss20]

Yeah, Benton, I was interested in this as well and JK and Goggles have it right. There is also a short description in the Art Docs under Cutscenes.

[cmdrkoenig67]

Yeah, he's right, they are just animated nif's.
You could theoretically replace them with something simple like you do with loading screens etc, though I think you would have edit either a python script somewhere or in FFEdit (im not sure where) to disable the soundtrack audio file it is linked to. Maybe try replacing the soundtrack file with a short blank audio file.

Anyway it should totally be doable.

Yup...Most (or all) of them have the audio track in the same folder as the nif, just replace it with the one you want or create.

Dana

[BentonGrey]

Thanks guys.  Hmm, okay, I think I can probably manage this.  I'll probably ask some more questions when I actually try to do it.

[BentonGrey]

Hey guys, what specific files control that opening video and sound file in  ?  I'm not finding anything that seems right, and I can't find the documentation about cutscenes.

[Randomdays]

Will this help? its for FF not FFVTTR though

http://frworld.wikispaces.com/Cutscenes+in+FF

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

I know I did in fact do something like this for liberty bay to kill the intro cutscene by replacing it with an alternative nif.  You might be able to figure it out by file diving.  I am afraid it's been too long for me to remember.

[BentonGrey]

Thanks Cat, I'll take a look at LB and see what I can learn.  RD, I'm interested in the opening video, not the in-game cutscenes....and I'm hopeless with Python!

[cmdrkoenig67]

Hey guys, what specific files control that opening video and sound file in  ?  I'm not finding anything that seems right, and I can't find the documentation about cutscenes.

I don't think you need to to "control" it, B...You just have to replace it with the sound and images you want and it will play when your mod starts.  the "movie" itself, can be (of course) edited via changing the images or even Skoping out frames you don't want and Skoping ones you do into it, etc... 

Thanks Cat, I'll take a look at LB and see what I can learn.  RD, I'm interested in the opening video, not the in-game cutscenes....and I'm hopeless with Python!

If you're looking for the specific opening scene sound file and Nif (BTW, you'll have to have your cutscenes.ff unzipped to find it)...It's here...

Data\Art\library\cut_scenes\start

Dana

[BentonGrey]

Hmm...I thought my  copy was completely unpacked, but apparently not.  I don't have that folder....time to dig.

Ahh, I think I found it....

[cmdrkoenig67]

Yeah, it's a file called cutscenes.ff, just zip it up and then open it and you'll find all the movies.

Dana

[BentonGrey]

Silly me.  Someone mentioned that file earlier in this thread, and I just plain didn't see it.  I thought maybe they had the name wrong, but a second look turned it up sure enough.  I guess I'm going blind!  Ha, anyway, now I've got what I'm looking for, and it should be RELATIVELY easy to do what I want.

[cmdrkoenig67]

Silly me.  Someone mentioned that file earlier in this thread, and I just plain didn't see it.  I thought maybe they had the name wrong, but a second look turned it up sure enough.  I guess I'm going blind!  Ha, anyway, now I've got what I'm looking for, and it should be RELATIVELY easy to do what I want.

I mentioned it twice (Oh and I see JK mentioned it)..Heh.  Best wishes with the movie-making.

Dana

[BentonGrey]

Silly me.  Someone mentioned that file earlier in this thread, and I just plain didn't see it.  I thought maybe they had the name wrong, but a second look turned it up sure enough.  I guess I'm going blind!  Ha, anyway, now I've got what I'm looking for, and it should be RELATIVELY easy to do what I want.

I mentioned it twice (Oh and I see JK mentioned it)..Heh.  Best wishes with the movie-making.

Dana

Whoops!  What can I say Dana, I guess I'm getting senile in my old age.  Sorry! 

[oldmanwinters]

I've actually started working with Benton on trying to add some original content to the opening video, secret origins, etc. for his TMNT mod.

I thought about starting a whole new thread for my question, but I figured I'd just leach onto this thread and hope for the best.

My goal is to draw my own comic book covers to replace the default FvTR comic covers that appear on the between-mission-screens.

Benton tells me I need to substitute my custom covers (properly formatted, of course) for the existing covers.

My questions are:
(1) Do I simply need to replace the existing files with my custom jobs in the order that they would have normally appeared in the game?  I suspect something else is required since I've never seen the comic covers appear in between missions of a Mod.

(2) Could someone provide me with a list for the order these files actually appear in the game?  (I suppose I could always run through the game myself to figure it out if nobody else remembers.)

comic_blitzkrieg
comic_dream
comic_elementals
comic_entropy
comic_fortissimo
comic_killarilla
comic_manbot
comic_nazi
comic_nw_cuba
comic_nw_winter
comic_red_oktober
comic_redsun
comic_skyking
comic_timemaster

[BentonGrey]

Hey Winters, good luck on this!  Thanks for taking the lead.  I can help you out a bit.  I'm pretty sure that there is something else necessary to get the comics to display, but I don't know what it is.  If I remember correctly the Strangers mod did this, so someone should know.

I'm not sure about the entire order, but off the top of my head....:

1 Dream
2 NW_Cuba
3-5 Red_Oktober
6 NW_winter
7 Nazi?
8 Fortissimo
9-10 Redsun
11 Skyking?
12 Killarilla
13 Skyking?
14-15 Blitzkrieg?
16 Fortissimo
17 Blitzkrieg
18 Entropy?
19 Entropy
20 Entropy?
21 Entropy?
22 Timemaster?
23 Manbot

I'm not sure about this, but I think it's mostly right.

[oldmanwinters]

Thanks for the heads up, Benton.  When you write Skyking and Blitzkrieg with question marks, does that mean that you aren't sure if they come before or after their adjoining missions or do you think the game uses the covers more than once?

I'm also curious what makes the game use the same cover for multiple missions in a row.  I was thinking about doing something similar for a pair of missions and draw the cover accordingly.

I also have another question about loading screens.  I find at least four different folders: load_generic, loading_english, loading_french, and loading_german.  That makes me think it's possible to give the game more than one option for loading screens.  Will the game be able to use different ones at different times or must it simply show the same loading screen everytime?

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

I'm pretty sure you don't have to use the same filenames.  Check out Dr. Mike's mods for examples, since he did in fact change the loading screens.

[oldmanwinters]

I'm pretty sure you don't have to use the same filenames.  Check out Dr. Mike's mods for examples, since he did in fact change the loading screens.

Oh, interesting!  Can you give me a link to Dr. Mike's stuff?

[DrMike2000]

Wow! Freedom Reborn is back! Cut off one head and two shall take its place!

Hi, Old Man Winters.

What I did in my mods (www.fundamentzero.com) was to add a resource for each level. This is in the Resources tab of FFEdit, and I think was named ls_<name of level folder> eg "ls_01_navigator" or whatever. This resource would point ot a nif file, which was just a renamed copy of one of the ingame ones.

The ingame loading screen nifs typically consisted of 6 256x256 textures which covered the background plane, and a foreground cutout with four more textures. There was one which didn't have a foreground cutout, and I used that so as not to have to provide four alpha'd out textures to remove the cutout.

The nifs I would point to would be in a folder each in art/library/interface_scenes (scene.nif) with their own textures subfolder that had the cut up image to display on the screen as back_1 to back_6

Download Amazanauts (I think my smallest mod?) from www.fundamnetzero.com and you'll see how it fits together.

Let me know if that makes sense or not.

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

Speak him name and he will appear.

Any how, there's actually a .nif that lets you put the whole background in one file I think, although I'm not positive about it.  I think I may have actually managed to forget more about modding this game than I knew in the first place, if such a thing were possible.

[BentonGrey]

Dr. Mike!  Hey man, I'm really glad to see you back on the boards.  Geez man, we disappear for a year and you totally stop being social.  What's wrong with you?

That is super helpful Mike.  So it's just contingent upon being named after the mission's title and having a resource entry, huh?  Well...that is super easy!  That's great news.  It looks like most of the .nifs from the second game comic loading screens are just flat, broken up into two pieces and standing out from a simple, one piece background.  We should be able to keep the backgrounds the same and just replace the texture files with cut up images.

Cat, any idea where that one-shot .nif might be found?  Jog those little gray cells back into action!   An all-in-one file would be easier, obviously.

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

If there is one, then LB uses it.  You'll have to dig in those files, if you havethem.  I can look too if you like.

[BentonGrey]

Well, I can't find it in LB.  My copy doesn't seem to use custom load screens, or if it does, they aren't in the interface_scenes directory.

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

Not actual load screens, but it does use custom backgrounds in many other places, like the main screen adn the character screen. The same .nifs work for all of those things.

[oldmanwinters]

Special thanks to Dr.Mike for chiming in on my question! 

I guess I've got some more stuff to figure out as well!

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

After you play Dr. Mike's mods.  Seriously you must.  It is a rule.

[BentonGrey]

Yeah, they are pretty much the best mods ever created.  They, by themselves, qualify as at least one of my top 5 games.