Terminus Machina - A DX Mod

[SilverSpook]

Is there a way to get the camera points in a cinematic sequence to not slow down at every point? I have several camera points all assigned to "move", but it seems like the camera slows down as it enters each point which makes the camera movement kind of jumpy when I'd like it to be a smooth move at a constant speed. The move is in a curve shape so I need multiple points to get the correct trajectory. Is there a way to get the camera to not slow down to each camera point?

[bjorn98009_91]

I think this has to do with spacing of your interpolation points. You can see in the editor the number of interpolation "vertices"(?), the points attached to the trajectory. The further away the interpolation points are the further spaced the vertices are. However you can change this by changing the rate modifier.

[SilverSpook]

The thing is I think the camera point actors function different than interpolation points it seems. The interpolation points I use for the splash screen and those work fine. The camera points it seems that the camera always slows to a stop at each point. I'm using the DX Intro cinematic as an example, which uses camera points instead of interpolation points.

[bjorn98009_91]

Interesting, haven't used camera points before. I'm guessing that the camera transition you are setting up is not going to be part of a map exit, so that's why you can't use interpolation points for the camera. Is that so?

[SilverSpook]

Woah, just realized Terminus Machina is featured on the Deus Ex site on Moddb. Don't know if it deserves to be on the same planet as DX, but that's flattering.

Yeah not totally sure what the deal is, I'm just following Tack's cinematic tutorial which just involves using camera points. I haven't gone deep into the clandestine workings of the mission script and the mapexits, so it may be possible to just do it as interpolation points, but there are other limiting factors since camerapoints have other options (they respond to trigger events, allow various camera effects, push/pan etc. etc.) It's like the camera points are highly speciallized interpolation points almost just for the machinima.

[DDL]

That basically IS what they are. Interpolations are for flybys and that's more or less it: it's pretty difficult to do a "slow to a standstill, then pan" with interpolation, but it's a piece of piss with camerapoints.
Conversely, it's quite difficult to do a nice smooth flyby with camerapoints.

[FastGamerr]

Woah, just realized Terminus Machina is featured on the Deus Ex site on Moddb. Don't know if it deserves to be on the same planet as DX, but that's flattering.

ModDB's game pages show the latest newspost approved on the ModDB page (for the game in question).

Also, I really hate CameraPoints. This one time at the UED1 camp, I made a rather simple sequence which didn't even involve much rotation... leading into the camera spinning a few hundred thousand times in the middle as if it had got stuck in a hurricane or something. Huh. One reboot of UED and making the exact sequence in the exact same way later... works as intended. Le sigh.

Anyway, I tried to find a solution to the "slow-down between frames" issue in July but had to invoke The Greater FGR TODOA/DXN Doctrine (if something (usually relatively minor) takes way too much time to implement, forget it) after a few hours.

[SilverSpook]

We share similar doctrines

Yeah, I'm all about fast and loose, cover more ground and let the MIBs take the rest.

I'd rather have the world get made, the experiment be conducted, and the essential point get across than spend two years and have nothing but a quark-level replica of a gattling wakizashi gun. (Not that I have anything against automatic sword-guns)

[SilverSpook]

Getting some weird errors here. Anyone know what this is about? Usually I'll start a conversation and then all of a sudden theres all this glitchy stuttery random sounds and convo audio doesn't work properly.

Critical: glxUnloadSample( (glxSample*)Sound->Handle )
Critical: UGalaxyAudioSubsystem::UnregisterSound
Critical: USound::Destroy
Critical: UObject::ConditionalDestroy
Critical: (Sound DeusExSounds.Player.StoneStep3)
Critical: DispatchDestroy
Critical: DispatchDestroys
Critical: UObject::PurgeGarbage
Critical: UObject::StaticExit
Critical: appPreExit

[FastGamerr]

The conversation MP3 audio has to be 44100hz/48kbps/mono and have no ID3 tags (you can remove them with foobar2k or dbpoweramp for instance).

Lower quality audio should be fine, higher quality audio gets cut off after a while (thus being effectively useless).

[SilverSpook]

Is there a reason why all the DX levels look really dark in UnrealEd? It seems like they're way darker than they are in the actual game but when reapply the lighting in a DX level scene it still looks dark.

[bjorn98009_91]

My guess would be that the gamma/brightness settings in the game vs the editor is not the same, hence the difference. Also the editor tends to use the Software Renderer and that might produce different results.

[SilverSpook]

Another weird error. On entering a connected map, a tester is getting this error:

Code: Select all

Log: Loading: Package DXModConversationsText
Log: Spawning new actor for Viewport WindowsViewport0
ScriptLog: Login: Player
Critical: appError called:
Critical: ModMale 50_nexapt.ModMale1 (Function DeusEx.DeusExPlayer.PostBeginPlay:0031) Assertion failed, line 438
Critical: Windows GetLastError: The operation completed successfully. (0)
Exit: Executing UObject::StaticShutdownAfterError
Exit: Executing UWindowsClient::ShutdownAfterError
Exit: UGalaxyAudioSubsystem::ShutdownAfterError
Exit: UD3DRenderDevice::ShutdownAfterError
Critical: FFrame::Serialize
Critical: UObject::ProcessEvent
Critical: (ModMale 50_nexapt.ModMale1, Function DeusEx.DeusExPlayer.PostBeginPlay)
Critical: ULevel::SpawnActor
Critical: (ModMale)
Critical: UObject::ProcessEvent
Critical: (ModGameInfo 50_nexapt.ModGameInfo2, Function DeusEx.DeusExGameInfo.Login)
Critical: ULevel::SpawnPlayActor
Critical: MatchViewportsToActors
Critical: (50_nexapt)
Critical: ClientInit
Critical: UGameEngine::LoadMap
Critical: LoadURL
Critical: UGameEngine::Browse
Critical: ClientTravel
Critical: UGameEngine::Tick
Critical: XGameEngineExt::Tick
Critical: UpdateWorld
Critical: MainLoop

So I checked out the assertion on line 438 in DeusExPlayer, wihch seems to be checking for the number of levelInfo actors in the level. There seems to be only one level info in the level, so I don't know how the assertion is failing.

Code: Select all

//
// set up the augmentation and skill systems
// ----------------------------------------------------------------------

function PostBeginPlay()
{
	local DeusExLevelInfo info;
	local int levelInfoCount;

	Super.PostBeginPlay();

	// Check to make sure there's only *ONE* DeusExLevelInfo and 
	// go fucking *BOOM* if we find more than one.

	levelInfoCount = 0;
	foreach AllActors(class'DeusExLevelInfo', info)
		levelInfoCount++;

	Assert(levelInfoCount <= 1);
	
	// give us a shadow
   if (Level.Netmode == NM_Standalone)   
      CreateShadow();

	InitializeSubSystems();
   DXGame = Level.Game;
   ShieldStatus = SS_Off;
	ServerTimeLastRefresh = 0;

	// Safeguard so no cheats in multiplayer
	if ( Level.NetMode != NM_Standalone )
		bCheatsEnabled = False;
}

[DDL]

LevelInfo, or deusexlevelinfo? Levelinfos are (AFAIK) created automatically, but dxlevelinfos are things you add yourself, and thus things you CAN end up with multiples of.

[AdamJensen]

Silver, did you use the Fuhrpark mod in Terminus Machina?