Re: [Plib-users] now i can see the light!!!

[Steve B. <sjb...@ai...>]

Horacio Sanson wrote:

> So i ask now about keyframe generation......  i wonder if the ASE file format
> has keyfrme information.. I have actualy two simple ASE models and there is
> always at the begining some FRAME information like:

I don't know anything about ASE files - so I can't comment on that.
 

> Now touching again the camera subject, i was thinking to use rails to move the
> camera. I mean, imagine and scene, let say a maze. In the maze there is an
> invisible rail, like a train rail, so the camera can only be where this rail
> line is. There will be an elastic, invisible rope betewn the camera and the
> player, when the player moves, the camera will follow without getting away from
> the rail line.

I think that for some sorts of games (or perhaps for some situations in
some sorts of games), this is a great idea.

For games like my own Tux_AQFH, it wouldn't work at all because most of the
action takes place in wide open spaces where Tux can go anywhere - perhaps
fly, certainly swim underwater.  The camera needs to be able to go anywhere
in a 3D volume...which is my problem.

For games like Heretic or Quake though where the action mostly takes place
in fairly confined spaces, I think the idea of a 'sliding rail' to keep the
camera in controlled places is a great one.

Perhaps in a game like Tux, I could have both - so that when the player is
more than a certain distance from the nearest rail, it does what it does
now - and 'latches on' to the nearest rail when one comes close enough.

> But wait, thats not all............   i also have an special camera for
> .special effects, for example the player performs and especial attack that has
> some exellent animation, but with the rail system i will allways see the
> animation from behaind the player, so each "action", has a camera rail
> predefined, so when i perform the "action" the camera moves in that rail line
> so the animation can be aprecciated. Have you seen those animes where the hero
> performs the super attack and the camera rotates arround him, while performing
> an amazing animation move with stunning music??? well thats the idea.

I'm not so sure about that.  When the player is controlling the action, it's
very distracting to have unwanted camera motion.  It makes it almost impossible
to play the game accurately.

In so-called "cut scenes" where the computer takes over to move the action
on to the next level or something, then pre-scripting EVERYTHING (including
the camera) makes a lot of sense - and you can do cool cinematographic
effects like zooming in and stuff like that.
 
> note: excuse my english, it's not my native language.

No need to apologise - your English is at least as good as some native
English speakers I get posts from.

> When i say rail lines i
> refer to a predefined path that the camera it's limited to, like a train is
> limited to the rail road. The motion is done by the player pulling the camera
> with the flexible rope as a wagons is pulled by the train. I say flexible rope
> because it must have some degree of freedom, say a MAX that determine how far
> the camera can be from the player and a MIN that determine how close the camera
> can be of the player.

Yep - I understand completely.

-- 
Steve Baker                  http://web2.airmail.net/sjbaker1
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