AE:Trailer

General information

Soundtrack

HERE (MP3)

• First 50 seconds of Ambient Suite (the part that sounds redundant) for the mini-overview of Oni.
• No One Left To Trust for the actual Edition trailer.
• A few more seconds of Ambient Suite at the end (actually Ambient Suite was just muted throughout NOLTT)

geyser's draft

HERE (WMV, 640x480)

This draft (made primarily in Windows Movie Maker) will be updated with directions, placeholders and "final" scenes, focusing on timing and scene dynamics. Eventually this will become a placeholder for a higher-quality trailer, or it can be released on its own. For all the featured scenes I will provide either the footage or the binary "ingredients" used. Feel free to re-record and re-edit this at higher quality.

geyser 00:48, 28 July 2008 (CEST)

I can do video, but I still don't know if it will be good for something (who's making trailer? Is my (sucky) wmv quality good enough or not?) --Loser 11:19, 5 August 2008 (CEST)

The WMV format is good enough at least for the placeholder trailer I have in mind: I'll be piecing stuff together in WMM, with a focus on timing and scene dynamics; eventually, either the trailer will provide a guideline for a better-quality trailer, or it can be released on its own as a last resort: of course WMM's text and video effects suck, but its straightforward workflow sorta meets my needs. So, go ahead and upload footage in 640x480 WMV, it will be put to good use - if it's awesome enough ^_^ --geyser 19:57, 5 August 2008 (CEST)

There might be a problem with the FRAPS watermark. I encourage you to use Taksi to record the AVI (this implies further losses, but some codecs offer a decent compromise; see, e.g., Tracker's recommendations on the settings he used to record Oni On Time - which I later used in Serious Konoko). --geyser 19:57, 5 August 2008 (CEST)

Iritscen's draft

There were two drafts made independently before I started working from geyser's notes: v1 and v2 (neither had any actual Oni video in them). Then there was a v3, quickly followed by a minor improvement, v4. The next draft will be substantially more complete and will be found here.

Basic idea for the footage

Two sections: original Oni footage and Edition footage. There should be more than enough footage for the original Oni (e.g., ZDLO's Fighting School and stealth tactics, grenade jumping, parkouring, maybe snippets from Resurrection or a few anthological screenshots).

As for the Edition part, the basic idea is a sequence of feature highlights à la 1999 trailer, each highlight rather short, announced by similar-looking full-screen titles. Before and after the systematic highlights, there can be intense mixed-bag sections.

General advice

Nice-looking and varied locations are a plus (e.g., if you want to show new AI skills, don't do it all in the Warehouse).

Content doesn't necessary have to be in-game Oni (can be an external render or an editor view), as long as it looks good.

Animated video is not a must (e.g., an ultra-quick slideshow is fine). Varied viewing angles and camera effects welcome.

A very nice setting for fights are the foggy rooms in CHAPTER 11 . DREAM DIVER: the characters disturb the fog as they move, which is a feast for the eyes; plus, the rooms themselves have nice colors and shapes

An example...

...of the kind of dynamics and creativity I expect from the action sequences. HERE

A very nice example, geyser. Can I have that footage without the text, by the way? It's more than an example, it's actual video I can use.

I think you and I are on the same page as to how to make the trailer exciting, geyser. As long as our video-capturing helpers keep mixing things up and recording dynamic kinds of footage, we can have a great trailer. (If possible, I will record some things too, but for now I am focusing on putting out a draft using what I've got on hand.) --Iritscen 17:30, 12 August 2008 (CEST)

The video is nothing more than an example. It was recorded in lousy quality with the lousy example WMV in mind, keeping in mind that the car's texture is nowhere near final anyway, and that we might want to add headlight and taillight particles to the object as well. So it's nothing but a placeholder, and if a placeholder is all you need, heck, use the one with the text. The ingredients of the sequence are those I released on the DeLorean page; additionally, the camera was aligned to face 315° (with chr_facetoflag 0 63) and upwards, then placed on the sidewalk and moved forwards+right in manual camera mode 1 (no mouse control). The speed of the camera was set to gs_input_accel=1.5 --geyser 19:01, 12 August 2008 (CEST)

---

Intro

The intro sequence was done with this script, and an act-of-god to kill everybody at the start of the boss battle. The camera was turned slightly to the right so as to better capture the dead bodies. Recording was done with Taksi (Microsoft Video 1, rate of time compression at 1.0, compression level at 75), using Rossy's DLL for better hooking. Time inversion was done with Video Time Reversal. The text effects in WMM are rather primitive. Other notable problems are lag while recording (the open environment as well as the dish and Daodan particles make Oni use more CPU than usual) and the low detail of the dish particles.

geyser 00:48, 28 July 2008 (CEST)

---

Oni highlights

I have retrieved high-quality footage for THESE TWO YouTube videos: they cover pretty much all we want to show about Oni's original gameplay in 20 seconds. I'd only add a grenade jump to a watchtower in Chapter 14 and some parkour (either in Loser's warehouse - truck to crates to crane - or Storming-The-Rooftops style). Both nicicles (parkour and grenade jumping), however, would have to be recorded anew. As for the two aforementioned YT videos, they can be downloaded here: http://geyser.oni2.net/edition/trailer/oni

---

Upbeat part

This is for the NOLTT part, dedicated to Edition footage. Unmodded Oni footage goes in a separate section.

Mixed-bag

(spanning first "verse" and "chorus" of NOLTT, and maybe the last chorus as well)

massive OTA gameplay

(early on, to make people wonder: "multiplayer?")

I should have more than enough footage for this, assuming there are no technical issues with EdT's video when I get to it. So if someone's looking to help, move on, nothing to see here :-) but we do need help with the other items listed here. --Iritscen 00:02, 15 August 2008 (CEST)

HERE is an example of lossless footage recorded from Oni at 20 fps (i.e. 1 out of 3 game ticks is rendered to BMP, regardless of the apparent lag this may cause). HERE is the same scene in the form of an animated GIF sequence: the conversion to indexed colors have introduced dithering, but on the whole the image stayed crisp. May the powers that be let me know if either format suits them. The scene itself is crappy; just a test of the recording routine... --geyser 15:54, 23 August 2008 (CEST)

jetpacking as Barabas

(don't forget to add the particle to the TRAM)

See: http://loser.oni2.net/Videos/Barabus_jetpack.wmv ;--EdT

That's OK, I guess... except for the boring camera angle all the way through. Maybe shoot some extra sequences where a flying-shooting Barabas is seen from a static point below, or with an orbiting camera... Also, are the required binary resources available anywhere? --geyser 13:11, 4 August 2008 (CEST)

Well, we do need the binary resources. Personally, I think that the few seconds where Barabus flies while shooting at the Striker is useable and if we're going to show half the stuff in this list, we only have a few seconds for each feature, so more footage is not needed. My concern is more a matter of video quality, because that footage is not going to cut it. So if I get the resources, I will record something myself at high quality. --Iritscen 14:45, 4 August 2008 (CEST)

HERE is alpha stage of jetpacking Barabus. Use at own risk (seriously, I don't know what it will do on your machine). Included also my version of Barabus's regeneration particles.

The compression is OK, and I totally encourage you (Loser) to provide further footage in this format: apart from Iritscen, no one will notice ^_^ As for quality over quantity - "that's what I'm talking about!" ... "A few seconds" are enough for two or three different cuts, but there's nothing awesome to pick from in this video: because of the aforementioned lack of camera variety, and also because the skyline of that location is rather dull (why is it cool to fly around some stupid-a$$ boxes? ). I'll try and suggest a better setting, complete with camera angles, after a quick look at your binaries (thanks). --geyser 16:42, 4 August 2008 (CEST)

A couple of place holding Jet packing videos: http://edt.oni2.net/AE_Files/Barabus_Jet.mov and http://edt.oni2.net/AE_Files/Barabus_Jet2.mov --EdT

Why aren't you using the mouse to change Barabas's facing in midair? I would say the first man-cam mode is the best for showing Barabas under a variety of angles (flying along curved paths rather than straight ahead). Note that there are places where the jetpack would look totally "functional": ACC(exterior), Rooftops... --geyser 05:01, 19 August 2008 (CEST)

sniper scope

(shooting remote targets from crouching or prone poses)

• videos and ingredients
• related talk

parkour and beyond

kangaroo and marypoppins cheats, dev mode teleportation and cam fun

parkouring AI

footage so far: WMV YouTube

related mini-project & related talk

alternative single-player

playing against the TCTF as Mukade or a comguy-ninja (Kojiro)...

Isn't this an original Oni feature, though? I think that a viewer will not understand what the trailer is saying if he sees this in the "Edition footage" section of the trailer. Plus, I've already put three or so "altenative single-player" clips into that original Oni footage section, so let's focus on recording video of the really, truly new stuff. --Iritscen 23:10, 14 August 2008 (CEST)

delocalized characters

(characters appearing where they don't belong: globalization, chr_location, etc)

Konoko on the rooftops: http://edt.oni2.net/AE_Files/KonokoRoof.mov EdT 04:49, 16 August 2008 (CEST)

Hm, the outfit is ugly and the camera going through the building is a no-no, but other than that it has promise ^_^ and a smooth-moving manual camera is definitely an improvement over "invisible midget Konoko running around". The rooftop you chose is somehow not very impressive; sometimes an ugly rooftop set against a good-looking background can be much better, see the ending frame HERE for example. Maybe you can set up a big brawl (Last Man Standing?) in some improbable place? Not this place, probably ^_^... not quite sure which one... maybe those Take Me Down sites - as long as the AI don't have too much space, they'll fight each other even without a pathfinding grid. I think it would look great if you fly into/over/by such a brawl, which would be visible from far away (unlike Konoko) because of the melee flashes. Note: you can make the camera fly faster by increasing gs_input_accel --geyser 05:43, 16 August 2008 (CEST)

This was more of a concept idea, I was hoping the background TV screen would be more visible. Since I can't use chr_location, I can't setup the brawl, maybe Paradox can do that. I just used the jetpack hack to get up on the roof. Will try to think of some more locations. EdT 05:58, 16 August 2008 (CEST)

Perhaps another placeholder with geyser's griffin: http://edt.oni2.net/AE_Files/griffin_out.mov --EdT

Keep trying, you're getting there. Try to be bolder and more graceful with every video. --geyser 04:43, 19 August 2008 (CEST)

I like this one, and LOL at the video's end. Griffin thought he was safe up there. I can certainly put it in the trailer for now, if not for good, since I don't see any problems with it. I'm still waiting for geyser to say he's happy with anything at all that's been recorded . --Iritscen 21:46, 19 August 2008 (CEST)

Oh yeah, there is a bit of choppiness to the fly-in at the beginning, Ed. It might be noticeable if that specific piece of footage is in the trailer. Once the fly-in stops, the capture is smooth. Choppiness during large frame-delta periods* and not during small ones indicates that your HD's free space is fragmented. Might be something to look into if you have TechTool Pro or DiskWarrior. It got so bad for me that I spent the last two days defragging (there were 54,000+ fragments in total; only a fraction of that was in the free space, but it was still a big problem). --Iritscen 21:46, 19 August 2008 (CEST)

(*)This refers to when more is changing onscreen from second to second, requiring Snapz Pro to dump more data to the HD; if the HD is not fast enough or has a lot of fragments it can't dump fast enough and frames are dropped. The fly-in period has a ~100% frame-to-frame delta, whereas when Griffin is just watching the fight, the f-to-f delta is maybe 20%. --Iritscen 21:46, 19 August 2008 (CEST)

animated consoles

(those are easy to do, but easily overlooked by the viewer unless there's a lot of them side by side, which doesn't happen at all)

fighting doppelgänger Mukades

HERE is rar which contains scripts&files for doppelganger fight. Apply, then play rooftops, last savepoint. Good luck, take some footage and then try to defeat him, if you can ^_^. --Loser 11:19, 5 August 2008 (CEST)

Thanks for the doppelgänger stuff (please don't delete anything from your account unless alloc or I tell you to; broken links suck ^_^) --geyser 19:57, 5 August 2008 (CEST)

The WMV format is good enough at least for the placeholder trailer I have in mind: I'll be piecing stuff together in WMM, with a focus on timing and scene dynamics; eventually, either the trailer will provide a guideline for a better-quality trailer, or it can be released on its own as a last resort: of course WMM's text and video effects suck, but its straightforward workflow sorta meets my needs. So, go ahead and upload footage in 640x480 WMV, it will be put to good use if it's awesome enough (e.g., for Mukade, try and record a few seconds from a fixed camera). --geyser 19:57, 5 August 2008 (CEST)

There might be a problem with the FRAPS watermark. I encourage you to use Taksi to record the AVI (this implies further losses, but some codecs offer a decent compromise; see, e.g., Tracker's recommendations as for recording Oni On Time). --geyser 19:57, 5 August 2008 (CEST)

HERE is video of Doppelganger Mukade fight, I tried to make it so you can see him cloning+lots of teleportations. Surprisingly Mukade behaves quite as if he actually KNEW he has clones. After cloning process, he often cloaks himself and then he stays in range and only observes. Bastard ^_^. And fuel for funny scenes - HERE is what actually happened on its own, I was not "helping them" to kick my @$$, they did on their own with joy and I just stared in awe ^_^. --Loser 16:53, 9 August 2008 (CEST)

Erm, whatever happened to the video quality? "When we said sucky, we didn't mean that sucky..." Seriously, parkour.wmv looked much better than that. And why the fraps do the Mukades have some whitish texture without reflectivity? Is this supposed to look cool? Huh. The teleportations and pwnage will make nice placeholders though, thanks ^_^ While you're at it (covering Mukade), maybe you can show off some teleportation techniques (dev mode) playing as him. And don't forget the Mukade chasing you along (it actually looks good enough in the warehouse, for once, so just upload the footage you used for THIS video) --geyser 16:33, 12 August 2008 (CEST)

modded parkouring

See: http://loser.oni2.net/Videos/parkour.wmv --EdT

priceless moments

Konoko pointing the gun at the secretary in One Small Mistake

The entire cutscene: http://edt.oni2.net/AE_Files/TinyMistake.mov

ultra-quick "slideshows"

showing off all available character classes (since it's anecdotal you can also show Motoko and whoever), preferably in some nice place(s), with an orbiting camera

mini-page here: AE:Shapeshifting

Developer mode

• various debugging visuals (panels, lines, messages... the more, the better)
• runtime scripting in fast-motion (spawning AI, issuing weapons, etc)
• act of god (F6), shapeshifter, gunshifter (F7)
• manual camera in single step mode, e.g., orbiting a jumping character

You mean, like "bullet time"? That would be very cool in the trailer. --Iritscen 22:08, 19 August 2008 (CEST)

• "teleportation": End, man-cam+End, Ctrl+Shift+U, and anim-freeze key
• ...

Weapons

• ultra quick slideshow of all available weapons (since it's anecdotal you can show Halo rips and swords and whatever), preferably in varied locations, with varied characters holding the guns, and of course camera angles that show the weapons advantageously... for example, you can record a full cm_orbit turn for every weapon/location and then those turns can be combined into a morphing series with the camera/body orientation of the body evolving seamlessly between scenes. As for the characters, maybe start with the 7 Konokos and then move on to different, possibly odd characters (possibility of comic relief)
• WMC Lite (grenade then ray, all while doing acrobatics)
• Telekinetic bracelet (dragging enemy around, blasting him away, preferably with some body movement, duh)
• Chaingun (in the hands of an enemy, please; otherwise it's boring; Ed's "too hard Oni" is actually quite good)
• microwave chaingun, bazooka, flame thrower... pending
• Chaingun Too: mini-cutscene with BGI troopers (Black Halo Spartans) mowing down Strikers and civilians

like this? http://edt.oni2.net/AE_Files/spartans1.mov EdT 02:06, 13 August 2008 (CEST)

Sorta. Could have looked better with civilians panicking and running for their lives, but the final moments of this one are fine. --geyser 02:24, 13 August 2008 (CEST)

Maybe take advantage of the aftermath of such scenes and shoot orbiting views of victorious Spartans standing over fallen foes. --geyser 02:24, 13 August 2008 (CEST)

Congratulations on the shotgun mesh, BTW. Do you like it better as a chaingun than the "silenced" one? Maybe try and use both? --geyser 02:24, 13 August 2008 (CEST)

Couple more spartan clips: Chain guns http://edt.oni2.net/AE_Files/spartans2.mov Plasma rifle: http://edt.oni2.net/AE_Files/spartans3.mov The silenced machine gun seems a bit small for the spartans. EdT 02:56, 15 August 2008 (CEST)

Thanks! Wow, I kinda feel bad for the Syndicate for once. You know what other existing weapon I'd really like to see video of? The telekinetic bracelet. That's working, right? If we had that footage, I think that this section, "Weapons", would be done enough for the trailer, although certainly as long as we have time before finishing the trailer we can see what can be done about bazookas, swords, etc. For now I am only thinking about the mods that are done and can be filmed, though. Ooh, and what about some footage of Konoko firing away at enemies with a shotgun? By all means, you can pass me what files you may have and I will help capture footage. I seem to be one of, oh, three people or so that can record video sans watermarks. --Iritscen 04:08, 15 August 2008 (CEST)

Here's all the weapons in a level plugin form. http://edt.oni2.net/AE_Files/NewWeapons.zip The telekinetic bracelet is already part of AE. Just scroll through the weapons and you'll find it. OniRULES Plasma Rifle is just too brutal, but it should make the Trailer look interesting! EdT 04:21, 15 August 2008 (CEST)

Yeah, we'll have to balance the weapons for gameplay at some point, but I have to say, the plasma rifle is a beautiful thing to behold. Look forward to trying these out soon. --Iritscen 04:30, 15 August 2008 (CEST)

The plasma rifle is not a beautiful thing to behold, because it's ripped from Halo and not even textured right. Badass Spartans are OK (but they'll definitely have to be portrayed fighting badass melee as a complement), but I have a feeling that we'll wear out our welcome with pretty much everybody if we show them wielding crappy weapons or, god forbid, further Halo rips. With some creativity, however, you can make it all right again in no time, and solve all of the major or minor concerns listed above. First, you can say goodbye to the Halo-ripped plasma rifle mesh, but you can keep the particle. It is brutal, yes, but no more than the chaingun (it's actually halfway between the microwave chaingun I had in mind and the laser Gumby has been working on), and definitely fits the death-squad profile of the BGI troops. As a mesh, you can use the Pallet (we'll just call this one a cameo, OK?), or you can use THIS ONE (a bit too high-poly, would need trimming), or you can use the silenced chaingun, aptly retextured so that the silencer becomes some sort of meta-magnetron generating this... I guess you won't call the chaingun mesh too small if it packs such a devastating power. As for the shotgun, I don't think much of it so far, but it's just futuristic enough so it's OK, and I guess it could be "onified" by adding some contrast and color to the texture... I suppose it will do fine as a placeholder for the time of the trailer anyway. Oh, and of course it looks more naturally as a shotgun than as a chaingun ^_^ Now, as for the "weapons" section being "done enough" - objection! let's see some actual camera work, first, not an invisible midget Konoko running around... or let's see the Spartans mow down some civilians or TCTF, with different weapons, in different places, preferably in epic numbers (One Small Mistake, anyone?)... I mean, has no one noticed the Russian video down there? that's how it's done. And as for "the time we have before finishing the trailer" - let's face it, we'll be lucky if we wrap it up by Christmas... but just having the potential to make a great trailer (by Christmas) is no little thing. So let's keep it up, it's looking good... nowhere near the real thing, but promising. --geyser 06:49, 16 August 2008 (CEST)

When I said it was "beautiful", I actually meant the particles more than anything, since I hadn't gotten much of a look at the weapon in use. But I totally agree that we need to move away from Halo rips and have mentioned this on the forum.

I also agree that we have a long way to do with the trailer. There are some things even in what's done so far that I don't like (the whole "original Oni" section needs to be reworked with some more variety in the footage, for instance). Hopefully this isn't a case of "Do Not Open 'Til Xmas", though, as I can see it getting done before that. Well, we'll see. --Iritscen 14:16, 16 August 2008 (CEST)

A demo with the assault-rifle-hugo weapon. I had to reduce the polygons a bit, it started with 2234 polygons and 1250 Vertices and its down to 1326 polygons and 796 Vertices. Even at this level, it causes Oni to crash from time to time. http://edt.oni2.net/AE_Files/w27_arh.mov EdT 06:33, 18 August 2008 (CEST)

I recommend deleting the scope and grenade launcher in addition to simplifying the mesh. Also, feel free to provide the binaries so that the crash can be confirmed and investigated. --geyser 04:32, 19 August 2008 (CEST)

Here are the files, I removed the scope and grenade launcher, that seemed to be enough to get it in the game: http://edt.oni2.net/AE_Files/w27_arh.zip and yes, I'm still using the strange naming system, just to keep it consistent with what's already up. If any of these new weapons are added to edition, feel free to name them to whatever you want. EdT 06:33, 19 August 2008 (CEST)

Just a raw sample. It needs to be edited. There are 3 weapons, camera rotating around Konoko holding weapon and firing weapon. If this style is ok, I'll make more. http://edt.oni2.net/AE_Files/weapon1_3.mov

Another version, cycling through the weapons, again raw footage. http://edt.oni2.net/AE_Files/Allweapons1.mov

Thanks for the all-character shapeshifting movie above, Ed, it's quite useful. As far as the weapons movies are concerned, I think geyser and I wanted to see them being used in combat, by Konoko or even by the enemy. We'll only have a few moments to make an impression with each new weapon, so we want those moments to be exciting. geyser made some suggestions in this section, as to how to use the weapons, that maybe you can try, if you have the time. Thanks for all your work so far! --Iritscen 23:27, 11 August 2008 (CEST)

Here Ed was primarily responding to the weapon-kaleidoscope idea (those lengthy orbits would be smashed into one, lasting about 1 second for every 4 weapons), but regrettably the locations for the orbiting views of the first 2 guns are drop-dead dull. As for showing off the exact operating mode of the weapons: 1) the weapon must be shown from anywhere but back or 3/4 back view - either head-on or in profile or in 3/4 front; 2) only the new weapons need to be shown (unless we're highlighting dodging and such); 3) this should take place in the nicest locations we can find; 4) possibly the guns should be wielded by new characters (e.g., BGI handguns would be operated by BGI execs, machineguns and WMC Lites - by Spartans, etc); 5) all that should ideally be staged as small cutscenes from scratch, or (if you're lazy) by giving new guns to some AI in the original logic and trying to play through those parts. A trailer is supposed to show ingame action, dammit. Otherwise we will come across as, well, lazy and uncreative; and that's about the last thing we want to come across as. Oh well, I guess I'll have to offer more ingredients and guidance... --geyser 03:37, 12 August 2008 (CEST)

An example of the kind of action scenes that could showcase new characters and weapons (go HERE and click on the nice button center-top that says "скачать"). Picking fragments from such scenes (a second here, another there) can also make fine contributions to the "mixed bag" section. --geyser 01:55, 13 August 2008 (CEST)

Collision effects

• wall collision? maybe... nice comic relief with the pillar in the TCTF HQ parking lot; one scene is enough
• combos and throws breaking glass? definitely; one of each, please, with varied locations and player characters
• lass shards dealing damage - not sure how dramatic the effect can be; beef up the damage, kill a whole crowd?
  • probably not characters sliding down stairs or through windows, unless it accidentally looks good ^_^
• ...

Combat logic

• brutal Striker (possibly with other ONCC) pwning Konoko (e.g., tackling her, back-kicking her as she's preparing for a backbreaker, etc)
• brutal Konoko (possibly with other ONCC) pwning the player (e.g., block-circle-backbreak, but ***pleeeeeeease***, not in the Warehouse!)
• dodging fire spreads and projectiles (preferably in a realistic-looking situation, e.g., CHAPTER 05 . HOT PURSUIT SP1)
• dodging grenades or Screamers: e.g., in the atrium of CHAPTER 09 . TRUTH AND CONSEQUENCES for best results (the closer to the origin, the better)
• ...

Alarm logic

(I'm not sure this can be visually stunning and NOLTT-friendly... depends a lot on the setting)

• "butt-touching sensor" ***pleeeeeeease***, not in the Warehouse!

Don't worry, as this won't be in trailer (my opinion). REASON: You can't recognize it, in video it looks like you made some noise, not like you touched enemy. Leave this for in-game experience ^_^ --Loser

This could still look "OK" as a short cut in series with other alarm stuff. In side view, for example, the contact will be more obvious (see? varied camera angles are your friends...) --geyser 16:42, 4 August 2008 (CEST)

I agree, a side angle will show the butt-touching better. In fact, because it can be shown in only a couple or a few seconds, this is more trailer-compatible than the calling-for-backup feature, which takes a little while longer to show (a simple edit or two, though, will help get the concept across in only a few seconds). So, yeah, a simple shot of Konoko touching a guy and alerting him would be good. The best possible shot (this falls under the category of "If you have the time to set up something complicated") is one where Konoko alerts a guy out in an open area, and there's another enemy in the distance in that side-angle shot pacing away so that he can't see Konoko. When the alerted guy starts fighting Konoko, the farther guy (who can't be too far away) hears the fight, turns around and heads towards them. But ultimately, that's just icing on the cake, anything is fine for now. --Iritscen 17:22, 12 August 2008 (CEST)

• "dead comrade" please make the patrol discover the corpse around a corner (for a more credible "surprise"), preferably showing the player on-screen (hidden from the patrol, but visible to the camera) for a better effect

HERE is what I gave to Iritscen, OUP format. Scene is in TCTF building, copfem discovers guy you killed in room behind doors near her patrol path (you have to kill him manually ^_-), she observes for a while then calls backup.

I've read that but haven't tested it yet. "Observes for a while" doesn't sound good. The trailer is upbeat, so the fewer pauses, the better. If there are two patrolmen, one can scan the surroundings while the other runs/calls for backup right away (see below). And what's that crap with having to kill guys manually? ^_^ --geyser 16:42, 4 August 2008 (CEST)

VIDEO of my dead comrade alarm scene --Loser 16:53, 9 August 2008 (CEST)

• "dead comrade too" make one of the patrol guys run away (call for backup, sound alarm, whatever) while the other one guards the dead body
• AI stopping to fight off the player shortly before reaching an alarm console, then resuming the run once the player is stunned (the bastard has a VDG, of course)
• group of AI noticing you after you engage one of its members (even if they can't see each other; again the camera work is essential)
• large group of ninja (supposedly alerted) surrounding and overwhelming the player

Modding tools

• OniBrowser and AE Tools capture (show texture/geometry preview for OniBrowser)
• View of levels, characters and weapons in XSI/Cheetah/Blender (for characters and weapons, show a texture editor panel)
• View of new weapons, vehicles and level parts in those editors (keep the view panning or rotating while you capture)
• ...

More placeholders: Here's the Iron Demon in Cheetah 3D http://edt.oni2.net/AE_Files/3DIronDemon.mov

I got the Lab's geometry in Cheetah 3D: http://edt.oni2.net/AE_Files/3DLab1.mov and http://edt.oni2.net/AE_Files/3DLab2.mov

Thanks! Don't forget that wireframe also looks cool. For at least one shot, I'd like to try rotating around a model in a clean circle in wireframe and fading from that movie into a textured/shaded shot with the same rotation (it might be hard to rotate consistently twice because we usually have to use the mouse). But we probably will not have time for more than one shot of level geometry; two, if we make them quick; since I plan to show at least one character model and one new weapon in Blender too. --Iritscen 17:24, 22 August 2008 (CEST)

As for consistent rotation, you can set up a basic animation for the scene or camera and don't use the mouse at all. The problem will be that for large environments your 3D tool may not be able to rotate the scene or viewport smoothly, because of "too many polygons". Even now, the rotation of the Lab is choppy and a few polygons are not rendered (e.g., the floor of the control room in the watchtower). There's always stop-motion to work around the choppiness; I have no idea what's wrong with the missing polygons in the Lab and how it can be fixed. The Demon is OK. As for wireframe, the ultra-thin lines typically used by 3D tools won't look good when downsampled to 640x480, so I'd say don't bother unless your 3D tool has settings for the visually impaired (or maybe you want to apply a convolution filter to every frame to make the lines thicker?). You can try shaded or textured with superimposed wireframe though. --geyser 22:37, 22 August 2008 (CEST)

For the record:

• Cheetah does not seem to display the lab correctly, it looks as if the shading is ignored.
• In general 3D tools can create movies with a specified framerate even if they're not able to render an animation in realtime.
• I suppose I could animate the camera in OniGame to produce such a movie if someone really wants it.
• This is better than wireframe: Cartoony :)

Neo

New content

• DeLorean (ideally a moving shot: be creative and use the OBAN available at the airport or at the TCTF HQ)

A few clips from Lab, Airport, and TCTF: http://edt.oni2.net/AE_Files/delorean.mov --EdT

Cool, thanks Ed! This is another video I was going to have a hard time recording. Anyway, I was only going to have a quick shot of the DeLorean (especially because geyser is talking about the texture not being final), so I am sure I will be able to use one of the shots you provided. --Iritscen 18:32, 15 August 2008 (CEST)

My "drive-by" example is actually the optimal way to "reveal" the DeLorean: "new content" driving out of the lab, in our face, and away - that's more of a surprise than if we can see the car all along. Also note that smooth camera movement (linear motion of manual camera, or cm_orbiting around a well-concealed player) looks way cooler than a "hand-held camera"... I think. Like I said on the DeLorean page, we probably shouldn't use the TCTF HQ scene with the DeLorean (except maybe the start of it, which Ed didn't record). That's where I wanted to use the Steambo below. The DeLorean is not owned by the kind of people who'd drive it across the sidewalk and ram it into a glass wall. BTW, I suppose I ought to release those people at some point: probably they can/will be used in a scene together with the DeLorean.

• "Carmaggeddonish" SteamBo (basically a replacement for the van that breaks into the TCTF HQ's lobby.

Did you save the Steambo model? I noticed that its not on Turbosquid anymore. EdT 06:52, 16 August 2008 (CEST)

I do have a backup, but I'm pretty sure you can still get it on TS: http://www.turbosquid.com/FullPreview/Index.cfm/ID/271119 --geyser 07:00, 16 August 2008 (CEST)

Sorry, I did a search on steambo and then camageddon and nothing came up. EdT 15:57, 16 August 2008 (CEST)

Crashing steambo: http://edt.oni2.net/AE_Files/steambo.mov EdT 01:13, 17 August 2008 (CEST)

Oh, awesome! Thanks, Ed, I love it. --Iritscen 01:20, 17 August 2008 (CEST)

It wasn't hard, I took the OBAN geyser made for the delorean, put them in level8 folder, imported the steambo to level8, edited the cutscene to show only the steambo. But it only works for that brief scene. The van re-appears with the strikers right after that scene EdT 06:53, 17 August 2008 (CEST)

As far as I can see, you didn't use the animated wheels (admittedly, the glass makes this hard to notice, and then the car heads towards the camera). Considering the "caliber" of the damage, maybe the car needs to be made bigger (it will be bigger anyway if you match the spacing of the wheel OBANs), and in any case the blades at the front should be replaced with something more consistent with the damage, like a huge plough/ram. Another thing to change is the color (I'd rotate the color map to make it blue or green or whatever; however, you'll have to make clever use of masks to avoid messing up the rust). Maybe an even more creative retexturing will be needed so that it looks less like a battered Countach and more like a Countach-inspired tank (think Tumbler). And also, of course, the "Soviet Russian" steam engine needs to be adapted as a fuel/nitro reservoir, rocket or bomb. A rocket would have unignorable particle trails and would also justify the impressive damage. Just as a FYI, I intended to have the Countach explode, so as to let the van with the troops drive through the breach, leaving the static level geometry unchanged: I am not yet sure what form this would eventually take, but for the trailer it won't matter. Maybe we could tape explosives (à la mad bomber) all over the car's body, to make it clearly identifiable as a suicide car - but in that case why wouldn't it explode on impact? Tricky dilemma. Maybe the rocket+ram is the best solution for the trailer. --geyser 13:13, 18 August 2008 (CEST)

Dilemma? --Dox

Yeah. The problem is that if the Countach explodes without a trace (except for some decals and debris, maybe), then there's no clear reason why any part of the curtain wall should remain standing, or at least why it should remain twisted inwards. If the car travels far inside the lobby before exploding, that could look OK, but eventually I think the only decent-looking way will be to keep the car, as a burning wreck. Sadly, this would need some good modeling/texturing/animating work, so that's not about to happen. This doesn't change the trailer scene anyway: the Countach should be larger, meaner, and with some kind of ramming device instead of the blades... Hmmmmmmmm... Maybe the Countach could be pushing the van around? too weird? I hope that doesn't mean I'm running out of inspiration... ^_^ --geyser 03:54, 19 August 2008 (CEST)

Speaking purely from a point of logic, not feasability, I doubt the Countach is heavy and large enough to make a hole for the assault van with or without a ramming attachment (which would weigh down the front of the car and make it undriveable), meaning it either has to fire a rocket or use the tried-and-true kamikaze method. If it fires a rocket, what's the point? They might as well fire that from the van (it'd be a lot easier). So the Countach-bomb is the only thing that makes sense if we're definitely going to use that model here.

I am confused as to why you don't want to have the car explode on impact. The curtain wall can't go down once the primary wall is all warped like that, thus leaving the way open for the van. Am I missing something? --Iritscen 22:35, 19 August 2008 (CEST)

• weapons again
• HD Griffin (e.g. in a CHAPTER 14 . DAWN OF THE CHRYSALIS, with a manual cam closeup on his arrival in the helicopter)
• textures (coool's Konoko texture will do fine here, but only as comic relief, admittedly)

Hrm, I think coool's Mukade-outfit for Konoko is quite remarkable, as is Muro's Mukade outfit (wait, I don't think he had such an outfit, I was hallucinating when I wrote that...) --Iritscen 00:08, 15 August 2008 (CEST)

I haven't seen those, hrm, outfits (avoiding OCF, remember?). Or maybe I HAVE? O_o --geyser 06:03, 16 August 2008 (CEST)

Actually, I don't know where the outfit came from in Ed's video... this is what I'm talking about. --Iritscen 22:27, 19 August 2008 (CEST)

• level part candidates (turbosquid and Daz3D stuff that I haven't been talking about much)
• ...

Consolidated plot

• black Strikers (aka Muro's pets): a good spot is at the end of CHAPTER 07 . A FRIEND IN NEED
• Comguy ninja (maybe just a few of those in a combat stance), Kojiro facing Mai...
• Casey (challenging Konoko in the training course, or fighting alongside her; the CHAPTER 02 . ENGINES OF EVIL intro is a good setting to introduce him)
• BGI troopers (black Halo Spartans with phase cloaks, heavy weaponry and electric melee)
• BGI executives (men in black; trivially retextured male scientists; weird eyes optional)
• DeLorean again? ^_^ (I even have a BGI HQ building... maybe worth an editor shot of two)
• a horde of Screamers homing in on Mai (e.g., in Hasegawa's room)
• Iron Demon (the best we can do is editor shots of either model, preferably the Walker)
• ...