How to make intro/outro for missions.

Ive been searching these forums, Armaholic, and OFPEC for simple tutorial on how to make intro/outro for missions. OFP had placeable cameras if I remember correctly but I guess its done differently now. If somone can post a link to a good tutorial I would appreciate it. I've tried to just play around in the editor and figure it out but I have no clue what to do after I change the upper right box from mission to intro.

TIA.

I haven't really played with it yet, I planned on doing it sometime this week... but I know Mr-Murray's Editing Guide - the deluxe one anyway - includes a whole section on the intro, primarily everything about the camera.

I've used the Outro once and pretty much whatever you save as either Intro/Outro will play once you complete the building of your mission and compile it into pbo format.

So say you have 3 tanks and a rifle squad in your mission in a certain area of the map and you want to show that scene in your Intro:

You could copy/paste those units either via the map from your 'Mission' over to your "Intro/Outro' although accuracy of placement might me an issue,

or

copy those units and positions directly out of your mission.sqm.

Then add the camera.sqs to show whatever clip you had in mind.

Nevermind

although accuracy of placement might me an issue

From the manual:

Holding both control and shift and pressing "v" will paste a copy of entities onto their original position (useful when copying units between missions).

pretty much whatever you save as either Intro/Outro will play once you complete the building of your mission and compile it into pbo format.

Hmm, I had a chopper with a MOVE waypoint in my intro. When I tried to play the mission guess what? the mission started, no intro.

Then add the camera.sqs to show whatever clip you had in mind.

Where are we supposed to put this?

I've been hunting around this forum for 3 days now trying to find a simple tutorial or information on how to make an intro scene and all I can find is comments from people who fail to appreciate that not everyone knows scripting like the back of their hands.

And before anyone says "use the search function" I already have and gave up after reading about 13 pages of posts.

No wonder the OP didn't come back, he's probably done what I'm about to do, just give up.

use the sear-!!!! jk :P

i just yesterday decided to toy around with camscripting and successfuly got a short outro scene to work.

"camera.sqs" is what you execute on an object to create a camera that you can move around and save camera positions with, which you then have to save(paste) into a script file (intro.sqs or outro.sqs). once you have your file, you have to make it so that an object/unit that exists in your intro/outro executes the script in its init line.

so for me... to make the outro play properly with the camera and not just follow behind a unit... (i only had 1 unit)... i placed "[]exec "outro.sqs"" into his init line, and it played like a charm after the debriefing.

that part took me a while to figure out, kept thinking i had to call it to play in a trigger before ending the mission.

From the manual:

Lol, how'd I miss that one? Maybe I should RTFM.

Easy there mate don't give up yet. All of 6 weeks ago I didn't know how to do anything except put a bunch of units on the map and have them go out it :D

Hmm, I had a chopper with a MOVE waypoint in my intro. When I tried to play the mission guess what? the mission started, no intro.

First off you gotta know that the Intro has to

A.Be saved

B. The entire mission has to be made into a PBO file using one of the many tools found at Armaholic, and then put into you regular Arma2/missions files.

Only then will the Intro mold together with the Mission.

Where are we supposed to put this?

Cam scripting is not easy especially for the beginner because your not actually recording, your giving the effect of a recording but it's all happening in real time. Everytime I learn something here, I soon forget it and have to relearn it again because it's just so much. Anyways the

 This exec "camera.sqs"

goes into any unit's Init line. I usually just add a civilian and put it there. Now you should see crosshairs when starting the mission. Remember, this camera is not actually 'recording' (took me a while to just accept that), so each shot angle that you want has to be actually written down as code either in a new sqs file or your init.sqf.

Ok, so now you move the camera to where you want it, say right in the flight path of the Helo, now press the LMB or fire buttton. It won't look like anything has happened but now you have to alt/tab out of Arma2 and Paste into your text editor (notebook). You should see something like

;=== 10:30:04
[b]_camera = "camera" camCreate [0,0,0][/b]
_camera camPrepareTarget [98273.60,35404.02,20.69]
_camera camPreparePos [3474.99,3575.94,2.02]
_camera camPrepareFOV 0.700
_camera camCommitPrepared 0
[b]_camera cameraEffect ["internal", "back"][/b]
@camCommitted _camera

minus the code you see in bold. That was added by me after the fact but it is essential to actually view the scene as well, a scene.

Now you would save this file as say Cam1.sqs, into the Mission that your working on's folder. Now try replacing that

this exec "camera.sqs";

with

this exec "Cam1.sqs";

in that civilian's init line. When you preview the Intro or Mission now, it should be in blackbox cinematic style.

Of course there's a lot more to camscripting like ending the cam and cool camera effects and what not so you should check out Mr. Murrays guide for all the details

B. The entire mission has to be made into a PBO file using one of the many tools found at Armaholic, and then put into you regular Arma2/missions files.

Or just click "export to singleplayer"? Lol... worked for me.

Or just click "export to singleplayer"? Lol... worked for me.

Hehe, didn't know that. Pretty cool.

Thanks for the help Guys.

I'm getting there slowly but my problem is that the Intro will not run after everything is saved, I just go straight into the mission.

My Intro.sqs looks like this,

;Intro sequence

_camera = "camera" camCreate [0,0,0]

_camera camPrepareTarget chopper

_camera camPreparePos [1357.67,1043.21,18.84]

_camera camPrepareFOV 0.700

_camera camCommitPrepared 0

_@camCommitted _camera

_camera cameraEffect ["internal","back"]

_showcinemaborder true

~26

_camera cameraEffect ["Terminate","back"]

_camDestroy _cam

~1

exit

I have a character in the intro with this in it's Init this exec "intro.sqs" and in the editor everything works fine for 26 seconds then the camera jumps to me (the player for preview purposes). So I delete "me" and save it to single player missions but when I try to run it I first get a message saying "no character selected", click OK then the Briefing, then the mission starts. No Intro.

To be honest this is getting a little ridiculous now, I've been on this for 2 days and I'm sure I'll get a DVT because I've been sitting here for so long.

[note to self]

It's only a game, get on with your life you sad F***er.

Try creating an init.sqf and place the

exec "intro.sqs"

at it's start.

Try creating an init.sqf and place the

exec "intro.sqs"

at it's start.

Done that but still no joy.

I can now get the intro to play but when the camera is destroyed the mission doesn't start, I'm just left with a rear view of the player in the intro.

I thought the Init.sqf told the game in what order to run/initiate things so I changed mine to look like this,

execVM "briefing.sqs";

execVM "intro.sqs";

execVM "mission.sqm";

It's really frustrating now because everything is there exept the transition from intro to mission.

Look at this and you'll see what I mean, you can clearly see where the camera is destroyed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oX-4vVgEoIA

GTO, what happens if you put an

Endmission "End1"

at the end of your script?

Hi all - i too would like to know how to get outro scenes to work. Do you HAVE to use scripts? In the editor, you have the option to create Intro, Outro(win) and Outro(lose).

Now i have done this, and when i select the SAVE as a singleplayer ission, and run that missiosn from the SCENARIOS option in singleplayer, the INTRO, and OUTRO (WIN) will play fine. They are basic - for my Intro there is a civilian in the area watching the action and i used the script line DOWATCH to have his viewpopint locked on the action. Similarrly in the Outro (WIN) - and these work great.

However, I cannot get OUTRO (Lose) to play - when i lose. I even have a trigger in the mission to detect if my player is alive and if not, to set the Lose condition (in trigger) - but this still does not get the Outro (Lose) to work.

So - does it HAVE to be scripted? Is this a broken feature of the editor?

GTO, what happens if you put an

Endmission "End1"

at the end of your script?

Froggy I owe you a drink, it worked!!

Thanks for the help.

Hi,

Ive had a go at following the instructions on this thread.

The intro plays, but i have to skip ahead to start the actual mission.

Heres what ive done (just so its clear what i did do)

In the SP Editor, in Intro.

I set up an ambush. And i have a civillian near by as my camera point.

The civillian ive used to put this exec "Camera.sqs";

Pressing LMB, i did this two times and each time pasting the code into notepad. Then i added some lines that Froggyluv add in his example

to each block of pasted code (see further below).

which was

_camera = "camera" camCreate [0,0,0]

_camera cameraEffect ["internal","back"]

Also i put in init.sqs

[] execVM "intro.sqs";

[] execVM "mission.sqm";

;=== 11:32:43

_camera = "camera" camCreate [0,0,0]
_camera camPrepareTarget [21167.52,101684.59,3063.23]
_camera camPreparePos [9202.99,2442.63,2.13]
_camera camPrepareFOV 0.700
_camera camCommitPrepared 0
@camCommitted _camera
_showcinemaborder true
~10
_camDestroy _cam


;=== 11:33:14

_camera = "camera" camCreate [0,0,0]
_camera camPrepareTarget [104893.42,13861.57,-26835.90]
_camera camPreparePos [9187.10,2460.48,15.52]
_camera camPrepareFOV 0.700
_camera camCommitPrepared 0
@camCommitted _camera
_camera cameraEffect ["internal", "back"]

_showcinemaborder true
~20

_camera cameraEffect ["Terminate","back"]
_camDestroy _cam
~1
Endmission "End1"
exit

I thought i would have to destory first cam in order to jump to the second cam position, as we only record static positions right?

That Civillian i changed his init to this exec "Camtest1.sqs";

Then exported the Intro.

Upon play back It would show from behind the civilian in 3rd person, the view looks where he looks. When i did camera rec earlier i did move camera forward so he wouldnt be in the shot.

The camera view didnt jump to the second position which was suppose to be a high shot looking down on the action. Nor was there any cinematic border nor did the script timer work, the end mission did nothing. So i had to Esc then click on Skip, to end it after a while. The mission then started.

Its as if there is no camera script running at all. Just a civ watching the ambush. The script name is correct otherwise i would get missing script error.

Anyhelp to get this working would be appreciated. :)

Daza

Hi,

Ive had a go at following the instructions on this thread.

The intro plays, but i have to skip ahead to start the actual mission.

Heres what ive done (just so its clear what i did do)

In the SP Editor, in Intro.

I set up an ambush. And i have a civillian near by as my camera point.

The civillian ive used to put this exec "Camera.sqs";

Pressing LMB, i did this two times and each time pasting the code into notepad. Then i added some lines that Froggyluv add in his example

to each block of pasted code (see further below).

which was

_camera = "camera" camCreate [0,0,0]

_camera cameraEffect ["internal","back"]

Also i put in init.sqs

[] execVM "intro.sqs";

[] execVM "mission.sqm";

;=== 11:32:43

_camera = "camera" camCreate [0,0,0]
_camera camPrepareTarget [21167.52,101684.59,3063.23]
_camera camPreparePos [9202.99,2442.63,2.13]
_camera camPrepareFOV 0.700
_camera camCommitPrepared 0
@camCommitted _camera
_showcinemaborder true
~10
_camDestroy _cam


;=== 11:33:14

_camera = "camera" camCreate [0,0,0]
_camera camPrepareTarget [104893.42,13861.57,-26835.90]
_camera camPreparePos [9187.10,2460.48,15.52]
_camera camPrepareFOV 0.700
_camera camCommitPrepared 0
@camCommitted _camera
_camera cameraEffect ["internal", "back"]

_showcinemaborder true
~20

_camera cameraEffect ["Terminate","back"]
_camDestroy _cam
~1
Endmission "End1"
exit

I thought i would have to destory first cam in order to jump to the second cam position, as we only record static positions right?

That Civillian i changed his init to this exec "Camtest1.sqs";

Then exported the Intro.

Upon play back It would show from behind the civilian in 3rd person, the view looks where he looks. When i did camera rec earlier i did move camera forward so he wouldnt be in the shot.

The camera view didnt jump to the second position which was suppose to be a high shot looking down on the action. Nor was there any cinematic border nor did the script timer work, the end mission did nothing. So i had to Esc then click on Skip, to end it after a while. The mission then started.

Its as if there is no camera script running at all. Just a civ watching the ambush. The script name is correct otherwise i would get missing script error.

Anyhelp to get this working would be appreciated. :)

Daza

In the intro and outro sections if the camera script is not running you default to the view behind the player character and you can only move your head a little to the left or right, this sounds like what you were getting. Call the intro script by changing the

this exec "camera.sqs"

to

this exec "intro.sqs"

if you called the camera file "intro.sqs" Also, if you are using notepad make sure you drop down when saving as to "All Files" and use UTF-8 as the coding option.

You only need to create the camera once at the beginning of the intro and destroy it at the end, otherwise you are just moving it around. Consider an intro a mission that is executed exclusively by the AI in real time and you just move the camera around to capture the events, either instantly from one scene to the next with

_camera camCommitPrepared 0

or have it move over time by changing the 0 to another value. Check out this video tutorial and the others in the series to get you started, they helped me out a lot!

RR

subscribing to thread

RR

I was just about to post this. These tutorials helped me alot too! They also teach you how to make the camera lock on to 'targets' while moving and how to 'attach' the cam to a unit or vehicle.

I like this thread alot however I have a couple of quick questions? Is there anyway to convert regular video to a format accepted by arma and get it into a mission be it a cutscene or intro?

I also noticed a G cam video advertised up there on yuou tube for capturing video and I downloaded it one day love the angles I can get in a moment with no real knowlege but again you have to be able to convert the video from what FRAPS captures to something the game will display.

I like this thread alot however I have a couple of quick questions? Is there anyway to convert regular video to a format accepted by arma and get it into a mission be it a cutscene or intro?

I also noticed a G cam video advertised up there on yuou tube for capturing video and I downloaded it one day love the angles I can get in a moment with no real knowlege but again you have to be able to convert the video from what FRAPS captures to something the game will display.

That I am not sure about. If you can find a mission where it has been used you could just un .pbo that one and see what they did. There is a film grain module in the editor so the easiest way may be just to recreate it yourself in the editor, if you can!

RR

A Film grain Module? what is that?

A Film grain Module? what is that?

I presume it puts film grain on the screen! :p I tried the sepia one and Bam! everything goes sepia in the mission. The film grain one didn't seem to do anything immediately, you may have to sync it with the cam player or something else, just look under the modules tab in the editor and you will see there are a few movie related ones.

RR