Title Flyby Cameras
by
EssGee
Creating a custom Title Flyby level
The Title level is the one that you see behind the New game and load
menus before you enter your game. You can create your own custom Title
Flyby in the same way you build a normal level, except that this title
level is a continuously looped flyby, so it is not playable as such.
I'll describe a simple method for creating a custom Title Flyby and
then look at the pre-existing Core Title.
Making a simple custom Title Flyby
1. Create the rooms for your flyby in the normal manner. In this
example I'm assuming that all the rooms are interconnected, so you can
continuously fly through the rooms. In fact, you can walk Lara around
your level to inspect your work first by simply changing your compiled
TR4 name temporarily to a level name that's already in your script.
By default your title level would be called Title, but you can call
it what you like as long as you apply this naming in the script. The
looped backing music for the Title is by default 104. But again you can
change this to one of the other looped track numbers and alter in your
script, or simply rename your chosen custom loop to 104.wav.
So
your Title script might look something like this:
;--------------------------------------
; Title
;--------------------------------------
[Title]
LoadCamera= 84246,-533,78233,81622,-1514,78208,40 ;src x,y,z target
x,y,z, room
Level= DATA\MYTITLE,103
When the level is in the
Title script as above, the engine takes over and Lara is not seen in the
level and you will only see from the flyby camera perspective.
2.
Setting the Flyby cameras. For a simple setup, place a flyby camera
where you want your flyby loop to begin. Place Lara on the same tile as
the camera. Select the camera and Place a 'Trigger for camera' on the
same tile. In the OCB box of this camera depress code bits 0 (Snap to
cam sequence) and 2 (Loop for infinity). In the camera Properties enter
Seq 1 Num 0.
3. Then continue to add more cameras advancing the
sequence number by one each time (e.g. Seq 1 Num 1, Seq 1 Num 2 etc).
4. Note that there's a limit to the number of cameras you can use in
a sequence which is 32 (i.e Cam Num 0-31).
5. Arrange your
cameras so that the last camera in the sequence is located near the
first camera. This way the transition to loop back to the start will be
smooth.
Understanding the Core Title sequence
Now you undertsand the basics, we'll take a look at the Core Title
flyby. It works a little differently. It is made up of 3 separate
sequences that occur in three disconnected areas of the map.
1. Open the Title project up and take a look at Room
12 where the first camera in the sequence is located. Beneath the camera
is a normal Trigger for this camera. Lara is placed in the adjoining
room 24. In other words she only has to be placed somewhere on the map.
She will not be seen during the Title flyby. Open the OCB box of the
camera - interestingly it is Seq 1 Num 1, which means it onbviously
works if num 1 is the first in the sequence. Generally it is recommended
to use Num 0 as the first cam in a sequence. Also take a look at room 20
(camera seq 1 Num 11). It has OCB code bit 14 depressed (Activate heavy
trigger) and has a trigger for Animating 6 beneath it. This is the pair
of opening doors that you see during the flyby.
2. Now follow the
sequence through to room 23 to look at the final camera in this sequence
- which has Cam Properties Seq 1 Num 13, with OCB code bit button 14
depressed (activate a heavy trigger). Beneath this camera is a 'Trigger
for Flyby 2'. Yes, Trigger not Heavy. Unlike in normal levels, it seems
to work whether you use a Normal trigger or Heavy trigger. This trigger
will make the flyby leap to the second camera sequence which starts in
Room 2.
3. In Room 2 take a look at the first camera. It has
Camera Properties Seq 2 Num 1 with OCBcode bit 0 depressed (snap to
cam). Follow the second camera sequence through to room 10. There are
two cameras in this room. Camera seq 2 num 15 is actually the last
camera in the sequence. It has OCB code bit 14 depressed (Activate heavy
trigger) and has a 'Trigger for Flyby 3' placed beneath it. The other
camera (Seq 2 Num 16) is a dummy camera which is placed there to make
the jump to the next sequence happen properly. This is the same as the
Cut Cam technique described by Uvavoo here:
I'm not sure why this sequence needs the dummy cam and the first one
didn't (unless there is a dummy cam for the first sequence hidden
somewhere else on the map and I haven't located it).
4. Now move
to room 34. The first camera in this sequence is Seq 3 Num 1 and has OCB
code bit 0 depressed (snap to cam). Starting to sound familiar, isn't
it. Now check the other camera in room 34. It has OCB code bit 14
depressed (activate heavy trigger). It has a 'Trigger for Animating 3'
beneath it. This is a trigger for the animating rocking boats.
5. Finally go to room 32 and look at the last camera
in the sequence Seq 3 Num 9. It has OCB code bit 14 depressed (Activate
heavy trigger) and a 'Trigger for Flyby 1' placed beneath it. This will
make the sequence jump back to the start of the loop (at Camera Seq 1
Num1).
So that's how the Core Title flyby works.
Comments
If you run into problems with your own custom
Title e.g where the camera won't jump from one sequence to the next,
then I'd try using the extra dummy camera technique to solve the
problem. If normal triggers don't work under the cameras then try a
Heavy trigger.