Why on earth would I do a strange tutorial like this? Using MOH:AA as
a film making tool? Why would you?
He he, I would have agreed with you a few weeks ago, but after seeing
the videos made by Michael (aka. |*| S O C |*| Lucky Luciano) at www.element93.com
(especially the "Up close and personal" videos) I started to
want to make videos in MOH:AA myself. So here we go.
This short tutorial is mostly based on the very complete reply I got
from m0g when I screamed
for help in the .MAP
forum.
There's four main options on how to make your Demo/Video:
1) There's an in-game console command which will create a *.TGA sequence,
although this will lower your FPS (suddenly MOH:AA has to access the hard
drive a lot at the same time as the the game is running), so I
wouldn't recommend it
Next step is to compile the *.TGA files into a single *.AVI file. There
are some programs out there for this, look around the almighty Internet.
If you dont like to look around the Internet, try Quake
Video Maker. It converts *.TGA sequenced files into videos ( Thanx
Desert
Eagle ).
2) You can use screen capturing program like Camtasia
Studio or Fraps,
which will capture your screen while playing. One problem though, you'll
have to play in 800x600 and your fps will be less then 10, yuk! Someone
mentioned something about Vdub
which will have no effect on your fps, but I haven't tried it out.
3) This is the best and probably the most expensive one.. If you got
a DV camera you can connect that to your TV-out card and record straight
from your computer... no lag.
This requires that you have a way of getting the digital video
back into your computer again. So your card better support TV-in in some
way.
4) One step down from the DV camera is the standard home video recorder.
You will get less quality than with a DV camera. This however may not
be a problem if you want to make a video to stream over the Internet,
the quality of VHS is still wicked better than most streamed video.
This also requires that you have a way of getting the analog
video back into your computer again. So your card better support TV-in
in some way.
Useful console commands
These commands are useful to remove unnecessary stuff from the camera
view, thus getting a more "camera-like" video result:
Command
Explanation
fps 0
Remove the FPS counter (if any)
cg_lagometer 0
Remove the lag-o-meter (if any)
ui_hud 0
Removes most HUD elements (compass, ammo counter, level timer)
The effects of all the above commands can be reversed by writing
1 in the console.
How to get rid of the "Press fire to join" message
when in spectator mode
This only works server-side so you wont be able to take it off if you
don't know the person who runs the server. Although if you're running
your own server (want to make a cool demo of your new map) you can edit
the 'localization.txt' file. The best way is to create a folder and name
it 'global', put this folder into your Main folder. Next step is to get
the 'localization.txt' file from your 'Pak0.pk3' . Put this into your
'main/global' folder (create it if it does not exist). Okay so far so
good... Now open 'localization.txt' in your text editor and search for
"Press fire to join". You'll find two (2) lines of the same and it will
look something like this:
{ "Press fire to join the battle!" "Press fire to join the battle!"}
Now what you have to do is to change the second line, which is the right
one. Delete it and replace it with a space character, leaving " " (IMPORTANT!
There must be at least one character between the ":s, or MOH:AA
will use the default "Press fire to join the battle!") It would
look like this:
{ "Press fire to join the battle!" " "}
That's it! Start your server and nothing will appear when in Spectate
mode.
Removing the avatars (the symbols over the soldiers
heads)
To remove these annoying 'flags' over the soldiers heads, you just replace
the files textures/hud/allies.tga and textures/hud/allies.tga with versions
with a different Alfa channel (no idea what that is, but it sounds cool,
right?). I've
got one for you to download here named user-remove_avatars.pk3.
A script god damn it! Make a script!
Yes you've seen a million of them if you like MOH:AA and films: The demos.
The mostly suck, not because of poor quality, but because of poor (dare
I say missing?) scripts. Sure, a demo of your really exciting match against
Clan-X may sound very thrilling... trust me: it's NOT! Not unless you
cut it and make an entertaining video out of it. Use all the tools available
to you: Cutting, Light, Speaker voice, Music, Text, Film speed, Special
FX and so on and so on. Remember: If you are making a match demo, think
of it as a documentary. A documentary is seldom the exact time line. It
is edited, enhanced, twisted and changed from the original. Reality is
boring... that's one of the reasons you play MOH:AA, right? But my favorite
use of MOH:AA as a film making tool is to make short films set in W.W.II
with a more or less interesting / funny / thrilling story line. A great
example of this is "SOC Up Close and Personal Part ONE" at www.element93.com.
The characters are presented, a plot is built and it is executed in a
wicked combination of background music, camera angles, camera rides, scene
changes and creative use of a good script.
Useful links
www.mohdemos.com
- Great site all about making videos (forum + tutorials) www.fraps.com
- screen capturing application www.techsmith.com
- Home of Camstasia - screen capturing application + tutorial Mikes
demo site - great tutorial how to setup your TV-out and TV-in... Quake Video Maker -
Program that converts *.TGA sequenced files into videos.
