Stage/ru

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Вводная информация

Сцены используются в диалогах на определённых заранее локациях. Главное, что делает сцена - определяет первоначальное расположение камер и игроков при диалоге, а также, при желании мододела, может определять, какая камера и когда используется.

По умолчанию, при отсутствии ассоциированой сцены, для диалога используется встроенная сцена "Лицом к лицу".

В тулсете присутсвует специальный редактор для создания сцен, вызвать который можно открыв имеющуюся либо вновь созданную сцену.

Настройка сцены включает в себя:

• Установка позиции ГГ и иных участников диалога (позиция включает в себя и начальную ориентацию);
• Размещение одной или более камер;
• Настройка установленных камер (резкость, поле зрения и т.п.);

• The ability to import and edit existing stages to allow for template usability.
• Ability to define/import/edit functional shots (see below) for a stage.
• Ability to compensate cameras procedurally, for varying heights from speaker to listener, to account for racial height difference and terrain differences.
• Defining the stages borders. This will be used to prevent creatures from stepping into the stage. (Otherwise we'll have to manually prevent creatures from walking in, and that's very likely to fail).
• Saving the stage object as a one defined structure. The main aspect that defines the stage is the number of NPC actors involved, but there may be more than one template for the same number of NPCs actors.

Простая сцена с двумя позициями и одной камерой

Использование сцены

Созданная сцена появляется на палитре ресурсов и может быть размещена на локации, после чего можно установить позицию и ориентацию сцены, а также установить для неё удобный тэг (если на локации используется несколько одинаковых сцен). В свойствах сцены на локации необходимо установить видимость объектов, расположенных на самой сцене и на локации.

Размещение сцены на локации происходит с помощью редактора локаций. Обратите внимание как одна из позиций перекрывает говоруна, что позволит избежать перемещения говоруна на новое место при инийиализации сцены (начало разговора).

The user then adjusts the following setting on the stage instance:

• Select a position for the player (default is node #1)
• Select a position for the conversation owner (default is node #2)
• Select follower positions (default nodes #3, #4 and #5). Note: the player can not select a specific follower in a specific node — he just selects what positions will be used for followers, and the engine places them depending on current party arrangement.
• Select a position for all other actors (random assignment by default). This is done by assigning a creature or placeable tag into a position marker.
• For each actor position: specify if the actor is active or not. If a position is active then the actor is visible when the dialog is triggered. If the actor is inactive, then he is invisible when the dialog triggers. Functional shots can be used later to show actors entering or leaving dialog. These functional shots will need to use stage cameras and turn actors visible or invisible.

Later, if someone updates a stage template, only the global data is updated on instances. For example: actor assignments and cameras that have been manually moved should remain the same; Actor positions and other cameras might change.

The next step is for the designer to assign a specific stage tag (of instances) for dialog trees. Note that a single dialog file usually has more than one tree, and each one might be assigned a different stage. When placing a stage, the toolset associates a stage camera for each line in the tree. The toolset will assign cameras if adding new lines into a tree which already has a stage associated with it. This way the user can preview a camera shot of each line.

The stage in the game

Whenever the player clicks on a character to initiate dialog and the initiated dialog is associated with a stage, the game immediately snaps all actors into their positions (with a possible quick fade, we'll first try with no fade), and might turn some of them invisible, if they are inactive. The game also cleans up the stage area from any other objects that might be inside at the moment by turning them invisible for the duration of the dialog (optional: we may not allow path-finding into stages at all). Then, the game plays each dialog line with the camera that was automatically associated by the toolset. Note that the dialog is played in-game — ambient creatures that are in the area are still visible and walk around, but they can not enter the stage boundaries. This applies only for creatures that are non-hostile towards any actor in the stage. Hostile creatures (towards actors) are frozen and invisible during the entire dialog. Designers should still try to avoid having dialogs and combat clash at all.

Functional Shots

What is a functional shot?

A functional shot is a cinematic procedure that may be attached to a single dialog line. This cinematic procedure has parameters, including at least the participating actor/s. The functional shots are used to display small sections of cinematics that might happen several times during the game. For example: shaking hands, drawing weapons etc'. The functional shots are also used to control actors getting in and out of stages. For example: we'll have a functional shot called ‘1 actor enters dialog' and when running, it will communicate with the staging system to make the actor visible and use one of the stage cameras to display the actor coming into the stage. Functional shots should also be used to override the automatic camera selection of the staging system. For example: if the user wants to change a camera's orientation or zoom level.

Creating a functional shot

Functional shots can be created inside DA's cutscene editor tool. In it, the user creates the cutscene and specifies what aspects of the cutscene should be a parameter:

• All actors are considered parameters always. The user should only number the actors.
• Camera: when flagged as a parameter, the toolset selects a stage camera instead when the functional shot is selected for a line. There can be only 1 camera parameter per functional shot.
• Dialog line: can include up to 1 dialog line, and it will always be considered a parameter. The user will be able to attach a functional shot with a dialog parameter only to dialog line that have spoken text in them.
• Interactive Placeable: for example: if an actor steps through a door.

These shots are supposed to be short and simple (up to 5 seconds). Anything more than that should be considered a full-fledged cutscene.

Using a functional shot

Functional shots appear in their own palette in the toolset. The user first selects the name of the functional shot, and then selects the parameters. The toolset automatically picks the speaker as actor #1 and the listener as actor #2, but the user may change these selections. Note that a placeable may also be an actor. A single functional shot can be associated with any single dialog line that belongs to a staged dialog tree. A functional shot should know how to communicate with the staging system in order to activate disabled actors and use stage cameras.

Stage properties

Camera properties

Place properties