Can you fade in and out of different areas in a cutscene and blur the joins like in a dream sort of thing ?
I’m sure I can fade in and out to black so it’s not the end of the world but a blur would be nicer. Also can you mess with the alpha channel in the colour palette as it always jumps back to 255 and has no slider as this could probably do it. If you have a fade in and out thing then surely that’s the alpha channel ?
I have only used fade in and out to black and white. Don’t know if it’s possible with blur. I’ve never seen it in any module.
Thanks andgalf, I couldn’t remember ever seeing it in a module either, black’s not too bad anyway and it’s on the conversation editor scripts so I’m alright with them !
I think I’ve seen a spell that causes some kind of blur, looks like a heat wave if I remember correctly. Maybe one could accomplish an effect like that? But it might be difficult to fade to something like that, I imagine.
I’ll ask on the Discord forum, see if anyone there knows something about this.
andgalf… Thanks for that, but if it’s just a fade in and out to black it’ll still work alright. It’s just a matter of timing it right so the conversation ( cutscene ) doesn’t jump in on a black bit.
OK here’s a weird idea… Can you film the screen and play a movie in a module ? I’ve got movie editing software and could easily make a cutscene with all sorts of fade types if I had all the clips. Also if NWN2 can run movies what format are they in ?
Yes, you can run movies in NWN2, but I’m not sure you can run them at any time. I’ve only ever run a movie at the intro of a module. The format is .bik
Edit: When looking into it, it seems, as far as I can understand, that you can only run a movie at the end and the beginning of a module.
Looking into it some more, it might be possible after all. @Lance_Botelle managed to get it to work. Found an old thread about it here: https://web.archive.org/web/20151001160533/http://forum.bioware.com/topic/556940-movies-in-game-achieved/
At the moment, Lance has taken a break from NWN2 due to real life issues, if I understood him correctly, otherwise he may have been able to shed more light upon this.
andgalf… I wanted it at the beginning so that’s good news, how do you copy the cutscene into movie format ?
Even though it was hardly a year ago that I did a bik movie for my second module, I don’t remember how I did it. I think I used this program somehow (but that was when I had Win7): http://www.radgametools.com/bnkdown.htm
Edit: Yes, the Rad Video Tools can convert other movie formats to .bik so that you can use it in NWN2.
To “copy” the cutscene into movie format I think you will just have to record your screen with some sort of program. The few times I do this I use Flashback Express, but I don’t know if that’s good enough for this kind of thing.
andgalf… Many thanks for all the help I’m going to investigate this, I know I can make mp4 and avi movies but don’t think I can go straight to bik so will have to convert it but at least it’s possible. I might even go mad and voice act it !
This has opened up a whole new dimension and some interesting possibilities. I’m back off play testing now as my ranger’s got to catch up with the other “testers”.
as an easy workaround you could also place a vfx, like the heat effect, right in front of the active camera. guess you have to play around with the placement of both the camera and effect relative to the action. the drawback is that you can’t easily fade an effect.
Semper… Thank you, I’d thought about that and might give it a go to see if it’s workable.
I got an answer from Trin on the Discord forums about this. Didn’t fully understand, but here’s the answer:
"It’s deff possible
I’ve done it with a UI Overlay… you’d make a custom UI bitmap with a blur texture then overlay it the screen and do a fade in / fade out
I did it for a “drunk effect”
use photoshop or gimp to generate the “blur” effect… you can use a small image and just tile it over a UI that is docked to the entire screen"
Hi All,
Yes - I am on a hiatus at the moment, but here is a link for more info as well as the post @andgalf pointed out …
I hope to drop by now and then, but will not be back at my normal capacity for a couple of months or so.
Take care all, Lance.
andgalf… Thanks once again, I don’t fully understand it either especially the UI overlay part, does this mean I just make a see through blurry thing and move it over the camera. I think a movie sounds easier ! Although what I’m thinking about is for a drunk effect too.
Lance_Botelle… Thank you, I’m thinking of putting it at the beginning of a mod so it should be easier and the editing part is fine with all sorts of effects. Only thing is removing cutscene bars, copying the screen as it plays and the big issue that could kill the idea, it’s got to be a different movie for male and female players unless I call the PC “it” ! Take care of yourself too !
I think before I start getting technical I’m going to try a fade to black, see how it goes and voice act it using the lip flappers as a base for lip movement etc. That way I can switch PC sexes easily and it wont matter if the black out ever covers the words etc because there wont be any to read. This is all a future idea thing for a campaign start but I don’t want to get carried away with a plan that I can’t complete.