Freelancer: Still Alive Video Series (Revised)

After some though, I am re-organizing the Still Alive Initiative. Rather than a single comprehensive video I would rather make videos for each specific mod highlighting each mods unique features. The format will be somewhat similar to that I used for the benchmark Itano Circus video, only I plan on having some text here and there to describe the features of the mod in question. The whole series of videos will be linked together as a playlist on YouTube that can be all linked out in signatures and other forms of spreading links. Once the series is complete, I will create a singular video containing all the mods in some crazy lolwut mashup of the Freelancer community.

This will take time. As a whole, this is a long term project due to the amount of time invested for each project.

On a first come, first serve basis, here is what I want the mods that would like to participate to do.

The first thing is to select a piece of music, generally around the 3-4 minute mark. This piece of music has to describe your mod and video because this one piece of music will be what the video will be based off of. In general, I would prefer more movie sountrack-esque scores rather than a “real song” with lyrics and whatnot. They are just easier to work with, and easier to visualize as a sort of movie trailer video for each mod.

Once you figure out the music I would like a copy of the mod and if the mod is singleplayer, it makes everything simpler as I can just insert my camera ship and start shooting. However I realize most mods simply don’t work that way. In which case, I will need to create a new version of the mod specifically for shooting, organize a time and server for shooting of footage, and go from there. It will take a lot of coordination I know, but this will be the way to get the best results.

Comments, Suggestions, Flames?

This sets up the camera FOVs as well as gets rid of the mouse.

http://files.filefront.com/Camera+plus+noxhairrar/;12611850;/fileinfo.html

However everyone has different ship code. I took the smallest ship I have (Patriot) and just modified these lines.

mass = 300
camera_offset = 0, 0
camera_angular_acceleration = 0
camera_horizontal_turn_angle = 0
camera_vertical_turn_up_angle = 0
camera_vertical_turn_down_angle = 0
camera_turn_look_ahead_slerp_amount = 0
nudge_force = 72000
strafe_force = 72000

I am also using a modified OPEN SP to give me a patriot when I do a new game. The loadout in loadouts.ini was modified to add this.

equip = cloak_fighter, HpCloak01

The higher mass gives you a much smoother platform as well as a ship capable of moving at great speed in all directions. I recommend you add and bind the strafe up/down commands as well.

With all this put together, you get a ship that flies pretty stable. Is invisible. External view is slightly zoomed in FOV, and Cockpit view is zoomed in. You can easily switch between the two zooms just by switching cockpit/external.

I also hex-edited the targeting bracket multiplier so that the brackets appear at only super close range. However this has unusual side effects in asteroid fields so be aware of that. On top of that, I added type = NON_TARGETABLE to mines so that they do not display the little red Xs. Again, using OPEN SP, I made it so that I am neutral to all factions.

ALL POSTS NOT DIRECTLY RELATED TO TOPIC WILL BE DELETED

@Stormblast:

@Why485:

Once you figure out the music I would like a copy of the mod and if the mod is singleplayer, it makes everything simpler as I can just insert my camera ship and start shooting. However I realize most mods simply don’t work that way. In which case, I will need to create a new version of the mod specifically for shooting, organize a time and server for shooting of footage, and go from there. It will take a lot of coordination I know, but this will be the way to get the best results.

Wouldn’t it be better to film players in a live server engaging each other? You could call your char Camera (No Attack) and the server owners could put in looping banners like “Filming in-game do not attack the camera ship.”

If a mod is a singleplayer mod, then its a singleplayer mod. Simple as that. A singleplayer mod also avoids all the issues that are going to come up with with how I’m going to get rid of certain MP hud elements. If it is a multiplayer mod, then yes, that’s what I plan on doing.

I really hate to say this, but I just haven’t had the time to fully commit to this. Last semester my grades in school fell, and while there were several other factors, one of them was how much time I spent modding/tinkering/filming/etc Freelancer. Trust me I want to. I have been accumulating a long list of things I want to do in Freelancer*, but other than the occasional five minute idea (such as those thrusters the other day) I really haven’t done anything Freelancer related in a long while.

Fortunately several others have taken up the camera ship. crashbx in particular made excellent use of the camera ship and hud tweaks in filming this. So not all is lost.

• Of the highest priority once I finally get back to FL modding, is to release a big effects pack of all the effects I created in the process of making Itano Circus. As per usual, anyone is free to use any of the effects that are included in the mod provided I am cited and notified. But I want to make a big pack to post in the effects showroom for simplicities sake.

Yeah that standardeffects.txm is a little buggy. It was the first gif I ever made. I do intend to make a new one, but there is no telling when I will be able to do it.

On a side note. 13CentKiller of Discovery had contacted me asking for help on some of the techniques I used for this video. Fast forward a couple months, and he put together this promotion for Discovery. Its very well done, and is exactly what I had in mind when I originally opened this up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7FVopkl9Mk&fmt=22

Sure thing. I saw that video not too long ago. I have to congratulate you guys, it is a job well done.

It lives up to the “vision” that I had when I created mine. Seeing what you did in that video makes me feel good because for all the broken promises, at least the whole project inspired several others to make comparable Freelancer videos.