The Dark Mod for Machinima?

[Nebrekker]

Has anyone fully considered The Dark Mod for Machinima?

 

I remember a dialog around co-op campains, and understand there might be a seperate project going on that. Is there such a thing as a relatively simple network capability that multiple players could interact in, without the requirement of missions or A.I.? I know it doesn't exist already, or at least there is no such interface.

 

Even without that capability, how hard would it be to completely script out a story line with minimal interaction from the player--as in, you're a ghost observer, or family cat of a conventional 2 - 3 hour drama. Simple triggers, and aggressive prompts would move you through the plot, as you are not the protagonist nor antagonist, but the audience immersed in a professional quality 3D Film.

 

This is what I think of when I imagine 3D Theater--not just someone wearing red and blue glasses--and I somehow always imagine it being Dark Mod. It's beautiful, visually, and hosts an enchanting universe for stories. Maybe I should have raised this point in '04 or '05, but I've mostly lurked.

 

Since then, I am gaining experience making Machinima (jlguinn@yahoo.com if you want to know more about that) and have a story in progress (which I've already plugged in another topic).

 

Is there any chance that Dark Mod is capabable of, and there would ever be enough interest in, building a Machinima project with it?

 

Thanks for your thoughts on this,

 

-Me

 

 

[Fidcal]

Multi-player is not officially planned for Dark Mod although maybe someone else might get it to work. But machinima isn't limited to multi-player is it? As I understand it, machinima is the non-game animated part of computer graphics as contrasted with computer-generated static backgrounds and models. So in that sense we already have some in some FMs. Check out grayman's Somewhere above the City.

 

Yes, producing stand-alone dramatic scenes using Dark Mod resources would be an interesting avenue of exploration and creativity.

[Sotha]

Yep, the conversation system combined with cutscene scripting make it possible to create even a whole movie with the engine. Either a passive normal movie where camera moves predestinedly, or a movie in which the player/view can freely move inside the story.

 

Check these to get some idea:

http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Cutscenes

or here

http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Conversations

[ocn]

Wow. Never heard of this. I live in a fortified fortress of me, myself and I (and a selected few) so... Anyway, interesting. In fact, very interesting.

[jaxa]

Your fortified fortress of you is under siege... by information!

[Nebrekker]

Multi-player is not officially planned for Dark Mod although maybe someone else might get it to work. But machinima isn't limited to multi-player is it?

 

 

No--of course Machinima is not limited, but multiplayer online is an excellent way to act out Machinima (as opposed to the technical and, I'm sure, tedious process of scripting everything out).

 

So far, I've done a couple episodes of Machinima with middle school students on Half-Life 2 Deathmatch (because that's about the only game that will work on our donated computer lab). This method uses no A.I., but a handful of human players with one player acting as the camera (floating around in noclip with HUD disabled and weapon invisible). This is, pretty much, puppeteering in a 3D virtual environment.

 

In the stock game, the movement of the players is very limited (i.e. they always hold a weapon, they're restricted to basic run, jump, crouch, etc). So far, we've played these limitations into our story. As our Machinima class enters its third season, the plot has jettisoned our characters out of Half-Life 2 and into a bit of limbo. Thanks to this storyline, and a Steam upgrade that renders HL2DM unworkable on our low-end computers, our heroes are going to probably need a new 3D home by about this time next year.

 

Is anyone familiar with Garry's Mod--the HL2 Mod that puts environment controls and 3D props in the hands of the end-user? These are the sorts of tools that inspire derivitive works. What if you hooked up Kinect 360 to something like this? (I'm only now researching some of the fantastic Kinect hacks out there, but I'm telling you--Machinima is coming to the mainstream).

 

You've built The Dark Mod into what you've promised it would be, and you've all done a bang-up job. If anybody was wanting an excuse to infuse a network capability into The Dark Mod (and the ability for laypersons to animate the in-game characters), this would be one motivation.

 

All that said, I still like the scripted action we've already described as possible for the story I have in mind for The Dark Mod (which, so far, is a seperate animal from the middle-school project).

 

I'll definitely check out grayman's Somewhere above the City (thanks for the tip, Fidcal), and also thanks to Sotha for the links to the cutscenes and conversations. Thanks most of all for The Dark Mod--it's great!