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 before writing this tutorial, 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.
On this page...
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
cl_avidemo 1 (to turn it on) cl_avidemo 0 (to turn off)
The easiest way is to bind 2 keys for these...
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.
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 <The_Command> 1 in the console.
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.
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: Attach:user-remove_avatars.pk3
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.