Talk:Main Page

From Moviesandbox

Revision as of 22:52, 20 December 2007

This is the Main Talk page. Until i set up a forum, please feel free to leave a message here! --fiezi 21:07, 23 June 2007 (MEST)

Blender Input/Output

I have a couple question about Moviesandbox, can you import static meshes and then rig them with the standard Unreal skeleton using the character creation tools? Sorry if this is not the place for this. --Andrew 05:53, 2 September 2007 (MEST)

Hi Andrew, no, this is the right place to ask questions, definetly. Right now, it's not simple to do. But in future updates, you will be able to attach props (and staticmeshes) to any bone you like. Unfortunately, the attach command isn't really working right now. Do you want to create a whole character just by attaching things on the bones? I could probably implement something like that. --fiezi 20:17, 3 September 2007 (MEST)

Actually, what I am wondering is if I can import a static mesh from a program like Blender and then do the skeleton set-up/rigging in Moviesandbox. Also, I was reading on the Wiki that there was some discussion of implementing "Puppet Show" from Georgia Tech in Moivesandbox. Has that been done already? Would it be hard to do? I have a puppetry background and really like the Puppet Show concept...I think it would be another great tool for Machinima creators. Thanks. --Andrew 15:14, 7 September 2007 (MEST)

Yes, the first puppet show prototype they did - Cactus Jack - was implemented and demoed using Moviesandbox. For more info, i'd suggest you contact Michael Nitsche from GATech already. Unfortunately, Unreal only allows very basic rigging functions, so the stuff that you're doing with your Panda Puppet controller (which is totally awesome by the way!) is a bit out of reach for moviesandbox per se. But there are ways to import staticmeshes from Blender and attach them to bones. It's a rigid body attachment tough, so real skinning and weighting cannot be done.
However, there are ways to import a fully skinned skeleton actor to unreal (and thus moviesandbox) and then Pose/Control it to a certain degree. I'm currently figuring out how to implement that so that it stays open and user friendly and you can still use custom skeletons. The next version will have a much more versatile skeleton with facial bones implemented, but i'm very open for suggestions...
--fiezi 02:30, 8 September 2007 (MEST)

I have not had a chance to actually try Moviesandbox yet because I don't have a copy of UT 2004 (I ordered one off ebay the other day it should be here in a few days), does Moviesandbox work with the UT 2004 demo, or do you have to have the full version? Re: Puppet Show, I've had some discussions with Michael Nitsche before, so I will get directly in touch with him directly about that as you suggested.

From everything I have read here on the Wiki, this is almost exactly what I have been trying to do with Panda Puppet. Unfortunately the limitations with Blender's game engine has made the development of that quite slow and painful. Since Moviesandbox already has most of the basic functionality I've wanted for Panda Puppet and UT 2004 is a much, much better 3d engine than Blender, I would be very interested in folding the work we are doing in to the Moviesandbox project. Specifically, I am thinking of putting together a feature or plug-in that would allow scenes to be puppeteered and recorded and then exported to Blender where they could be edited, enhanced and rendered out. There are Blender to UT exporters as you mentioned so it should be possible. Are you writing Moviesandbox in C++? --Andrew 12:35, 13 September 2007 (MEST)

Sounds terrific. Unfortunately Moviesandbox is done in Unrealscript, which is also a limiting factor, but makes it still capable of most of what I want to do. I use some custom software that is written in C# (but could also be rewritten in Java or C++) and uses a very simple UDP protocol to communicate between software parts. As for the plugin, we would need to talk a bit more specific, as it's not super-simple to get stuff out of unreal. But there are ways. Would you like to discuss further via eMail? My contact can be found on the main Moviesandbox website. --fiezi 13:53, 13 September 2007 (MEST)

General Observations

I've found that the RenderToDisc function doesn't work when Moviesandbox is in full screen mode, but does work when it is in windowed mode. - Dxvid.

Thanks Dxvid, i'll add this to the version notes and bugs page! --fiezi 02:30, 8 September 2007 (MEST) Another point someone might find useful - I couldn't get the console to open in Moviesandbox until I went into Moviesandbox configuration settings.ini and changed the ConsoleHotKey from 192 to 9 (backspace key) or 223 (key above backspace). I later found that 192 is actually ' on my keyboard, which will work, but think it preferable to have the console hotkey in the traditional top-left position. So if you want to change the key it is a simple thing to do in the present version (1370B) as "keypress" is shown top left of screen under "debug". The console commands add a huge amount of functionality and most UT sites have a list of them eg http://wiki.beyondunreal.com/wiki/Console_Commands You can use them to change the default resolution of Moviesandbox, and for many other things as well! - Dxvid

Input Sensitivity

Hi Friedrich. Once I have the MSB mod running, how can I adjust my mouse sensitivity? I've set the speed to what is desirable in the main game, but when the mod itself is started it appears to be getting the mouse sens value from somewhere else? It's cranked up really high such that I can hardly zero in on buttons. I'm a little rusty inside UT's environment so was hoping you could point me in the right direction, either via a button in MSB's interface to access this option, or else a line in a config file where it might be set. Thanks!

--Zsoverman 00:58, 14 September 2007 (MEST)

Hey Overman, the Input Sensitivity is indeed a separate value that you can change in the MSBCode.ini file in the UT2004\System directory. It's a value called "MouseSens" and it's currently set to 0.7. If you set it lower (e.g. 0.2) the moouse will be slower. I'll add a button that let's you change the mousesens from within MSB for this week's update. Thanks for pointing me to that! --fiezi 01:16, 14 September 2007 (MEST)

That did the trick, thank you! The button will come in handy for future users, good idea. --Zsoverman 02:09, 14 September 2007 (MEST)

Moving a camera during the shot

First, congratulations on creating a great machinima tool! I am a first time user, though, and I haven't found out yet how to move a camera while shooting footage; so far, I have only succeeded in creating a path of different (static) cameras and following a moving actor with a static camera. Is there a way to move a camera during the shot, or am I searching for a feature that hasn't been implemented (yet)? --Rainer 13:41, 17 September 2007 (MEST)

Hi Rainer! You can move a camera with the Tween Action - just create a target actor where you want to move the camera to, and then select it as your "Tween Target" and select the camera you want to move to "AssignTo". The "move time" is measured in seconds. If you want to also rotate the camera, you have to put in a "rotate time" but you canot specify a rotation with the TargetActor. So for that, i would suggest you use a second camera that you position, and then use that as the "TweenTarget". You can play around a bit with the Tween Node, but i will definetly create an "Advanced Cameras" Tutorial as soon as i'm back from my vacation (late next week). Let me know how things turn out!

--fiezi 18:55, 19 September 2007 (MEST)

Thank you very much, Fiezi. Your suggestion worked fine and solved another problem as well: With another camera as a TweenTarget I can have floating targets. Very convenient when you want to move the camera like you are Michael Ballhaus. :-) With the CameraActor I was not able to do that, as I could not place it in the air.

I will definitely stay around for the "Advanced Cameras" tutorial. Thanks again for a great tool! --Rainer 22:34, 25 September 2007 (MEST)

how to save a scene and open on another computer

I created a scence in the scene editor and saved it. I copied the uvx file that was created and tried to open it on another computer but it didn't work. So I don't know if I need a different file or if I just don't know how to open it. Any suggestions? I also couldn't get my mover to rotate as it moving, a tutorial on that would be great.

Hey there - in order to get it on another computer, you need to manually insert the name of the save in the MSBCode.ini file. It's not hard and i'll be working on an import function for within the next couple of updates. Until then, do this:

1. Copy the .uvx file to the "Saves" directory on the other computer (you already did that)
2. In the UT2004\System directory, open the file "MSBCode.ini"
3. Find the section that reads [MSBCode.MSBController]
4. Insert a line that reads as follows: SaveGames=nameofyourgame whereas nameofyourgame represents the name of the save file you want to open.
5. Be sure to also move over all the Characters and Poses you created within Moviesandbox if they are used in the saved game!
6. If you want to open them in the CharacterEditor, add the line SaveCharacters=nameofyourcharacter in the same place.

Hope this helps - tutorial on tweening is on the way! --fiezi 16:47, 30 October 2007 (MET)

Howto delete a targetActor prop

--Smols 17:43, 31 October 2007 (MET) hi, first of all, thanx for such a wonderful piece of software. some things i have noticed while using it on a ppc mac:

• the keys up and down dont work?
• there is no delete key, for eventual undo/delete of objects.
• the mouseover text on the menu items is most of the time too much to the left.

anyway, i look forward into producing some great stuff with this software. thx again.

Hey there and thanks for your comments adn feedback. Wow, i completely forgot that mac people don't have a delete key... I implemented the backspace key as a means of deleting objects from V1380 (the coming one). Thanks for the heads up! By the way, does saving and everything work on your mac? I never really had the chance to test these things, so i would really appreciate if you could tell me about your findings! (maybe you even want to make a Mac page on this wiki that others can contribute too?)

As for the mouseover text, can you make a screenshot (hotkey is F9) to show me?

As the up/down keys, navigation is usually taken care of by the w,a,s,d, c and ctrl keys. Can you be more specific on what you mean with up/down?Do you mean flying? --fiezi 19:39, 31 October 2007 (MET)

hey back, that was a quick response. ok to your questions, yes saving and loading work as a charm. <smiles> thx about the F9 tip.

back to the up/down keys: yes in fly mode i can only make use of wasd and the c key the ctrl key doesnt work for me. to be more specific, i want to place a target, and then move it more up or down but it just moves left/right, front/back but not up/down. did i miss something?

another thing i noticed is that i can not, or have not found a way to launch the moviesandbox in windowed mode? the game itself launches in windowed mode fine. as well as the app does not crash when rendering to disk, even in fullscreen mode, thou i have not been able to locate/find the rendered results???

once ill have more experience with the application i will be glad to contribute to the future mac/linux section. --Smols 08:52, 1 November 2007 (MET)

Moving an object along the Z-axis is done by holding the Shift-key while movign the mouse - same goes for rotating in the third axis. I hope i didn't miss that in my video tutorials... I have to go back and take a look... The rendered results are placed in the UT2004\System folder that's not visible on the mac per se, so you need to ctrl-click on the UT2004 icon your applications tab and then go to "expand folder structure" or something like that. And while you're at it, try navigating to the "UT2004\Moviesandbox\System" directory ad have a look at both Moviesandbox.ini for the fullscreen issue (replace "StartupFullscreen=True" with "StartupFullscreen=False") and MoviesandboxUser.ini for the ctrl-problem (search for "v=" and change it to "v=jump" to make v your new "up" key). I hope this helps andlet me know if you have any more questions! --fiezi 23:41, 1 November 2007 (MET)

2D Character Creation

--Smols 14:31, 13 November 2007 (MET) hello back, ive been busy doing some Level creation, and loosing my nerves about the huge differences there aneon PV vs Mac/Linux. Anyway, after playing around a bit with all the options and the hints you gave me, i have a working (but messed up) environment.

I tried to follow your 2D character tutorial but i dont seem to get very far. i made all the textures as in the tutorial, i imported them into my package, and launch the 2D editor. here i get a bit confused, i cannot see the textures i have made? i can fill in the names and save the character. back in the scene editor i canchoose/select my 2D character but it doesnt show the textures either? can you please specify the path naming of the textures or dont they show in the 2D character window?

Maybe they are of the wrong image type? i created targa fileswith the alpha layer and can import them into the texture browser of UnrealEd, they look ok and are animated. ex filename i used: GirlBagIdleF_A00 do i have to copy the package into the MovieSandbox/System folder or the UT2004/System ?

Hey there! Oh, yes, i just now realise that there is no mention of the packagename in the tutorial. I'll go and fix that right away. In the 2D character editor, you can type in the individual names of the Animations using packagename.filename. I'm sorry i didn't got to really look into the 2D Character Editor for quite some time. I updated the 2D character tutorial with this information. Let me know if it helps. --fiezi 21:55, 13 November 2007 (MET)

Where I can find good quality films

Where I can find good quality films? Can anyone help me?

Mac version?

Hey, where is the mac version for this? It says everywhere that there is one but I can't seem to find it. I downloaded the most recent version, but it has a .bat and when i place the MoveSandBox directory in my UT2004 it won't show up in Community - > mods either.

Anyone help?