CMx2 Possibility of Full Movie Playback

[Delyn]

Now that at least three people have mentioned movie playback I see that I am not alone.

Originally posted by Bonxa:
Change:
1. Full movie playback! This might kick off as an entire new sub-community like modding and scenario creation.
Originally posted by Canuck:
Movie Playback- This is the only thing I can think of. The ability to save each movie turn and then merge them all into one big movie. Originally posted by Ace Pilot:
Not in my list of top 5 (mostly because PBEM Helper allows you to do this somewhat), but I’m surprised there have been so few mentions of full movie playback.
I want to hear others opinions on the matter and especially from BFC on the possibility of it being included.

Things that I would like to see for movie playback:

From Canuck, Full Movie Playback (FMP). The ability to view the entire battle as one long movie. Able to pause and the 10s FF and Rewind but also FF and Rewind to the next turn or maybe just 1 min intervals.

From Bonxa, This might kick off as an entire new sub-community to share movies of amazing moments and heroic deeds of your little cyber-soldiers.

Also I’d like to have single turn playback to share smaller moments to keep the size of the files low.

Besides the FMP, I would like Full Turn Movie Playback where the battle is broken down by turns and you can view the orders given each turn and the movie would stop between turns.

Another feature I would like is to have the option to integrate both sides into the movies once the game is finished removing FOW and the ability to see your opponients orders without having to swap FMP and turn Playbacks.

I believe that movie playbacks would be very useful in sharing memorable moments, helpful in AARs and they can also be used to display the proper use of tactic when you perform a textbook example that may be useful to newer members like me.

I realize that this is a lot to ask for but if only parts were realized I’d still be happy or if they may be included in a later module.

[juan_gigante]

Amen, brother.

[KG_Panzerschreck]

Originally posted by juan_gigante:
Amen, brother. I second that emotion.

[Pvt. Ryan]

We should be able to order the movie on DVD from BFC for a nominal fee. smile.gif

[toxiczen]

full movie playback would be awesome! especialyy if you can dictate camera angles, chase cams, ect...

[Pzman]

We should be able to order the movie on DVD from BFC for a nominal fee.
Or you could just burn it yourself for free... tongue.gif

[Pvt. Ryan]

Originally posted by Pzman:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />
We should be able to order the movie on DVD from BFC for a nominal fee.
Or you could just burn it yourself for free... tongue.gif </font>[/QUOTE]Then the disc wouldn't match the game CD. BFC could also sell official DVD storage folders. tongue.gif

[Bonxa]

From a size stand point it should be possible since PBEM turns include 60 seconds of full 3D playback and they are ~1MB. So a FMP(tm) :D shouldn't get astronomical in size. Then you could use a regular video capture program to capture an .avi or .mpeg file from the playback.

[Pzman]

Originally posted by Pvt. Ryan:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Pzman:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />
We should be able to order the movie on DVD from BFC for a nominal fee.
Or you could just burn it yourself for free... tongue.gif </font>[/QUOTE]Then the disc wouldn't match the game CD. BFC could also sell official DVD storage folders. tongue.gif </font>[/QUOTE]Well unless you have two DVD drives (I wouldn't be suprised if CMX2 is on a DVD) that wouldn't matter too much. tongue.gif

[Pvt. Ryan]

I'm talking about display purposes. Don't you display all your BFC paraphenalia in your living room for guests to see?

[Pzman]

Umm... NO. I could say something else, but I'll leave it at that.

[Pvt. Ryan]

Neither do I. smile.gif

[Ace Pilot]

Originally posted by Bonxa:
From a size stand point it should be possible since PBEM turns include 60 seconds of full 3D playback and they are ~1MB. So a FMP(tm) :D shouldn't get astronomical in size. Then you could use a regular video capture program to capture an .avi or .mpeg file from the playback. I was under the impression that file sizes for CMx2 might be substantially larger than they were for CMx1 - hence the reason BFC floated the possibility that PBEM play wouldn't be in CMx2.

In any case, FMP (tm) with the ability to toggle FOW and players' orders would probably move the idea up into the top 5 for me.

[Nelson 1812]

Full movies..that would be nice

[HarryInk]

Full movie reply with option to remove FOW & review plots is a must.

Playing tournaments at B.O.B., and having watched friends playing CM on LAN connected computers, I've a good sense now of the very different battles that two players fight even against each other. Being able to review that - removing FOW and even with an option to review the plotting - that would be a great learning tool and a real bonus to the system, given that the plotting is a moment that each player is very involved in.

Already I can share my movies via the PBEM Helper, but it's a crude alternative to an integrated routine.

[securityguard]

full movie playback is #1 on my list. I have a feeling I'll be disapointed, because they have said in the past that they would try to get it in but no promises (which probably means it's last on their list). I feel it's a very important feature, right next to having teamplay modes in MP. Variable fogs of war, the ability to view plot lines, the ability to stop on a dime anywhere at any time is EXTREMELY helpful to study strategy. And it's fun!

[Battlefront.com]

Still high up on our wish list. Charles nixed the idea for CMBB and AK because he found the recoding necessary for it to be too much. Now we have a fresh slate. However, Charles is concerned about certain code issues and therefore is not going to promise anything until after he gives it a shot. If it proves to be too much of a headache for us, it will be skipped over until the next release. And there is no point whining ahead of time about it either.

Steve

[Delyn]

Steve,

Glad to hear its being looked into. smile.gif

Due to the time between your post on other topics I would assume you did not read my post and are only looking into FMP.

I hope my other ideas are at least considered as many people here seemed to like them as well.

Maybe you are a speed reader and I should just shut up. :D

[ August 25, 2005, 05:08 PM: Message edited by: Typis ]

[Battlefront.com]

I read quickly smile.gif Full game playback is what we are shooting for. The only options I envision is turning off FoW and seeing the battle from the other player's perspective. Not sure if that is possible to do though. Depends on how Charles stores the data and reads it back.

Full turn playback isn't something that is high on our list of things to do, but it might be a side effect possibility of how Charles stitches things together. We'll just have to wait and see.

Steve

[aka_tom_w]

full movie play back without Fog of War sounds fine to me

I am not sure I would want it any other way.

The idea being that after the battle is ALL over both players would see EVERYTHING in the full movie play back without any fog of war.

Both players should see all units with no fog of war in the full movie play back (I think)

-tom w

[karch]

1) any sort of full movie playback would be great

2) the ability to turn on or off FOW would be fantastic.

3) not given that option, I'd rather FOW be ON and I could either watch it from one side or the other

4) BEST CASE, you could turn on or off FOW in movie and even flip between opponents view on the fly.

I'm guessing a full movie file on a 30 turn game to be about 100-300MB depending on troop count and action.
( I guess less if they go with binary rather than text/ascii files. I don't know the file size hit they take by making the attachments text )

[YankeeDog]

If you can't do full movie playback, As a consolation prize, even just being able to save the movies from indiviual turns in TCP/IP and vs. AI, would be nice as you can for PBEM.

A couple of times, I've had a TCP/IP game that started one night, and didn't finish, and then we didn't get back to it for several weeks. It can be very difficult to remember what was going on without the movie files to refer back to. . .

Cheers,

YD

[BloodyBucket]

Another vote for movie playback with being able to toggle FOW on/off. VCR type controls to pause, replay and stop the action would be outstanding. In a perfect world, you would be able to "go live" at any point in the playback to see how different choices would change the outcome.

[kgsan]

Full movie play back with the option to toggle off fog of war (including play against AI as well as a human opponent) sounds fantastic. This is one piece of 'chrome' I've longed for since CMBO.

[BloodyBucket]

The more I think about the times I have tried to use CM as a tactics teaching tool, the two things I have wished for was a game playback feature and the ability to print out a map of the battle area.

[Battlefront.com]

Yup Bloody Bucket... I hear you loud and clear. We hope to get it in. Charles is just not willing to promise anything until he starts trying to dump more or less real playback data into a format that can be threaded together.

Steve

[Battlefront.com]

Oh, also... BloodyBucket... do us a favor and email me. I gots a question for you and you don't have your email address visible. I can, of course, dig it out of your registration info... but that always makes me feel all dirty, and I've already showered today :D

steve@battlefront.com

Steve