Cut scenes in-game?

[Mchccjg12]

I was just wondering, is it possible to play any type of video files in-game?

[josefnpat]

Yes, but it's highly inefficient; http://love2d.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=9275

[Mchccjg12]

Yes, but it's highly inefficient; http://love2d.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=9275

Thanks!

[Qcode]

I hard coded two cut-scenes in my last game. It took 4 nights to get all of them done, but it was easier than loading in video and worth it when it came to file-size. I just had simpler local versions of my objects which were manipulated with timers and states inside the animation.

[bartbes]

I'd like to point out videos aren't always better, and for example the GTA series is known for doing all cutscenes in game (up to SA, anyway, I can't speak for the later ones). As an example of videos done wrong, I heard the new DmC game has lower framerates and quality in "movie cutscenes" than in-game.

[Jasoco]

I just want to say that I always prefer that a cut scene be done with in-game resources instead of a video. Square perpetuated the idea that you "need" to have your cutscenes be rendered in high polygon 3D CGI in order for people to like your game, but this isn't always the best thing. Not only does it take you out of the game by jarringly making you realize that you're no longer immersed, but it takes up a lot more space for no benefit at all.

Not only that, but it's not always needed. Case in point, you might remember the Futurama game on the Xbox/PS2/GameCube from the early 2000s. The in-game graphics looked amazing. Nice looking CGI that felt like a cartoon... but then you get to the CGI cutscenes and what the hell? They rendered the cutscenes in a much lower quality rendering engine that only kind of resembled the game graphics (With terrible gradient shading that the cartoon never had.) and compressed the video files so badly that the artifacts were terrible. Then passed this off as a separate "episode" for the show. If they had generated the cutscenes in-game using the models and sets they already had loaded up, they could have saved a lot of time, a lot of space and made it look a lot more like the cartoon. The Simpsons games from that era did it too.

Not to mention the whole FMV fad in the '90s. Low-quality low-color low-resolution video files crammed onto a CD in order to make people feel like they were "playing the future of video games". Thanks, CDi, 3DO and Sega CD!

Scripting what you already have is a much better method than spending time and resources on creating a video file that will just balloon up your download size for no benefit at all.

[Mchccjg12]

Good point. It probably would be best to render the cut scenes using in-game resources then.
Although, for anyone else interested, I also found this forum topic:
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=10396

[Jasoco]

Slideshows with small animated parts and text overlays (And optional audio file of voiceover) can work really well and make it feel Arcade-y.

For instance, my favorite examples...

[Roland_Yonaba]

Made with Love+Lua. See ActionMovie
Trosh is also a good candidate.