Attention movie and wallpaper makers!

[CCIP]

If, like me, you've ever wished you had better control over your camera...

...here's a slightly annoying, but worthwhile way to enchance your ability if you're serious about your project :up:

In the same way as with my recent DG reload selections, I've also put together a selection of different FOV's for the game's Free (F12) camera. You'll have to restart the game to switch around your camera's "lenses", but at least it's something.

Among other things, I've also slowed down and smoothed out the camera's movement a bit to help the movie makers (while also speeding it up more when you hold "shift").

Here's some pictures I took with some of the odder angles if you wonder whether some of these things look good:

http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/5706/cam120hl.th.jpg (http://img241.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cam120hl.jpg)http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/3176/cam147kv.th.jpg (http://img241.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cam147kv.jpg)http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/9754/cam169tm.th.jpg (http://img241.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cam169tm.jpg)http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/6468/cam199ib.th.jpg (http://img241.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cam199ib.jpg)
http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/8432/cam249ls.th.jpg (http://img241.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cam249ls.jpg)http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/6237/cam267bn.th.jpg (http://img241.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cam267bn.jpg)http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/6590/cam270ng.th.jpg (http://img241.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cam270ng.jpg)http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/595/cam284qn.th.jpg (http://img241.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cam284qn.jpg)
http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/5766/cam299wc.th.jpg (http://img241.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cam299wc.jpg)http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/2036/cam319dg.th.jpg (http://img241.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cam319dg.jpg)http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/5089/cam320fu.th.jpg (http://img241.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cam320fu.jpg)http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/620/cam335xz.th.jpg (http://img241.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cam335xz.jpg)
http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/8232/cam354vy.th.jpg (http://img241.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cam354vy.jpg)http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/8159/cam382xp.th.jpg (http://img241.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cam382xp.jpg)http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/7454/cam54qu.th.jpg (http://img241.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cam54qu.jpg)http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/6657/cam79mw.th.jpg (http://img241.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cam79mw.jpg)
http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/6963/convoytop6hs.th.jpg (http://img241.imageshack.us/my.php?image=convoytop6hs.jpg)

(anyone want these as wallpapers? :|\

Like the idea? Grab it here:
http://rapidshare.de/files/2888973/FreeCamPro.zip.html
(or soon at Realsimulation)

[Type941]

Bravo! You already sold me on this, so I'll just say it again - it's beutiful, and my Denmark Strait movie and history of Bismarck will be respesented nicley now. The BB pics are superb, truly showing their low sides and huge superstructures, just like the real thing. :up: :rock: :rock: :rock: [/quote]

[terrapin]

It's up in the /Mods section

[HundertzehnGustav]

If, like me, you've ever wished you had better control over your camera...

...here's a slightly annoying, but worthwhile way to enchance your ability if you're serious about your project :up:

In the same way as with my recent DG reload selections, I've also put together a selection of different FOV's for the game's Free (F12) camera. You'll have to restart the game to switch around your camera's "lenses", but at least it's something.

Among other things, I've also slowed down and smoothed out the camera's movement a bit to help the movie makers (while also speeding it up more when you hold "shift").

Here's some pictures I took with some of the odder angles if you wonder whether some of these things look good:

(anyone want these as wallpapers? :|\
)

YO WHAT THE *censored* MAN?? :rock:

oh my good God the two light cruisers saling formation is
is
WOW :o :rock:

HOLY SHIP :rock:

[Krieg-Schwein]

Sweet Little mod for those of us who like to view the world around us not just the 4 wall s of out sub!!.
BTW I would like to try my hand at making a movie but I have no Idea how to do it, I have seen credits for people using M$ movie maker but how?? or is there a program to make the movie, I downloaded a couple of movies from http://u-boot.realsimulation.com/ the other day (U-168 & U-505) but the links seem to be gone now but the were made from a Spanish? site maybe any way I was amazed at how well they could zoom on on the objects and follow them , the movies were a Little blurry but that didn't hurt then at all I thought some of the scenes looked like they were from an actual movie!! Maybe someone else knows where they were made...

Danke

[terrapin]

Sweet Little mod for those of us who like to view the world around us not just the 4 wall s of out sub!!.
BTW I would like to try my hand at making a movie but I have no Idea how to do it, I have seen credits for people using M$ movie maker but how?? or is there a program to make the movie, I downloaded a couple of movies from http://u-boot.realsimulation.com/ the other day (U-168 & U-505) but the links seem to be gone now but the were made from a Spanish? site maybe any way I was amazed at how well they could zoom on on the objects and follow them , the movies were a Little blurry but that didn't hurt then at all I thought some of the scenes looked like they were from an actual movie!! Maybe someone else knows where they were made...

Danke

The files are still on my server and are downloading file, the news article just moved to page two due to the steady flow of updates...

[CCIP]

As far as making movies - Windows Movie Maker can serve your basic needs. There's really no other free video editing programs at the moment; otherwise, options like Sony Vegas or Adobe Premiere are rather expensive and can also be quite complicated. There's a nice beginner guide on SimHQ for making simulation movies that you should probably read over for the basic questions...

[Average Joe]

>>>Here's some pictures I took with some of the odder angles if you wonder whether some of these things look good: <<<


Yes! The 'fat-and-wide' head-on battleship pics look more realistic than stock BB'! Very neat.

[Krieg-Schwein]

As far as making movies - Windows Movie Maker can serve your basic needs. There's really no other free video editing programs at the moment; otherwise, options like Sony Vegas or Adobe Premiere are rather expensive and can also be quite complicated. There's a nice beginner guide on SimHQ for making simulation movies that you should probably read over for the basic questions...

I've looked all over on there, Could you possible provide a link

Danke

[CCIP]

Yes! The 'fat-and-wide' head-on battleship pics look more realistic than stock BB'! Very neat.

That IS a stock BB :lol:

See, the reason they don't look like that in the default game is that the default game has a fairly wide, even slightly bent FOV, which doesn't really give you a sense of scale. Pictures you see of real BB's, on the other hand, are generally taken by pro photographers who know how to use the right lens to give a sense of scale.

Yea, I, too, was amazed at how good they look too. For comparison - they're taken with a 10 degree FOV (default is 75). That's roughly the equivalent of the UZO's zoom. :hmm:

***

KS:
http://simhq.com/_air3/air_116a.html

The SimHQ guide is actually using IL-2 as an example, and I might even recommend you try your hand at IL-2 movies if you feel like it - IL-2 is MUCH more movie-making friendly than SHIII (because it has better camera controls and a great replay feature).

In SHIII though, most of the same things apply except that you learn to improvise as you go.
I use the payware version of Fraps; but you can get away with using the trial one, or, like Type941, you can even use the older Fraps 1.9, but there's some tricks to using it effectively which Type941 probably knows more about than me. I actually prefer Fraps 1.9's smoother frame rate, but it only shoots the top-left side of the screen, making things a little tricky...

[Krieg-Schwein]

Danke I appreciate it

[Type941]

If you look at most pics, the battleships look with short sides, and huge superstructures - just like in that bb shot CCIP has. So to know that the game models that well is good news. I'm so eager to get back home, from my beach house, and start making my movie on Bismarck, finally. especially with new cameras I am glad I postponed the project - so that now I can make it more 'professional'. Probably will bug you CCIP a bit on some feedback, but I hope you won't mind. :88) :|\ :rock:

[CCIP]

Oh sure, I'm all too glad that people are making more SHIII movies, anyway :) The reason I started messing with the cameras in the first place is because I wished that I had this kind of control over the visuals in my movie - but didn't think of it until afterward.

I can change camera setting on request, if someone needs them for some specific purpose. Well, that is, I can't give the camera different 'rules of behaviour', but I can change existing settings like FOV and speed of movement. Which is really the most important part as far as making movies out of it goes...

[Average Joe]

CCPI,

Thanks for the explanation (although I may be mis-understanding it.. :-j) of SH3's FOV settings. The BB's look so 'skinny' in the game, especially from a front-view.

From what you've created with FOV settings, can you suggest what might be a nice replacement setting for FOV (30-40% ?).

Interesting, watching many documentaries about aircraft-carriers, the camera never quite 'captures' how -massive- these ships are. :huh: I think an actual 'visit' to a carrier is the only way to really see the scope of these ships.

Using your FOV-mod, below are 2 pics of the Bismark. The first pic is SH3's stock camera-view. The 2nd pic is with a 20% FOV setting.

Stock Bismark
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b18/teehole/Sh3Bismark-Stock-camera-view.jpg

____________
Mod Bismark (20%) FOV

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b18/teehole/Sh3Bismark-mod-Widecamera-view.jpg




:o :cool: :know:

[CCIP]

I actually plan to look more into this myself... off the top of my head, I think somewhere between 40 and 60 is probably the best idea. One thing to watch for, I guess, is the amount of distortion you get nearer to the sides of the screen. It's pretty noticable in the stock game.

I find wider FOV's useful for just playing the game though, so it's fine out of the box when using internal cameras etc. I tried making the internal camera 60 or so degrees, and it just totally disoriented me. It felt like walking through a house with a pair of binoculars constantly at my eyes :lol:

[Average Joe]

CCIP, thanks for a 'ballpark' FOV setting (40/60). Testing 40%-FOV now, looking at ships in the 'Happy-times' mission. It's impressive that escorts look a lot more 'beefy' too.

Finally noticed distortions near the sides of the ships. It's really not that bad, and seen only at certain angles. As you said it's easily seen in Sh3's stock FOV-setting too.

I can see why you might get a 'nauseous' type feeling, increasing FOV with interior sub-views(!) :huh: ; it seems pretty high as it is.

[Krieg-Schwein]

I could have swore I saw on this page you recommended using Video out from one computer to a video in on an other for making movies, but either it's gone or I'm blind, in any case A Great Idea and I have both of those things however I can't get the video out option to work unless its at a ridiculous low resolution, In fact the only time I can get it to work is during th first stages of booting my computer after a point it's gone, I tried running the game at 640 X 480 and that didn't work so I suppose a smaller REz would look like Crap!!, any ideas on how I can get the Video out to work? I have a high end card so I don't think that's the problem

GeForce 6800 OC 256 GDDR3
http://www.bfgtech.com/6800GTOC.html

and again
Danke

[Egan]

Brilliant mate, Looking forward to giving it a go! :up:

[CCIP]

I could have swore I saw on this page you recommended using Video out from one computer to a video in on an other for making movies, but either it's gone or I'm blind, in any case A Great Idea and I have both of those things however I can't get the video out option to work unless its at a ridiculous low resolution, In fact the only time I can get it to work is during th first stages of booting my computer after a point it's gone, I tried running the game at 640 X 480 and that didn't work so I suppose a smaller REz would look like Crap!!, any ideas on how I can get the Video out to work? I have a high end card so I don't think that's the problem



How exactly are you going about with the video output? That is, through what port, and how does it look?

Hmm, I don't have that kind of hardware, myself... but actually, try and see what happens when you run it at lower res.

For games 640x480 is way too low these days. BUT - for video, this is damn near hi-fi. If you look at my SHIII movie, it was made completely in 512x384. Any higher, and you're basically at DVD standard. For online distribution, people often use even lower resolutions.

So when you put a video online, it generally shouldn't be in bigger resolution than 640x480. The only problem is, of course, HOW it resizes to 640x480. That depends on how the footage you're getting actually look. If it scales things well, or zooms in - it shouldn't be much problem. A few jaggies, but they'll get lost in the video compression artefacts anyway. If it uses a bad resizing algorythm like NearestNeighbour though, then it's not too good. But still tolerable. I got by with Fraps doing that, and it didn't come out too bad.

[ICBM]

Great work, I to was anoyed by the camera restrictions.
This way the ships look MUCH more impressive! :up:

Btw is it also possible to mod the Sub camera postions? I feel that the VII bridge cam should be 1m forward and 10cm down so you are on the same hight as the crew AND most importantly, see more of the bow. That way you get a much better 'boat feeling' like you get in the IX's and not have the feeling that your sub is only a moving conning tower in the water... :hmm:

[CCIP]

I haven't figured out how to move the positions yet, although...

There's actually a little 'easter egg' which I inadvertedly left in the mod - my own conning deck camera I'm playing around with right now. What it does is shift the camera away from the centre of rotation, so you actually get a more "3-D" view of things, which I thought is a bit more realistic. I've also taken off the angle limit, so you can look down too; and what's more, a somewhat strange side effect of that is that if you flip over your camera once or twice, it will actually change its' position a little, and you get different angles.

I have a hunch it may be possible to make a far more advanced conning deck camera, but I'll need to get to TimeTraveller for that first...

[Krieg-Schwein]

I'm Using the S video out of the card and it converts to an RCA type plug that connects to the Video in , to run the at 640 X 480 I used the dx9res10 mod, and I really couldn't run it at that resolution because of the size it was I couldn't move the cursor to some of the menu options toward the bottom of the page, It seem to me that the video being captured and the size your program that was recording it at would make it 640 X480 or 512x384 not the input you were recording from. otherwise all video would be blurry and jagged. also when I tried the fraps program the game crashed to desktop?
I guess Ill have to look around to see why the video won't show up in the capture card I can't belive that that would make it only show up a a small resolution

Danke

[Krieg-Schwein]

Hmm I was messing with the Duel display and enabled Clone TV display and now I can see it! just need to tweak a few things and I'll be set!! :) this will be better cause I won't be using the same computer to record from as I'm playing on!!, Now I just need to think of what I want to make :oops: I should learn how to make a custom mission now cause I think that will provide the best way to set up a scenario!!

[CCIP]

Heh, great! Good luck to you then.

I actually have two PC's and a capture card, but I don't have a proper output on the video card, so I can't really take advantage of that.

Anyway, this is good news to you - you've got a crack at making high-quality videos that some of us can only dream of thanks to only having Fraps at our disposal :)

[Krieg-Schwein]

Heh, great! Good luck to you then.

I actually have two PC's and a capture card, but I don't have a proper output on the video card, so I can't really take advantage of that.

Anyway, this is good news to you - you've got a crack at making high-quality videos that some of us can only dream of thanks to only having Fraps at our disposal :)

After much more poking around I don't think it will be possible while I can record even the game running at 1600 X 1200 the output is basically made for a television set and is Blurry as hell I think If I Could take advantage of the other Monitor output? not sure if there is an adapter to convert that to lone level video or not? but the Svideo seem to be too blurry but than again the videos I have seen are kind of that way also so :hmm:

Anyway Danke for your help on this subject!!

[Duke of Earl]

I haven't figured out how to move the positions yet, although...

There's actually a little 'easter egg' which I inadvertedly left in the mod - my own conning deck camera I'm playing around with right now. What it does is shift the camera away from the centre of rotation, so you actually get a more "3-D" view of things, which I thought is a bit more realistic. I've also taken off the angle limit, so you can look down too; and what's more, a somewhat strange side effect of that is that if you flip over your camera once or twice, it will actually change its' position a little, and you get different angles.

I have a hunch it may be possible to make a far more advanced conning deck camera, but I'll need to get to TimeTraveller for that first...

Super-great mod.. I discovered your 'Easter Egg' and it is very enjoyable.. and I noticed everything that you have mentioned about the Conning Tower view... fun to play around with... :D

Any chance that you can remove the 3D angle limits on the CE, NA, RO and Flak camera stations?... just askin'... ;)

By the way, when I used the 90 deg FOV and went upstairs, the camera went crazy and I couldn't control it's height when I returned to sealevel.. it just kept going up and wouldn't stop... :88) ... so, I'm now using the 50 deg FOV to get the 'fatter' ships...

Cordialement, Duke of Earl

[CCIP]

Any chance that you can remove the 3D angle limits on the CE, NA, RO and Flak camera stations?... just askin'... ;)


That should generally be possible, I'll try to see if it works...

For more advanced camera modding, I'll have to wait until TimeTraveller is back from vacation, since I'll need his input on some of these things...

As far as the 90 degree camere - odd, I'll also give that a look. Maybe I messed something up in there...

[Soviet_Warlord]

I really enjoy your mod- especially the unlocked camera limits and the better FoV... only thing, I'm not used to to "inertia" that is added to the camera, and the slower movement. Could you please make a version with nothing edited except the unlocked camera and the 50 FoV? That'd be great!

:up:

[Ship Hunter]

Thanx for this absolut great mod!

[Type941]

Great? It's bloody awesome :rock: , I've been using it for some screenshots, and I'm so impressed at how ships look like. I wish this also worked for 'follow unit' option as well.

http://img322.imageshack.us/img322/4273/explosionspectacular6og.jpg


http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/1078/kmsbismarckstation4yk.jpg

[CCIP]

Awesome shots! I love that one in the dock :D

Great? It's bloody awesome :rock: , I've been using it for some screenshots, and I'm so impressed at how ships look like. I wish this also worked for 'follow unit' option as well.



Hey, if you'd like - I can get you a separate cameras file with the adjusted follow cameras - just tell me what you'd like. The only problem is that I'd have to figure out how to adjust the maximum range for the follow camera (which I haven't yet), otherwise, you won't be able to see the whole ship properly.

I'll see what I can do though...

[Type941]

Well, a 10 type camera for Museum would be fantastic addition, if possible. I figure that the museum uses the same type of camera as follow unit, so not sure how it'll be in gameplay - seems like the game is slower with lower lens setting... experimenting should clear that out..

I opened up the camera file in notepad and they look like blabla to me, so it's probably best I let you be in charge or modding it!! :|\ :up: :yep:

[Syxx_Killer]

Type941, those shots are freakin amazing! I love the first one! :o :o :o

This mod sounds fantastic and looks out of this world! :lol: Since I still don't know what to do a movie on, I certainly can do photography. I guess I'm more into photography than directing anyways. :|\ :rotfl:

[Krieg-Schwein]

Is it possible to move through solid objects? I would like to get a good shot on a deck but you when you move in you go up and around it know what I mean?

Danke

[ICBM]

Geez, are those 2 shots really from SH3? It looks so different.

Heck, I will delete all my current 'nice' wallpapers and make new ones with this camera mod! :huh:

[Syxx_Killer]

Type941, what camera angle are you using for those shots? I'd like to get some nice wide shots of a BB, but even with a wide angle of 100 or 110, they still don't seem that wide. In your shot of the ship in the slip, I couldn't get it that wide. If I move in close with the camera, it moves up and over the ship.

[Zinmar]

Is there a way to lock the camera at a certain distance from the boat or other vessels? That comes on very handy when filming to help continue the story. Am working on making a video, kinda hard when most things are a sink them or be sunk, but am dabbling.