Jump scare cutscenes?

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Hidden Hands
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Jump scare cutscenes?

Post by Hidden Hands »

I need my game to feature jumpscare cutscenes, for example, you enter a bedroom and a scene triggers where the camera snaps to show a zombie jumping out of a cupboard etc. How would I go about triggering this? I'm hoping it can be done using a linedef when walked over... ?

thanks in advance.
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Re: Jump scare cutscenes?

Post by Matt »

deltree c:\doom
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Re: Jump scare cutscenes?

Post by Hidden Hands »

Matt wrote:deltree c:\doom
What does this mean, please?
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Re: Jump scare cutscenes?

Post by wildweasel »

I don't actually know how to help you achieve this, but what I will say is that you should be fairly careful and conservative about jump scares, as they're quite hard to get "right," and if used incorrectly (or too often) they can drag the game experience down quite hard.
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Re: Jump scare cutscenes?

Post by Hidden Hands »

wildweasel wrote:I don't actually know how to help you achieve this, but what I will say is that you should be fairly careful and conservative about jump scares, as they're quite hard to get "right," and if used incorrectly (or too often) they can drag the game experience down quite hard.
Yeah, I do actually agree with this. It can be overdone to the point of killing the whole experience. I only have a few I wanted to happen, mostly in the first level (its almost entirely empty until you discover a secret room behind a cupboard in which a possessed corpse leaps out).

I'd like to think there is a method using a linedef, it seems like the obvious option after all. If there isn't one, it probably should be implemented in some way.
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Re: Jump scare cutscenes?

Post by Enjay »

It all depends what you want to do with your cutscene. It's easy to make an ACS script run when you cross a line, and an ACS script can do many, many things that could be used for what might be considered a cutscene. Those things could include changing a camera, opening doors, spawning actors, changing textures, putting text or pictures on screen, playing sounds, changing music... So what you want to do is almost certainly possible. The problem is that your question is very general but it opens the door to quite a big and complex area of GZDoom modding.
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Re: Jump scare cutscenes?

Post by Hidden Hands »

Enjay wrote:It all depends what you want to do with your cutscene. It's easy to make an ACS script run when you cross a line, and an ACS script can do many, many things that could be used for what might be considered a cutscene. Those things could include changing a camera, opening doors, spawning actors, changing textures, putting text or pictures on screen, playing sounds, changing music... So what you want to do is almost certainly possible. The problem is that your question is very general but it opens the door to quite a big and complex area of GZDoom modding.
I understand what you're saying. Okay, here's what I have in mind.

You find a secret room hidden behind a cupboard. Inside this secret room is a large research basement filled with the paranormal research your father used to conduct. It also has a wall cupboard in the far corner. Upon walking in to the room, you trigger the cutscene: You cross a certain point and it triggers the camera to close in on the cupboard as it pops open and a zombie / possessed corpse is shown to roar and walk out. After this scene, the game continues as the monster makes its way towards you ready for the battle.

I hope that helps.
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Re: Jump scare cutscenes?

Post by Enjay »

Soooo, something like this?
cut.zip
It's pretty rough and ready, my use of moving cameras has never been the best (so there may be better ways to do it) and, even with something as simple as this, there are a few alternatives for how to do each thing within the "cutscene" but I *think* it's something similar to what you are talking about.
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Re: Jump scare cutscenes?

Post by Hidden Hands »

I'll check it out now, thank you .:)

EDIT:

Oh my Christmas Christ it is EXACTLY how I wanted it. You are a genius. How would I implement this into my game, should I copy the code over or will it not work because I have a different setup in my level?

For example the wad contains a BEHAVIOUR lump that is a COMPILED ACS DOOM file. I don't know how that works at all. I'm so bad at ACS I just can never seem to grasp it well.
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Re: Jump scare cutscenes?

Post by Enjay »

The source for the ACS file is in the SCRIPTS lump. If you use GZDoom Builder, open the WAD file and hit F10 to edit the script. You can copy/paste it from there too. If you make changes to the code, GZDoom Builder should automatically compile it for you. So all you have to do is save and it should work.
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Re: Jump scare cutscenes?

Post by Hidden Hands »

Enjay wrote:The source for the ACS file is in the SCRIPTS lump. If you use GZDoom Builder, open the WAD file and hit F10 to edit the script. You can copy/paste it from there too. If you make changes to the code, GZDoom Builder should automatically compile it for you. So all you have to do is save and it should work.
Ok great, I think I understand. I'll will try it when I get to that part of the level and hopefully it will all run smoothly. Thank you so much for this.
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Re: Jump scare cutscenes?

Post by Enjay »

Remember, the Wiki is an excellent resource and all of the commands that I used in the script (and hundreds more - e.g. the [wiki]Action_specials[/wiki] ) are explained there.

Initially, scripting takes a bit of work to wrap your head around but for simple "do this, then do this, and then do that" scripts (like the one in the map) you can get the hang of it pretty quickly.
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Re: Jump scare cutscenes?

Post by Hidden Hands »

Enjay wrote:Remember, the Wiki is an excellent resource and all of the commands that I used in the script (and hundreds more - e.g. the [wiki]Action_specials[/wiki] ) are explained there.

Initially, scripting takes a bit of work to wrap your head around but for simple "do this, then do this, and then do that" scripts (like the one in the map) you can get the hang of it pretty quickly.
It's weird, I've picked up so much in the last 5 years unyet the scripting ACS part has just always thrown me off. But I will keep trying to master it.
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Re: Jump scare cutscenes?

Post by Enjay »

The early things that I did with it were very simple (and, to be fair, most of the time still are). My scripting initially resulted from me wanting to do several things at the same time (or in short sequences). e.g. Opening a door followed by raising light levels, followed by lowering a platform and opening two more doors as the platform lowers... or whatever.

Needing to do something like that (versus the default Doom "one line, one action") was my "in" to doing things with scripting. Scripts to do things like that are basically just lists of mostly-human-readable action specials in the correct order with, maybe, delays or text messages thrown in for good measure.
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