Camera.sqs

It won't take you long to discover that the original Operation Flashpoint camera options which are found in the editor don't give you the same versatility that you have seen in the official missions or quality user-created cutscenes. The "editor driven cutscene" has long been frowned upon by serious mission makers and for good reason. Seeing the same spinning camera shot and slow zooms over and over make the editor driven cutscene instantly recognisable as novice and that's without mentioning the annoying split second delay before the cutscene gets going.

Thankfully BI accounted for this by having its own method of creating camera cutscenes bypassing the editor options altogether. It is a script which simulates a real camera, which literally lets you point and click your angles, thus allowing you to create cutscenes with minimum fuss.

This script already exists within Flashpoint. By executing the script in-game you can activate a camera which is controlled using the keyboard. It can be moved into practically any position, and a 'snapshot' can be taken containing all the relevant information for that shot. The information can then be pasted into your cutscene script.

Usage

To execute the script create an object - doesn't need to be a soldier - and in its init field type

this exec "camera.sqs"

Now when you preview the mission you will see the cinematic border at the top and bottom of the screen and a view looking North from the object you created. There will be a crosshair in the centre of the screen. If you fail to execute the script from an object, or the object doesn't exist, the camera will be created at 0,0,0 on the map.

Controls

Most of following controls can be easily changed in 'Options -> Controls -> Buldozer controls' menu.

Camera movement is controlled using the following keys:

W  forward
E  fast forward
A  left
D  right
S  backwards
Q  up
Z  down

The camera can be rotated and tilted using the numeric keyboard:

8  tilt upward
2  tilt downward
4  rotate left
6  rotate right

There is also a zoom function, again using the numeric keyboard:

+  zoom in
-  zoom out

Here is list of remaining functions:

L  toggles crosshair (and tracked target box)
/  (on NumPad) target nearest object OR position on ground
Space Bar also targets nearest object OR position on ground
Del  Turn on/off floating mode

Some additional ArmA specific operations or variations:

F (same as NumPad /) tracks targeted object OR position on ground nearest to crosshair
  - Targeted objects are indicated with a red crosshair box.
  - Targeted ground position is indicated with a  yellow crosshair box.
  - Moving objects will be tracked by camera.
  - Pressing any camera movement key will cancel object/ground tracking
A/D  rotate camera around focused object or position on ground (used after F option)
Shift+[movement key]  faster camera movement

Pressing V will cancel the camera view and return back to normal control.

Using in script

Finally, once you have framed your shot, press the Fire key (Ctrl key in OFP or Left mouse button in ArmA). This stores the camera information in the clipboard. You can then press Alt+Tab to return to the desktop, and paste the camera information into a text-editor such as Notepad using Ctrl+V. Text is also saved into clipboard.txt file in OFP main directory.

For every click you will get an entry in this file that will look something like this:

;=== 22:11:02
_camera camPrepareTarget [684.73,98559.95,-27662.98]
_camera camPreparePos [2545.07,2486.85,9.91]
_camera camPrepareFOV 0.700
_camera camCommitPrepared 0
@camCommitted _camera

Note that the keyboard controls above are the default settings. If you have reconfigured your keyboard controls you'll have to find the equivalent keys.

Notes

In Armed Assault the clipboard.txt file is created in your user\application data folder.

Example:

C:\Documents and Settings\WINDOWSUSERNAME\Local Settings\Application Data\ArmA\clipboard.txt

Also note there is different way to take camera data in ArmA (see above).

External links

For more advanced cutscene tutorials visit OFPEC