Freeplay

[Dannye]

Hi all, just a quick post to say I have finally done a re-upload of the latest base version of VC Freeplay (v4.1). If you already have it, nothing has changed, it just now has a stable hosting provider. If anyone needs it, the link is:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/freeplay-for-vice-city/downloads/vc-freeplay-v4-1-with-source

I have also updated the first-post of the thread - now includes the new working download links to the latest VC and SA Freeplays, both the base versions and MtS's variants as well.

Cheers

[Dannye]

I am excited to announce there will be a new version VC Freeplay, coming soon!

I had no specific plans to do further work on it, but then I started doing some stunts where the player is not always on the primary vehicle, and thus I knew that any filming of the stunts would require the 'Vehicle Camera Lock' function. But in checking it out, I was reminded just how lacking that function was - it only worked for Cinematic/Unique Camera modes (and didn't even work perfectly for them) and most disappointingly it didn't work at all for Free-Camera (mouse-controlled rotate-around-player Camera). It's been quite difficult to track down, but I have finally figured it out - though that difficulty was quite useful as in the meantime I ended up figuring out a bunch of other unrelated potential changes (mostly bug fixes and/or minor additions) I can make too. More details when I can properly implement everything.

[Srcry]

Sounds real good! Always exciting to see new freeplay features.

[Ezraph2001]

I am excited to announce there will be a new version VC Freeplay, coming soon!

I had no specific plans to do further work on it, but then I started doing some stunts where the player is not always on the primary vehicle, and thus I knew that any filming of the stunts would require the 'Vehicle Camera Lock' function. But in checking it out, I was reminded just how lacking that function was - it only worked for Cinematic/Unique Camera modes (and didn't even work perfectly for them) and most disappointingly it didn't work at all for Free-Camera (mouse-controlled rotate-around-player Camera). It's been quite difficult to track down, but I have finally figured it out - though that difficulty was quite useful as in the meantime I ended up figuring out a bunch of other unrelated potential changes (mostly bug fixes and/or minor additions) I can make too. More details when I can properly implement everything.

Whatever that is, I'm down for the new features! Looking forward

[Jason]

Pleeeeease Mr Dannye, are you able to look into FOV adjustment? Tools like ViceFOV allow a higher FOV (fisheye-like effect) during replays, but nothing will allow a lower FOV (telescopic lens effect).

[Dannye]

Happy to say it has been progressing well, here's what I've been able to implement so far (there's a couple other things I want to look into, but I'd say this may pretty much end up being the full list of changes):
(updated with additions from this subsequent post)

New toggle on/off Features:

• Hiding of ground-level rubbish/leaves
• Application of White and/or Green 'scan-lines' filters (used in-game for security video footage, for example), with option on Green to include/not its time counter
• Invisibility of player-held weapons (if have a stunt with Tommy holding one while on a bike, for example, now you can hide it)
• 'Fast Forward' - speed up replay playback (helpful to get through a rep with multiple failed attempts at start)
• Fast 'Time of Day' progression - see the time advance quicker through a replay (watch the sunset and it become night-time during a stunt, for example). Provided with 2 speeds
• Block processing of x-axis mouse movements for Freecam (already had a similar feature for y-axis movements)
• Hiding of the 'steam' effect that appears on the ground during/after rain (with 2 variants of being enabled, one being more aggressive in its removal of the effect)
• A custom Time Picker (I already had something like this for Weather selection, now it's available for time too; lets you type in an Hour value [in 24hr time] and it will snap to that hour of the day)

New always-on Features:

• Hide flashing 'REPLAY' text during replay playback
• Hide the 'on screen' rain/water droplets

(In both cases, I know other methods are generally used to achieve these, hence why I simply have them as always-on. They're only here for completeness)

• Changes the game's default behaviour of having the Cinematic Camera being a little too 'sticky' to vehicles in replays where you get out of them and/or get into new ones (eg when getting into a 2nd vehicle in a replay, the Cinematic Camera may initially/temporarily return to the 1st instead). This will no longer occur - Freeplay has an explicit function for doing this, and doing it properly, via 'Vehicle Camera Lock', so it makes no sense for the game to act this way by default anymore.

Feature fixes/improvements:

• 'Hold Cinematic Angle' bugfix (previously there was an obscure case that could lead to a temporarily misbehaving camera)
• 'Change Cinematic Angle' improvements (previously it might change angle more than once per request, so you may have seen a brief flash of one new angle before resting on another)
• 'Custom Cinematic Angle' improvements (F11 unchanged, F12 [the more reliable one] is more efficient [still a delay on activation, but less] and even more reliable [previously it sometimes wouldn't work as expected in some cases such as where the vehicle was in a tight/enclosed area]) I have been able to combine the best of the F11 variant (speed - no delay on activation) and the F12 variant (reliability - more likely to actually work) into just one, that shares both aspects. I have also further improved the reliability (re cases of a vehicle in a tight/enclosed space). I am keeping both the F11 and F12 triggers, for anyone who is used to one vs the other, but note they both do exactly the same thing now.
• 'Freeze Replay' improvements (previously triggering this could interrupt player animations [thus wouldn't be a perfect freeze], could cause time-of-day to unintentionally proceed, and could cause problems if active prior to starting replay playback)
• 'Vehicle Camera Lock' support added for using Freecam now (not perfect, but much better than it previously not being supported at all), in addition to improvements when used with Cinematic/Unique Camera modes (previously could lose the lock when the camera mode/angle was changed, and when used multiple times on multiple vehicles in one replay it could previously get stuck to the wrong one). Of note, a change from previous behavior: now this function can only be activated during replay playback (will be automatically deactivated at the end, if not done so manually) and while in/on a vehicle - hopefully this matches people's general use of the feature anyway, as outside of this the behavior never would have been clear.
• Headlight/Siren/Colour-Change feature improvements (previously could act on the wrong vehicle in replays where the player uses multiple vehicles, and could be unintentionally triggered while on-foot). Of note, they do all work in-sync with 'Vehicle Camera Lock' - eg will always affect the 'locked' vehicle, even if you are in another, or on-foot.

Usability improvements:

• The 'allow changes in replays' Features for Weather/Time/Headlights stuff will now auto-enable if you trigger one of their associated value-changing features (eg. if you press "J" for 'Stormy Weather', you no longer have to have first pressed "G" for 'Allow Weather Changes In Reps' for it to take affect in a replay)
• The 'Logging' Feature (previously called 'Debug', which was not an appropriate name for it), will now be enabled by default. It still has a toggle for turning it off/on, as always, if desired.
• The 'Trails' Feature (which is probably rarely used, if ever) remains, but I have added a protection on its attempted usage - there has always been the requirement that you are in the in-game Menu before toggling this feature (else the game will crash), and yet Freeplay didn't check this - now it does, and the feature will not attempt to operate unless you are in the menu.

Hopefully a release won't be too far away!

Pleeeeease Mr Dannye, are you able to look into FOV adjustment? Tools like ViceFOV allow a higher FOV (fisheye-like effect) during replays, but nothing will allow a lower FOV (telescopic lens effect).

Good news, MtS has been working on an FOV feature! So hopefully something like what you're after will be on its way to a Freeplay sometime too 

[Ezraph2001]

Pleeeeease Mr Dannye, are you able to look into FOV adjustment? Tools like ViceFOV allow a higher FOV (fisheye-like effect) during replays, but nothing will allow a lower FOV (telescopic lens effect).

Good news, MtS has been working on an FOV feature! So hopefully something like what you're after will be on its way to a Freeplay sometime too 

I can't wait. With the new FOV feature Mateus is working on, at least make it so it should be compatible with ThirteenAG's widescreen fix mod since I use it for a living. Looking forward to this one holy shit.

[Dannye]

I've made some a few more changes/additions since my last post, so in addition to that earlier list (which I'll update to include this stuff too), there's also:

New toggle on/off Features:

• Hiding of the 'steam' effect that appears on the ground during/after rain (with 2 variants of being enabled, one being more aggressive in its removal of the effect)
• A custom Time Picker (I already had something like this for Weather selection, now it's available for time too; lets you type in an Hour value [in 24hr time] and it will snap to that hour of the day)

New always-on Features:

• Changes the game's default behaviour of having the Cinematic Camera being a little too 'sticky' to vehicles in replays where you get out of them and/or get into new ones (eg when getting into a 2nd vehicle in a replay, the Cinematic Camera may initially/temporarily return to the 1st instead). This will no longer occur - Freeplay has an explicit function for doing this, and doing it properly, via 'Vehicle Camera Lock', so it makes no sense for the game to act this way by default anymore.

Feature fixes/improvements:

• Even more 'Custom Cinematic Angle' improvements! I have been able to combine the best of the F11 variant (speed - no delay on activation) and the F12 variant (reliability - more likely to actually work) into just one, that shares both aspects. I have also further improved the reliability. I am keeping both the F11 and F12 triggers, for anyone who is used to one vs the other, but note they both do exactly the same thing now.

Usability improvements:

• The 'allow changes in replays' Features for Weather/Time/Headlights stuff will now auto-enable if you trigger one of their associated value-changing features (eg. if you press "J" for 'Stormy Weather', you no longer have to have first pressed "G" for 'Allow Weather Changes In Reps' for it to take affect in a replay)
• The 'Logging' Feature (previously called 'Debug', which was not an appropriate name for it), will now be enabled by default. It still has a toggle for turning it off/on, as always, if desired.
• The 'Trails' Feature (which is probably rarely used, if ever) remains, but I have added a protection on its attempted usage - there has always been the requirement that you are in the in-game Menu before toggling this feature (else the game will crash), and yet Freeplay didn't check this - now it does, and the feature will not attempt to operate unless you are in the menu.

And with that I think I'm happy to call it done for this release now! I just gotta work on updates to the documentation and maybe a bit more last minute testing. v5 coming soon 

[Ezraph2001]

The 'Trails' Feature (which is probably rarely used, if ever) remains...

There's always the trails plugin that adds that feature to VC's video settings...HAHAHAHAHA

I'm excited for this.

[Max_]

That's huge! Thanks for all the work and time you invested in these updates
Can't wait to test it out

[Dannye]

VC Freeplay v5 is now available!

Download here: VC Freeplay v5 with source, via ModDB
See this post for a full changelog: Changes made for v5

The download package also includes an updated documentation html file (no more plain text help files!), which covers all the information, features (with extended details) and complete changelog.

A modified version which includes MtS's fantastic camera movement speed improvements will be on its way soon.

Cheers all

[Jason]

Love u Dannye and MtS <3

[Krypton]

This is great Very excited for the FOV feature on its way!

[MtS]

I finished doing the FOV feature and setting up the camera speed slider to the new version of freeplay, now there are 2 sliders:



Here's a preview of the FOV feature:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzRQrAyGwt4&feature=youtu.be

Keys
F7 - Enable/Disable FOV change
F5 - Decrease FOV
F6 - Increase FOV

Link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/a30pokkd2b6kefq/freeplay_vc.rar?dl=0

Let me know if there is any trouble.

[Ezraph2001]

I finished doing the FOV feature and setting up the camera speed slider to the new version of freeplay, now there are 2 sliders:

I was hoping that the new features work with ThirteenAG's widescreen fix but alas it did not. FeelsBadMan. Good thing is there's still that camera speed slider that I always use for a living.