Freeplay

[Dannye]

The second beta release of Freeplay version 7 for Vice City is now available.

Download: VC Freeplay v7 Beta 2 with source, via ModDB

This is a smaller update compared to the first v7 beta, however it still contains a number of new features, updated features, and general usability improvements. Once again I am referring to it as a 'beta' as I still have not had time to properly update the official HTML documentation file, and as such (just like with Beta 1) the details of the changes made in this release are noted in a changelog-like plaintext file. (For reference, this package includes not only its specific help/changelog file, but also the Beta 1 version, and the outdated v6 HTML file).

General Usability Improvements:

• Now able to use EITHER "Shift" key (aka for any feature whose button trigger involved "Right Shift", you can now use "Left Shift" if you'd prefer).
• Removed chance of accidentally triggering an additional feature when interacting with one via a Numpad number key.
• Improved responsiveness of using multiple features simultaneously.

New Features:

• Replay Looback: Allows playback to automatically return to the start upon hitting the end of the replay file, rather than ending.
• Quick-Restart: Like above, but manually triggered at any time during playback to return to the start prior to reaching the end.
• Breakpoint Jumping: Lets Breakpoints essentially become "chapter markers" that you can immediately jump playback backward/forward to (as long as you have encountered them at least once during the playback).
• Greenscreen: The entire gameworld no longer renders, with the exception of Peds/Vehicles, and the empty space is coloured one single solid colour (to assist a colour-masking approach to compositing stunts in editing), with support for changing/customising the colour used.
• Some other minor stuff (disabling shadows, disabling particles, saving/loading mouse movements along an axis).

Updated Features:

• Ped and Vehicle Invisibility can now be toggled independently (and both features now work much better than before).
• Rain-Steam Invisibility feature is simplified (no more need for two different triggers/approaches).
• Some existing features have had their assigned buttons changed.

See the included help file for further details/hints/caveats/etc on all of these.

Any feedback or questions are welcome.

Cheers

[Max_]

Absolutely fantastic additions once again. Also enjoy to read through your changelogs and really understand the functionality/use cases. Your explanations are spot on
Thanks Dannye!

[Ezraph2001]

noice

[Jason]

Truly the man when it comes to ease of life additions to the game.

I have but one request for the next release; could we please have a more interactive UI for the external program? A feature I would LOVE is programmable hotkeys. There are a handful of features I will always turn on when I begin filming, or will need to keep turning on with each replay (such as weather, time), or some hotkeys get in the way of other windows functions or game inputs. How possible is it to introduce a programming menu where we can force default states of each feature, and allow us to choose our own hotkeys, including setting multiple features to the same hotkey?

[Dannye]

Thanks for the kind words all! 

I have but one request for the next release; could we please have a more interactive UI for the external program? A feature I would LOVE is programmable hotkeys. There are a handful of features I will always turn on when I begin filming, or will need to keep turning on with each replay (such as weather, time), or some hotkeys get in the way of other windows functions or game inputs. How possible is it to introduce a programming menu where we can force default states of each feature, and allow us to choose our own hotkeys, including setting multiple features to the same hotkey?

Something like that would definitely be great to have, but the hurdle has always been that I unfortunately don't have any experience with doing GUI stuff in C++ (from trying to get my head around it, it seems significantly more complicated than doing command-line-only stuff). That said, I still would love Freeplay to have some sort of customisation like what you've described, so I am keen to try and figure out ways to do it even without a GUI... perhaps something along the lines of a settings file that can be edited - it might not be perfect, but a step in the right direction at least (I certainly would not miss the absurdity that was having to memorise/repeat a big string of keypresses everytime I started a new recording session while working on the Throwback video ). I'm definitely gonna look into this.

In regards to the Weather issue:
Having to re-set it for each replay I think stems from a combination of how I implemented the feature in Freeplay and also how I did the related feature in the USCM as well. I must try to revisit that stuff, but as a (hopefully temporary) workaround for the time being, from my experience you can get away with only having to set the weather once per recording session (assuming you are wanting the same weather type for each replay you capture) by making use of the USCM: while in normal gameplay (not watching a replay), use the USCM feature for cycling through weather types to set it to the one you're after, then enable Freeplay's "Weather Control" toggle directly (as opposed to just using Freeplay to activate a specific Weather type, which automatically enables "Weather Control" at the same time), and that should do it, one-and-done.

[Angle.Fire]

I just have an idea and I really dont know if it's suggested or thought before.

Would it be possible to add Free Camera feature which can be controlled as a helicopter on first person view? I'm sure crazier edits can be done with easier controlling.

Edit: I mean like the start of this video but in Freeplay (First 15 seconds)  https://youtu.be/1z3c5PuvKNI

[Dannye]

Modding season continues: the full v7 release of Freeplay for Vice City is finally here!

Download: VC Freeplay v7 Final with source, via ModDB

This release not only contains new additions/improvements over the prior beta releases (beta1, beta2), but also finally incorporates a fully updated HTML Documentation file (significantly overhauled - not just to cover the new changes, but also to improve the document, with better readability and consistency, and even updates to the details sections for much of the unchanged functionality).

========= Highlights of stuff new to this release =========
(see the Changelog section of the Documentation file for the complete list)

New Features:

• "Hide Flying Planes & Exhaust Trails": prevent the appearance of automatically-flying planes and their exhaust trails
• "Pristine Vehicles": ensure all vehicles in replays are shown with no visible damage (including always-attached & properly-closed doors!)
• "Force Replay Camera": provides full access to the 'Replay-captured Camera' during replay playback, with thanks to Darkstar!
  • This means support for the playback of custom camerawork defined using his awesome Replay Manager tool
• "Cycle Camera Vehicle Lock": cycle the camera between any vehicle present in the replay to enable "Lock Camera to Vehicle" on one without needing the player to be in it at the time

Updates & Fixes:

• "Override Time Control" and "Override Weather Control" now do their jobs better - while enabled nothing except Freeplay (aka you) can change the time/weather
• "Hide Peds" and "Hide Vehicles" both have new partner functions for modifying the scope of their behaviours (hide-all, hide-all-except-player, hide-player, etc)
• "Disable All" is now "Revert All", as its purpose is now more clearly to return Freeplay to its initial/default state (which for some features may be enabled, not disabled, especially since those defaults can be customised now...)

Usability & Customisation:

• Freeplay is now fully compatible with replays created using the Replay Longer mod
• Freeplay will now automatically request Admin permissions to run (you won't have to edit the properties of the exe anymore)
• Many more features will now remember their enabled/disabled state across multiple game instances while Freeplay remains running
• Yes, (some) Customisation!
  • Via editing a settings text file, you can set your preferred default state (enabled/disabled) for many features, so they can be automatically set just how you want them without having to press their keys
  • And speaking of keys, you can now define a subset of them that you want Freeplay to ignore, thus not act on their usage. If there are features you don't/rarely use, or whose buttons you need to press for other mods/tools, you can make Freeplay pay no attention to your presses of them. (An associated toggle is available for turning on/off this blocking of your defined keys)

Any feedback or questions are welcome.

Cheers

[Ezraph2001]

Would it be possible to add Free Camera feature which can be controlled as a helicopter on first person view? I'm sure crazier edits can be done with easier controlling.

Edit: I mean like the start of this video but in Freeplay (First 15 seconds)  https://youtu.be/1z3c5PuvKNI

of course there's replay manager, but before that i used to use the skimmer and play around with it, then save a replay and hide the player vehicle for some halfway decent shots (close to the one you shared)

also, congrats for the release @dannye! stoked to try this shit out for sure

[Dannye]

Thanks Ez  Hopefully it works well for ya!
(and cheers for the follow up on AF's question)

I have just discovered a bug, so there may be an even smaller update on the horizon... "Cycle Camera Vehicle Lock" may not work in a replay where there is only a single vehicle, I think due to a problem with my logic for trying to make it a bit more efficient behind the scenes. Its no big deal probably (I doubt its a feature that needs to be used much, also there's still the original vehicle-lock feature that can be used without issue if the player is in/on the vehicle at any point, and also in VC at least there's rarely ever only a single vehicle in the scene, due to parked cars, bus, etc), but I will try and get a fix out for it sometime soon. If anyone notices any other issues let me know.

[Cooper]

Thank you Dannye for these wonderful tools, you made stunting easier (possible in my case lmao) and totally improved stunt recording

[Dannye]

Cheers Cooper 

[Dannye]

A minor update brings us to v7.1 for Vice City Freeplay.

Its only one new feature (and one bugfix) but it is a feature I'm keen to use myself - and now wish I had made ages ago - so I wanted to rush it out in case anyone else might find it handy.

Download: VC Freeplay v7.1 with source, via ModDB

The new feature is "Display Frame Counter", which when enabled will make it so the game displays (and constantly updates) the current replay frame number during playback, in the top-left corner of the screen. Not good for 'final' stunt captures, but a potentially useful tool to assist in mockup/prep/planing.

One example: if your process involves initially mapping out the edit using simple/temp video captures of the stunts, the inclusion of this frame counter in them could help later for easy identification of what range of frames you'll need to capture per stunt (and thus plan/build camerawork for), exactly what frames line up with any potential music sync points, etc.

This feature also supports being remembered across game instances, and can have its default state customised via the settings file. And lastly, the bugfix: "Cycle Camera Vehicle Lock" will now work when used while on-foot in a replay that contains only a single vehicle (previously it failed to trigger under these circumstances and thus would not be able to lock onto that one vehicle).


Any feedback or questions are welcome.

Cheers

[Conatus]

Thank you Dannye for your great work! The new feature "Display Frame Counter" is very interesting.

[DeathCobra]

A minor update brings us to v7.1 for Vice City Freeplay.

Its only one new feature (and one bugfix) but it is a feature I'm keen to use myself - and now wish I had made ages ago - so I wanted to rush it out in case anyone else might find it handy.

Download: VC Freeplay v7.1 with source, via ModDB

The new feature is "Display Frame Counter", which when enabled will make it so the game displays (and constantly updates) the current replay frame number during playback, in the top-left corner of the screen. Not good for 'final' stunt captures, but a potentially useful tool to assist in mockup/prep/planing.

One example: if your process involves initially mapping out the edit using simple/temp video captures of the stunts, the inclusion of this frame counter in them could help later for easy identification of what range of frames you'll need to capture per stunt (and thus plan/build camerawork for), exactly what frames line up with any potential music sync points, etc.

This feature also supports being remembered across game instances, and can have its default state customised via the settings file. And lastly, the bugfix: "Cycle Camera Vehicle Lock" will now work when used while on-foot in a replay that contains only a single vehicle (previously it failed to trigger under these circumstances and thus would not be able to lock onto that one vehicle).


Any feedback or questions are welcome.

Cheers

Neat idea and it just spawned a thought in my mind.

Let's say you're watching a long replay (or a number of assorted replays). You just want a quick and dirty recording of the 'successful' attempt. Or just the attempt where you hit F2. Not so much for use in the actual editing of a video. But more for just quick sharing with others - situations like that.

At the moment, if that desired attempt isn't the first one, you gotta wait and try and guesstimate which attempt will be the one you want to record. Which obviously tends to create extra recordings where you misjudged the correct attempt.

With the Frame counter - I guess it'd improve that somewhat, where you watch the replay once, note the frame count at the start of the attempt that is the one you want. Then watch a second time and record.

But to further streamline it, is there a way to have an indicator (maybe turn frame count a different colour?), that the current attempt is the -final- attempt in the replay? Perhaps based on it being the last time a Load Position was used in the replay?

Literally as I'm writing this though I've realised that'd involve somehow writing USCM information into the .rep somehow. Or detecting the vehicle teleporting via coordinates or...something.

Maybe not all that viable, but something I'd make good use of if it is 

Thanks again for your tools 

[VaNilla]

Nice job as always!

With regards to DC's suggestion, I have a streamlined solution in mind (as long as it's technically achievable). Freeplay has the ability to recognise which frame is being played at any given moment, so why not let the player tap a hotkey while watching a replay to set their desired starting point, and then whenever a replay is opened, Freeplay would automatically start the replay on the frame number which was set by the hotkey, which could then be disabled by simply tapping the hotkey again?

This seems better than writing USCM data into replays, since that wouldn't work with old replays, and it seems better than detecting large deviations in coordinate data too, since that wouldn't work with things like Monster Dynamics in SA which can instantly teleport you elsewhere. Sometimes it's beneficial to position your angle before the successful attempt begins too (especially when the runup is short), which would also be possible with this method .