After many requests in IRC/PM/youtube comments, here's a tutorial about using q3mme (Quake 3 Movie Maker Edition) in order to make an UrT movie.
Questions are related to this movie i made a few months ago :
Becoming familiar with q3mme won't take like 5 mins, but believe me there is no big deal here.
I'm not pretending being a expert with this tool, but i'd just like to give you ideas and tips when you start creating your movies.
1/ PURPOSE
To explain you the q3mme basics, to create fluent and dynamic cam tracks in order to make some parts of your jump/fragmovies.
Q3mme allows you to edit and produce high quality videos, in a better way than using only the UrT tools.
It's a Quake 3 mod, as UrT (before its standalone version), and we're going to be able to use it because UrT is compatible with Quake3 (a large part of its content to be more specific).
So we're going to use Defrag to record demos, and q3mme to build camtracks and then to make an .avi file you'll be able to use in a video editing software.
2/ REQUIREMENTS
Here are the requirements before starting the editing :
* Having an installed and working set up of Quake3 arena (or at least game binaries, i.e. pak0.pk3 - see below)
* Download Defrag, a trickjumping mod for quake3 : http://q3defrag.org/...rag_1.91.20.zip
* Download q3mme : http://auri.co.uk/fi..._1.6_beta33.zip
* UrT 4.1.1 (not tested with 4.2)
3/ SETUP
1st step : Installing defrag and q3mme as Quake3 mods.
Just have a look to the following tutos, there's nothing complicated here :
- Defrag : http://www.q3df.org/...hp?p=1022#p1022
- q3mme : http://q3mme.proboar...splay&thread=16
Basically, all you have to do is to unzip the 2 mods in the Quake3 root folder.
NOTA1
Reading those tutos, you can see an alternative way using only pak0.pk3n for those who don't own Quake3. I got Quake3 (and valid key, lucky me) for many years, so i didn't test this method, just give it a try.
NOTA2
There's an other way for lazy people (now you read this with attention :p ) : you can use ProInstaller for Quake 3
Download it there : http://www.quake.net...=10622&opt=show
Note : in order to use this installer, you must have pak0.pk3 (grab it using the link provided in the defrag install tuto). Then, just follow the wizard, select the components you'd like to install (defrag+q3mme here, or more if you want to give a test to other mods), and go.
2nd step : "the right pk3s in the right place"
If things went fine, now Quake3 and its related mods are installed, so just start the game to set it up (graphics, gameplay...etc). For those who don't know Q3, it works like UrT, and you can do your setup using the ingame console.
note : Defrag can be started using the "MODS" menu in Q3 (in case you didn't create a shortlink to start it).
Now, we have to make Quake3 able to use UrT content :
-> Copy the following files from your UrT folder to HD:/path_to_Q3/Quake 3/defrag/ :
* zpak000.pk3
* zpak000_assets.pk3
* zpak001_assets.pk3
-> This will allow Quake3 to run all the default UrT content
-> If you want to use 3rd party maps, you just have to copy the related pk3 in this folder.
Ok. Now we can start Defrag, then open the console (same as UrT), and type
/devmap ut4_turnpike
Tada ! You are now playing Turnpike using Q3 Defrag :] (in tricks mods = ammo + life unlimited)
4/ USE AND EDITING
1st step: recording a demo
The main idea here is to record a demo, which is at least the same length of the sequence you want to make. This point is very important, we'll see why a bit further.
As in UrT, you can use the following commands :
/record
/stop record
-> You get a .dm68 file in your Quake3/defrag/demos/ folder.
Then move this file in the /Quake3/mme/demos/ in order to use it with q3mme.
2nd step : Using q3mme
It's pretty hard to explain here how q3mme works, but here are the basics. I suggest you to check tutos from official website : http://q3mme.proboar...board=tutorials
Basically, q3mme allows to you to create camera paths related to a timeline evolution. Please report to the official website tutorials to learn how to use it. There are many commands to know (freezing time, chanching view, lock/unlock camera, mouse commands, etc). It's clearly not very intuitive for a beginner, but some training should help you to master it.
Here are a few commands :
* Freeze time at t0 time interval (Key = C)
* Go to "camera" mode (Key = X to change mode), and come at the place where you want to start the tracking (hold left click + WASD)
* Create the 1st point of your camera track (Key = V)
* Then move to t+1 time interval (hold SHIFT key + mouse moving), and move the view to the place you want the camera to be at t+1 interval.
* Now create a new camera point. Note that a red "wire" has been created between the 2 points.
In this example, at t0 time interval i created a 1st point at pillar-williams, and then at t+2sec i created another point close to blue flag.
The white part of the wire shows you where the camera is at the current time.
My camera is going to move along this track, in 2 secs.
Now repeat this as much as you wish, in order to create a nice camera track : acceleration, slow down, swung camera, timeline function (please refer to q3mme official tutos)...etc etc...
Be creative :)
NOTA1
We can deduce a few tips from this :
1. If you want to change the camera's move speed, you have to change the allocate time to go through a specific distance. In my example, if I had created the 2nd point at t+0,1secs, then the camera would have run the same distance between the pillars in just 0,1 secs.
2. The red wire allows you to see the cam track, so you can figure out if it goes through a wall (it could be an expected effect though)
3. You can always change the interval time/place of a specific point, but remember that if you move it, then all the following points will move too !
NOTA 2
In the previous step, I told you to record your demo the same length as your sequence. Now you understand why considering the temporal working of q3mme.
And remember to hide somewhere you won't go with your camera when you record the demo, if you don't want to see your standing still character :p
3rd step : Create the .avi file
Once your cam track is done, get back to the beginning (t+0), go in "camera locked" mode and unfreeze time. You can now rate how good or how bad is your work, cause you see what q3mme is going to record.
It could be very long and tedious, but it's the core of your work, so make it nice :)
Then, get back to t+0, set up the game to record a video (HUD off is the default setting). Then :
/mme_saveWav 1/0
"enable / disable sound capturing to a wav file while capturing"
/capture avi amount_of_FPS file_name
For instance : /capture avi 60 kickass_intro
And here we go, remember to have a large amount of free space in your hard drive, raw .avi are very big files.
Once you reach the t+xxx time interval (end of your cam track), just press C to freeze time : it will stop the video recording aswell.
After that, grab the created file in /quake3/mme/capture/
Now you can use this .avi with your favorite editing software.
5/ CONCLUSION
That was for the basics, but it should be ok to start working with this tool.
Here's an example of what can be done with q3mme :
As a conclusion, using q3mme with UrT is limited. To be more correct, we should say that q3mme doesn't work with UrT, but we can use some UrT contents with Quake3 and q3mme.
The first goal of all those tweaks is to make some nice camera tracks, which is fairly impossible with the UrT free spec mode, because of the mouse jerks.
Remember, it's impossible to use this tweak if you want to make some common UrT movie making (fragmovie for instance).
I personnaly consider this to make some nice intros and/or transitions between 2 frags/jumps. But it's perhaps possible to make more from this.
So be creative :]