The NGLE Manual

Title Flyby Cameras

by EssGee

Creating a custom Title Flyby level

The Title level is the one that you see behind the New game and load menus before you enter your game. You can create your own custom Title Flyby in the same way you build a normal level, except that this title level is a continuously looped flyby, so it is not playable as such.

I'll describe a simple method for creating a custom Title Flyby and then look at the pre-existing Core Title.

Making a simple custom Title Flyby

1. Create the rooms for your flyby in the normal manner. In this example I'm assuming that all the rooms are interconnected, so you can continuously fly through the rooms. In fact, you can walk Lara around your level to inspect your work first by simply changing your compiled TR4 name temporarily to a level name that's already in your script.

By default your title level would be called Title, but you can call it what you like as long as you apply this naming in the script. The looped backing music for the Title is by default 104. But again you can change this to one of the other looped track numbers and alter in your script, or simply rename your chosen custom loop to 104.wav.

So your Title script might look something like this:

;--------------------------------------
; Title
;--------------------------------------

[Title]

LoadCamera= 84246,-533,78233,81622,-1514,78208,40 ;src x,y,z target x,y,z, room
Level= DATA\MYTITLE,103


When the level is in the Title script as above, the engine takes over and Lara is not seen in the level and you will only see from the flyby camera perspective.

2. Setting the Flyby cameras. For a simple setup, place a flyby camera where you want your flyby loop to begin. Place Lara on the same tile as the camera. Select the camera and Place a 'Trigger for camera' on the same tile. In the OCB box of this camera depress code bits 0 (Snap to cam sequence) and 2 (Loop for infinity). In the camera Properties enter Seq 1 Num 0.

3. Then continue to add more cameras advancing the sequence number by one each time (e.g. Seq 1 Num 1, Seq 1 Num 2 etc).

4. Note that there's a limit to the number of cameras you can use in a sequence which is 32 (i.e Cam Num 0-31).

5. Arrange your cameras so that the last camera in the sequence is located near the first camera. This way the transition to loop back to the start will be smooth.


Understanding the Core Title sequence

Now you undertsand the basics, we'll take a look at the Core Title flyby. It works a little differently. It is made up of 3 separate sequences that occur in three disconnected areas of the map.

1. Open the Title project up and take a look at Room 12 where the first camera in the sequence is located. Beneath the camera is a normal Trigger for this camera. Lara is placed in the adjoining room 24. In other words she only has to be placed somewhere on the map. She will not be seen during the Title flyby. Open the OCB box of the camera - interestingly it is Seq 1 Num 1, which means it onbviously works if num 1 is the first in the sequence. Generally it is recommended to use Num 0 as the first cam in a sequence. Also take a look at room 20 (camera seq 1 Num 11). It has OCB code bit 14 depressed (Activate heavy trigger) and has a trigger for Animating 6 beneath it. This is the pair of opening doors that you see during the flyby.

2. Now follow the sequence through to room 23 to look at the final camera in this sequence - which has Cam Properties Seq 1 Num 13, with OCB code bit button 14 depressed (activate a heavy trigger). Beneath this camera is a 'Trigger for Flyby 2'. Yes, Trigger not Heavy. Unlike in normal levels, it seems to work whether you use a Normal trigger or Heavy trigger. This trigger will make the flyby leap to the second camera sequence which starts in Room 2.

3. In Room 2 take a look at the first camera. It has Camera Properties Seq 2 Num 1 with OCBcode bit 0 depressed (snap to cam). Follow the second camera sequence through to room 10. There are two cameras in this room. Camera seq 2 num 15 is actually the last camera in the sequence. It has OCB code bit 14 depressed (Activate heavy trigger) and has a 'Trigger for Flyby 3' placed beneath it. The other camera (Seq 2 Num 16) is a dummy camera which is placed there to make the jump to the next sequence happen properly. This is the same as the Cut Cam technique described by Uvavoo here:

I'm not sure why this sequence needs the dummy cam and the first one didn't (unless there is a dummy cam for the first sequence hidden somewhere else on the map and I haven't located it).

4. Now move to room 34. The first camera in this sequence is Seq 3 Num 1 and has OCB code bit 0 depressed (snap to cam). Starting to sound familiar, isn't it. Now check the other camera in room 34. It has OCB code bit 14 depressed (activate heavy trigger). It has a 'Trigger for Animating 3' beneath it. This is a trigger for the animating rocking boats.

5. Finally go to room 32 and look at the last camera in the sequence Seq 3 Num 9. It has OCB code bit 14 depressed (Activate heavy trigger) and a 'Trigger for Flyby 1' placed beneath it. This will make the sequence jump back to the start of the loop (at Camera Seq 1 Num1).

So that's how the Core Title flyby works.

Comments

If you run into problems with your own custom Title e.g where the camera won't jump from one sequence to the next, then I'd try using the extra dummy camera technique to solve the problem. If normal triggers don't work under the cameras then try a Heavy trigger.

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