Director Mode

[isukun]

I saw a couple of threads mentioning some of what I'm about to post here, but I thought the ideas could be compiled into a sort of extra mode for the game. A lot of people like to create and share their creations online through sites like Youtube and Vimeo. It would be nice to have a mode that helps to facilitate this. It could be totally separate from the building modes already present in the game so players wouldn't need to juggle park logistics or worry about performance drops while rendering. It would also allow players to have full control over world parameters like day/night, weather, number of guests, or whatever else players want to tweak to get the best possible videos.

This mode could have two basic features. One is a walk-through feature that would allow the player to essentially control a park patron, walk through the park in first person mode, even interact with stalls and rides. The other would be a way to create camera paths or even freestyle fly throughs. They could set speed, facing, and the path itself to create a custom video of the park. In the first person mode, the game could track your movements and you could bring up a visual representation of the path you took, cutting or editing segments if you want to alter your video.

At the end, you could render videos based on your path or a set of paths that would create a more dynamic video. Maybe even add in some transition effects for the more artistic crowd. Renders wouldn't necessarily need to be done in the game, you could potentially save your video edit and then render outside the game to get the best picture quality possible or change the resolution to match the video size you want or even include rendering effects that your computer wouldn't normally be able to handle, but you could also demo the video in the game engine to make sure everything is framed properly.

Another feature I'd love to see is the ability to render in a 360 view and 3D for video services and hardware that support it. Could be pretty revolutionary to have the ability to render out a 360 degree video from a seat on a coaster. People could make their own virtual coaster rides and post them on youtube for anyone with a VR setup or google cardboard.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

They (Frontier) made something like that for RCT3, which I hope they do again!

It would be super cool if you could set a path, and actions (available animations), for a peep to "act out".
But I think that goes beyond the scope of possibilities.


[video=youtube;HGGp5xFu9LE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGGp5xFu9LE[/video]

 

[isukun]

That's why you combine it with the first person mode mentioned in another thread. Rather than program a peep to act a certain way, you just record your own actions as you roam the park.

Overall, though, I think the biggest feature they need is the ability to do 360 degree video output. Game videos are pretty huge these days and being able to create 360 degree coaster ride throughs would be pretty amazing. People could share their parks and rides with people online without them needing to actually own the game and download the save files. Would be great for spectators and good advertising for the game, itself.

 

[SPRidley]

What we need is a cam program just like RCT3 used in cheat form.

When I made the video on Planet Coaster, trying to move the came with the mouse was cumbersome and behave erraticaly. You seem to want to see everything from the guests point of view, but for people making videos, although that option would be neat to have, we would prefer a thosand times a real "movie" camera you can fly through anywhere with animated controls and parameters a not by yourself, without you controlling it like first person shooter.

 

[isukun]

And that was also part of the initial suggestion for the Director mode. I just know some people also like the idea of first person mode and park walk throughs and ride throughs are fairly popular in real life parks. Could be fun to see that option in there with more traditional camera work and fly throughs. I also wanted to make the suggestion of having the ability to make 360 degree videos, as one of the things I hate most in watching gameplay footage or ride throughs from real life rides is that I can't look around and see the things I want to see, because I'm restricted to what the camera is pointed at (usually just pointed forward). It's also an easy way to demo rides and parks without sharing the save file.

Plus I'd like to see it as a separate mode, rather than a cheat. Sharing gameplay videos is pretty popular and a lot of games are starting to program this ability into their software directly. It shouldn't be part of the normal gameplay mode, though, so players don't have to worry about finances and how the park is performing while they're creating their videos.