Killcam

[dave]

This isnt a serious suggestion in any way.

I am just thinking how AMUSING it would be to see the monster killing you from its point of view for a few seconds after you die.

It would be just a small thing and not improve the gameplay in any way.

Just a nice addition

 

[brphoenix]

CoD plz?

I doubt that would be added, and I personally think it's a lame suggestion. No offense, but, code-wise, this would be a PAIN to code. That, and it's fairly useless. There's a lot more stuff that's more important, and most of them are also fairly easy to code. So no reason at all for this to be added.

 

[SMIFF]

Someone could probably make a mutator for it.

That Yoyobatty guy seems to know his stuff, ask him lol

 

[Undedd Jester]

Actually would like to see a death cam... watching a demo get blown sky high by his own pipe would be freaking funny ;P

And friendly fire servers with those crossbow 1 pops would be hilarious

 

[nutterbutter]

CoD plz?

I doubt that would be added, and I personally think it's a lame suggestion. No offense, but, code-wise, this would be a PAIN to code.

Actually, it would be trivial to code what he suggested. Once the person dies, the PoV simply changes to a mob. Maybe change the tint or the outline of the view, but it is no different from what happens when people spectate.

Now, if someone wants the replay of 2 or 3 seconds before they die and then the death, that would be a hassle. But just changing the PoV at death for a few seconds is trivial.

I think it is irrelevant enough to be nifty.

 

[omarfw]

CoD plz?

CoD didn't invent the killcam nor were they the first people to start using it. they just brought it back into popularity so to speak.

so it wouldn't be a ripoff of CoD or any other game that uses killcam

 

[[UIT] Akame]

Now, if someone wants the replay of 2 or 3 seconds before they die and then the death, that would be a hassle. But just changing the PoV at death for a few seconds is trivial.

I think it is irrelevant enough to be nifty.

Did you even bother reading?

it would be to see the monster killing you from its point of view for a few seconds after you die.

So it's not a POV change, it's a death cam.
And yes that would be a pain to code. I'm thinking you would have to record the last few seconds constantly so that would hurt performance as well.

 

[omarfw]

I'm thinking you would have to record the last few seconds constantly so that would hurt performance as well.

the entire game would have to be recorded for instant replay killcam death shots. the game has no way of knowing when you are going to be killed so it can't just start recording 3 seconds or so before somebody dies

 

[[UIT] Akame]

the entire game would have to be recorded for instant replay killcam death shots. the game has no way of knowing when you are going to be killed so it can't just start recording 3 seconds or so before somebody dies

You can alternate temporary write files with overlapping time frames to reduce the total data written and then discard temp files when they are no longer needed. You still record the entire game but overall you use less storage.

 

[nutterbutter]

Did you even bother reading?

Wow. So your're not going to be polite. You're gonna be rude for absolutely no reason.

No matter, but yes, I did read. Would you care for me to quote?

I am just thinking how AMUSING it would be to see the monster killing you from its point of view for a few seconds after you die.

Again...

I am just thinking how AMUSING it would be to see the monster killing you from its point of view for a few seconds after you die.

One more time...

I am just thinking how AMUSING it would be to see the monster killing you from its point of view for a few seconds after you die.

Considering you quoted that exact statement in your post, I figured you would have read it as well.

Just because you are relatively anonymous on the forum doesn't mean you should be rude.

 

[nutterbutter]

You can alternate temporary write files with overlapping time frames to reduce the total data written and then discard temp files when they are no longer needed. You still record the entire game but overall you use less storage.

Your possible solution above wouldn't work. Since there is no way to know which mob would deliver the death blow, the only way to possibly do it would be to record every mob's PoV until that mob is killed and depending on the mob, some time afterwards as well. So if there were 260 mobs on a wave, the computer would have to record 260 PoVs. As each mob is killed, the recording PoV video for that mob would be terminated immediately, or depending on the mob, continued for a short while afterwards. After the wave is finished, all of the recorded videos would be discarded.

There is no way to "overlap time frames" to reduce recording. That strategy would increase the stress on the computer dramatically.

Another possible way to record the death cam video would be to only turn on PoV recording for a mob is only when there is an attack by that mob. That would eliminate the travel times for a mob being recorded. Of course, to reduce disk activity, the buffer time for each attack would have to carry over to the next attack or a few seconds afterwards. The problem with that strategy is that each computer would have to record the PoV from certain mobs that weren't attacking that specific player directly. Doing the calculating and switching using that strategy could be more stressful for the computer than simply bruteforce recording all of the mobs PoV.

Since these videos aren't being saved and discarded at the end of the wave, these videos, conceptually, could simply be recorded directly to memory. The problem with that is the recording resolution. If someone's video resolution is 1280x1024, or the death cam is hard coded to use that resolution, then it is entirely possible that if someone has a free GB of RAM and maybe a spare core for processing, this could be done with a minimum of impact. However, if someone is running a higher resolution like I do at 2560x1600, then recording to memory isn't possible.

The easiest way, and least taxing, would be to simply continually loop record the last 10 seconds with a camera above that specific player in memory. It wouldn't be from the mob's PoV, but it would show that person's death and I think that would be cool.

 

[brphoenix]

Seeing stuff from the clot's point of view implies you'd be seeing it in first person. Since I doubt a clot has a vision like a human being's, you'd have to:

• Think of how they perceive the world;
• Change the PoV to that specific clot that killed you. Depending on how the game is coded, this may or may not be easy;

That, and what's so funny in whatching a clot walking towards your teammates? He killed you already, and unless you were rambo-ing, it'll come towards them.

 

[[UIT] Akame]

Wow. So your're not going to be polite. You're gonna be rude for absolutely no reason.

Yes I do suppose I was bit rude but calm down please. You stated that it would be easy to code a change of POV to the specimen that killed you after they killed such that you would follow the specs action for next next three second (meaning you would not get to see your death). Given that the request was for a killcam and they stated that they wanted to watch the death of the player character I figured it would seem reasonable to assume they didn't want what you first mentioned, despite:

Actually, it would be trivial to code what he suggested.

I suppose I also didn't make it clear that I was referring to capturing the death of the player character from a fixed cam that is constantly recording the player character (which could benefit in total storage required by alternating temp file, even though this would have no positive effect of the strain the kill cam would place on the system). Which sounds exactly like:

The easiest way, and least taxing, would be to simply continually loop record the last 10 seconds with a camera above that specific player in memory. It wouldn't be from the mob's PoV, but it would show that person's death and I think that would be cool.

The biggest issue with this is that it would usually fail to capture ranged attackers but that probably isn't a huge deal since most are melee anyway.

 

[Bej-Bej]

I hope none of you are implying that the game would buffer a couple hundred pre-rendered frames into memory for the purposes of the kill cam. At that point you are forcing you graphics card to render massively large amounts of frames that you will never see and you game is now stuttering because you have run out of ram and are now writing to you virtual memory. Most of that was somewhat of an exaggeration.

A better method would be to have the locations of all the pawns and actors and their respective actions recorded into a three second buffer in memory.* When a player dies the game just does some client side magic, resets the map to the earliest time in the buffer and then replays all the actions from the point of view of the specimen that killed the player for a few seconds before resynchronizing back to current time.

*I'm somewhat sure this is how the unreal engine records demos

 

[flavoracid]

or, u could all stop being dicks criticizing each other, and think logically.


When you die it says XXXXXXXXXX killed you, or whatever. It knows what mob killed you. All you do is add a node to the hitbox, or neck, or head, or even USE the hitbox as a node, and when you die, automatically parent your 3rd person pov cam to that node of the zed that killed u. So as soon as you die, and hit the deck, your screen switches to the POV of the mob


so no recording, no temp files, no 'what does the monster's pov of the world look like? is he mad? did his father beat him as a young zed?, is his pov skewed?', or any of that crap. You parent your 3rd person cam to the zed's empty 'head' node, end of story.

 

[[UIT] Akame]

automatically parent your 3rd person pov cam to that node of the zed that killed u. So as soon as you die, and hit the deck, your screen switches to the POV of the mob

We are talking about replaying the last three seconds you were alive and, hopefully, trying to figure out a way to see this replay from the point of view of the specimen. What you are suggesting is watching what the mob does after they kill you, which is not what the person originally wanted.

I hope none of you are implying that the game would buffer a couple hundred pre-rendered frames into memory for the purposes of the kill cam.

I was assuming you do it however fraps does it, but I guess it just records what you are viewing, not an additional render based of another reference point. But it's kind of moot since this is never going to be implemented.

A better method would be to have the locations of all the pawns and actors and their respective actions recorded into a three second buffer in memory.

I assume that is what supreme commander does as well? I figured that would be a good reference point since you can change perspective while the recording plays.

 

[Bej-Bej]

Logically the killcam can only activate once the player has been killed. If you want the killcam to be an instant replay and show the few seconds leading up to the player's death from the point of view of a specimen, then logically you are going to have to record something.

Also I like your idea about specimen kill cams. We could put those into versus so that whenever you die as a specimen it flashed through your life story.

 

[HaTeMe]

Seeing stuff from the clot's point of view implies you'd be seeing it in first person. Since I doubt a clot has a vision like a human being's, you'd have to:

• Think of how they perceive the world;

I always thought clots as something related to carebears, with all the hugging and such. So Id imagine them to see the world as rainbows, flowers and hearts.

 

[nutterbutter]

Yes I do suppose I was bit rude but calm down please.

Dude, I am calm.

You stated that it would be easy to code a change of POV to the specimen that killed you after they killed such that you would follow the specs action for next next three second (meaning you would not get to see your death). Given that the request was for a killcam and they stated that they wanted to watch the death of the player character I figured it would seem reasonable to assume they didn't want what you first mentioned

The OP said "AFTER." Again, "AFTER."

Considering I've quoted that multiple times and you've quoted it multiple times, it should be clear by now.

I suppose I also didn't make it clear that I was referring to capturing the death of the player character from a fixed cam

You didn't. You mentioned a technique of recording not where or how you would place the camera.

You also mentioned

alternate temporary write files with overlapping time frames to reduce the total data written

which wouldn't reduce the amount of data written. It would multiply the amount of data written depending on the amount of overlapping and alternating.

The biggest issue with this is that it would usually fail to capture ranged attackers but that probably isn't a huge deal since most are melee anyway.

It would fail to capture a ranged attack if the attacker was outside of the view. But it would be the least taxing to the system.

 

[omarfw]

ya know, i don't think there's going to be an easy way to do this that everyone would agree on or like, so i say someone just mod a stripper to dance on the screen after you die.