Screengrabs from exactly same camera angle

[PinkDot]

Hi,
I would like to be able to do some screengrabs from different in game sessions but from exactly same camera angle - for comparison purposes. Is it possible to set this up in Dromed? And if I could do this for a few places in a level it would be even more handy. Something like camera teleporting from one place to another every 3 seconds or so...
Does anyone have any idea how to do that?

[Xorak]

I swear someone just mentioned doing that exact thing in the tips and tricks thread.
Basically set a marker and then teleport your view to it.

This is quoting R Soul from that thread:
Comparing old and new poly counts
If I get a high poly count when looking in a certain direction, I place a marker, rotated to face that direction, and use cam_to_brush to place the camera there. I go back to game mode and note the poly count. After editing the terrain, I use cam_to_brush to get back to the marker to confirm that the poly count has been lowered and I'm not just looking in a slightly different direction.


It's probably not the most ingenious method, but you could set bounds triggers around each maker, so that when the player is teleported to one, it waits 3 seconds with a Traptrig, then teleports you to the next one in the line.

[LarryG]

The command you want is vm_teleport x, y, z. That will send you to that exact position. I don't see a way to orient the camera once there (rotation, inclination, declination), so you may need to do that manually.

Another approach would be a Camvator. Basically you set up a vator and attach Garrett to it. You can set pauses along the way, but again, IIRC, you will need to orient the view at each stop manually

These are all the DromEd commands I found relating to camera position. Good luck!

DromEd Command	          Definition
ai_cam_to_cell      	  Send camera to AI cell
cam_attach          	  attach camera to object
cam_level           	  level current camera
cam_rotate          	  rotate current camera
cam_slew            	  slew current camera
cam_swap            	  swap two cameras
cam_to_brush        	  move camera to look at cur brush
cam_unroll          	  unroll current camera
cam_warp            	  warp camera to mouse loc
cycle_view          	  change current camera
fit_cameras         	  fit cameras to world/hot region
move_game_camera    	  teleport game camera
player_cam_load     	  load ARG or cam000.loc as player camera
player_cam_save     	  save player camera to ARG, or drom000.cam
player_detach_arm   	  toggle whether arm attached to player camera
player_spew_arm_offset	  spew arm offset from camera to monochrome
vm_teleport         	  move camera to x,y,z
xmouse              	  auto-select camera under mouse
zoom_2d             	  zoom current camera
zoom_all            	  zoom all 2d cameras

EDIT: cam_to_brush !! Of course. Brilliant!!

[PinkDot]

Thanks for replies! I'll try these commands when I'm home.

[Nameless Voice]

Align a marker exactly where you want to take the screenshot from, and then use the following command in-game:

:cam_attach 432

(where 432 is the object ID of your camera marker)


That will give you a completely consistent view, which you can't accidentally move by moving the mouse.

You could also use TrapCamAttach from tnhScript if you need to take the screenshots from inside Thief2.exe for some reason.


I think this was what I used to take the screenshots for building the shadow maps in The Affairs of Wizards - a crazy technique that I never did get around to documenting...