Need some tips for dream sequence transition.

ovaltine74

So I already know what I want the dream to look like, my problem is the transition, not sure how to do it. I was thinking of having a bed that is a clicky. I would like to incorporate the screen going black, a teleporter while the screen is black and then the screen comes back and you are in the dream. I haven't tried to fool with it yet, but I forsee problems. That is multiple things happening at once, and for it to look right it would have to be set up a certain way. So I was wondering how you guys would do it. Thanks in advance for the genius solutions.

crok2

If you want to save yourself a lot of pain... Just make the bed clicky like you said and have that change maps. If you want to go crazy, build the dream room first, then inside of it manually build the non dream room. When they click on the bed in the non dream room, the inner walls all disappear as well as everything goes black (sky fade) etc. Although skyfades are risky at best on low end computers and tricky when groups are not together.

I will see if I can find a post another person made on his blackout scenario. I will post here if I find it

crok2

Wait! I found the old thread:
removing link as it is not accessible.

ovaltine74

For some reason I can't view that page.

crok2

Gah sorry, its from the alpha, I just noticed that. I can cut and paste stuff but it won't be nearly as informative as that thread lol:

Author: hercooles130uscg

_____


"blackout" method, tested a bit

Added some screenshots in post #5

So I was doing some tech testing last night in the Foundry in preparation for my next quest and started working on a way to simulate a blackout, or getting knocked unconscious and waking up in a different room. Got it working pretty decent. Thought I would share and see if anyone else has any input or wants to give it a try as well.

What you will need.
Details for two different "rooms"
About 4 black depthfades, size depending on room size.

Essentially what you are doing is building two complete rooms on top of each other. For ease though I just simulated getting knocked out and waking up in a smaller prison cell.

Take the first room and build it for you quest. Next build the second room inside of it, but using walls and something a as floor and ceiling. For my jail cell I used brick dungeon walls, and the castle floor. I also wanted to have a jail cell door, so I threw some more walls across the cell door so players looking through it feel as if they are in a room connected to a small hallway. When building your second room, you want to have the walls far enough apart from each other that the depthfade effect, will completely black them out.

After the second "room" is built you will add the depthfade effects. Position these close enough to where the player will be when they interact with whatever will render them unconscious. This will have to be done through dialogue for the best effect. The depth fade is designed to blackout everything around the player. It will hide all the walls and decorations of the first room until they can be properly hidden.

The process go something like this.
Create the dialogue for the transition. Something like.

Prompt 1"You reach out to take the treasure, and feel a hard thump on the back of your neck." Response "continue"
Prompt 2"You slip into unconsciousness, the room going black around you." Response "Continue"
Prompt 3"As you slip in and out of awareness, you sense that you are being carried."
Prompt 4"Your not sure how long you have been out, but you feel cold stone under your back. Response : "Open your eyes"

you can add or change, but it works best with 4 to set up the transition

On prompt one, nothing will happen.

On prompt two The black depthfade's will appear, making everything around the player and all but a small bit of floor black.

On prompt three, with everything well hidden you disappear the old room's details and appear the new rooms. If you set your depthfade's up right, with enough space between the player and any walls or objects(in both rooms), they should never see any of the swaps happen. The way the Depthfade works is that the further something is set into the fade, the darker it gets. So if you don't have enough depthfade extending past an object, you will still be able to see it faintly.

On prompt 4 you then disappear the depthfade and presto, the player is in a jail cell with no loading screen and no apparent change in scenery, as it was all hidden in blackness. The only thing they would notice is the floor changing, but this can be made less apparent by interesting dialogue during the transition, or by positioning the object that causes the blackout to position the camera away from the floor or ceiling during the dialogue.

To save on complexity, it is best to then change maps soon. For example, have the door leaving the cell transport to a new map, or have them leave the cell, and move to a new door a short distance away, all within this second room of course.

A time saving tip is that depending on how you design your room, you don't really need to disappear most of the first setups details, as they will be hidden behind walls of the second setup.

It is best to not use ambient sounds on this map, but place-able sounds that can be triggered on and off with dialogue.

Other ways to use this would be change the color of the depth fade and add random objects "floating" around the player, as in a dream to coincide with dialogue.

Hope this gives some inspiration.

ovaltine74

I am thinking of using a map transition, just because the dream takes place on a map that the player played earlier in the quest. The map is the same, except it has a dreamlike appearance. I can just duplicate the map and alter it to my liking. I just didn't want there to be a simple change map as the transition into the dream is all. I wanted it to fade to black to give the impression of one going to sleep. I certainly havent given up on it yet. I will be sure I post my eventual solution here when I am done. Might even post a fraps of it in action for those that come after me. LOL.

crok2

Yeah, Fraps would be cool

runis12

I'd like to play this when you're done. I really want to play more outdoorsy quests.

crok2

runis12 wrote: »

I'd like to play this when you're done. I really want to play more outdoorsy quests.

You could play my Harvest Fayre quest. (Searchable by title in best tab or my name in author tab) It is outdoorsy

edit no. It is outdoors lol, not really ourdoorsy.

runis12

I'll try that out tomorrow! Wrote it down, here on my desk! I am now internet honor-bound! Exclamation point!!!!

crok2

lol only if you wanted to. It doesn't need reviews or anything and I won't notice if you skip it :P

ovaltine74

Yeah you might be waiting awhile. My quest will have like a dozen maps on it, some inside, some outside, some dungeons, caves, ruins...it is a huge story quest taking place in multiple locations. I am trying for max detail on every map, every npc interactable with dialog, multiple response choices for each, so it is taking me some time. I'd say I am half way done with it and have already been working on it for two weeks. That map you saw in the video is low detail, It has completely changed since then. Lots of stuff going on in it now.I'll send you the info in your inbox when it is done. Wrote your name down.

crok2

Wow, I can't wait!

ovaltine74

Alright, I got it working the way I wanted. Used a few fake walls and such like you recommended. Basically I started with a room that is attached to another map. I hid the door to the map with a wall. dropped the black out, removed all the furniture, cut the room in half with a few more walls to make it look like a hallway and removed the wall from in front of the door. Added some torches and some NPCs that were not there before and turned the lights back on. It totally gives the effect I wanted to achieve. Because the area it leads into is a previous map in the quest, the player is going to assume they were moved from one map to another, when they actually never moved at all. It really looks cool.

Thanks for the ideas, they worked!