Would you support a "Filming Only" Camera Mech for use in Public matches?

I've already brought this up on the Official forums HERE and on Reddit HERE

Specator tool will NEVER be available for use in a public environement due to cheating and exploitation issue. There are current "work arounds" available to players by taking certain mechs, turning off HUD, and zooming in to remove cockpit obstructions. It is very difficult to get proper footage of live battles.

I had an idea: why not focus on the existing method of using mechs to record footage, but dramatically enhance it's ability with very simple changes.

So, let's see what this mech would include:

• Spider-5V base
• Up-to 12 Jump Jets
• Engine cap of 285 (max 169kph)
• NO WEAPON HARDPOINTS
• Still is AMS capable
  
• Fixed Tag (to avoid weaponless error and to allow the mech to spot. Also doubles as a laser pointer for directing mechs in choreographed scenes in private lobby)
  
• ECM capable (to avoid the mech being completely useless to the team, as with the TAG. Also helps draw attention away from the filming mech)
• Mech is treated just like any normal mech in-game. Targetable. Destroyable. NONE of that changes.
  
• Remove cockpit textures from the mech so the player is not required to zoom in. This also allows the player to use zooming as a special effect in his recordings, and added feature not existent with the current method of filming live gameplay
• Remove any and all forms of cockpit shake. This is already a variable for any mech in MWO because of the Cockpit Shake module which reduces its visual effect. This mech would have this, as a quirk, to completely remove Cockpit shake from projectiles.
• Remove Jump Jet cockpit shake. This is the most difficult part of the entire suggestion. It would require some work and may be more or less difficult than I could ever understand. However, it is really the ONLY thing that would require time looking into.

Done

Yup, that simple.

Now you have eliminated 90% of the difficulties of recording in any match. Everything is already available in the game, the only major work is to REMOVE textures from the cockpit and to implement a screenshake removal. It is SAFE and BALANCED. ECM spider already exists. No weapons, thus the cockpit shake is meaningless for balance. It cannot be exploited in any way compared to other suggestions of an "Observer UAV" or the Spectator tool. PGI could also make the mech available for MC only. Sure, not many are going to purchase it as it's pretty useless for the average player. However ALL content creators out there would purchase it, more than likely. Anything that makes the filming process easier and reduces the time to get proper shots would be worth every penny for me personally.

Thoughts? If you currently make MWO content and/or would use this mech to create content in the future, this is really directed at you. What do you have to contribute to this idea?

 

I wouldn't do MWO movies it if I didn't enjoyed it somehow, but I have to say the absence of proper recording tools is immensely frustrating.

Unfortunately your suggestion is yet another overcomplicated and unsatisfying replacement of what would be without any doubt the best way to record a game: a demo recording system.

For those who don't know what I'm talking about, it doesn't record what you actually see like a video recorder (like FRAPS) would, it records your position, your orientation, your speed, your status, etc. It makes a very light file containing all the infos about a game. When I say "very light", it's hundreds or thousands times lighter than a video of the same length (to give you an idea, a demo of a Quake Live duel, 10 minutes, weight approximately 1MB).
Not to mention it requires much less resource from you computer than a video capture.

There are multiple uses for demos.
1/ game analysis. Watching your own games, as well as games of better players (light files = easy to share), aside from practice-practice-practice this is the best way to improve.
2/ cheat detection. Thrust me, there are much less false cheat accusations when you can analyse demos. And actual cases are much easier to report.
3/ movie making, by recording the playback or, much more handy, using a dedicated third party software.

Now to focus on movie making, demos allow you almost total freedom over your source material, to render it on a video. You can change the visual settings - hell, you can even change textures and models. You can replay in free floating camera and thus capture external shot of actions you played in cockpit view. You can play it backward. You can render slow-motion shots that still be actual 60fps (or 120fps, for that matter). You can zoom at will and not get a crappy pixelized image. You can remove the HUD or make a custom HUD. edit: and record the game sounds without the teammates speaking on coms.
More than that, you can simply share files recorded on multiple computers with different settings, and get a clean, optimized 4K video at the end. Think of how difficult making a MWO community frag movie would be - in the Quake community it's a common practice, thanks to the demo recording.

To give you an example, here's how it may look when you play Quake 3 CPMA:



And here's an example of movie you can make:

 

I completely agree with all of that epikt, but would you agree that my proposed enhanced camera mech method is a good temporary solution until such a replay feature is added (if it is every added)? It is not over-complicated. It takes our current and only method of recording and improves upon it with little to no effort from PGI.

 

While I think it would be good for the creators; I do not think it is worth the time it would take for the changes. It already takes them like a month to change weapon textures on 1 mech. So imagine them instead taking a whole month for that little group of slackers to do this instead. I realize it would be much easier; but even then I think PGI is barely competent enough to sluggishly do what they are currently doing.

 

True.

But when I said it's over complicated, it's from a movie maker point of view.
Let's take the movie I'm currently working on as an example: I want to record external (ie from outside the cockpit) views of combats. In order to do so, I have to gather a crew, rehearse the moves and record them, with a tool unable to make the shots I want to make. Everything there is second best solution, from the acting that despite all our efforts never will be as convincing as real battle footage, to the movie-making that has to compromise with the actual abilities of my camera-mech. Not to mention it does not allow me to experiment, since each time I want to test something I'd need to take one hour of the actors time - which I don't, since it's already difficult enough to set a single session.
Your proposition does not solve anything of this, only minor problems like camera shake or cockpit frame (still good to take thought).

Don't get me wrong, I'd definitely use this tool if it existed.
But I also wouldn't want PGI to think it would be satisfying.


PS: for those looking for a camera mech, the panther leaves absolutely not cockpit frame at x2 zoom. And it can mount up to 8 jump jets.

 

The easiest way to do it is a sort of "recording module"

I don't mine it being one shot and MC as this would indeed add to server load. But making it a premium time feature is good also. In which case you can limit it to x free recording per account per day.

The idea is that as long as there is one mech with such a module in the game, a detailed event log is created, you know like the mech positions, firing routines and damages. The file is saved and can be downloaded within the next couple of days.
By running the file the whole match is replayed, at which the viewer can go spectator. It won't matter anyways since this is a recording, and unless the viewer is a timelord he won't be able to change anything.

So you can have a spectator mode-like recording without damaging public games. On top of that you can film it time and again at different angles!

On top of that it would be a really good performance review tool. You get to lear from other players.

 

Why make it a module or a premium exclusive? That should be a default tool available to all players, and there is no reason for it to be otherwise.

 

That is an idea I got from some other arcade online games. The idea is that there are so many matches happening each day, and that storing such a detailed log for ALL games all the time is quite some work. Hence the limit. Basically I am saying normal players get a smaller amount of recordings per day, say 2-3 per day (extras would cost a small MC like consumables), while premium gets more or unlimited.

This will stop all players from recording all the games all the time.

You choose to record AFTER the game, so you don't have to do it if you think it is not worth the effort.

 

Demos are stored on the player's computer.

 

The game I said also do this to the match you choose to record.

 

I'd support this if, and only if, you can choose where the demos are saved on your PC. I use a SSD for my C Drive, and it's not very big (definitely going bigger when I build my next one...), but MWO defaults all screenshots to that drive. If it starts defaulting recordings there too, I'll find myself hurting on space, since all my work stuff is on the C drive, leaving me with only a few GB to spare.

So yeah, let us select the save directory, and I'm all for it.

 

@Durandal : I agree, using the default user/Games directory is annoying as **** (would it be so hard to be able to select a folder from the game options?)
Anyway, you can change the location of those default folders (all those useless folders like "my videos", my pictures", etc...). You first need to create a folder were you want, then right click on the "Games" folder, then "properties", and in the "location" you can enter the path to the folder you just created.

 

I'd actually prefer a straight up Spectator tool like the one League of Legends uses. An overview camera angle, delayed a few minutes, being able to see all of the specific information about specific mechs. It would be even better if you could zoom into specific pilots cockpits too, since that would be even a step ahead of what LoL can do. I think that it would be an awesome little feature that could add a lot to the game.

 

There should be a recorder that just saves all vital information needed to recreate the battle after the battle is over. Like Battlefield 2(server side) or newer games like World of Tanks and War Thunder. Those recordings are usually up to 1-2 mb for a full battle 20-30 minute battle, im sure mech have more moving parts so they might be double but its still next to nothing. Sens its recording everything that happens you can view the battle from any direction at any time at any speed you want, pause, reverse etc.