Ok this idea just came up in my mind: It would be cool if it was possible to play a short video sequences at some points in the game. For example after getting a quest. Say: You have to collect flowers for a Khajit named Ajira She describes the flowers she needs and after leaving the conversation, a short video plays quickly showing the flowers, as if your mind imagines the description Ajira gave. Of course this is just one example of what could be done, but you get the picture.

As a CS-noob my question is simple: Is something like that possible??

It's certainly possible, and there are several instances in the game where such a thing happens. The most difficult part is likely the creation of the movie and getting it into bink format. Movie files are generally pretty large though, so you may need to consider that aspect in terms of movie length...

I'm not certain how the movie is cued, but I'm sure it could be done.

Well recording ingame footage and cutting it into a good looking video sequence would be the easiest way creating these movies. However that would create a "problem" when it comes to the different textures, head packs etc people use.

If the game or the cs is capable handling all those short movies, it surely could visually enrich a lot of quests.

Yeah, the creation of the videos is the hard part. Pick up Rad Video Tools and conversion to Bink takes 10 seconds.

It is more than possible, and has little do to with cs (aside from making the video run ofc). As a matter of fact Illy did a couple of these videos to show of her awesome mod so contacting her will surely be fruitful.

Ok, video creation and conversion aside. I think the OP wanted to know how to make it trigger in-game.

You can make the game play a video by using the PlayBink function through a script.

Example: PlayBink "MyVideoName" 1 or PlayBink "MyVideoName" 0

I believe the 1 and 0 designate whether or not the player is allowed to skip the cut-scene by pressing escape (1) or not (0).

Pretty sure it does, because you can skip the video sequence when you put on the ring of Hircine, and in the script the Bink function has a 1.

I'd love to see some kind of implementation of cutscenes. Surely the idea has been thought of before, but I've never seen it. Possibly due to the level of difficulty. Some may think the work involved isn't worth the result.

Well for things in game I can't imagine that it would be to hard to get the video, as long as you have a computer good enough to run MW and a video-capture software such as FRAPS. The harder part would be conversion. If someone would supply the videos, I would surely be willing to convert them...

Ok to answer the OP

You have to decide how you want the cutscene to trigger

In the example you have given you would likely use the results box to start the script - you can run the clip direct from the results box but it requires careful structuring of the conversation - because as soon as you reach the choice which holds the cutscene it will activate right away

I do have a few cutscenes in Veloth's Child which are activated this way - because after the cutscene I want the player to stay in dialogue

Normally I write a script which freezes the player momentarily while the scene plays - and I include the passing of time

So in the dialogue results box I write

StartScript "My_script"
Goodbye

Here's an example script that plays after a conversation.

begin BM_SuranRub; Original script by Illuminielshort statefloat timerif ( menumode == 1 )returnendifif ( state == 0 )    set state to 10ToggleMenus    DisablePlayerControls; prevents player action    FadeOut 5.0elseif ( state == 10 )    if ( timer < 5.0 ); same time as fade	 set timer to ( timer + GetSecondsPassed )    return    endif    set timer to 0; reset for next timePlayBink "BM_Backrub.bik" 0    set state to 20set GameHour to ( GameHour + 5 )elseif ( state == 20 )    FadeIn 10.0ToggleMenusMenuTestEnablePlayerControls ; they can stop panicking nowset state to 30elseif ( state == 30 )Journal BM_Time 10endifend

Compression is a whole different issue - as a rule of thumb 1 sec of video = 1 MB - so 60 sec = 60MB - I've found that the bigger the file the harder it gets for the engine to render it.

After much trial and error the settings I use in Rad Tools are

Compress to a data rate - 450000

Keep peak data rate under a:

specific data rate of 450000

Managing the peak data rate in particular forces the file to stay small - and I generally am able to match the size of the Bethesda files without losing too much quality

Making the video is a completely different topic and there are many specialist sites to go and browse through as to what types of video editing tools and techniques are best.

Thank you for that useful info there Illuminiel. What would you say is probably the time limit on cut-scenes? I'm going to need one for the end of Sunfall myself, and I'm thinking it's probably going to be longer than a minute, maybe even two.

Depends on what sort of quality you want - and if you are anything like me you want HD - sadly Morrowind struggles with processing video - if you look in your data files the biggest bik that Bethesda did is the credits - which is 59MB and has 4051 frames - bik runs at 30 frames per second - so the credits runs for 2 min 15 sec - however the quality is really low it is 640 X 480 and consists of rolling text

When I was learning how to make biks I had a huge problem with them blowing out too big - sometimes they stuttered and stalled othertimes the music got out of sync - it wasn't until I got to the compression rates I mentioned above that things fell into place - I keep clips to 30 to 60 sec to be safe - but you won't know until you test it out for yourself

With MCP, we can now play 720p video easily.

Would recording a scripted in-game event with FRAPS, converted to a bink video help at all?

Wouldn't it be awesome if there was a cut scene for every quest end and start. Would require a lot of voice acting though.

With the frequency in which I typically pick up and finish quests at random, that would get old fast.

Besides that, I dislike it enough that I get a journal update whenever I pick up a quest. I decide when I'm on a quest, not the game. I don't need to be going after Skull-Crusher in order to find some adventure, just getting from Seyda Neen to Balmore without taking the silt strider, at Level 1, can give me plenty of excitement.