menus over cutscenes

MH_design

I've been trying to work out how I can display a menu over a cutscene while it's playing. Basically I want a story narrative to be shown on the lower third of the screen during the story portion of the game and then pan out out in a similar way as the in game menu can be customized. The player would have the option to continue reading the story with narrative and cutscenes only or they could, by clicking a button on the menu, explore the actual scene in FPS mode before moving on to the next scene. Is this possible?

MH_design

Anybody have an idea how? 

This program has been amazing to use and has helped a novice like me out greatly! If I can understand how to do this it would be the icing on the cake!

ChrisIceBox

If your Menu's "Appear type" setting is set to Manual, then it's on/off state is completely controlled by you - the Menu: Change state Action can be used to turn it on, and it will remain on even during Cutscenes until it is explicitly told to be turned off.

However, no Menu can be clicked on during Cutscenes, which is the real issue here.  Instead, here's an alternative that you can try:

1. Use the Engine: Manage systems Action to disable regular Player control (Movement, Interaction etc) while the narrative Cutscene plays.
2. Then, go to the Cutscene in question and change it's "When running" setting to Run In Background.  This will effectively stop it from "blocking" Player control, but since movement and interaction's also disabled, all you should be able to do is use the menu.
   

MH_design

Great, thank you - I'll give it a try!

Also, thank you for getting back to me so quickly about this. I was feeling pretty stuck about this and now I've got something to try! Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner. For some reason I was having trouble logging into my account, but I'm back in now.

I'll let you know how it goes!

MH_design

Fantastic! Everything worked really well! I was even able to create another menu that pans up once the in game menu disappears so that the player can go back to the text of the story when they want to. 

One thing I realized I had to watch out for was to not enable the in game menu from the start. When I selected this the pan and fade menu transitions wouldn't work and the menu would just snap on. Instead I added a Menu: Change State action to the beginning of the cut scene that turned on the in game menu. All menu transitions were able to work this way.

One caveat to this method was when I deactivated the player control. When I applied this to the Evil Lair tutorial the Cutscene wouldn't work since the robot is the player. Is it correct that the only way for this to work would be to apply all animations to non-player characters instead? This shouldn't be a problem if I'm using another FPS character to interact with the scene, but if I wanted gameplay to be in third person, would I be able to switch out an NPC with an identical player character after the Cutscene ends?

ChrisIceBox

Deactivating player control shouldn't affect the player prefab's ability to be manually controlled in Cutscenes - simply that the player can't control him directly.  What exactly is happening in the Cutscene that won't work?  Please post a screenshot of the Actions involved, if you can.

MH_design

I'm testing it on the opening Cutscene from the Evil Lair tutorial. When I apply the Engine: Manage Systems action to the beginning of the actions the robot doesn't move from the elevator and is then trapped behind the wall's collision cube for the rest of the game. Of course, when I apply the action at the end of the list the Cutscene proceeds as normal and then player control is deactivated at the end (which is the opposite of what I'm looking for). What would be best is if the Cutscene proceeds as normal while the menu is on top, but no player interaction is allowed until the Cutscene is over.

I've attached the action list that I have as a screen grab like you asked. Hope it explains better what's happening.

MH_design

Sorry, the image didn't paste. I linked the image this time::

ChrisIceBox

Ah, I see what you mean.  So the use of the Engine: Manage systems will cease all movement - player-directed or otherwise.  While you should still use this Action to disable e.g. Interactions, you should use the Player: Constrain Action instead to prevent them from moving.

MH_design

Perfect! Exactly what I was looking for. Thanks for the great support!!