One thing which I haven’t seen much of ( Don’t think I’ve seen any of it but I might have and forgotten about it ), is a discussion about the Theatre, our best way of going back to a previous game, checking out awesome, or embarrassing moments, and record them from various angles and points of views.
Of course, the Theatre has seen some downgrades in the last few instalments, but I think that this mode, this tool, deserves a similar treatment as Forge got in Halo 5, that is, a massive upgrade. Let’s dive in to what I had in mind.
All sessions from all game modes should be available in the Theatre, Campaign, Multiplayer, Firefight, Custom games, whatever mode they throw in, theatre should be compatible with that mode. But this is a given, and I have forgotten what you can view in Halo 5, so yeah…
New tools:
-Follow Object: In the same way we can follow players around from a loose camera third person view, the same thing should be done with objects and projectiles ( also an object ). When aiming at an objective in Theatre, you should have the option to lock the camera to it, so whenever it moves, the camera follows. Looking at a rocket, lock on to it, play and the camera follows the rocket just like the camera would follow a player. Of course, that’d be regulated to slower moving projectiles, like rockets, grenades, plasma bombs and so forth.
-Camera key points / checkpoints: Having the ability to put the camera in a specific position, and set that location and / or rotation in the timeline as a “key point / checkpoint”. What you’d do is place different positions and rotations for the camera at these checkpoints, and then have the camera automatically travel between these points automatically. The Theatre could even draw out a line / curve along which path the camera will travel so you can easier review where it’ll be and how it’ll rotate during the record session, so you can easier adjust what it sees. This’d allow users to more easily get a good view of an event and decrease the creation time. You could have the ability to make the path linear ( straight lines between the checkpoints ) or splined / curved ( curved lines so to avoid instant turns ), heck, throw in that you can adjust how you want each individual checkpoint to be like, linear or splined, if possible. Add to that being able to lock onto an object and you could easily avoid terrain and get in awesome background shots for an otherwise difficult to follow projectile.
-Slow motion and time stop: Rather than holding a specific button, let us set the play speed, and be able to record at that play speed as well. Yes, at low enough speeds every motion is jagged, not fluid. We’d either have to live with that or wish for the animation to at least look fluid in the slowest slow motion speeds. Recording while the time is stopped should also be possible.
-Montages: At least for clips in the same match, players should be able to put together a string of clips for a montage. Could be done in several ways, for instance, you set up checkpoints through out the entire match, start and stop points for recording, and once you’re done and record, the Theatre goes through all your settings and record one clip, where you would have actually made several clips. Say you want to record between these times:
- 0:40-0:54
- 1:59-3:23
- 4:43-4:59
- 8:01-8:09
- 10:00-12:00
For each individual record session, you set up checkpoints for the camera. Press record, and the Theatre starts recording, stringing together these time intervals into a single recording. Ideally you could choose what kind of transition is done between the time skips.
-Clips / Montages for custom maps and / or game modes: We can now supply our custom maps with screenshots, no? How about a Clip, or Montage, to function as a preview of the map, or an advertisement for it. Same with game modes.
-Display Shield and Health: It’d be good to have a sort of RTS display option while not having the camera connected to anything. Health and Shields could be displayed on top of a all players as they are displayed for units in RTS games. If there are object which have health, we could have the option to also to display the health of those as well.
Alternatively, we could choose which players’ health should be displayed, so not all players have their health telegraphed if it isn’t necessary for what you’re trying to record.
-Record the same several times: Having the ability to record the same event from several angles could be a neat thing to have as well, in this case you’d have to put up additional checkpoints, perhaps numbered in which order they should be recorded, and you’d set up for a montage which would record the same time interval, from several angles and camera motions, and compile them into a single clip.
I think that with these additions, the Theatre would be an effective tool, albeit worse learning curve, at capturing our most epic fails in a more efficient way and with better quality. Of course, wins and wtf moments too.