Firstly, play a battle! When you end your battle, you get the option to save your replay. These battles are saved as *.rpy files in your '\replays' folder in the Rome directory. You need at least one replay file to begin editing a movie. It is not possible to save replays of campaign battles or scripted historical battles – only only custom, quick, unscripted historical, multiplayer and multiplayer historical battles.

Command Line

To enable the Movie Editor you must run the game with the command line option '-movie_cam'. Create a shortcut to your Rome_TW.exe, go to the shortcuts properties and add '-movie_cam' to the end of the target (without the quotes)

You must have a space between each command line option. It should look something like this:

c:\rtw\romeTW.exe -movie_cam

Loading your Replay

Load your replay file by selecting the main menu option 'Load Game', then 'Load Battle Replay'. Select your battle replay and click the 'Load Battle Replay' button.

Navigation

The battle begins paused. You must use the numerical keypad keys for navigating the battlefield as the WSAD keys will conflict with Movie Editor keys. The numpad keys are as follows:

8 / 2 Move forwards/backwards
1 / 3 Move left/right
4 / 6 Rotate left/right
+ / - Rotate up/down
/ / * Move up/down

If these keys don't work, try pressing your Num Lock key

Quickstart Guide – To make a simple camera move

Move the camera to a position where you can get a good view of the battlefield

Press Enter to begin playing the battle

Press Space to stop the battle

Move the camera to the position you want your first shot to begin

Press Insert to create the first keyframe

Press Enter to continue playing the battle

Press Space to stop the battle

Move the camera to the position you want your shot to end

Press Insert to create the second keyframe

Press S to save the camera move

Press R to reload the battle

Press Enter to playback your camera move

Playback

To play your battle press Enter and to pause the battle press Spacebar. You can navigate around the battlefield while the battle is paused or while it is playing. You cannot rewind the battle - only restart the battle with the R key.

Inserting Keyframes and Navigating the Timeline

Along the bottom of the screen there is a blue line which represents the length of the battle, or timeline. Each minute is shown with a small blue vertical line, while the current position in time is shown with a larger blue line. As the battle progresses the time indicator will move across the timeline. The timeline is only visible while the battle is paused. The time indicator can be moved without advancing the battle with the + and - keys.

To insert a keyframe in the current position of the camera, press the Insert key. You will see a vertical yellow line appear on the timeline. Continue the battle with Enter and insert another keyframe with Insert. You will notice that the first keyframe has turned red, indicating it is no longer selected. Also, there is a red line linking the two keyframes which means that the camera will blend between the two keyframes.

The path of the camera is visible in the battlefield as a green curve, with the keyframes displayed as red ticks on the curve.

To edit a keyframe you must select it first. You can navigate between keyframes with the [ and ] keys. The selected keyframe will turn yellow, and the camera will move to the position of the selected keyframe. Keyframes can be moved up and down the timeline by pressing < and >. To reposition a keyframe, overwrite it with Insert. Delete a keyframe with Delete.

To view the path of the camera without the battle playing, press Space to toggle play/pause. Backspace will move the time indicator to the first keyframe and Q to the last keyframe.

Cuts, Ease In and Out

You might not want to have one long, continual camera track. You can split your camera path up and cut from shot to shot. To do this, select the last keyframe in the shot, and press the End key. You will note that the red line joining the selected keyframe and the next has disappeared.

By default keyframes will come to a sudden halt when they stop, which isn't very cinematic. You can set a keyframe to ease into and out of its position by pressing E. The selected keyframe will turn black to indicate the change. It can be toggled back to a normal keyframe by pressing E again.

Field Of View
Field of view is not enabled by default. To enable field of view, open your '\data\text\descr_shortcuts.txt' and remove any semi-colons from lines containing the word FOV. Save the 'descr_shortcuts.txt' and delete the file named 'keys.dat' in the Rome directory. You must delete the 'keys.dat' file or the FOV keys will not work. The 'keys.dat' file is created every time the game is run, and needs to be deleted only once.

The field of view of the camera can be adjusted with the 7 and 9 keys on the numerical keypad. The FOV can be set back to the default value with the letter O key. Once you change the FOV you will need to press Insert to overwrite the current keyframe

Playback, Save, Load

To save your camera path, press S. This will create a file called replay.cam in the Rome root folder. Warning: The game will overwrite any existing replay.cam file, so make sure that you copy/rename your replay.cam file after you create or edit it.

To replay your camera path, make sure your camera file is saved, then press R to reload the battle. You can then replay the whole battle from beginning to end. The Movie Editor will 'fast forward' through any parts of the battle which are not used in the camera file (e.g. Before the first keyframe and between shots). While the game is fast forwarding it will become unresponsive.

To load a file, press L. This will load replay.cam from the Rome directory.

Rendering Video

You can now use your replay file and camera file to render out a series of Targa image files. Create a new shortcut with the command line '-movie_cam:capture_video'. Load your replay through the front end as usual and press L to load your camera file. Once you have loaded your camera file, press R to reload the battle. Upon reloading the render will begin. Once the render has completed the game will exit to desktop. The Targa image files will be rendered to the location '\capture_tga' in the Rome directory at 30 frames per second

Rendering Audio

Follow the instructions for rendering video, but use the command line option '-movie_cam:capture_audio'. The wave sound files will be saved to the location '\capture_wav' in the Rome directory. A single wave file is saved for every camera cut.

Tips

If you record a replay with desynchronized unit animations you must replay the battle with desynchronized unit animations or it will have a different outcome.

When rendering, set your graphics options to maximum detail.

Make sure you have plenty of free disk space before you render! Uncompressed TGAs can fill up gigs of space very quickly – about 35mb per second of footage.

Move the camera toward/away from a character and alter the field of view at the same time to get the spooky effect you see in movies!

Avoid jump cuts – jumping from one scene to another with a very similar composition is jarring.

Try to keep one army moving across the screen from left to right and the other from right to left to maintain visual continuity (known as the 180 degree rule).

Virtualdub is a free utility which can convert TGA and WAV files into movies. Visit www.virtualdub.orgfor more information. Creative-Assembly and Activision are not affiliated with Virtualdub in any way and cannot provide support for it.

Key Quick Reference

Key
Action

Spacebar
While battle is playing: Stop / While battle is stopped: Play camera movement only

Enter
Play battle

Insert
Create keyframe

Delete
Delete keyframe

Home
Fast forward battle to timeline indicator poisition

End
Insert cut keyframe

Page Up
Increase camera speed

Page Down
Decrease camera speed

[ and ]
Navigate between keyframes

Backspace
Go to first keyframe

Q
Go to last keyframe

< and >
Move selected keyframe

- and +
Move timeline indicator

Num 1/3
Track left/right

Num 2/5/8
Track backwards/forwards/forwards fast

Num 4/6
Rotate left/right

Num 7/9
Field of view zoom out/in

Num / and *
Track up/down

Num + and -
Rotate up/down

E
Toggle easing keyframe

T
Toggle target mode (not very useful, feel free to try)

R
Reload battle (or begin render if command line options set )

S
Save camera file

L
Load camera file

Num Lock
Hide camera editor interface

Escape
Menu

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Command Line Quick Reference

Command Line Switch
Action

-movie_cam
Enable camera editor

-movie_cam:capture_video
Captures TGAs upon reload

-movie_cam:capture_audio
Captures WAVs upon reload

Well This i the full Guide to render and do video battles including in patch v1.2 ...

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