Medieval II Total War Cinematic Editor
I was ask many time to show how to make a video from the Cinematic editor of Medieval II Total War so I decided to show it in video with contextual information.
The official tutorial explaining this can be find here
Medieval II Total War Cinematic Editor Tutorial Part 1
How to get into the Cinematic Editor.
Side Note:
This tutorial show how to create a batch file and a configuration file really easily but as pointed out in the video it is imperative that you use administrator count to create those thing
Now the Official tutorial recommend some specification that are a little to high for the average computer. It also change many aspect that are not really needed to be change for every one so here are the setup I use for the cin-ed.cfg
#START COPY————————————————————————–
[audio]
disabled = true
#——————————————-
[camera]
campaign_map_smoothing = 1
default_in_battle = default
fov = 75
move = 30
restrict = 0
rotate = 10
#——————————————-
[controls]
campaign_scroll_max_zoom = 30
campaign_scroll_min_zoom = 30
keyset = 0
minimal_ui = 1
#——————————————-
[game]
morale = 0
blind_advisor = 0
campaign_map_game_speed = 15
campaign_map_speed_up = 0
disable_arrow_markers = 0
english = 0
event_cutscenes = 0
fatigue = 1
first_time_play = 1
fog_of_war = 1
infinite_missiles = 1
label_characters = 0
label_settlements = 1
limited_ammo = 1
micromanage_all_settlements = 0
mute_advisor = 1
no_campaign_battle_time_limit = 1
supply = 1
unit_size = 300
unlimited_men_on_battlefield = 1
disable_events = 1
#——————————————-
[misc]
always_logfile = 0
chat_msg_duration = 10000
use_quickchat = 0
tv_banner_mode = 1
obstacle_cam = false
#——————————————-
[video]
detailed_unit_shadows = 0
glints = 0
gloss_mapping = 1
reflections = 0
smoke = 0
splashes = 0
unit_shaders = 0
vegetation = 0
shadows = 0
unit_detail = low
building_detail = low
terrain_quality = low
effect_quality = low
vegetation_quality = low
depth_shadows_resolution = 1
texture_filtering = 1
bloom = 0
anisotropic_level = 2
tga_aspect = 1.33333
tga_input_scale = 1
tga_width = 5000
widescreen = 0
show_banners = 0
windowed = 1
tga_reserve_space = 0
anti_alias_mode = off
battle_32_bit = 1
battle_resolution = 1024 768
campaign_32_bit = 1
campaign_resolution = 1024 768
cloud_transitions = 1
desync_animations = 1
graphics_adapter = 0
multi_texture = 1
no_background_fmv = 1
safe_refresh = 1
stencil_shadows = 1
subtitles = 0
triple_buffer = 0
ui_32_bit = 0
movies = 0
#——————————————-
[replay]
play = 1
file = C:\Program Files\SEGA\Medieval II Total War\replays\meowns.rpy
camera = camera\
show_battle_ui = 0
info = 0
#——————————————-
[ai]
debug = 0
disable_battle_map_pathfinding = 0
no_battle_ai_update = 0
#——————————————-
[features]
editor = true
mod = mods\crusades
#——————————————-
[capture_tga]
enable = 0
fps = 30
dir = C:\video_capture\
#——————————————-
[log]
to = temp\replay.log.txt
level = * warn
#——————————————-
[debug]
window = 1
world_rnd_init = 1
world_rnd_value = -221724412
#——————————————-
[core]
assert_ignore_always = 1
#——————————————-
[io]
file_first=true
#——————————————-
[debug_display]
no_unit_cull = true
#——————————————-
[cine]
show = 1
#END COPY———————————————————————————-
Medieval II Total War Cinematic Editor Tutorial Part 2
How to use the Cin Edit and Camera.
Here is how to control the editor, For more information refer to the official tutorial
] :jump to next keyframe
[ :jump to previous keyframe
insert: place an animation keyframe
right-mouse(edit window): hold to scrub through selected camera track in edit window
right-mouse(view window): hold to mouse-look
spacebar: plays current camera track from red marker (right mouse) but not the replay file
shift-rightmouse: sets a blue position marker to rewind or fast-forward in the track view.
TAB : swaps into selected camera or out to free-cam
WASD: moves the selected camera (must be on a keyframe or free-cam mode)
R : move camera up (must be on a keyframe or free-cam mode)
F: move camera down (must be on a keyframe or free-cam mode)
arrow keys: camera (must be on a keyframe or free-cam mode)
CapsLock: Display side camera view
Medieval II Total War Cinematic Editor Tutorial Part 3
How to record the scene.
You should be able to figure it out by yourself now.
June 18th, 2007 at 3:47 pm
[...] a kind of tutorial of the Cinematic Editor exclusively here on dateyourgame. Check it there on the Medieval II Total War Cinematic Editor page, I will update it as I work on it. [...]
June 19th, 2007 at 12:22 pm
[...] Also note that the part 2 of the cin edit tutorial is added to the Medieval II Total War Cinematic Editor [...]
July 5th, 2007 at 8:46 am
hurry up and make part 3 lol
^^
July 5th, 2007 at 8:55 am
heh, well, since there was no feedback i was thinking, well nobody care
July 6th, 2007 at 12:19 pm
when i try to make a new text document
it says access is denied
what do i do?
July 6th, 2007 at 5:03 pm
make sure you are the computer administrator. if your not, well you can’t do anything.
July 6th, 2007 at 10:28 pm
ok i got that part
i finished the first part of your tutorial but for some reason when i click on the cin-ed.bat file it just opens up to the notepad again
how do i open the cin editor then?
July 7th, 2007 at 8:26 am
it’s suppose to open medieval II cine editor, if it doesn’t hmmm, make sure you entered the right text in it.
July 7th, 2007 at 3:06 pm
yeh i just did it all over again and the same thing happened
July 7th, 2007 at 3:16 pm
are you sure you have administrator right?
July 7th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
yep for sure
it keeps telling me i have 2 new files to burn onto a disk
you think that could have something to do with it?
July 7th, 2007 at 5:04 pm
its because when he clicks on any .bat file it opens it in notepad automatically lol
try running the bat file in ms dos.
goto start run, type cmd.exe and then type:
cd
for example:
cd c:\some folder\thebatfile.bat
July 14th, 2007 at 6:58 pm
very nice
July 18th, 2007 at 6:21 pm
I did all the steps with sucess. My computer did not make a batch file when i typed cin-ed.bat It’s still the text document…
July 18th, 2007 at 8:23 pm
hmm well check the above comment if it help.
July 19th, 2007 at 5:14 am
=D
I got the batch thingy to work, but it seems to start Medieval 2 total war® I’ve tryed to change the “script” in the batch file, but i was only able to make it start and quit right away. This is driving me crazy! =(
Any advice?
July 19th, 2007 at 8:28 am
well that’s the “normal behavior” now you need to customise the cin-ed.cfg to fit your computer. Can’t help you much with that, so read the stuff and figure out if all the information the cin-ed.cfg fit you computer limitation. (like resolution stuff like that).
July 19th, 2007 at 1:24 pm
ow now I understand. Thanks. =D
I’ve changed the cin-ed.cfg so it will fit my computer (Including where my replayes will be saved). I’ve played a custom battle and saved it (in the batch game) And now i don’t know what to do. When i load the replay in the batch game It doesn’t show a new window with the cinematic editor thing. What am i doing wrong now? hehe =)
July 19th, 2007 at 1:59 pm
well in fact it show it, but under your windows tool bar… so hide your windows toolbar and bring the cinematic editor up.
Kinda an annoying feature…
July 19th, 2007 at 2:20 pm
A got a problem too attila. I can get the cinematic editor to run, but the window only displays the replay. I am unable to insert keyframs and there is an annoying counter at the top displaying the fps. What do I need to do to correct this?
July 19th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
Well in this step you define the camera movement on the timeline of the replay. to insert keyframe you click the insert button at the moment when you need a keyframe.
The recording doesn’t happen in the cinematic editor. it’s in a step that i didn’t recorded yet due to my natural laziness mixed with a total war overdose… maybe refer yourself to the official guide to see if you can find the information you need.
July 20th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
It works!!! =D =D
The batch started the “Normal” game. But it’s fixed.
It’s a good thing you made those videos of how to use cameras and such things =D
Thanks Attila!
July 20th, 2007 at 2:13 pm
Happy it help! I hope you plan to post some of your future videos on dateyourgame
July 20th, 2007 at 3:52 pm
I know this step isn’t posted but I tried following the official tutorial and rendering but for some reason, all the videos render completely black. Everything else works well the editing does but when I go to render it, it just stays black the whole time.
July 21st, 2007 at 2:32 am
hmm that’s weird… i don’t know what can cause that. Maybe you should ask on the official forum for this one. My knowledge of that tool is really limited.
July 21st, 2007 at 3:05 pm
I have a problem again. I Made 1 camera with 2 “Key frames” But i cannot switch between them. In order to make [ I must press Ctrl-alt+ 8 or 9. But it doesn’t work. And If I make 2 cameras how do I switch between them? hehe
July 21st, 2007 at 8:25 pm
hmm in theories with [ ]
July 28th, 2007 at 4:10 pm
I figured out what the problem is; I was exporting the camera group and not the actual camera. Someone on the forums had the same problem but I don’t have an account to tell them how to fix it.
July 28th, 2007 at 6:08 pm
well at least people that read the comment will know, thanks for sharing the solution, it probably will help others.
August 9th, 2007 at 4:04 am
Hi Attila, I followed your direction on the vid and created the 2 files, But when I go to start it loads the regular med II. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong. the bat file cotains the same exact directory as you mentioned.
Also, I was wondering how you can load replays from mods.
Thanks in advance.
August 9th, 2007 at 1:25 pm
i think you answer is in the comments
August 11th, 2007 at 3:52 am
I see.. so from what I read the Cin-Ed should be starting along with Med II when I start the bat file? I tried finding it but no such luck. It doesnt apear in the task manager either.
pls any other ideas?
btw: I did edit the files for my pc. And I have the replay directory right becaus I go to load the battle replay and I have all the ones I need in the Cin-Ed appear there.
Thanks
August 11th, 2007 at 9:12 am
hmm, your bat file doesn’t launch medieval II?
August 12th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
Hey, is their a movie editor tutorial for rome.
August 13th, 2007 at 8:16 am
nop
August 14th, 2007 at 6:51 am
It launches regular MED II and nothing ells. Dont know what to do..
August 16th, 2007 at 3:48 pm
for some reason my batch file icon change but my cfg file stay as a document
August 16th, 2007 at 7:45 pm
well that explain it make sure you really have the .cfg at the end of the doc
August 16th, 2007 at 10:05 pm
i did,the batch file change but the .cfg document just stay the same and when i double click the cinematic editor it just direct me to the game not the cinematic editor =(
August 17th, 2007 at 7:44 am
well i don’t know what to say…
August 20th, 2007 at 5:03 pm
what is a video camera for rtw?
August 20th, 2007 at 5:28 pm
read the above
August 21st, 2007 at 7:28 pm
I’am try to work to start the Program but when bat it will strat loading then it will stop. What wrong I’ve done everything right.
August 21st, 2007 at 7:28 pm
Stop and kick me out
August 22nd, 2007 at 9:35 am
read the above comments
September 8th, 2007 at 3:09 pm
I got it to work but how do I get the camera and stuff to work?
September 8th, 2007 at 4:06 pm
you should be able to figure that out from the official tutorial
September 9th, 2007 at 11:47 am
Hi, i’ve got the editor running perfectly and got some interesting battles too but the problem is the recording(rendering). Allways when i start the render.batch it loads just like the cinema edit does but when he’s finished he shows a split of a second of the game (the start perspective) and crashes. And btw can someone tell me how much space does it take when rendering a five minute video? I heard somethin like 1,5 gb per second but i dont belive that it takes so much for it… Anyone pls help? Atilla? my thanks in advance…
September 9th, 2007 at 11:16 pm
well the redering process of medieval is very hard on the hardware and lag a lot depending you hardward. that’s why sometime it can be a good idea to only restrict yourself to a limited ressolution. videos are also big… but i don’t remember the size since it depend but it can get very huge and you must think in gb when you do videos…
September 12th, 2007 at 4:14 pm
[...] how too use the cinematic camera in Medieval 2 TW K i need footage that can only be made with the cinematic camera in the game need footage from these three factions Jerusalem the turks and the byzantine empire [...]
September 15th, 2007 at 7:19 pm
I opened up the Command Prompt and typed:
C:\Program Files\SEGA\Medieval II Total War\cin-ed.bat
and all it said was the system can not find teh path specified. The file is located where I said it was. What am I doing wrong?
September 15th, 2007 at 10:41 pm
hmm, i don’t beleive you need to use the command prompt in theorie just double clicking will launch it.
September 16th, 2007 at 1:26 am
hi all my question is how are we doing to record with the cin-editor i get it to work i did lot of camera and stuff like that the onbly thing is how did we record ?? ( i have fraps)
September 16th, 2007 at 9:01 am
you don’t need fraps, just read the second part of the official tutorial and you should be able to figure out easily how to do so considering what you learned in those two videos.
September 16th, 2007 at 4:55 pm
Im using Vista32.. did all the copy paste… made sure directories match.. and I am another that just gets the game launching with a border around it like full screen… but no editor.. anyone? help?
September 17th, 2007 at 10:22 am
not sure that work on vista.
September 17th, 2007 at 8:36 pm
guy’s i am new man,
I know shit with Call of duty and stuff and i want to show it man, i need a program to film it. Can a dude help me please.
Vincent
September 17th, 2007 at 11:35 pm
check the how to record guide…
October 1st, 2007 at 4:30 pm
Hey, I got 2 questions, one, do you need a certain patch for the cin-ed? And 2, what year/turn do the Aztecs appear in? If you know, thanks!
October 1st, 2007 at 6:32 pm
yeah you need the latests version of the game to use the cinematic editor, as for the Aztecs, you can reach them around 1400, if you have the required port to build ship that goes there.
October 9th, 2007 at 5:28 pm
all this for i mean the videos wat do they teach u to do
October 10th, 2007 at 4:56 pm
Do you need the 1.3 update or even the 1.2? And if you do is this the reason when i click on the cin-ed.bat file it just loads the game or am im missing something?
If someone explains to me what to do would be usefull even though your tutorial is very helpfull
October 10th, 2007 at 9:02 pm
yes you need to patch you game
October 13th, 2007 at 2:42 pm
Ok its patched now.
When i click on the cin-ed.bat file just loads game. I have a reply that i want to use but do you have to link it someway to the ‘cin-ed.cfg’ file to make it work?
October 13th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
ok i have put the name of the saved reply in the .cgf file :
C:\Program Files\SEGA\Medieval II Total War\replays\
but can it not have spaces in it?
October 13th, 2007 at 5:21 pm
what you mean space?
October 13th, 2007 at 5:39 pm
well. i had a replay called “bows and arrows” when put into the cfg file can it have spaces. But nevermind
Apart from that part which you need to change what other part to you need to change to make it work (which section is it in)
October 13th, 2007 at 9:17 pm
well I think no space is better, not sure if that support it space.
As for the second question, I must say that i did that guide many months ago and i didn’t made many video using this method so it’s a little vague to me now.
So I recommend doing the tutorial step by step for “understanding” the principle of how that work. and then check the official forum topic on total war forum to finish it…
Sorry that i can’t help much…
October 14th, 2007 at 6:39 am
ok i fianlly worked it out and got the replay loaded in the view which i can go around in but it says the cinEd is open but when i click on it in the tollbar nothing happens? Any ideas?
October 14th, 2007 at 9:21 am
ok
i got it working just need to learn how to use it
October 14th, 2007 at 9:38 am
good
October 14th, 2007 at 1:30 pm
wats the video the video for and wat patch do u need
October 14th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
sorry i meant ats the viedeo for and wat patch do u need
October 14th, 2007 at 3:16 pm
latests version should be fine
October 14th, 2007 at 8:12 pm
so thats v1.3 and stiil wat are the viedeos for hpw to wat
November 11th, 2007 at 5:11 am
Problem: Running batch file only launches the game.
Solution: (From http://shoguntotalwar.yuku.com/reply/166327/t/Frequently-Asked-Questions-amp-Game-Fixes.html#reply-166327 )…
The part where it tells you to type (when creating the .bat file) “Medieval2.exe @CinEdit.cfg”, type this instead: Medieval2.exe @CinEdit.cfg.txt
I didn’t think it would matter, but I did it regardless and it worked.
November 11th, 2007 at 4:58 pm
well good, ever information is usefull
November 21st, 2007 at 4:52 am
Hi. When I click the batch file, nothing happens. It just pops up a screen for a sec and then disappears. What am I doing wrong?
November 21st, 2007 at 11:38 am
hmm weird, i don’t know…
November 21st, 2007 at 12:37 pm
It seems as if the batch file is about to start, but nothing happens.
November 21st, 2007 at 12:43 pm
I figured it out. You have to make sure your batch file is spelled perfectly, spaces included. So write Medieval2(space)@cin-ed.cfg
November 21st, 2007 at 1:15 pm
lol Now I’m having another problem. Whenever I start batch file it starts Medieval 2 and nothing else. I’ve tried doing everything in above comments but still won’t work. I’m sure I spelt everything right. What am I doing wrong?
November 21st, 2007 at 6:30 pm
maybe check if all the option are ok in the config file, maybe there is something that doesn’t fit your setup… or something… i didn’t played arround with that tool in ages!
December 1st, 2007 at 11:14 pm
can i be your narrator? ;d my voice is so sexy, so i have been told… but no really you need to find someone for these tutorial kind of videos
January 28th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
many many many thansk 4 tutorials!!
ps: galiba Türksün; Allah razı olsun;):)
January 29th, 2008 at 9:36 am
Happy it helped
February 14th, 2008 at 12:02 am
Attila, when I name the .txt document into cin-ed.bat nothing happens, it just takes cin-ed.bat as the file’s name. -.- What do I do?
February 14th, 2008 at 12:28 am
Ok, well forget my last comment, I figured that out, but now when I run the cin-ed.bat a command prompt thing opens instead of the cinematic editor along with the game. The Cinematic Editor itself is not opening. I did put the direction of my replay in the “replay” section of the .cfg file but it still won’t work. :’(
March 30th, 2008 at 9:05 am
hmm well does the game start windowed?
April 30th, 2008 at 12:30 am
well is this cinematic editor works if i have the kingdoms expansion pack?
April 30th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
yep it should
May 1st, 2008 at 3:31 am
another thing if i have the expansion pack can i still play the medieval 2 total war? because it enters but after that it exit from the game and its says “has detected an unspecified error and needs to be closed” or something like this
May 1st, 2008 at 7:14 am
yes you should
July 8th, 2008 at 6:38 am
Yesterday I started with these steps, when I finished them it seems they somehow destroyed the compatibility of Medieval 2 Total War with my computer. I tried many things over the hours I been awake to fix it, I even deleted everything from the sega folder and reinstalled M2TW and M2TW:Kingdoms and still nothing has ammended the issue. Also I have deleted the cinematic editor folders, common problem or rare one? You tell me =)
July 8th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Is this will work - loading “camaign_battle.rpy” from temp folder in cinematic editor and makie movie from my LAST campaign battle ?
In my case replay shows in different wheater conditions and time of the day (sometimes night ). After all replay crashes few seconds (10-20 sec ) when i start plaing in editor or just before loading.
If i load custom battle replay everything works well.
Any reason ?