Cutscene

Cutscenes are short sequences between, after or in front of missions.

San Andreas Cutscenes

In San Andreas cutscenes are only loaded using SCM. You cannot control the camera movement in via SCM. They are usually stored externally in the anim\cuts.img archive. Each cutscene consists of 3 files with the same name and a different extension. These extensions are: .cut, .ifp and .dat.

Cutscene data

The CUT File

The .cut file is loaded first. It contains the important data of the cutscene like its offset and the loaded models. The models of an cutscene are usually stored in the models\cutscene.img archive. It's split up into certain sections. Not every cut-file requires all sections, but it is better to include all sections into a cut-file and leave unused sections empty.

INFO

The info section contains information to the offset. It describes the 3D-coords of a point to which all other coords in the rest of the files are relative. Its format is

info
offset X Y Z
end

The offset parameter can also be set using opcode 0244.

MODEL

The model section contains information about models the cutscene uses. The models don't need to be defined in the IDEs. But the texture name must be the same as the model's one. The model section also attaches models to animations in the IFP-animation archive. Its format is:

model
?, name, animation
end

Where the name is without extension, and the animation describes an entry in the IFP file. The unknown value is a number, which is always 1 and actually is ignored by the game.
There is a Limit to 50 entries here!

EXTRACOL

Extracol stands for "Extracolor" and sets the active interior's color. It corresponds to the opcode 04F9.

extracol
Number
end

TEXT

The text section displays a GXT Entry at an certain point of time relative to the cutscene start.

text
starttime, length, gxt
end

Where the numbers are integer and define the time in milliseconds.

UNCOMPRESS

the uncompress-section uncompresses the IFP animations.

uncompress
Animation
end

PEFFECT

stands for the particle effect and sets an particle effect from the effects.fxp.

peffect
effectname, starttime, endtime, unknown_number, bone, X, Y, Z, ?, ?, ?
end

The bone is a number of the body part the particle effect is attached to.

REMOVE

Removes an static (IPL-mapped) object being placed at specified coord.

remove
Objectname, X, Y, Z
end

ATTACH

Actually the content and use of this section is unknown. It is rarely used.

attach
Number, Number, Number
end

MOTION

This section is ignored by the game!

The DAT-File

The dat-file contains information about the camera movements during the cutscene.

It consists of 4 blocks:

• Block1: Rotation
• Block2: Zoom
• Block3: CameraPositions
• Block4: CameraTargetPoints

Each block starts with an integer number being the number of entries in this block, followed by its content and ended by a semicolon. The whole file is also marked as finished with an additional semicolon. Each line is marked as finished by an simple comma. The file describes 3 lanes, where the last 2 ones are ignored. So those 3 lines could be set identically by editors. This gives a general format:

TimeOffset,Lane1,Lane2,Lane3,

The TimeOffset is an floating value which defines the time of the event in seconds. The game interpolates the curve between the 2 points.

Block1 - Rotation

TimeOffset,Rotation(Lane_1),Rotation(Lane_2),Rotation(Lane_3),

Describes the rotation around the vector towards the target point in euler angles (degree).

Block2 - Zoom

TimeOffset,Zoom(Lane_1),Zoom(Lane_2),Zoom(Lane_3),

Defines the focal of the camera for each lane.

Block3 - Cameraposition

TimeOffset,X(Lane_1),Y(Lane_1),Z(Lane_1),X(Lane_2),Y(Lane_2),Z(Lane_2),X(Lane_3),Y(Lane_3),Z(Lane_3),

Defines the position of the camera relative to the offset point.

Block4 - Target

TimeOffset,X(Lane_1),Y(Lane_1),Z(Lane_1),X(Lane_2),Y(Lane_2),Z(Lane_2),X(Lane_3),Y(Lane_3),Z(Lane_3),

Defines the position of the target of the camera relative to the offset-point.

The IFP animation archive

This is an ANPK (Animation Package v1 | GTA VC) IFP file including the animations used for the cutscene. For the file stub look here: IFP Animations.

List of Cutscenes in San Andreas

Comming soon

SCM (OpCodes)

• 0244 - SetsCutscenePosition
• 02E4 - LoadsCutsceneData
• 02E7 - StartsCutscene
• 02E8 - GetsCutsceneTime
• 02E9 - HasCutsceneReachedEnd
• 02EA - EndsCutscene
• 03B7 - ProcessCutsceneOnly
• 06B9 - IsCutsceneDataLoaded
• 08D0 - IsCutsceneSkipped
• 08F0 - SetsCutsceneModelTexture

External Links

• Cutscene decoding Thread in SannyBuilder Forums (SA)