Animatic

Cutscene Switch
Type:	Gadgets
Category:	Special
Inputs:	1
Outputs:	1

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The Cutscene Switch, also known as the Animatic Switch, is a scrapped LittleBigPlanet 2 logic piece that plays a full-screen video when activated.

Usage and Behaviour

In Pre-Alpha builds of the game, the Cutscene Switch was used to show work-in-progress animatics for cutscenes which hadn't been made in-game at that point of development (e.g. at the starts and ends of boss levels). It is not used in the final game, but will still function properly if imported from a prototype. It uses the same model as a NOT Gate, and has one input and one output, with the output coming from the gadget's center instead of the tip of the NOT gate.

The Cutscene Switch plays a Bink Video when it receives a digital ON signal through its input. Unlike the Tutorial TV, the video will cover the entire screen as a transparent overlay, with the game appearing behind any transparency in the video. All game audio is muted during playback, but the player retains full control in the background, and can even interact with menus.

The Cutscene Switch outputs a digital ON signal when its corresponding video has stopped; this typically happens when the game reaches the end of the video file, but it can also be interrupted by pressing to skip it. It will also cut out if the player dies or restarts the level during playback.

Only one Bink video can be played at a time; if another video is activated while one is currently playing (whether that be from a Tutorial TV or another Cutscene Switch), it will replace the current video, causing the first switch to output.

Tweaks

The tweak menu for the Cutscene Switch displays a header with "Prize Bubble" at the top, and contains a list of all of the videos inside of the folder gamedata/videos/animatic/. Every video in the folder will be displayed as a button that uses the video's filename. When a button is selected, the video at that file path will play when the switch is activated.

If no videos are in the animatic folder, the player will be locked in a tweak menu with no buttons, and the only way to exit this menu is by having player despawn, be killed, or leave the current level.

References

In a recovered map from the December 16 2009 Pre-Alpha, there is a reference to both a plan for the cutscene switch and a unique model entry; the model entry itself being at gamedata/lbp2/unthemed/gadgets/film_reel/film_reel.mol. While it has a unique entry, it's unknown if a unique model was ever actually made, as it uses the same hash as the NOT gate model.

In the same build, a sticker can be found at gamedata/lbp2/unthemed/stickers/film_camera.tex that may have been intended for the gadget; this sticker was later reused for the "Teacher's Pet" pin.