Viewing Entire Catalog of Cinematics in Game?

[BlackmarketKraig]

When significant new content is added to PAYDAY 2 there is often an accompanying cinematic that plays when the game is launched.

Is there a way to watch all of the previously released cinematics through the in game menus (not relying on a browser or streaming)? Have I simply overlooked it? It seems silly that we would be downloading the content of these videos one by one as they release each update and then they just sit on our hard drives encrypted and unwatchable.

Pardon my obliviousness if they're there and I'm just blind to the appropriate menu.

Thank you.

[Ashe]

YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/user/OVERKILLSoftwareTM

[Ashe]

Aside from that. No in game ones.

[BlackmarketKraig]

Thank you for your prompt response and your answer has been noted. However, it completely ignores the stipulations made in my question.

[BlackmarketKraig]

I see. I find that lack of inclusion entirely weird, but thanks.

[Mikoto]

Originally posted by STrAT:

No. The only way you can watch them is by not pressing any buttons after you start the game, it plays once before the main menu. There is no other way in game to access it. In addition, there is no way without using modding tools, to access the source movie file within the game files. As Spooks mentioned, prevoious videos are only available on youtube.

which makes it stupid to even have these be patched into the game if we cant even rewatch them...

dont get me wrong, they do amazing work on these videos but seriously, why make them apart of the patching process if we cant watch them again come next patch

[BlackmarketKraig]

Alright.

I was just curious, it seems that a not-insignificant amount of effort, time and resources went into the making of those sequences; they are well edited, nicely shot and the actors seem quite committed. As someone who was an active gamer back in the days of the 7th Guest and Command and Conquer, the PAYDAY 2 FMV's are the most impressive FMV sequences I've seen in a PC game, and though they don't really affect the experience of the game, I still feel like it's a bit of a shame that they're not accessible from any of the menus in the game, and will likely go unseen by pretty big pool of players, particularly those who haven't had the game from launch. Making them an option from the in game menus just seems logical, a bit of extra work for programmers and artists notwithstanding.

Heck, we've even had them delivered, one by one, onto our computers. To later be deleted or ignored? Odd.

Many artists like what they do to be seen and appreciated, you know?

Not a big deal, of course, and it's pretty apparent that that's not where the PAYDAY 2 community focuses their energy anyway. =]

[Otto]

Just wanted to say that I entirely agree with you, Kraig, I've looked everywhere for a collection of cinematics from the game, but unfortunately the only source for them now seems to be the developer's YouTube page. Of course that's fine for the casual viewer, but YouTube's flash player is by no means the highest quality standard video format, and more to the point, does not allow you to watch them in-game.

Anyhow, when a new DLC is released with a trailer, the PAYDAY 2 game is updated and the old in-game cutscene is completely removed from the game files. It is then replaced by the new opening from the update, if there is one. That's actually quite preferable as it saves space on each player's hard drive. I doubt many people want to keep old files that they can't access without modding tools.

I was a bit late to the whole PAYDAY 2 world, so I wasn't able to save each previous cinematic opening before they were deleted, although I've started doing this routine since. The game's source files are likely the best available quality versions you can get, but you do need to extract the game files using a Bundle Tool and make a copy of each cinematic that is released. There might be a way to download versions from YouTube and mod them into the game, but who knows?

Aside from that, I share your disappointment in being unable to watch them all as they were initially shown. I hope Overkill Software can one day host the original video files on their website.

[Souzooka]

Otto, if you really care about having the source files for cinematics, you can download previous versions of PAYDAY 2 using DepotDownloader, which is Steam-legal AFAIK.

[Bluewave41]

Originally posted by Otto:

Just wanted to say that I entirely agree with you, Kraig, I've looked everywhere for a collection of cinematics from the game, but unfortunately the only source for them now seems to be the developer's YouTube page. Of course that's fine for the casual viewer, but YouTube's flash player is by no means the highest quality standard video format, and more to the point, does not allow you to watch them in-game.

Anyhow, when a new DLC is released with a trailer, the PAYDAY 2 game is updated and the old in-game cutscene is completely removed from the game files. It is then replaced by the new opening from the update, if there is one. That's actually quite preferable as it saves space on each player's hard drive. I doubt many people want to keep old files that they can't access without modding tools.

I was a bit late to the whole PAYDAY 2 world, so I wasn't able to save each previous cinematic opening before they were deleted, although I've started doing this routine since. The game's source files are likely the best available quality versions you can get, but you do need to extract the game files using a Bundle Tool and make a copy of each cinematic that is released. There might be a way to download versions from YouTube and mod them into the game, but who knows?

Aside from that, I share your disappointment in being unable to watch them all as they were initially shown. I hope Overkill Software can one day host the original video files on their website.

If you have the original file you could just create a mod to replace movies/game_intro.movie with the trailer you want to see.

Since there aren't to my knowledge any decoders, having the files is completely useless uness you replace the intro in game as you won't be able to watch them.

[ChillieBrew]

I agree, it would be awesome, and love the C&C reference. I am a sucker for videogame FMV, and especially well done stuff. While I found the early PDH2 stuff kind rough (those actors who were the FBI agents were pretty bad IMO), the more recent stuff is really entertaining.

On a related note, in looking at the Overkill YouTube page, I feel like there are cinematics not included there. I am pretty sure I didn't dream up those early movies, right?

[Bindal]

Originally posted by BlackmarketKraig:

I see. I find that lack of inclusion entirely weird, but thanks. :smile:

It's not weird as these video-files are huge (they are the main reason many of the new DLCs are so bloated) and keeping them all in would probably roughly double the games size, I presume.