FPS Creator

I’m amazed that I’m still turning up really useful-looking free/cheap machinima kit, even after searching for over a month now. This one looks as though it might be interestingly subverted for royalty-free machinima filming purposes. FPS Creator X9 appears to be a sort of iClone for “first person shooter” videogames. It’s been under development for years, and at present it’s accompanied by 38 add-on models packs. Models are drag-and-drop.

It has a nice price-tag too, at $30 with a current special-offer (£24 inc. VAT in the UK, via PayPal) that includes 9 free model packs. One of which expands the existing sci-fi range that ships with the default library. FPS Creator ships as a box/disc combo when you buy it, and I’m hoping it’ll also arrive with a printed manual.

There’s a free 30-day trial (Windows-only) for those who want to take it for a content-limited test-run, which seems well suited to machinima video-capture use…

“You can’t build stand-alone EXEs, but otherwise the [demo] program is fully functional. […] not all media or maps are included, but you do get the entire manual in PDF format.”

Video tutorials for FPS Creator are here.

Most of the add-on packs are rather generic boy-game stuff, but I was impressed by their latest BioShock-inspired Metro Theater deco-era cinema pack. The camera FOV on the video is way too “fish eye”, but you get the idea. It seems as though it comes pre-set with the delicious lighting you can see in the video…

It seems Metro Theater only works with the X9 version of FPS Creator. A test-run playable .exe file of a bit of the Metro Theatre, made by a user, here. You’ll need to force anti-aliasing via the NVIDIA Control Panel or nHancer, or it’ll look horribly jaggy. You might also want to try turning on shadows via the .ini file. And keep in mind that FPS’s maximum output is apparently 1024 x 768, so users with large screens may see interpolation.

There are also a variety of third-party utilities such an outdoors landscape construction kit and a skybox maker, although iClone seems superior and quicker if all you want are some nature-strewn video backgrounds.

You can make custom HUDs — which presumably means that you can make one with no HUD at all, for a clear view of the game-world. Alternatively it seems there’s a “ghost” camera mode, although only in the latest X10 version…

“To use the fly camera, add a ‘Player Start Marker’ and rename it to ‘Camera Fly Mode’ — you can now move around the scene as a spectator.”

From what I read on the forums, there’s also apparently an ongoing developer drive to integrate mods including an older camera mod(?) into a major new version of FPS Creator X9 that should be out very soon(?). There’s also a X9 version mod called EFXmod, which lets you change the FOV and emulate all sorts of X10 graphics features. The difference between X9 (still continuing development) and X10 is rather confusing, and there seems to be something of a civil war going on in the user community? X9 with mods seems to be the fans’ preferred version.

It seems FPS Creator is completely royalty-free, too…

“Q: What copyright issues will there be with games I make?

A: In a nutshell – none! You will be able to save EXE files without any restrictions or water-marks / splash screens. These can be given away for free, or sold. There are no commercial restrictions on the sale. If you make a killer game and earn thousands from it you don’t owe us a penny.”

Pack models are in the .x format, which can be converted for iClone by PolyTrans.