Originally posted by Destrier
Well, as a long time member of the Beta Testing Team for a space-sim that does just that, I hope I can answer with some small whiff of authority...*grin*.
Umm...
That actually wasn't what I was referring to...
What was being asked was (I presume) along the lines of using the game engine to handle cut scenes. Since WC is a space combat sim game, the only 3d involved is based around the flight engine. The most character movement that you get in WC is moving from one "room" of the carrier to another, complete with FMV animations in some of the games. The engine handles starfighters, but not people.
While its undoubtedly possible that, say, the WCP engine could be adapted to create cutscenes with Casey and company, it would require a great deal of additional effort for VERY minimal results. You wouldn't need the ability to navigate throughout the entire ship (after all, its only being used for cutscenes - the only areas needed are the exact rooms that the cutscenes play out in, and they don't need to exist within the in-game model of the ship), but you would need to have an engine that could handle the full array of character animation, and have both software and designers that could make the characters move in a realistic fashion.
In the end, its probably easier to just animate the cutscenes, using either CG or cel (although CG animation of humans on the PC still generally has a long way to go).