[CP5670]

I think that the community might have actually figured it out, as there was an mve->self-playing exe converter called MVEExtract out there a while ago as part of Descent Manager, but Interplay banned distribution of it. (some people like myself still have it though )

[Inquisitor]

just skip worrying about MVE. You have the source, time to integrate new functionality into it

Go with mpeg or soemthing like it, for the encoding (I guess divx works as well), and AVI, MPG or MOV for playback, all of which there are plenty of SDK's out there for integration into projects.

[##UnknownPlayer##]

Originally posted by CP5670
I think that the community might have actually figured it out, as there was an mve->self-playing exe converter called MVEExtract out there a while ago as part of Descent Manager, but Interplay banned distribution of it. (some people like myself still have it though )

Thent he real question is, who wrote it and can we subtley get them to let us in on it?

[WMCoolmon]

All they found out was how to play the file, not the actual info.
I'd much prefer .AVI format, though. It's easily saved into by a 3D proggy and supported by most video-editing tools.

[ZylonBane]

Ditto that. Just link to Windows' built-in AVI-playing functionality, and you're done. And this is the most simple case to implement-- full-screen with no user controls.

Using Divx as a standard codec though... BAD idea. Due to its officially unsupported status as an illegal hack on MS-MPEG4, many people refuse to install it. If the quality is that important for cutscenes, bite the bullet and use ASFs instead of AVIs.  Ehh... if you properly link to the ActiveMovie library (or whatever they call it these days), it'll be equally happy with AVIs, ASFs, and MPGs.

[##UnknownPlayer##]

There is a legal public version of DivX available - I would suggest we use that. It's not quite as good as the illegal one, but I hear it gets close.

EDIT: Alternatively, use MPEG-2!

[EdrickV]

Originally posted by ##UnknownPlayer##

One of you programmers might be able to help us out here though, is it possible that we might be able to call the original movieplay function from the FS2.exe file?

As far as I can tell it's not possible. The code to play the movies is stored within the EXE itself rather then a DLL and so is not exported. Only the FS2.exe program itself has access to the function.

[phreak]

Originally posted by ZylonBane
Ditto that. Just link to Windows' built-in AVI-playing functionality, and you're done. And this is the most simple case to implement-- full-screen with no user controls.

Using Divx as a standard codec though... BAD idea. Due to its officially unsupported status as an illegal hack on MS-MPEG4, many people refuse to install it. If the quality is that important for cutscenes, bite the bullet and use ASFs instead of AVIs.  Ehh... if you properly link to the ActiveMovie library (or whatever they call it these days), it'll be equally happy with AVIs, ASFs, and MPGs.

You may be thinking of DirectShow which is implimented in DX8.

We could use this, but we wouldn't be able to port it to linux or mac.

[EdrickV]

ActiveMovie was integrated with NetShow a long time ago to become DirectShow I believe. (And the Active Movie system was basically replaced by Microsoft Windows Media Player 6+ though there are still some Active Movie things around, for backwards compatability.)
For a Windows specific implementation, AVI files through MCI would probably be the easiest way to do cutscenes. (If using MCI support for other file types could be possible too, a program I made back in 1997 to play MIDI and wave files and have done minor updates to since then can play asf audio and video files, without any changes to the player itself because the code that actually plays the files is built into Windows and Windows Media Player 6/7.) But that wouldn't work under Linux or Macs without third party software. (like WINE for Linux) So we'd either have to make the movie player code files system specific or use something more universal to do a cross platform version.

[ZylonBane]

Considering that the entire renderer is based around DirectX and Glide, throwing DirectShow into the mix doesn't seem like a problem. Or is someone planning on a complete rewrite of the renderer?

[Stryke 9]

1. DivX works.
2. Practically everyone HAS DivX, and it's easy to get and free for those who don't.
3. Lots of things support DivX- LightWave, for one, lets you convert movies straignt to it.
4. All these 4 billion other types of encoding out here either suck, cost money, or I've never heard of them. And if I've never heard of it, chances are fair half the people here have never heard about it. If they've never heard about it, you're making people get some random encoder nobody's heard of, which is a pain in the ass, just because you happen to have some encoder from Bob knows where and don't want to use on that's actually possible to get. Let's not make it complicated.
5. If DivX is illegal, there are sure as hell enough legitimate DivX codecs and players out there right now that it can be considered legal. If everyone (literally everyone) in a town goes to hang out on one street, and there's a "No Loitering" sign back there somewhere nobody sees, who the **** is going to care?

6. We need to agree on a bloody encoder, or exactly **** will get done until the second or third time Hell freezes over and Satan has to make woolen sweaters to keep all the flying pigs warm. So let's call it DivX. It's the only one nobody's had a huge problem with so far. If someone out there wants to pussyfoot around about something that MIGHT have been illegal at some point but is completely unenforced and accepted as legitimate univerally, that's their personal problem, and they should never have gotten online in the first place. They should be off making sure nobody ever jay-walks.

[WMCoolmon]

As long as we're talking about the DivX codec,

[EdrickV]

If DIVX is good enough for Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets, it's good enough for me:
http://news.com.com/2110-1023-827439.html

The older DIVX codecs were based on Microsoft's MPEG-4 and were illegal I believe. The new ones were built from scratch. Heck, there's even a pc card out now that advertises itself as a way to play DVDs, DIVX files, VCDs, and other stuff from your computer on your TV. With a remote!

[Nico]

mmh, all this is cool, but is there actually someone working on it? Would be handy to actually have one, you know

[Inquisitor]

Would be handy to have a list of all the things people wanted

[Kazan]

Originally posted by ZylonBane

Using Divx as a standard codec though... BAD idea. Due to its officially unsupported status as an illegal hack on MS-MPEG4, many people refuse to install it.

bullshiat

DivX is not a hack of MS-MPEG4 - they are completely seperate codecs.  Microsoft started that fake story that you just regurgitated.

Just like some kid in Computer Science at school today thought microsoft invested SQL because they had been using msSQL

[Nico]

Originally posted by Kazan


bullshiat

DivX is not a hack of MS-MPEG4 - they are completely seperate codecs.  Microsoft started that fake story that you just regurgitated.

Just like some kid in Computer Science at school today thought microsoft invested SQL because they had been using msSQL

Hey, Kazan, since you're the best one around for this kind of stuff, would you like to put that divx player? That would allow me to test cutscenes and would be quite handy for my campaign, and I believe Styxx would be happy too (hehe)

[Kazan]

i barely have time to post replies to threads i get email notifications about... i don't have time for coding right now unfortunately

[Nico]

Doesn't hurt to ask

mmh, is there anybody who could handle that? It's one of the only things I'm really interested in for my campaign ( along with the D3D self illumination from FS1 re-enabled for any kind of video card ).

[ZylonBane]

Originally posted by Kazan
DivX is not a hack of MS-MPEG4 - they are completely seperate codecs.  Microsoft started that fake story that you just regurgitated.

Evidence, please.