[WMCoolmon]

Anyone have a clue how hard it would be to change FS/2 so that cutscenes use some other format? I'm certain many modders are interested in this, as well as myself

[vadar_1]

Im not sure if this would be a hinder... but Mr.B said that the movie subfunctions were not included in the source code (obvious reasons... *cough*Inter*****cough*)

The actual campaign code may or may not require integration of the MVE player code.

[WMCoolmon]

[Red5]

I recommend changing the cutscenes to BIK extensions...BIK cutscenes have appeared in thousands of games since 1.0 in 1991... Modern BIK are used in star trek armada2 and other games... its actually a BINK file made by rad tools...plus there super easy to make and stuff...

[TurboNed]

The problem (and sole problem, AFAIK) with BINKs is that you either have a little logo following your movie file (which rips the player out of the universe) or you shell out a TON of cash to license an encoder/player thingy so it'll work seamlessly.  By "TON" I mean quad-digits.  Or was it pent?  I forget.  www.smacker.com will tell you.

  --TurboNed

[elorran]

Another format could always be used, AVI or MPEG.  Though admittedly SMK or BINK formats might be the best way to go.

Either that or someone comes up with a brand new format and offers it to the community for use.

[Kazan]

BINK sucks, i hate bink with a passion, if you use bink im going to shoot you, rip the code out and replace it

[TurboNed]

Is this performance/compatibility oriented hatred, or did the guy who started RAD Game Tools cut you off on the freeway yesterday?

  --TurboNed

[Nico]

Originally posted by TurboNed
Is this performance/compatibility oriented hatred, or did the guy who started RAD Game Tools cut you off on the freeway yesterday?

  --TurboNed

for my part, if I have to pay to encode my cutscenes, sorry for the harsh language, but **** it.

[TurboNed]

Originally posted by venom2506


for my part, if I have to pay to encode my cutscenes, sorry for the harsh language, but [bleep][wait][/bleep] it.

This I can understand - but still, the sheer hatred of the codec puzzles me.  And you don't have to pay to encode them.  You just have to pay to play them back without a logo - overall, IMHO, they've got a nice (if little-guy-unfriendly) codec worked out.  Noncommercial free usage would be nice...but I can understand why they don't.

  --TurboNed

[Nico]

Originally posted by TurboNed


This I can understand - but still, the sheer hatred of the codec puzzles me.  And you don't have to pay to encode them.  You just have to pay to play them back without a logo - overall, IMHO, they've got a nice (if little-guy-unfriendly) codec worked out.  Noncommercial free usage would be nice...but I can understand why they don't.

  --TurboNed

well, divx is cool and free, so...

[Bobboau]

well lets just get A codec working,
don't realy care wich

[WMCoolmon]

Originally posted by Bobboau
well lets just get A codec working,
don't realy care wich

I was talking to the guy who made/rendered this model and he said he'd be more than happy to do cutscenes for a Battletech mod...

[Red5]

My question is
  Is there a player or codec to play these freespace 2 .mve movies, id like to implement them into the Freespace 2 RTS sta2 mod

[EdrickV]

Originally posted by Red5
My question is
  Is there a player or codec to play these freespace 2 .mve movies, id like to implement them into the Freespace 2 RTS sta2 mod

The short answer: No

The long answer: Any such program would be illegal. Interplay doesn't want people using that format. (Which is why that code was removed from the source we got.) And we don't promote illegal stuff here. (Getting Interplay mad at us would be a bad idea.)

[Sandwich]

Originally posted by vadar_1
Im not sure if this would be a hinder... but Mr.B said that the movie subfunctions were not included in the source code (obvious reasons... *cough*Inter*****cough*)

The actual campaign code may or may not require integration of the MVE player code.

Fine, so we leave the MVE code in there (as if we have a choice), but add code to play DivX or something.

[EdrickV]

From what I've seen, all the movie play requests will basically be ignored. The movie_play function doesn't exist and the places where it's called are commented out. If we made our own movie_play function that took the same kinds of arguments as the original (even if it ignored them) we should be able to integrate movies easily. The hard part is getting some sort of movie playing system in there in the first place. (Of course, if we made a movie_play function in there we'd probably want it to double check the file name to make sure the caller isn't requesting a .mve file. If so, just return without any errors and pretend everything's fine 'cause trying to play it as an avi or whatever isn't going to work. )

[TurboNed]

Originally posted by sandwich


Fine, so we leave the MVE code in there (as if we have a choice), but add code to play DivX or something.

We don't have a choice - we can't integrate the MVE code at all.  The only builds that can play the MVE files are the builds on our CDs (and those patched with patches from :V:) - integrating DivX is possible, but making MVE files playable by our modified engine is (to my knowledge) not.  And converting the MVE files is also a copyright violation.

  --TurboNed

[IceFire]

Just do it in DivX or whatever available codec is out there.  

Get past this concept stage and start working proactivly towards implementation of something.  The fact that we could now made our own full screen (or mostly) cutscenes is a very big step towards making new campaigns really shine.

[##UnknownPlayer##]

I suppose if someone had the time they *might* be able to figure out the MVE file format, but it seems pretty pointless if you ask me.
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?