[madaboutgames]

Anyone know of a good, free re-encoding or converting avi or mpeg to .ani format???

[karajorma]

Not for doing it directly. As far as I know you have to extract all the individual frames and then stitch those together as an ani.

[Omniscaper]

Why use ani with its 16-bit 256 color limit, when you can use numbered EFF's and its 24bit fun.  

I guess ani's would be required if you're doing mainscreen hall or comm traffic animations. I use this for those: http://www.descent-network.com/cgi-bin/descman.cgi?module=anibuilder

[Goober5000]

Originally posted by Omniscaper
Why use ani with its 16-bit 256 color limit, when you can use numbered EFF's and its 24bit fun.

Because EFFs should be used judiciously and sparingly to avoid hogging memory and killing frame rates.

[Omniscaper]

I stand corrected.

But if you're performance ignorant and eye candy driven(like me) ... use EFF's!

[stithe2000]

As far as I know there is no avi/ mpeg straight to an ani file program... The process involves breaking the avi/ mpeg down to frames... Either way for EFF or ani's.... The EFF is similar to a table in nature, and addresses the numbered jpg's/bmp/ or whatever format you choose for the picture with the disired frame rates... Where to create an ani file involves using the program provided by volition (link given by Omni) in which the file has to be pcx format and 256 color resolution... There are pros and cons between the 2 formats... EFF pros are 1 easier to create because of tbl format (allows you to keep the frames in a folder, and addressed as such in the tbl.... 2 Higher colors which means you can preserve detail with less effort... Cons 1 it is a memory hog because of the fact the FS2 engine has to load each frame in to memory 2 no compression.... Ani files pros are 1 they are not too hard on the memory.... 2 it is one file, and lastly it has a small amount of compression (very little, but it is some)... Cons are 1 loss of details because of limit of 256 colors.... 2 is a pain in the ares to get right and convert.... Lastly, it takes a bit of practice to use the ani program in order to get the desired result.... There is a default setting to the ani program. It really depends what you are going to use the animation for.... With any animation project, take a look at finished animations in your area of interest first before commencing with projects like this... Feel free to ask us again to help give you direction for a successful project! Have fun, and good luck!

[DaBrain]

Originally posted by Goober5000
Because EFFs should be used judiciously and sparingly to avoid hogging memory and killing frame rates.

I thought EFFs (DDS DXT1) need just as much memory as ANIs and even less processing power.

I remember those "close to smoke->stutter" problems were solved by just usings EFFs instead of ANIs...


Or did I miss something?

[stithe2000]

Think just for a second...... Each frame (individaul picture file) would have to be loaded into memory vs just one file being loaded.... That is why.... Granted some image files have nice compressions, but they are still seperate files...

[DaBrain]

I don't see a big problem in there. Loading single frames doesn't need anymore bandwith than loading a frame collection (ANI).

Bmpman treats them the same way anyway, as far as I know.


TBP switched from ANI to EFF and that had a positive effect on the performance. I remember that.

[stithe2000]

Depends on resolution, amount of frames, and how many is active at once... However you are right in regards to performance... However I do not recall all the areas that they were used in... Will nose around! Because I think certain areas (effects) were converted only... Think the black & white items remained ani's....

[DaBrain]

That's actually because EFF doesn't work for interface art and briefing animatons.

[madaboutgames]

depends on a lot of things, i want to keep the mem usage and file size down to a min.  Had a look at anim builder but it would be a lot quicker to put together avi, mpeg, divx etc.  Theres gotta be some software to re-encode it to ani or convert it.  If anibuilder does it with pcx files im sure theres another author out there who would have done this.  Had a search on google but theres that much s~~t in the net that its gettin near impossible to find out ur looking for.  

I take it the loading screens are placed in a data/interface folder in .tga format.  What dpi and bit should they be?

[IceFire]

DPI will always be 72 for computer screen stuff.  All consumer screens display upto 72 and no more.

[stithe2000]

If you find a converter program like you have mentioned... Let me know, for I have looked! Good luck!

[Primus]

Originally posted by DaBrain
That's actually because EFF doesn't work for interface art and briefing animatons.

Will this change over time? Anyone working on it?

[taylor]

Can't believe I'm jumping into this same conversation again.

Here is just a simple point list which I hope answers everything, until my next project goes public and complicates things again...

• BMPMAN handles loading/using of an ANI the same way as an EFF, it loads every single frame into memory and tries to load every single frame into video memory on mission load.  Even though an ANI is one file it has to process every frame as a separate image on load.  An EFF/DDS will be about 10-15% faster to load than an ANI of the same thing on most systems but is even more efficient on slower systems.
• An ANI frame is converted from 8-bit to 16-bit when loaded.  This takes more processing time during load, extra processing time during display and requires about twice the memory of a DXT5 of the same dimensions.
• EFF doesn't force the use of DDS images and can still be used with TGA, JPG or PCX frames.  This means that you could create an EFF with PCX frames which behaves exactly like an ANI version, uses the same memory and takes the same time to load but doesn't share a single palette for all frames.
• EFFs cannot be used for interface graphics (includes briefing animation) or talking head animations and will NEVER be made to work for that purpose.  This will be done with another animation format which will have better support for such things (ie. "my next project").  EFF was setup to be useful for making effects and is tailored to that purpose only.

Basic details on next project:

• Will be used for streaming purposes only.  That means that it can't be used for effects but will be perfectly suited for interface animations, talking heads, and command briefing animations and possibly future in-mission stuff like billboards or moving background graphics.
• Will use JPG compressed frames which will allow for customized dimensions and much smaller disk/download sizes with 24-bit color and per-frame compression settings.
• Only one frame will ever be loaded into memory at the time
• Every animation in this format will allow for any play effect (forwards, backwards, repeat, ping-pong) without special processing on the creators end
• Will allow for something like a VirtualDub filter which can take an existing video in any video format and convert it directly to this new format for the game
• Does NOT support audio.  The game already handles this specially and adding audio support would greatly complicate things.
• Only requires changes to ANIMPLAY so it's basically drop-in.  The new format can be used for any streaming ANI (see first point in list) without any other code changes or special handling by mod makers or code monkeys.

Hopefully that clears a few things up.

[stithe2000]

Thanx!!! It did!