Hard Light Productions Forums
Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => FS2 Open Coding - The Source Code Project (SCP) => Topic started by: MiniSiets on September 22, 2006, 02:39:01 pm
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OK is there a place that has made a downloadable file for AVI format cutscenes in FS2 SCP? I know that there was a torrent around somewhere that included the whole game with the cutscenes in AVI format, but first of all I don't have a torrent program to download it with and secondly I already have the MediaVPs so ideally I would like it if someone could tell me where I could just download the AVI cutscenes separate from everything else. If that is not possible, then perhaps someone could show me where to download the full FS2SCP + AVI cutscenes as a .ZIP file or something instead of a torrent? Thanks.
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You need to use the MVE versions of the cutscenes instead. All AVI support is going to be removed in future versions (past 3.6.9), and is pretty much unsupported now (for 3.6.9). We will instead only support MVE and Theora movies. There will be Theora versions of the original MVE movies released at some point after the new Theora code is finalized however, just to avoid all of the people who endlessly complain about the MVEs using too much disk space.
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Hmm...know of any good programs to convert my AVI's to MVE's, or a place I can get the MVE's?
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Taylor, quick question about using mods ... is there anyway for me to tweak a mod.ini file so that I can use the mve files off the retail cd? The two hurdles to jump (that I can see) are
1. The retail CDs have the movies in the root cd folder, along-side old retail VP which should NOT override whatever media vps you're using with fs2_open
2. So far as I know, the modding system needs mod folders to be within the FS2 directory, making in difficult (on Windows) to point out to a drive such as D:\ or E:\.
Now, for linux users, so far as I can tell, it would be a piece of cake...
1. Create a "hub" mod folder and put a mod.ini file in their with the mod loading directive:
[multimod]
secondrylist = ,mediavps,mycddrive;
2. In order to reach out of the FS2 directory, create a symbolic link ("ln -s") called "mycddrive", which points to the path to your cd-rom.
Can you tell me if that would work for linux users? And is there anyway to get it to work on Windows?
I've got enough HD space to hold onto the movies. I'm just curious. Don't hate me. :)
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Hmm...know of any good programs to convert my AVI's to MVE's, or a place I can get the MVE's?
Sorry man, I don't know... but I bet someone does! ***waits patiently for next post*** ;7
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All AVI support is going to be removed in future versions (past 3.6.9), and is pretty much unsupported now (for 3.6.9).
wait......
won't that make it nearly impossible for mods to have cutscenes?
kindly explain to me how a mod will use cutscenes once .avi support is removed?
i know about the cutscene sexps, but what if i made the movie in, say, 3ds max?
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wait......
won't that make it nearly impossible for mods to have cutscenes?
kindly explain to me how a mod will use cutscenes once .avi support is removed?
i know about the cutscene sexps, but what if i made the movie in, say, 3ds max?
I'm sure that taylor would know more than I do, but it shouldn't be too difficult to encode them into Theora files. The Theora web site (http://www.theora.org/) has a link to a project called ffmpeg2theora (http://www.v2v.cc/~j/ffmpeg2theora/), which should allow you to create Theora files.
Taylor, any details on the why Theora was picked... fast decompression, the compression/quality ratio, licensing etc.?
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Hmm...know of any good programs to convert my AVI's to MVE's, or a place I can get the MVE's?
You can get the original MVEs for FS1 and FS2 from here: http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,42153.0.html
Taylor, quick question about using mods ... is there anyway for me to tweak a mod.ini file so that I can use the mve files off the retail cd? The two hurdles to jump (that I can see) are
1. The retail CDs have the movies in the root cd folder, along-side old retail VP which should NOT override whatever media vps you're using with fs2_open
2. So far as I know, the modding system needs mod folders to be within the FS2 directory, making in difficult (on Windows) to point out to a drive such as D:\ or E:\.
Anything on the hard drive (whether it's in a moddir or not) will override anything on the CDs. Also, you can just not use the original CDs, but put them on a new blank CD instead so that it only has the movies on it.
The updated movie code (for Theora and MVE) will have better support for loading things off of the CD in a more predictable manner.
Also I'm going to add support for moddirs on CD/DVDs so that you can have all of your movies on a DVD, for all of your mods, and it will properly use the correct ones. Mod support on the CD/DVD will be a little different than how it works now however. On the CD/DVD you would have something like D:\mods\mediavps (note the "mods" part). You won't have to actually do anything differently except put the mods under a directory called "mods", the game code will handle using that transparently and won't require any changes to the launcher or mod.ini files. The reason for this is that we are actually going to move to a directory structure like that for 3.7, and it's a lot easier to move things around on the hard drive than on a DVD, so we might as well go ahead and get it right now for CD/DVDs. :)
Can you tell me if that would work for linux users? And is there anyway to get it to work on Windows?
The mod.ini files only work in the Windows launcher, so they are useless under Linux and OS X. You are basically correct though, just create a symlink and use it like a mod directory. The only hitch is that it can't detect the changing of CDs. That means you won't be able to switch CDs while the game is running in order to get at the different movies. That is why I recommend just burning the movies onto their own CD. If you have a 80min/700meg blank then even the FS2 movies should fit on one CD. Or, just wait and have the burned onto a DVD once the mod support for those hits CVS. Then you could have your FS1 and FS2 movies on one disc, in mod directories, and the game will use the proper ones.
won't that make it nearly impossible for mods to have cutscenes?
kindly explain to me how a mod will use cutscenes once .avi support is removed?
Mods would use Theora instead. They don't actually lose anything, we are just standardizing on a single video format (AVI is not a video format) which doesn't work by way of horribly crappy hacks. They will need to convert any AVI cutscenes to Theora, but I'll offer to convert those myself if they have trouble.
Taylor, any details on the why Theora was picked... fast decompression, the compression/quality ratio, licensing etc.?
It's an open format, so we can integrate it directly in the game code so you don't need any additional codecs, or to install anything. We already use Vorbis, which is also integrated directly into the game binary, so this is just adding a video component and we don't have to bloat the binary with an extra audio format.
So basically it's: ease of use for us, no problems with licensing, great compression quality, small file sizes (smaller than DivX), works easily cross-platform.
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Hmm...know of any good programs to convert my AVI's to MVE's, or a place I can get the MVE's?
You can get the original MVEs for FS1 and FS2 from here: http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,42153.0.html
Woo! Thanks, I was looking for the FS1 ones, too. :yes:
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Wait, what? How are we going to use .MVE format if it's still copyrighted by Interplay? Wasn't that the reason we couldn't use them in the first place?
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but I'll offer to convert those myself if they have trouble.
I'm sure we can figure it out, but a guide would be nice.
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Also, if I download the MVE files, will they play in-game when it comes to the moment that they're supposed to be played?
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Also, if I download the MVE files, will they play in-game when it comes to the moment that they're supposed to be played?
Yes, they will. Download them and place them in data\movies\ (you will have to create the movies folder). If you want to keep your retail FS2 Data directory pristine, then you can place them in mediavps\data\movies\ (if that's your active mod).
The proof positive will be when you launch FS2 after download the movies... you will FINALLY see the intro sequence to FS2. :)
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if anyone wants it, i'll whip up a .reg file for those on XP who want to be able to right click a .avi file and select "Convert to Theora (.ogg)"
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Wait, what? How are we going to use .MVE format if it's still copyrighted by Interplay? Wasn't that the reason we couldn't use them in the first place?
The format was reverse engineered even before the FS2 source code was released (MVE was used in other games too), which means that docs describing the format in detail have been available for nearly 5 years, and Interplay hasn't done anything about it. The MVE decoder (or code based on the format docs) is being used in a half dozen different game port projects, and is in a dozen or so movie decoders/players. The code has existed for FSO for over 2 years, and we just decided to not care any more if Interplay was going to do anything about it or not. :)
It's not that it matters that much anyway, no one is going to really use MVE these days. That is what things like Theora are for. About all it's good for is just playing movies which already exist.
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Oh, okay. Woohoo! the .MVEs are way higher quality anyway.
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BTW, you just drop the movies in the main FS2 folder or FS Port folder. There is no \data\movies directory ever. Never has been.
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BTW, you just drop the movies in the main FS2 folder or FS Port folder. There is no \data\movies directory ever. Never has been.
Doesn't matter. If you make one it will work perfectly well.
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BTW, you just drop the movies in the main FS2 folder or FS Port folder. There is no \data\movies directory ever. Never has been.
Freespace 1 had it, and it works with Freespace 2.
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Funny, I own FS. The movies were never in a \data\movies folder. They're just in the main dir of the CD. Looking in my FS2 folder, there also is no \data\movies.
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Funny, I own FS. The movies were never in a \data\movies folder. They're just in the main dir of the CD. Looking in my FS2 folder, there also is no \data\movies.
my FS1 CD has them all in D:\data\movies\
i've got the Descent DVD version (not the Conflict version). It came with my windows 98 machine a couple years ago.
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I have a question, if someone could answer it, please. I've been playing the FS Port, and just now put the .mve files where they should go, for both FS2 and FS1. Maybe this is more of an FS Port-specific question, but its mostly to do with the cutscenes themselves. When I go into the tech room to view movies, all I can see is Introduction. Thing is, I just now beat the game. How do I get them all to show up? FS2 movies show up fine.
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This is a bug in the FS Port. It'll be fixed in 3.1.
If you want to fix it yourself, extract the FS1 cutscenes.tbl file into your FreeSpace2/data/tables folder.
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This is a bug in the FS Port. It'll be fixed in 3.1.
If you want to fix it yourself, extract the FS1 cutscenes.tbl file into your FreeSpace2/data/tables folder.
Oh, okay. Thanks. I'll see if I can't manage to scrounge that off of my old scratched up discs.
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OK I just tried extracting all of the MVE files off of FS2 CDs and plopped them into the FS2 folder. They didn't work and the intro cutscene is not working. I then tried putting them into data\movies and still it isn't working. I last tried mediavps\data\movies and I even used the launcher to tell it to run a mod linking to that directory and it still will not work? What gives? Does it have something to do with the fact that I installed the game to Drive D instead of Drive C? (I have two hard drives) Or is there a TBL file or something I have to modify or include with the MVE files to make them run? Someone please help!
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The only explaination I can come up with is that you've forgotten to upgrade to a build new enough to actually run the MVE movies (3.6.7 won't cut it).
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Oh I see... I'm using 3.6.7 currently lol. Can you please direct me to the latest build (not a BETA either just the next standard build like 3.6.7 was at one point)? Also, it's strange that the new nebulae graphics are not loading, it's using the old nebulae from retail FS2, yet all other graphics are working. WTF is wrong with my computer?
EDIT: Never mind about the nebulae. It seems I forgot to install one VP file. It has now been added and everything is working other than the cutscenes still.
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Here you go: 3.6.9 RC7 (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,41891.0.html)
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Here you go: 3.6.9 RC7 (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,41891.0.html)
pffffft. don't use that. Use RC 7.8.
go here (http://www.geocities.com/turey_the_king_of_the_universe/nooblist.html) for a checklist for installing 3.6.9 RC 7.8 and the corresponding media VP's.
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7.8? How did I manage to not know about this... ;7 *upgrades*
Now I gotta go find out what changed...
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It's mostly multiplayer changes really.
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Now I gotta go find out what changed...
Since RC7:
- the usual bunch of little bug fixes
- some OpenGL fixes
- small performance/memory improvements
- some crash bugs fixed
- envmaps now use a proper texture translation matrix
- lots and lots of multiplayer fixes
- some FRED2 bug fixes
- Launcher 5.5 (still not the final 5.5 however)
... and probably a few things that I can think of right now.
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Dammit this will take forever lol. Ever since I got a wireless router my download rates have been 50 KB/sec... Guess I'll just have to let them download over night. Anyway, should I delete my old VP files from 3.6.7 once I get these?
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Anyway, should I delete my old VP files from 3.6.7 once I get these?
Yes, and get the Zeta VPs plus the mp710 patches. (all of which are available from the Zeta VP thread)
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Now I gotta go find out what changed...
Since RC7:
- the usual bunch of little bug fixes
- some OpenGL fixes
- small performance/memory improvements
- some crash bugs fixed
- envmaps now use a proper texture translation matrix
- lots and lots of multiplayer fixes
- some FRED2 bug fixes
- Launcher 5.5 (still not the final 5.5 however)
... and probably a few things that I can think of right now.
Thank you! :D