Hard Light Productions Forums

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The Modding Workshop => Topic started by: RandomTiger on August 18, 2002, 03:48:14 pm

Title: FS2 MPG & DIVX. I am the man!
Post by: RandomTiger on August 18, 2002, 03:48:14 pm
Hello everyone as you may or maynot know I have been working on putting video code into FS2. I have had some success:

The bad news:

*At the moment there is a brief switch period before and after a movie plays where it goes back to the desktop.
*The code has not yet been fully tested on anything other than XP.
*Currently only setup to play files with the same names as the existing videos and in the set positions in the FS2 campaign.
Will not play MVE movies (ie the ones that come with freespace)

The good news:

*The code has been tested with AVI, MPG and DIVX and works
*The code should in theory work with any video the user has a codec for. ie anything you can play in media player
* The last two bad news items can be sorted with your help

Why am I telling you this:

*Thought you might like to know
*Want to know what you think
*Need testers to find any unknown bugs and make sure it works on all systems

How do I have a go?:

* Download the code and compile
* Or ask me for an exe
* Then use -dshowvid as a run parameter

Anyone know how FS2 determines which movies are played when? The intro and end ones are hard coded but what about the rest. What is the easiest way for mod comunity to have control of this that takes the least coding?
Title: FS2 MPG & DIVX. I am the man!
Post by: Killfrenzy on August 18, 2002, 03:57:40 pm
*Cough* SOURCE CODE *COUGH*:p
Title: FS2 MPG & DIVX. I am the man!
Post by: Tiara on August 18, 2002, 03:58:40 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Killfrenzy
*Cough* SOURCE CODE *COUGH*:p


*coughs*
Title: FS2 MPG & DIVX. I am the man!
Post by: RandomTiger on August 18, 2002, 04:03:56 pm
Why is everyone coughing?
The source code is now part of fs2_open and has also been posted in the source code forum where it belongs.

Thanks for the support guys, I'll be sure to cough next time you do something useful.
Title: FS2 MPG & DIVX. I am the man!
Post by: gevatter Lars on August 18, 2002, 04:58:03 pm
Hey I am full behind you, just don't listen to this other guy. Work on it to improve it futher. I just can't wait until we have got the possibility to make and play or own vid in the mods.
Go one fight for your ideas...

One thing you should try to make possible is that you can play every movie when you want it.
Title: FS2 MPG & DIVX. I am the man!
Post by: ZylonBane on August 18, 2002, 06:34:16 pm
Quote
Originally posted by gevatter Lars
One thing you should try to make possible is that you can play every movie when you want it.
I think that option is called "Windows Media Player".
Title: FS2 MPG & DIVX. I am the man!
Post by: ShadowWolf_IH on August 18, 2002, 06:40:43 pm
i'll test it on 98, 98se and 98 plus
Title: FS2 MPG & DIVX. I am the man!
Post by: RandomTiger on August 18, 2002, 06:43:12 pm
I bet V wish they'd thought of that. Instead of playing cutscenes between they could just have poped up a message with the filename and told you to use media player!

Thanks Gevatter, at least someone seems pleased.
Title: FS2 MPG & DIVX. I am the man!
Post by: ZylonBane on August 18, 2002, 06:58:36 pm
Quote
Originally posted by RandomTiger
I bet V wish they'd thought of that. Instead of playing cutscenes between they could just have poped up a message with the filename and told you to use media player!
Ummm...

Errr...

Nevermind.
Title: FS2 MPG & DIVX. I am the man!
Post by: vyper on August 18, 2002, 07:02:12 pm
Yes, you da man! Just get it inside the flippin' game window :p
Title: FS2 MPG & DIVX. I am the man!
Post by: RandomTiger on August 18, 2002, 07:05:57 pm
Quote
Originally posted by ZylonBane
Ummm...

Errr...

Nevermind.


Sorry, shouldnt have bit your head of. What did you mean?
I dont understand your original comment.
The point of this is that it plays inside freespace as a cutscene.
Title: FS2 MPG & DIVX. I am the man!
Post by: ZylonBane on August 18, 2002, 07:28:47 pm
Sigh...

First, actually read the message I was responding to. The poster was talking about being able to view cutscenes whenever they want. Since cutscenes will now be in the form of AVIs and MPGs, this capability will exist by default.

Second, the original FS2 uses MVEs for its cutscenes, which Media Player does not (and will not ever) play.

The fact that I have to explain this to someone who's working on the source code is disconcerting, to say the least. :wtf:
Title: FS2 MPG & DIVX. I am the man!
Post by: RandomTiger on August 18, 2002, 08:00:13 pm
:mad: :confused: :mad: :confused: :mad: :eek2: :wtf: :no: :thepimp: :mad:

I take what I said back. What is with people today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My exe plays AVI, MPG, DIVX **'INSIDE'** freespace which it didnt do before, which is good.

No-one anywhere was talking about MVE's!!!!!!!!!!!
Trust me I know allll about MVE's!!!!!!!

And I know FS2 well, I swim in the source code on a regular basis.
Title: FS2 MPG & DIVX. I am the man!
Post by: ShadowWolf_IH on August 18, 2002, 08:37:09 pm
ok, it works the same for either the voodoo2 or the monster 2.  You already know what happened when i used it.   So i went into the campaign editor and used it to start a campaign, it didn't come on when i typed in the file address, so i removed the file addy and just used the movie name.  It looked on the cd for it, the cd wasn't in.  these are the issues so far.

But i gotta agree with random, after all the bithching and talking about how we are going to be able to make our movies and have them play one would think you guys would be happy to see some progress.  I know that i am.

i just about freaked when my game opened to the mech3 intro.
Title: FS2 MPG & DIVX. I am the man!
Post by: ZylonBane on August 18, 2002, 09:09:37 pm
Quote
Originally posted by RandomTiger
No-one anywhere was talking about MVE's!!!!!!!!!!!
Actually YOU were (indirectly), when you said, "I bet V wish they'd thought of that. Instead of playing cutscenes between they could just have poped up a message with the filename and told you to use media player!".

Of course, no they couldn't have, because Media Player doesn't play MVEs. See now?
Title: FS2 MPG & DIVX. I am the man!
Post by: Anaz on August 18, 2002, 09:40:09 pm
*sigh*

he meant play them as something media player could understand, genius...
Title: FS2 MPG & DIVX. I am the man!
Post by: WMCoolmon on August 18, 2002, 09:54:39 pm
1) The modification WILL play files that media player can play.
2) It CANNOT play MVE files
3) It will likely NOT EVER play MVE files
4) Source is available at http://fs2source.warpcore.org
5) When gevatter Lars said "One thing you should try to make possible is that you can play every movie when you want it." he likely meant playing a movie in the middle of a mission, NOT outside of Freespace.
7) If all people do is flame each other, the thread WILL be closed.
Title: FS2 MPG & DIVX. I am the man!
Post by: Anaz on August 18, 2002, 10:00:33 pm
thank you wm...that should make everything clear for everyone...
Title: FS2 MPG & DIVX. I am the man!
Post by: ShadowWolf_IH on August 18, 2002, 10:35:39 pm
i don't mind the switch back to my desktop, mech4 does that crap all time, and microsoft put a lot into it.  Then again mech4 is a 1 gigabyte b grade movie as far as i figure......but the good outwieghs the bad in this.  ok so i see my desktop for a second after the movie ends....big deal.....i like the picture on my desktop, my wife is a hottie lol.

near as i can see it the only absolutely pressing issue is getting it to look where we type the file in the campaign editor in fred, instead of defaulting to look on the CD for the movie.  That and the tech room issue.  This devolpment rocks.

i probably shouldn't say this, but maybe if we paid more attention to the spirit of a post and not whether every T was dotted and every I was crossed we might get more accomplished.  and yeah I said it like that on purpose, maybe if people are too busy yelling at me for something, Random can finish what he started.  Give the man some credit, he is closer to the answer than any of us are.

this message has been brought to you by the militant welders of the GTVA
Title: FS2 MPG & DIVX. I am the man!
Post by: Zarax on August 19, 2002, 01:05:59 am
GREAT! GREAT! GREAT!

This will finally end all video codec flaming that erupted some time ago...
By giving freedom in codec usage you have solved a big development problem IMHO...
*Thinks about creating DVD quality VMW movies*:yes: :yes: :yes:
Title: FS2 MPG & DIVX. I am the man!
Post by: Bobboau on August 19, 2002, 01:12:15 am
this thread is funny :lol:
Title: Not to beat a dead horse...
Post by: Star Dragon on August 19, 2002, 01:41:03 am
Didn't Klingon Academy do movies in MVE format??? I forgot cause my friend is NUTZ about klingons so after I finshed it I bequethed it to him 6 months ago...(3 states away now)...

Anyway I think I remember that it came with a utility called MVE player. That way you can see all the movies whenever you wanted (for those people who couldn't finish the game) :nervous:

  So not to make Random backtrack and go a different route BUT does knowing this help any???
Title: Re: Not to beat a dead horse...
Post by: RandomTiger on August 19, 2002, 04:07:56 am
Quote
Originally posted by Bobboau

this thread is funny


Glad your enjoying yourself Bobboau.:lol:

Quote
Originally posted by Star Dragon
Didn't Klingon Academy do movies in MVE format??? I forgot cause my friend is NUTZ about klingons so after I finshed it I bequethed it to him 6 months ago...(3 states away now)...

Anyway I think I remember that it came with a utility called MVE player. That way you can see all the movies whenever you wanted (for those people who couldn't finish the game) :nervous:

  So not to make Random backtrack and go a different route BUT does knowing this help any???


There is a util that converrts MVE into EXE but for fs2_open but we cant touch mve files with a barge poll for legal reasons.
I assume Klingon Academy is by interplay then?

And thanks ShadowWolf, you been a big help, looks like I need to spend a bit more time on it.
Title: FS2 MPG & DIVX. I am the man!
Post by: RandomTiger on August 19, 2002, 02:08:03 pm
Anyone who wants to help me get the remaining issues out the way should do the following:

1. Download www.ijbrooks.demon.co.uk/tom/fs2_open.rar
2. Unzip rar file into your freespace 2 dir
3. Get any mpg, avi or divx file and put it into your freespace 2 dir and rename it intro.mve
4. Save any work you have open and run the exe

Things to test:

Watch to see if 'your' intro plays
Go into the tech room and try to play the intro in there
Space space to test if a movie will skip
Use ctrl alt del if FS does nothing for too long

For every time you run my freespace exe it will create a text file in your freespace dir that starts 'DBUG-.....'. Please e-mail these to me at [email protected] with a discription of anything that went wrong and your graphics card type.
Title: FS2 MPG & DIVX. I am the man!
Post by: LAW ENFORCER on August 20, 2002, 11:38:38 am
Quote
Originally posted by RandomTiger
Use ctrl alt del if FS does nothing for too long


ummm... most windows users should know thia by now;)

Keep up the good work! Soon mods will be the size of DVDs!! YAY!