[RandomTiger]

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?

[Killfrenzy]

*Cough* SOURCE CODE *COUGH*

[Tiara]

Originally posted by Killfrenzy
*Cough* SOURCE CODE *COUGH*

*coughs*

[RandomTiger]

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.

[gevatter Lars]

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.

[ZylonBane]

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".

[ShadowWolf_IH]

i'll test it on 98, 98se and 98 plus

[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!

Thanks Gevatter, at least someone seems pleased.

[ZylonBane]

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.

[vyper]

Yes, you da man! Just get it inside the flippin' game window

[RandomTiger]

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.

[ZylonBane]

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.

[RandomTiger]

:thepimp:

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.

[ShadowWolf_IH]

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.

[ZylonBane]

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?

[Anaz]

*sigh*

he meant play them as something media player could understand, genius...

[WMCoolmon]

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.

[Anaz]

thank you wm...that should make everything clear for everyone...

[ShadowWolf_IH]

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

[Zarax]

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*