Movies?

[BigMc]

I think it would mean using libavformat instead of libwebm for the container handling and libavcodec instead of libvpx for the decoding. The difference is not only the different decoder, but the FFmpeg libraries also support much more formats.

[Trumgottist]

But the additional formats won't be exposed to SLUDGE games (and wouldn't have to be compiled into the engine either if I've read things right). Best to stick with a single, well defined format to avoid trouble and confusion. (Not to mention any format licensing issues.)

[xenogia]

??

Okay.  Anyway, would the WebM format be easier to implement that libavcodec?

[Trumgottist]

Here's what I'm working on:

Three functions, as simple as possible.

playMovie('moviefile.webm');

Plays a movie, fullscreen. (Well, full window if the game running windowed.) The function does not return, and no other graphics are drawn, until the movie is finished, or stopped.

stopMovie();

Stops any playing movie immediately. Nothing happens if no movie is playing.

pauseMovie();

Pauses a playing movie, or resumes a paused movie.

--

This would allow a game to do something like this:

Code:

sub movieClick() {
pauseMovie();
}
sub movieKeys(k) {
if (k == "ESCAPE") stopMovie();
if (k == " ") pauseMovie();
}

sub doCutscene(movie) {
onLeftMouse (movieClick);
onKeyboard (movieKeys);
onRightMouse (movieClick);

playMovie(movie);

# Return to normal
go();
}

…
doCutscene('intro.webm');
…

Thoughts?

[BigMc]

There is cacheSound, so would it be useful to also have a corresponding function for movies or is that not necessary? Depending on how playMovie works, cacheMovie could just load the beginning of the movie to memory to ensure a smooth start of the movie.

[Trumgottist]

It's streaming from the hard drive anyway, and not loading everything into memory at once, so I'm not expecting that to be an issue. Even DVDs movies, who live on a slower medium, play instantly.

(If you try to run a game over a network, everything will lag. I've done that, running a game that lives on my other computer. SLUDGE is not designed for that.)

[BigMc]

Yes, but there is a buffer and the video only starts after a certain amount is buffered. I'm talking about that first bit. But if it should be necessary you can still add it later.

[xenogia]

Could you add a function where as to keep the background music playing while a video file is playing?

[Trumgottist]

Sound will continue unless you stop it yourself.

[xenogia]

That is perfect then

[Igor Hardy]

Oh, I didn't realize you are transferring Face of Corruption to SLUDGE, xenogia. But that's probably the right choice for a FMV game. I've still didn't get around setting that codec to run Phoenix01 and handling movie files seem like a bit of a problem in AGS in general.

[xenogia]

Hey Igor,

The main reasons why I changed to Sludge was due to resolution limitations and it's multi-platform aspect.  And also to be fair I filmed the game at a much higher res than AGS handles.  I've also come across a few other issues such as sound-stutters as well which has hindered the development a bit as well.

[Trumgottist]

I'm making progress… I'm now able to see my movie in my test game. (I've already uploaded the source to my test game, but you can't compile it or play it until SLUDGE 2.1 is released.)

No sound yet, and no colour yet, but unless I hit a stumbling block I should be able to have WebM playback working in SLUDGE within a week. I hope to get SLUDGE 2.1 out before "Pie Day".

[BigMc]

It also works for me so far.

EDIT: What and when is Pie Day?

[Trumgottist]

Good to hear.

Pi Day is March 14, and also the release date for Life Flashes By.