FMV and Briefing transcripts.

[EVIL386]

Does anybody have the transcripts for wz? if not would it be possible for anyone to write them?
I would write them myself except theres a lot of FMV's ;D
My Girlfriend and I are quite keen on acting and stuff, so we may be able to voice overs using my Creative Sound Blaster X-FI Elite Pro.

Any help welcome

[Watermelon]

Does anybody have the transcripts for wz? if not would it be possible for anyone to write them?
I would write them myself except theres a lot of FMV's ;D
My Girlfriend and I are quite keen on acting and stuff, so we may be able to voice overs using my Creative Sound Blaster X-FI Elite Pro.

Any help welcome

so you want to do voice acting for the briefing texts between missions?
I think lav_coyote25's doc project is all knowing,maybe there is useful info of the storyline and transcripts in fmv(though you would probably have to rewrite them based on original stories,since transcripts are not GPL'ed too...)

the todo list mentioned something about cutscene,it would be cool if we have cutscene + custom voice acting to fill the 'fmv gap' between missions. 

[EVIL386]

Yeah I wouldn't mind doing some voice acting for mission cutscenes, then when we have some actual videos, re-dubbing them with voices

I have an RPL Player and the Codecs, I know this has probably already been answered before, but are we allowed to transcode the videos? I understand that they are not covered in the GPL, but could i re-encode them? so that people who actually own the original game should be allowed to watch what they have rightly purchased.

but in most things i have seen this "You may not reverse engineer or decompile the program and/or its resources" :'( awww, but i like decompiling ;D

[DevUrandom]

You can do with the videos whatever you want, as long as you do it in privately. You are not allowed to provide your transcoded videos to anyone else.
The game very probably wont get videos anymore. The idea is to do some ingame cutscenes. (This implies that nobody will be able to watch the videos inside Warzone, no matter if he owns the original game or not.)
I think this is the most convincing idea. It has been discussed that integrating a videoplayer into Warzone in a crossplatform way (support at least Windows, Linux, MacOSX, BSD) is a hard task with little benefit and very high time requirements and probably a very hacky outcome.

[lav_coyote25]

well as i and others have shown - there can be short sequences of video ( done using a variety of different ways.) actually i think a stop motion vid with text / voice overlay would be the best route to go - it is fairly quick to do.  as for the transcripts - those can be altered to the point of being fresh and original - so the GPL would be kept clean. ;D

[DevUrandom]

Oh, I didn't know there exist patches which implement videoplayback in a clean and crossplatform way...
Where are they? I'd like to have a look at them...

[lav_coyote25]

right now i am in process of uploading the message strings etc for the voice and video ( for whomever is wanting to take this on). ;D


WarZone 2100 Documents Project

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i thought i gave you the stop motion video i was working on... :-\  maybe not... let me know..

[Rman Virgil]

well as i and others have shown - there can be short sequences of video ( done using a variety of different ways.) actually i think a stop motion vid with text / voice overlay would be the best route to go - it is fairly quick to do.  as for the transcripts - those can be altered to the point of being fresh and original - so the GPL would be kept clean. ;D

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** Yes sir, across the board !

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right now i am in process of uploading the message strings etc for the voice and video ( for whomever is wanting to take this on). ;D

WarZone 2100 Documents Project

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* You mean like a "Call Script"... ?

* If these "strings" work like that....WOW... that would be kwel.

* Like Dev  I'd also like to take a look & see how it works.

* If some folks start working on it, I can lend a hand..... but mostly...

* I'd like to use it for Trinity 1: Training Grounds and Trinity 2: High Command...

* Hmmm, very exciting.. *rman licks lips in anticipation*

Carpe Diem, rv 

[lav_coyote25]

well before you go and get all excited... have a look - see if thats what your wanting and then we go from there... i will try and get the vid up in a while... got to finish the cam2 and cam 3 text's ...  ;D

[Rman Virgil]

well before you go and get all excited... have a look - see if thats what your wanting and then we go from there... i will try and get the vid up in a while... got to finish the cam2 and cam 3 text's ...  ;D

* Ahhh, man... don't rain on my parade... heh, j/k.

* Your right, I'm getting too excited... I should 1st look at it and see if it'll do what I have in mind.....

* BTW.... when you say short seq - does that mean there's a time constrant ? Like X # of seconds at the most ?

- rv

[DevUrandom]

Sure I saw the video you made. But where is the playback code? Never got to see your work on the code...

PS: What are those "message strings etc for the voice and video" you mentioned?

[lav_coyote25]

Sure I saw the video you made. But where is the playback code? Never got to see your work on the code...

PS: What are those "message strings etc for the voice and video" you mentioned?

playback code??    i used paintshop pro - world editor - and paintshop pro animation shop to save out as an avi and then avi to whatever will suit...  i never said anything about coding... ???

and the strings etc are where the rest is..   here - documents project.

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ok all the messages and supporting messages are now online... when / if i find more they will be added. ;D

[Rman Virgil]

playback code??? ? i used paintshop pro - world editor - and paintshop pro animation shop to save out as an avi and then avi to whatever will suit...? i never said anything about coding... ???
and the strings etc are where the rest is..? ?here - documents project.

* Ok... I understand what's going-on now..... Or at least I think I do..

* You do still need play back code.

* From within WZ, while playing the CAM, you need to still trigger a vid player (.avi or whatever) to play-back the new .avi vids (or whatever format) then go back in game.

* The strings could be useful but I believe code would still have to be written (or rewritten) plus you'd have to come up with a cross-platform OSS player.

* As such you'd be back where Dev 1st described it - in short, perhaps unfeasible when weighed against other priorities. But maybe I got It all wrong.

* One thing I am sure about is that I can go about it in a straightford manner for my "Trinity 1 & 2" Projects and that it won't require codeing to go out & back in-game, tieing together multiple segments in serial fashion - aka a contiguous experience.

* IOWs - I can simply create 2 ?.avis for my "Trinity" briefings..... And just instruct the player in a README: Run X.avi before launching WZ to play "Trinity 1: Training Grounds"...... And run Z.avi before launching WZ to Play "Trinity 2: High Command".

* I donot need implemented code mechanisms to trigger a vid player in-game to playback my .avis.

* Then again it's only 2 and they DONOT have to be strung-together.

* Of course this mechanism could be used for the WZ Cam as well - a bit cumbersome for 36 (?) mission briefs, perhaps....

* Plus the gamer is NOT locked into seeing them sequentially and only if they have successfully completed the preceeding mission - with this tech the gamer can run them however they want.

* Ultimately we're also talking about "breaking the in-game spell" to manually run an .avi instead of the code doing the whole process seamlessly in-game....

* Who knows - maybe folks would get into dl-ing 36 (?) .avis & manually running each one before launching WZ to play the corresponding mission (or pausing WZ to do the same if playing through more than one mission at a time).

* ?'s like these can sometimes only be answered through a "field trial / test" (a sampler say, first couple missions or whatever... & poll it maybe).

L8rs, rv

[lav_coyote25]

i went looking for information. 

is this compatible with what we have now?

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also did this up using smacker... from rad tools  (bink and smaker) 

[Rman Virgil]

i went looking for information.   

is this compatible with what we have now?

* Very interesting site and offerings, thanks for sharing.

* However, the devs should answer your ? not me.

l8rs, rv

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also did this up using smacker... from rad tools  (bink and smaker) 

* I dl. It's still a Smacker file / ext & I don't have the prog. None of the .avi players I have will run it - it's not converted /exp, I believe, as an .avi yet from the prop smacker ff ...., IOWS, even though it is entitled an .avi, it's not.

- rv

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* I dl. It's still a Smacker file / ext & I don't have the prog. None of the .avi players I have will run it - it's not converted /exp, I believe, as an .avi yet from the prop smacker ff ...., IOWS, even though it is entitled an .avi, it's not.

- rv

* K... I boned-up on Smacker/Bink? RAD Tools.

* Here's your other alternative.....

* You can compile a stand-alone .EXE (has the player bundeled into it... so you don't need RAD Tools resident to run) outta Smacker or Bink..

* Kwel tools for a 256 Color palette..... I'm gonna try-out, thanks for another fine tip.


EDIT:

* With RAD Tools installed I ran the file. Nice GFX work, Lav.

* Right now I'm just a little skeptical about "bang per mb" claims, compression, etc.... wanna see what's possible within a 5-7mb range... image with scrolling text plus sound, music, PoV transitions, etc..

- rv