Some experimenting made me realize how wrong I was in some assumptions I'd made when I first read the manual.
Quote0: the video will be played at original size, with AVI audio
1: the video will be stretched to full screen, with appropriate
black borders to maintain its aspect ratio and AVI audio.
10: original size, with game audio continuing (AVI audio muted)
11: stretched to full screen, with game audio continuing (AVI audio muted)
Assumption #1 - with flags 0 and 10, the video would be placed at coordinates 0,0.
Correction - it's placed at the center. Which makes sense.
Assumption #2 - with flags 0 and 10, the areas outside the boundaries of the video would be transparent.
Correction - they're black. Also makes sense.
Thing is, I'd always assumed that it behaved the way I thought *because* that'd allow, I thought, for some interaction while the game was running. Something on the lines of Urban Runner, or Quest For Fame, or even Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective. In a sense, the game kept going, but you could still interact and do stuff and whatnot...
Ok, I stand corrected. But I wonder, how feasible would it be to see this implemented eventually? This sort of behaviour, I mean. I appreciate it's low-priority, and while it would be nice for the game I'm working on it's by no means necessary...
There are various problems with allowing AVIs to play while the game is running, such as CPU load (since it would have to run the game and decode a video at the same time) and frame rate (since the video would look stuttery if it updated at the game frame rate).
Ok, so I should just duplicate any effect I want with a simple animation. Right, thanks.