Playing 640x480 videos in 800x600

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Some experimenting made me realize how wrong I was in some assumptions I'd made when I first read the manual.

0: 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...

[Pumaman]

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).

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Ok, so I should just duplicate any effect I want with a simple animation. Right, thanks.