Compiling video files

[SilverWizard_OTF]

I wanted to know if there is any way to compile video files to the final .exe file. That in my opinion would be a good idea, perhaps if it's not possible, it can be made to other version of AGS. It isn't so nice that player can see all the video files that normally have to see at specific suitable time in the game.

[Joe]

Hello.
The answer for your question is no.
But anyway you could create an install.exe for your game which would make it to be created into a folder which nobody is going to look for. So you could be sure that no one sees your video.
The best setup compiler I know is "Inno Setup Compiler"
which you can find here:

http://www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php

Maybe you have to download the translation for greek.

------OTHER SOLUTION------

I've just discovered a complete solution for your problem, and it's quite simple.

You can change the video extension, so you'll make sure nobody can see your videos, but you'll have to change it in the game scipt aswell. e.g.:

If your video is called: LOGO.avi , and you change it into LOGO.jkl (unknown extension).

The script should also be so:

PlayVideo("LOGO.jkl", 1, 1);

I think it's a good solution and it won't affect to your game for recognising the video.

Please let me know if it works correctly.

[Khris]

AFAIK, Flic videos (.flc) are bundled into the exe.

[SilverWizard_OTF]

Indeed it is good to have an istallation, and YES it is working your idea about renaming! Anyway, i think it's better the idea of converting the files to FLIC animations. I've made a similar question about this convertion to General Discussion, it's sure much safer method FLIC animations.
Thanks!

[subspark]

What happens if you rename your AVI's extension to FLC. Will the AVI's compile then and if so will they still work? I doubt AGS will load a quasi FLC file and play it as an AVI, but, still worth a try. 

Beers,
Paul W.

[Khris]

Indeed it is good to have an istallation

I don't think so. I prefer keeping my registry and start menu clean. Installers aren't necessay for AGS games, you're better off using a self-extracting archive.

On topic:
AGS obviously disregards the filename's extension and determines the video type by the file's header, so I doubt very much that after renaming AVIs to FLCs the movies would end up inside the EXE.

[Gilbert]

Probably not, since the AGS engine plays FLICs via its internal embeded player, while it will launch external Direct Play (for window$ port) for AVIs and such.
Nonetheless, it could be tried.
KhrisMUC posted while I was typing, anyway...

AGS obviously disregards the filename's extension and determines the video type by the file's header, so I doubt very much that after renaming AVIs to FLCs the movies would end up inside the EXE.

I doubt that, but still it might be an interesting idea to check.

Edit:
Just tested a bit, seems that I was correct, I just throw a random file from the AGS folder (a DLL to be exact) into a game's folder and rename it to FLIC0.flc. the file was obviously compiled into the game (judging from the resultant file size with or without the file, and that if the file is compiled into the game the game crashed as expected, which it only generated a line in warning.log without it).
Edit 2:
Dropped a WMV file into the game's folder and renamed it flic0.flc again, it's compiled into the game. But, as expected, the game crashed if PlayFlic() was used and displayed a "file not found" error if I used PlayVideo("flic0.flc", 0, 0) (since DirectPlay failed to locate the standalone file, if the file was dropped into the compiled folder the movie played as expected).

So this method won't work anyway. Go with just the renaming/installation suggestions as usual.

[subspark]

Glad I spawned some thought. It had to be done. We are bound in nature by curiosity if nothing else.

Crashed the game huh. Hehe. Yeah I figured there would be checks and balances all over the place that would prevent such an intervention from being carried out with succession.

You know what, I would love to see if AGS really does check the file header. There are a few of you in doubt?

Cheers.