A large introduction movie

[simulacra]

I have made a 3 minute intro movie for my game and realized that this may cause some problems with cross-platform compatability as a FLC file of that length (and reasonable resolution and fps) is somewhere between 150-250 Mb. That is larger than the rest of my large game. I am considering how to go about this and come up with some alternatives:

1. Drop Linux support for the game and use a better video format.
2. Make a Linux version with a large-ass intro file.
3. Make a complicated "run intro from CD" feature (seems risky)
4. Think of something I haven't thought about.

Suggestions on what to do? None of these alternatives feels really desireable.

[GarageGothic]

What exactly is the problem? Do you intend to publish your game on CD (as "run intro from CD" would indicate)? If the intro is 250MB and larger than your game, there should be plenty of space for both on a CD-ROM. Remember that most modern game installations are several GBs, 500MB are nothing.

Edit: The only thing you should be careful with is bundling multiple versions of the cutscene with the game and forcing the player to install them all. I remember that Eye of the Kraken had 3 huge, identical movies with a bit of localized text in each of them being the only difference.

Edit2: If you want online-distribution you could have the player download a separate movie files for each version and place in the game directory. Then you'd let the game check for the OS and for the presence of the file at startup. Perhaps you could make a still frame version of the movie for the Linux release, like in the disk version of GK1, for a smaller file size.

Edit3: What about the Mac version?Ã, 

[simulacra]

The problem is that I do not find it motivated to consume that much disk space. Also, I get problems when AGS is trying to stream (?) a FLC file that large - the sound gets choppy and grinds to a halt. Never had that problem with smaller FLCs. Perhaps slicing the movie into several smaller FLCs could remedy this. I am rerendering files as we write.

I intend to publish the game on CD-ROM and on-line as well. But it would be nice if you didn't have to have the CD in the drive to make the game run.

[GarageGothic]

There will probably be tiny pauses between each FLC, but if you have a number of straight cuts in your movie to use as breaks, it shouldn't be noticeable.
If it's just an intro, perhaps you could write a startup program to run a movie outside AGS and THEN start the game? Without knowing Linux, I assume there are avi codecs and players for it.

[Cyberion]

use avi. That's the option. Tell me the resolution of the movie.

I have 1:20 min intro movie for my game. Of a very high quality with full sound and music integrated into avi file. and it takes only 658kb. Cause i've used Windows Media Codec V9.

Tis codec works perfectly with AGS. (jsut do nto forget to switch the gameinto 16 bit mode and recompress avi in 16 bit mode using Windows Media Codec V9 as a compressor). For (re)-compression use VirtualDub (google for it), which is free and is a great movie editing tool.

I'm mkaing plenty of short intros and movies and have much experience in compressing them. I'm a 3D modeler. So i'm using often the video demo reels of my models. AVI is the best choice for you. Although tell me the specs of thegame and your movie file (color depth, resolution and so on).

[simulacra]

Hi.

The movie is 640x480 pixels (just like the game), the colour depth is 8 bit and the frame rate can be set as low as 15 fps (the movie is supposed to look crappy).

[strazer]

Perhaps you could make a still frame version of the movie for the Linux release, like in the disk version of GK1, for a smaller file size.

Agreed.
Since an avi video has to be a seperate file anyway, you could do something like this:

Code: ags

File *thevideo = File.Open("intro.avi", eFileRead); // try to open intro video
if (thevideo != null) { // if intro video is there
  thevideo.Close(); // close the file
  PlayVideo("intro.avi", 1, 0);
}
else { // if intro video is missing
  Display("Once upon a time...");
  //etc.
}

So Linux users such as myself could simply delete/rename the video and be presented with a narration or something instead.

[GarageGothic]

I'm pretty sure you can check one of the Game variables to see which OS the game is running on, so you wouldn't have to delete the avi to make it work on Linux (but you COULD make a Linux installer which just didn't install it, to save space).

[strazer]

Yes, I thought about using the system.os variable, but you'll never know what other interpreters will be available in the future or if they can play videos or not so I think making it depend on whether the video file is there or not is the best, safest option currently.

[simulacra]

Why, thank you for the feedback. This is really helpful. I'll do an installer with a special Linux option.