Any of them play movies?

Quick question: are there any source ports that support movie files, to use for things like animated cut-scenes? Not a scripting alternative, but actual movie files.

I saw on zdooom.org that it used to be supported by ZDoom and apparently isn't right now. Anything else support them?

ComicMischief said:

Quick question: are there any source ports that support movie files, to use for things like animated cut-scenes? Not a scripting alternative, but actual movie files.

I saw on zdooom.org that it used to be supported by ZDoom and apparently isn't right now. Anything else support them?

This was supposed to be completed by now (ooops), but the next version of 3DGE will definitely be able to play the ROQ video format (from 11th hour/Quake 3).

I think in may be worth experimenting with things such as VP8 or Theora to get something implemented somewhere. Although there are a few Quake clients that support recording to AVIs, though not playback to my knowledge.

Just like MP3/OGG/MOD etc. support I guess this is yet another can of worms that source port developers would rather not open. The "easy" solution would be delegate playback responsibility to the OS, by e.g. embedding a WMP control (under Windows) but this would be highly platform-specific. Linux would need another approach, Mac OS yet another etc.

Then there are solutions like implementing support from scratch for specific formats or forcing content authors to use one in particular, even a custom one. Using something open-source like VP8 might be more realistic, as it's already done in some open-source games, but once again, it's yet another library to worry about and yet another license, possibly leading to yet another bitter flame war over licensing issues *sigh*

Yeah, you're right Maes.

RoQ is an idea but it's only real use is within two games, outside of that it doesn't get as much support as things such as Theora and VP8, both of which are more general purpose.

Maes said:

The "easy" solution would be delegate playback responsibility to the OS, by e.g. embedding a WMP control (under Windows) but this would be highly platform-specific.

I think this is what I may have to do. I'm looking toward making a standalone Doom-engine game and have come to the conclusion that I want to animate some cutscenes for it here and there.

Only problem is, renaissance man though I am (I will be able to do graphics, sounds, music, levels - all on my own), I can't really code for shit and wouldn't know where to start. I can pick up whatever's needed for custom enemies and weapons and things (once learned .DDF and could do it again, DECORATE for ZDoom seems simple enough too) but I sincerely doubt coding video support into a Doom source is within my reach.

Unless, and this is plan B, I generate all the content and try to impress a coder later on into giving me a hand.

This is precisely what ZDoom once did. The problem here just was that it doesn't cooperate well with the needs of the engine.

When ZDoom switched from DirectDraw to Direct3D the code broke and nobody ever bothered to make it work again.

If you want stable video playback in my opinion the only reliable method is to use something that can draw to the game's own rendering surface.

Also it should be portable; without adding too many dependencies.