Been Thinking About New Movies Again

Discussion in 'General Modification' started by Gaear, Aug 5, 2008.

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  1. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    After looking at some of the old 'new' movies again, I think I'd like to overhaul them. Most of them use art from outside ToEE, which is a practice I'm trying to get away from these days. Also, the Emridy Meadows one doesn't translate well upon some honest reflection, being as it uses half of the opening cinematic. (I think I had planned to modify the cinematic accordingly at some time, but that never happened and it seems ill-advised in retrospect.) Now, before anyone panics or becomes exasperated, bear in mind that this effort need not be even slightly complex or all that involved, and it's certainly not urgent.

    All we would need (and I'm looking to HK for this, specifically) are static 3D image of the Moathouse, Emridy Meadows, Nulb, Verbobonc, Hickory Branch, and the new Welkwood. With these, I'd simply animate them with some mild pan effects and whatnot, like with the vignette movies, and we'd be done. (I plan to eliminate the nodes movie btw, as there's really no good place for it to play, and the entry to temple level four isn't quite right either). And the images themselves need not be Rembrandts. Something vignette-ish would suffice.

    So, draw six new pictures, animate them, bink them up, and done. (The existing audio should still suffice btw, or I can work up new little 20 second themes if we want to. Actually Verbo and HB already have custom audio.) Whaddya say, HK?

    One other thing I'm wondering about: have we come far enough with high speed internet across the board that adding these to the official modpack would be viable? If people still have to labor over large downloads for hours we probably wouldn't want to do that, but if that's really no longer an issue there'd be no reason not to.
     
    Gaear, Aug 5, 2008
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  2. Half Knight

    Half Knight Gibbering Mouther

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    Sure, but obviously, not these days. :errf:
    maybe i could do six rough sketches, and some of the 3D guys (Cuchulainn, Allyx, Screeg...) could put those sketches in a 3D image, then i could do some tweaking on those, to make them look as a whole.

    On the igh speed connection matter...well, it took me nearly 5 hours to download.
    Not a big deal, but the main problem it's that sometimes the light goes out (quiete frecuently, i suppose that's for maintenance at the central), just 5 or 10 minutes, but enough to cut whatever i'm downloading.
    Some other people could have similar problems...why not split the pack? Say, if you have 300 M of size, then split to three of 100... I think i have a free program to do that, and it works really well, and very simple to use.
     
    Half Knight, Aug 5, 2008
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  3. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    Understood. Just keep it in the back of your mind anyway and we'll do it one day.
     
    Gaear, Aug 5, 2008
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  4. Zebedee

    Zebedee Veteran Member Veteran

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    I downloaded the originals and thought they were excellent. I'd download new versions even if all I had was a 56k modem - which is what I had back when you released the original files.

    With regards to large files such as this - might it be worth those of us who now have 24/7 internet access acting as seeds for torrents? I'd certainly be happy to seed anything for Co8 starting from a couple of weeks time when my new guaranteed 16mbps connection is installed. Might ease the load on Tal's server as well as making it less of an issue about people selecting the files to download based on the size. ;)
     
    Zebedee, Aug 5, 2008
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  5. Half Knight

    Half Knight Gibbering Mouther

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    the list is growing :p

    Btw, i've found lots of old drawings, from almost 10 or more years ago. They're quite good, in fact much better compared to what i'm doing now (the routine of drawing comics has ruined my hand, i think :( ), so i'll take a look, i think that some could be of use, both for Tofffe n Koffee.

    I don't understand. :blush:
    In fact, i dunno what you all mean with "cable" :shy:

    Yes, i'm a brick-brain :errf:
     
    Half Knight, Aug 5, 2008
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  6. Salk

    Salk Established Member

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    I am all for including the movies in the Co8 patch. :bounce:
     
    Salk, Aug 6, 2008
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  7. thearioch

    thearioch Need More Cowbell

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    I'd say no on adding the video to a CMF, but yes to a "major" Co8 release. Why? If the video is a large chunk of the download, and is unlikely to change from CMF to CMF, it could mean a lot of extra downloading. If it's the main download (that doesn't get updated as often), it should be less of a hit.

    I hope that makes sense.

    --thearioch
     
    thearioch, Aug 6, 2008
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  8. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    @thearioch -

    Yeah, I was thinking of the next full modpack, not the CMF. :)

    @HK -

    Cable is oftentimes the method by which high-speed internet access is distributed. It's literally the 'cable' that goes into your dwelling and also can provide TV, phone service, etc.
     
    Gaear, Aug 6, 2008
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  9. thearioch

    thearioch Need More Cowbell

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    @Gaear -- btw, 'cause you started the thread and I'm lazy, what's the best way to view movies out-of-game? My hardware won't play movies in-game :(

    @H_K -- common means of connecting to the Internet

    Modem - [analog] voice phone line -- s.l.o.w.
    ISDN/DSL -- digital phone line connections -- slow/fast
    Cable - your local cable tv company -- fast
    Satellite - [little] dishes -- various speeds up and down
    Carrier Pigeon (RFC 1149) - SSS...LLL...OOO...WWW

    --thearioch
     
    thearioch, Aug 7, 2008
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  10. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    Google 'Rad Video Tools' and download the free Bink player. Why don't they play in-game for you? That's a too-frequently reported problem that I strongly suspect should be nowhere near the issue it is.
     
    Gaear, Aug 7, 2008
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  11. Half Knight

    Half Knight Gibbering Mouther

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    Hum...we a have a cable for tv, a cable for telephone, and a cable for internet... :scratchhe

    I have a cable with modem (that's at least how's called here) but it has nothing to do with phone line, which it's provided for the local tv company, but it has nothing to do neither with tv (the company manages both services)
    Meh, doesn't matter, i have acces to fast connections. Thanks for the explanation! :)

    @Gaear, thinking ahead on the movies...the images should be pics of the places? A general view?
     
    Half Knight, Aug 7, 2008
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  12. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    Yeah ... looking at the courtyard of the Moathouse from outside, looking at the Nulb bridge with the town behind it from the road, looking at Verbocono from a distance (see the existing Verbo movie for an example - I always liked that one, but no idea who drew the picture). Same with approaches to Hickory ('devastated community area') and Welkwood, which would be kind of just blah I guess. Emridy Meadows is weird - there's nothing there. That's why I thought the flashback idea was cool. Maybe we could still do that after a fashion: first a picture of a battlefield with battle in progress, then a fade to the same battlefield, now empty years later.

    p.s. - I should show you the in-game maps for Hickory and Welkwood so you'd have some idea of landmarks.
     
    Last edited: Aug 7, 2008
    Gaear, Aug 7, 2008
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  13. Zebedee

    Zebedee Veteran Member Veteran

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    I have the suspicion that the further removed we get from the original 'optimum' specs for ToEE with our computers that the more frequent these problems will become. We're already on page 2 if you google 'bink problems' as it is...

    I'm wondering whether recommending downloading Rad Tools to people may help. It's got to be something to do with how the old bik videos are being read so perhaps the specialist tools (and more importantly their codecs) might ease things a little? Or perhaps something like the K-Lite codec pack? It sounds pretty random but then who'd think the no-cd crack would help with this either (does the .dll it plays with have any impact on bik files?)?

    A shot in the dark and one I'll have to test if I ever get a PC which has this particular problem.
     
    Last edited: Aug 7, 2008
    Zebedee, Aug 7, 2008
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  14. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    Bink is always supposed to be backwards compatible with older versions, but one of the issues that was identified for Vista is that you do in fact have to have Rad Video Tools installed for ToEE movies to play on that OS. I don't know why that would be. ToEE itself no doubt includes its own Bink player (after a fashion), otherwise people who don't have Rad wouldn't be able to play them at all, no matter what the OS.

    As for other codecs, from what I understand Bink is extremely exclusive as to its architecture, so it seems unlikely that other codec packs would include it, or that other codecs might play Bink videos.

    I don't know what to think about the no-cd crack. It could be that's just coincidence, cleverly hidden inside some other workaround that the no-cd inadvertantly provides. ;)

    Personally I suspect that user error is most often the culprit, or the antialiasing thing (or some combination thereof). Another possible contributor is Toffee confusion: if Toffee gets mixed up about switching modules (which happens easily if you get fiddling around with the module structure yourself), the movies may be in the wrong place and thus unavaialble for playback.
     
    Gaear, Aug 7, 2008
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  15. Zebedee

    Zebedee Veteran Member Veteran

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    User error probably is one of the big things - as well as old video drivers etc etc.

    It's interesting about Vista and Rad tools. I don't ever intend to have Vista as an OS so wouldn't know about it. (Not so good for troubleshooting I know, but such is life ;) ). I do know Bink itself considers any bink stuff from pre-2000 as being 'ancient' and anything pre-2005 as being 'old'. And point blank refuses to consider the issue might be with Bink and not the way someone else uses their software.

    Fair point about codecs. Was just a thought as I only know bink from having to troubleshoot for this game - most other games in which I've seen bink used only seem to use it for the opening credits and the occasional cut scene.

    As for the no-cd crack.... can we talk about that another time when I've chilled out enough to consider downloading it again :smoke:

    More seriously, it is rather strange how many people report that the no-cd crack works which to me rules out coincidence. Which leaves the intriguing idea that it accidentally fixes something... but not everything it would appear.

    the workaround Boxox proposed in the thread Basil started is a sweet one - just rename the .bik files. That of course relies upon a little computer knowledge but it should be fairly easy to write a how-to.

    In honesty though, I'd rather have a definitive 'fix' or set of fixes. I really like the cut-scenes in the game - especially the ones which take you by surprise. It's something which I personally would love to see more of, although I totally appreciate how much effort and hard work it is to do at a time when people have far bigger priorities. One of those where I can cheer on from the sidelines but offer no practical help or assistance in doing it as anything related to pictures is something that I have to give up on before I start ;)
     
    Zebedee, Aug 8, 2008
    #15
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