Movie problem

Blitz3D Forums/Blitz3D Programming/Movie problem

alain(Posted 2007) [#1]
Hi there,

I'm trying to play movies inside Blitz3D.

- Some movies are playing correctly.
- Some movies are playing without any pictures (but the sound is ok)
- Some movies are playing upside down.
- Some movies are hanging the program on the OpenMovie() call.

As my tool have to play correctly all the movies file it receive, convert the faulty movie to a blitz working format is not an acceptable solution.

I tried to play all these movies inside a basic DirectShow player in c# I made, and all of these movies are playing correctly.. so it is not a DirectShow issue.

Questions are:

1/ Is there any stable user library to play these videos in a texture inside Blitz3D? (In the forum I found some references to BlitzMovie, but all links seems to be dead)
2/ If there is no user library able to do this task, Is there a way to know if a movie will be compatible with Blitz3D ? Which codec/resolutions/framerate/whatever is supported by the Blitz3D player?

thanks for any help/link or advice.

have a nice weekend


Ross C(Posted 2007) [#2]
I believe it will play the movies, only if YOU have the codec. So, you use a movie in your game, but when you try to play it in someone else's house, it won't work as they don't have the correct codec's to play it. I think alot of folks on here said MPEG 2 was the best format to use, as most people should already have it and it offers decent compression.


Naughty Alien(Posted 2007) [#3]
..I agree with what Ross C said, and I would like to add that inside your installation program, you include also setup procedure for specific codec you use for your in game movies, and then things should be fine on all machines..


jfk EO-11110(Posted 2007) [#4]
You may offer dynamic codec installation. Open the movie, if the handle is zero then optionally or silently run a codec installer. This of course works only with the movies you distribute with your game or whatsoever.

Since you said it's not a directshow issue - are there multiple versions of directshow with DX7,8,9... ? I wouldn't be surprised.


Rroff(Posted 2007) [#5]
Its all down to the codec packs and so on the end user has installed on their PC... any little mis-configuration on the end user can throw it off too - i.e. videos rendering but with incorrect colors, etc.


alain(Posted 2007) [#6]
Thanks for the tips.

But, as I said, the movies are playing properly on the same PC using a C# Directshow player, so I don't think it is a codec issue.

Anyway, I decided to convert all the movies using ffmpeg on a "basic" format understandable by Blitz on all the PCs.

thanks.