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RAD game tools (bink/ .bik) format

Posted: Sat Aug 21, 2004 1:58 am
by xbow
The little I could find about BIK

Description of: http://home.pcisys.net/~melanson/codecs/bink-format.txt

Free BIK tools downloads: http://radgametools.com/bnkdown.htm

BIK extraxtor download: http://www.necrotech.de/software/fmv/fmvex.zip

These guys might know something:
http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=135939

I hope this helps out anyone that might put it to use.

Posted: Sat Aug 21, 2004 4:20 am
by Retlaw83
This is outtastic.

I reccomend we make this a sticky, especially with the multiple multiple-ending projects going on here that could benefit from BIKness.

Great job, xbow.

the biki connection

Posted: Sat Aug 21, 2004 5:13 am
by xbow
From what I read they want a little pay pal kick of 5, 10, or 20 skins to allow you to get your grabbies on the whole smash which is what we need here I think. I also wouldn't be a bit supprised if they knew all about the implementation of .bik files in Interplay's games, all we can do is pump them for info. Hey its not like they are going to be doing any more business with them in the future considering what that twit Herve did to Interplay. I am going to go ahead and make a donation and see what I get for it. Hmmmmmm I'll bet interplay used a custom codec.

Seeing mods with talking heads and new post apoc vids in them would ROCK!

There is another possibility as well one that could stomp some ass in the FOT modding thing and that is the technique of Machinima. I am sure people are already using it in the fallout community but ill rap about it anyway.

What is machinima? It is using a variety of 3D game engines (INCLUDING DOOM-3 ) to make movies. You just use the level editor and the machinima software to script an event like a firefight for instance and then run it while you snag the video of what is generated on the screen. No you won't have the muzzel of your weapon sticking out inthe middle of screen you are an unseen observer, the director. it is just like making a movie but the actors and the sets are generated by the game engine and they move and act in lockstep with the script you write . I was going to get into it five years ago but the old work scedule got in the way.It loos way better now! This is probably old hat but I just thought I would toss it into the ring.

Machinima linkage. http://machinima.com/

caio!

Posted: Sat Aug 21, 2004 6:39 am
by Retlaw83
Good thing you waited until now.

Doom 3 is the first engine you can make decent movies with. I found using the Unreal engine a bit too unyieldy.

Of course, Poser's built animation tools are pretty good, too.

I knew there was a reason!

Posted: Sat Aug 21, 2004 2:40 pm
by xbow
AH! there was an unseen force disuading me from machinimizing all that time some would call it laziness but in the light of your commentary about the low quality of machinima with the Q2 and Unreal engines I see my inertia now as a logical process carried out by my subconcious for the express purpose of not allowing me to waste time.

I have been playing all the FOT movies outside the game cool..now to figure out how to bikerize a video. I plan to make alot of little movies and bik them up from a DVD I have "the atomic bomb movie Trinity And Beyond

Posted: Sat Aug 21, 2004 4:12 pm
by Jimmyjay86
IIRC, the people who made the WWII mod created a bink file which was included in the mod. Download it and check it out.

ouch! 5k is kinda steep for the bink full version

Posted: Sat Aug 21, 2004 5:38 pm
by xbow
The Bink full version SDK has a steep toll associated with it $5,000.00 /per license now just what can be done with the free tools? The bink converter looks interesting for converting AVI and Quicktime movies to .bik format I think. I know that whatever is produced will have the bink logo on the tail end and that shouldnt be a show stopper for a mod, I'll give it a try when I find an AVI that I like.

Posted: Sun Aug 22, 2004 1:14 am
by Retlaw83
It can convert ANY video file that I know of to .bik

retlaw83 how about....

Posted: Sun Aug 22, 2004 5:04 am
by xbow
How about you doing a tutorial on how to use Bink. Something quick and dirty for us ? I had it reject a mpeg I must have done something wrong.

caio!

Posted: Sun Aug 22, 2004 5:38 am
by Retlaw83
Uh... just select your file and click the "bik it!" button. Make you sure you select some kind of sound conversion if the video has a soundtrack.

I've tried with various file formats, including MPEG, AVI and WMV.

Something I've noticed that's interesting is that you can convert picture and sound files to BIK as well. I plan on seeing how Tactics reacts when playing a BIK with sound but no video.

I'm expecting it to react badly.

Posted: Sun Aug 22, 2004 5:50 am
by Retlaw83
Okay, it seems the challenge is not to BIKerize movies, but get them working in Tactics. They need to be defined in one of the files. I think I saw these entries when I was dicking around one time, but I forget what file they are in.

Once my epic quest is concluded, I'll post a tutorial on how to implement custom BIKs.

EDIT: Sound files converted to BIK don't crash the game. They just give you a black, soundless screen for the duration of the file's play time.

Also, the RAD Tools logo at the end of movies does not appear when files are viewed in Tactics - I'd imagine that's because it has the $5,000 SDK running in it.

Posted: Sun Aug 22, 2004 6:26 am
by Retlaw83
The more I look at this, the more it becomes apparent that this process is layers upon layers.

I'll post a tutorial when I have this figured/when I have more time. Look for it Monday or Tuesday.

once again into the breech!

Posted: Sun Aug 22, 2004 9:23 pm
by xbow
No one is better qualified to investigate the Bink subject than you partner. ill do web searches and ask around for any phonix engine implementation tips i can find and post the results her as I find them (if I find them).


caio

Posted: Mon Aug 23, 2004 10:48 am
by requiem_for_a_starfury
Retlaw83 wrote:They need to be defined in one of the files. I think I saw these entries when I was dicking around one time, but I forget what file they are in.
IIRC Mission Generic.txt (or something to that effect) in locale/game.

Posted: Mon Aug 23, 2004 12:53 pm
by Tc63
hi all.

I implemented a couple of bink videos into my Zombies! campaign a while ago and found that to get sound to work with the bink files you need to change the sound scaling (i think) to 400 or else audio wont play. This is because FOT uses an oldish version of bink to play the vids.

I used plasticene models and a digital camera to create stop animation films, but its not a particually "serious" medium to work in if your going to be making the videos for a post apocalyptic future!

Posted: Mon Aug 23, 2004 5:31 pm
by Retlaw83
Tc63 wrote:hi all.

I implemented a couple of bink videos into my Zombies! campaign a while ago and found that to get sound to work with the bink files you need to change the sound scaling (i think) to 400 or else audio wont play. This is because FOT uses an oldish version of bink to play the vids.
How do you scale the sound to 400? I was succesfuly in getting videos to play, but no sound options I used worked.

Posted: Tue Aug 24, 2004 2:55 am
by wild_qwerty
Tc63 wrote:I used plasticene models and a digital camera to create stop animation films, but its not a particually "serious" medium to work in if your going to be making the videos for a post apocalyptic future!
It would actually be quite cool in some ways, got a download link?

Posted: Tue Aug 24, 2004 4:11 am
by Munky
Ill see if i can get Zed to answer how he got the shit to work in the ww2 mod, i never touched that stuff

Posted: Tue Aug 24, 2004 4:17 am
by StormShadow*SS*
wow word travels fast.....did someone say WW2 mod?

Posted: Tue Aug 24, 2004 4:52 am
by Jimmyjay86
The WW2 mod definitely pushed the limits of everything that is moddable with FOT. Well almost everything, but it was very well done. You guys definitely need to do a sequel to it for single player!