FLI movie format

[wizardlife]

Has anyone used FLI files before? I'm interested in playing movies in MCGA mode, and this seems to be the most popular option available. Does it allow a dynamic palette, or must a single one be used for the entire clip?

[Dav]

I use them often. The pallete can change during the clip. The pallette data (a compressed color map) is one of the 5 types of 'chunks' that make up a FLI frame.

Here's a good doc that describes the FLI format:
http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/home/mxr/gfx/anim/FLI.txt

I've posted a few QB FLI players at the code post you may be interested in. The one for Qbasic/QB is here:FASTFLI.BAS. And an QB45 LIB made in ASM to play them is here: FLILIB.ZIP

What kind of programs do you have for making FLI's?

- Dav

[wizardlife]

What kind of programs do you have for making FLI's?

I assumed that filters and conversion tools would be readily available. Is this not the case?

Thanks very much for the prompt and informative response.

[wizardlife]

Okay, I had a chance to read over that article, and I'm a little concerned about the 4000 frame maximum. I intend to run the animation at 30 fps, meaning that the maximum length will be ~130 seconds, or just over two minutes. The animated intro isn't finished, but it's going to be more like 3 or 4 minutes.

Is the filesize for that going to be simply unmanageable?

Perhaps it would be more appropriate to look into a more MPEG-like format, if such a thing exists for an indexed palette... Is the Smacker format at all like that?

Of course, the other option would be to just make a 'launcher' in VB that lets you view the intro or play the game... but there's nothing quite like having it right there in the main executable.

EDIT: I've been researching it a bit more, and I think the Smacker format really is more suitable for my project. Thanks for the assistance, Dav.

[Ninkazu]

Perhaps it would be more appropriate to look into a more MPEG-like format, if such a thing exists for an indexed palette... Is the Smacker format at all like that?

AVI allows 8bit palette movies, and the smacker format is only available in the SDK for c++ which is $5000.

[toonski84]

unless you're sending this over the internet, why bother with frame limits? use a makeshift program to merge 2 flis together and let your program ignore the limit.

[wizardlife]

AVI allows 8bit palette movies, and the smacker format is only available in the SDK for c++ which is $5000.

Really? Their page has the compressor for download, and they offer a free player that displays a brief 'smacker' notice after the clip. I certainly don't mind the advertising -- looks rather professional to me. I won't worry about integrating the code for it... I'll just have my pascal program call the player... or worse case scenario, have the game run from a batch file.

And anyways, if I don't like their little notice, Sierra by mistake included the dos and windows players on my Caesar II disc. So I've got them if I'm not too worried about the liscensing. With the business RAD is doing in Bink, though, I don't think they'd mind much.

[Hard Rock]

Really? Their page has the compressor for download, and they offer a free player that displays a brief 'smacker' notice after the clip. I certainly don't mind the advertising -- looks rather professional to me. I won't worry about integrating the code for it... I'll just have my pascal program call the player... or worse case scenario, have the game run from a batch file.

No hes right, heh, i actually thought it was a bit more. If you grab a hold of the gamedev magazine ever(absolutely great mag), youll see an ad for it, and the price. Bink i belive now is the better one, better than dvd quality and faster too.

And they still sell smaker, and a few commercial games still use em...... (starcraft still selling copies last i checked)

I assumed that filters and conversion tools would be readily available. Is this not the case?

Yep, but uh, its a little outadated, so look for older programs (paint shop pro has suport for it)

Also it CAN use a global palette but you probably already knew that.

[Dav]

Is the filesize for that going to be simply unmanageable?

Yeah, FLI isn't suited for real video. With even a small full-motion video clip a FLI file would be HUGE. I usually do 15fps clips with FLI because of the large file size.

Sierra by mistake included the dos and windows players on my Caesar II disc. So I've got them if I'm not too worried about the liscensing.

Cool. I found them also on the "Knight's Chase" adventure game CD. I wouldn't distribute them with your product though, because the owners liscensing info is embedded in the player programs. Smacker is a good product and I've used the smacker tools. It takes a longer time (compared to other formats) to make a SMK movie, but the output and playback is great (especially on older systems) and worth the wait. A better choice than FLI for video - and it has sound.

Since you don't mind shelling a player program, then you might be interested in this cool little DOS MPEG player: http://multimediaware.com/mpeg/

I use an earlier beta version which shows no copyright messages at all. The only problem is that I have to set the date back then reset it after using because the beta is expired now. It supports sound cards and plays MPG's at full screen.

Good luck to you.

- Dav

[Dav]

I thought I might also mention the FLI & WAV player library for download on the code post projects page. It plays a FLI while playing a WAV in the background.

FLIWAV.ZIP (239k)

- Dav