PMC Tactical forums

Israel theater area opened to PMC Tactical forums. Welcome

Hi SnakeMan

thanks for this section , i will be happy to report here our progress work .

as a start there's a long thread with the latest updates of our F4ITDG progress work : http://www.pmctactical.org/f4/cgi-bin/u ... 6&t=000002

maybe this thread could be moved here

Dudi posted his new photorealistic terrain update in our dev. forum , lets see if i can get him here ....else i will post that...

thanks and cya !

Peled.

Thank You Snakeman - You are the best.

Lets see what we can do . . .

OK - - one area that is giving us fits . . making movies - -

Does anyone have any idea how to make movies? We can make silent movies but the main problem seems to be the audio - -we are missing something there. Can anyone send us a copy of some tool that will let us convert existing movies into the proper format? We know it has been done becaue we have an example of one movie made for Israeli Theater from Jane's. So, it can be done. WE have identified all the specifications we can on that movie and reproduced them but the best we an seem to come up with is either a copy of the existing movie or movies that refuse to play the sound track.

Ranger,
I don't have Cobra or FF installed but my SP4.2 movies are as follows (I don't know if they are changed for Cobra/FF):

I show the movies' Audio as being PCM Audio, bitrate of 706 kb/s (353/ch, stereo) at a frequency of 22050 Hz. Is that what your audio is recorded and dubbed over the video as?

BTW, the video I show at 320x240 (1.33:1), bitrate of 1855 kb/s, FPS=15 and a Qf of 1.610 bits/pixel (if that is helpful).

Of course, the movie type is AVI.

Hope this is helpful.
Sherlock

Sherlock,

have you made a NEW working vid for f4/SP4?? i mean brand-new one, with video and audio output? what tool to make it?

i've scratched my head for long time about vid making.. yes my test vids met all criteria in video and audio settings.. but it won't play in sim. if i remove the audio part, the silent movie can be played
in sim.

of course my audio part is PCM 16 bit 22k stereo, 705kbps. video working, with cinepack codec.

it seems audio interleaving on/off won't affect the result.

btw, AF use new player, their vids are MPEG4 V2 compression.

Sherlock - - video making has not proven to be so easy for us. We have been working this one for a couple of days and there always seems to be some little problem. Here is most all the detailed info we have put together on the format. By using various video converters we been able to extract various pieces of info on the video and audio codecs we need.

From: Total Video Converter
File Name: C:\Microprose\Falcon4\movies\OR.AVI
Format: avi
Duration: 00:01:10.5
Start Time: 0.000 s
Bit Rate: 2742 kbit/s
Video: cinepak, yuv420p, 320x240
Audio: pcm_s16le, 22050Hz, stereo, 705 kb/s


From VirtualDub
Video Stream:
320x240, 15fps
Cinepak Codec
datarate 2084 kbps
Audio Stream:
Sampling rate: 22050Hz
Channels: 2 (stereo)
Sample Precision: 16-bit
Compression: PCM (Uncompressed)
Datarate: 706kbps

From VideoCharge
Video:
Format: Cinepak by Radius YUV4:2:2(CVID)
Frame Size 320x240
Frame Rate: 15fps
Palette: 16,777,216 colors (24-bit)

Audio:
Format: Uncompressed (PCM)
Sample Rate: 22050Hz
Channel Mode: Stereo

The problem now seems that most converters are not using the proper audio codec to convert to format Falcon will accept. As CCC has said we can make silent vids easily. But, the audio is where we are having trouble. Obviously, someone figured out how to do it with the Israeli OR.avi movie that comes with the Israeli theater. So, it can be done. But, we need a tool, probably an old one to use the proper codec.

We have tried several tools now - - but the result is always the same if we add the audio - the vid refuses to play . . . I haven't given up but I think we still have some specifications on the audio codec that are not known - - once we know everything about the audio codec we can then maybe find a vid converter or recording tool that will lets us create or convert a vid properly. It has been done already . . . just need to find the tool or the person who made the Israeli video for Falcon. I think it is just a matter of time.

Using aFreeCodecVT - a report was generated that provides a bit more info on this rascal::

Streams (Header) = 2 {this suggests the header is important]

Streams Found = 2 (confirms header contains important data on decoding]

Flags Has index, is interleved

Audio Stream - - -
Flags, none set
Quality 100
bps 1,048,584
Audio Codec Code: 29811
Channels 26226
SamplePerSec 16

quote:Originally posted by ccc:
Sherlock,

have you made a NEW working vid for f4/SP4?? i mean brand-new one, with video and audio output? what tool to make it?

i've scratched my head for long time about vid making.. yes my test vids met all criteria in video and audio settings.. but it won't play in sim. if i remove the audio part, the silent movie can be played
in sim.

of course my audio part is PCM 16 bit 22k stereo, 705kbps. video working, with cinepack codec.

it seems audio interleaving on/off won't affect the result.

btw, AF use new player, their vids are MPEG4 V2 compression.

No, sorry. I haven't made a new video for any version of Falcon. I was just trying to be as helpful as I could with the problem described.

I can probably convert your video for you guys if your interested. Im quite familiar with audio / video formats and have made one for falcon that worked before. Let me know.

@Khronik

we've tried many tools, no success.. the f4 vid player is quite picky.. can you make a short sample vid for testing?

we can have dumb- no sound vids playing in sim. once audio track added, they all got cTD.

btw - vids are for original f4, not AF.. AF uses MPEG4v2, easier job for vid making.

Sure thing... Ill take another look at the format and get back to ya with a link if possible.

REMOVED

no.. your vid won't work.

it got to be compressed by cinepac codec..

if you have another test sample, let me know.. and please keep it small.

according to an old post on PMC - by theSilkman, the f4 player is quite picky!!

For wich version of falcon are u trying to get the vid to work?? I thought you were trying for SP version.

The video i linked works fine in SP4. I tested it twice before linking.

hmm..so you confirm SP exe can play your vid.. AFAIK the f4 vid player/code are all the same in original f4, eF, SP, FF, and OF.

AF use new coded player.

besides, default F4 vids can be played with window media player classic, yours can't.

i'll wait Peled or somebody else to check the vid.

Ive reviewed the formats and for some reason Israeli uses INDEO 5.1 whereas stock F4 uses Cinepac. Heres the same vid in both formats.

http://deltasix.game-files.net/khronik/ ... NDEO51.avi


http://deltasix.game-files.net/khronik/ ... INEPAK.avi

OK.. you rule!!

i still can not get idego one shows up.. probably i didn't install indego codec? i got cinepac codec installed.

now.. how you get video /audio format right in your vid clips??

LOL are u saying the CINEPACK one works and the INDEO dosent? I just repeated the render using the Cinepack codec instead of INDEO since you had mentioned it.

Im showing the exact opposite. If you right click on Or.avi it shows this..



From what i see the ORIGINAL Israel vid (Or.avi) uses INDEO 5.1.

Im using a high end video editing software to render into these formats. Not using anthing like VirtualDub or other batch renderers.

Ok -neither vid works for me . . . hum . . what gives?

I took a look at the original Falcon4 vids that come with the original CD. Yup all Cinepac codec. Im taking a look to see if possibly Israel works only with INDEO where stock works with Cinepac. SBY.

Good luck ! ---i am staying tuned for your report

After some review both the CINEPAK and INDEO formats worked fine in KOREA (FALCON SP4.2). Though id probably use the Cinepak since its the original Falcon video format.

http://deltasix.game-files.net/khronik/ ... INEPAK.avi

http://deltasix.game-files.net/khronik/ ... NDEO51.avi

To test take the test vid and rename it to Or.avi. Place it into your Falcon4/Movies folder. Load game and select CAMPAIGN / MIDDLE THEATER. Should show.

if you want it to play for israeli , try put the vid in the korea movies dir , but fly israeli , if it works for korea den it should works for israel....
i guess you put it in israeli movies dir , so thats why ...
need a teatherdefination edit...

Anyhow.. it seems the original format was Cinepak. I guess it works also with Indeo though its probably less of a headache to use the original format. Tried with Korea SP4.2 and they both worked fine.

-Edit. theres something wierd goin on as sometimes the Cinepak format vid dosent work in Korea and the Indeo 5.1 does. Ive also seen the oposite. Maybe a reboot is needed? Try out my 2 avi and let me know....

do you have several vid/audio codec installed on your pc? mine only got cinepac.. could it be the reason?

@Khronik,

your latest test avi, only cinepak one owrks on my machine. indego avi causes CTD.

Might have something to do with some codecs installed in my system, though the Israeli vid is encoded with Indeo.

Anyhow i was just responding to the fact you guys were having problems getting the audio in. Looks like it works.

This is Israel Theater forum opening topic, not a place to discuss videos. You guys should go to Theater Tools area to talk about this.

Khronik , sorry i missed your PM from 3 days ago , check PM for some tips .

thanks SM for the reminder . . . it is nice to see you are still keeping a watchful and interested eye.