FF7 movie mechanics

[Swampthing15]

Hey guys, ive started a small project dealing the movies scenes of FF7 the first one ive started on is the cannon.avi file in on the cds. but my question is, after reading some of the other topics, it seems that the game counts frames to figure out when the movie is over? im not real sure on that, if someone could clarify:

1. How the game knows when to end the .avi and start the game, that would be great!
2. What about multiple .avi files, does it count frames for each file or for all of them together?
3. Is there a way to count the frames, or do whatever it is the game does, to compare the old file with the new one so that i can make them the same?


I just want to go ahead and thank all of you for both your answers, and the work that all of you have dedicated so much time to make a great game stay with the times.

[Akari]

1) What do you mean by end video and start the game? Game already started when video is playing. At each moment of time field sctipr ask which frame is playing and if it equals needed number it do some action. At the beginning of game for example it start playing animations.
2) FFVII engine can't play two videos together.
3) When you render video - you know which frame you showing.

[nfitc1]

Either Akari's purposefully being unhelpful, or I'm misunderstanding what the questions mean.

Translation:
1. How the game knows when to end the .avi and [resume gameplay]
2. What about [playing consecutive] .avi files, does it count frames for each file or for all of them together?
3. Is there [an application that can] count the frames [of an avi file], or do whatever it is the game does, to compare the old file with the new one so that i can make them the same?

Answers:
1. The game compares the frame count of the AVI to the frame it is displaying. Somewhere in the AVI is a number that has the total number of frames in it. When it is finished displaying the last frame, the gameplay resumes.
2. Same deal here. As long as the game is told to play one AVI then the next, it won't resume gameplay until they are both played.
3. Length isn't an issue. If you want to know, a program called GSpot can quickly identify several things about most AVIs, including frame count

If you want to make/replace a movie you'll have to update moviecam.lgp and the associated cam file. Don't ask me how to do that. I have no idea.

[Swampthing15]

Thank you for the help NFITC1, u did answer my questions exactly. Ive found the .cam files and im looking for a way to edit them...if i make any breakthrews ill let you know. and if anyone knows how to let edited movies play in game let me know please.

[nfitc1]

One thing I forgot th mention. The movies will have to be encoded with the TruMotion2 codec for the PC movies. You can find that on the ff7 tools page on the wiki.

[Akari]

Movies not stop gameplay at all. It is done from script before run the movie. If not - you will can move during movie too.

[Swampthing15]

Just an update, Ive started remaking the canon.avi movie on the cds, at the moment i have the movie made, but when i cut the fps down for the whole movie to fit, it does not cut down the audio. so i guess im going to cut down the movie length so that the movie can be faster, and cut down certain parts of the audio for it to mesh right. whenever i find the easiest way to do this ill try to post the video.

[Timu Sumisu]

What exactly do you mean by remaking the movie? have you made a 3d scene and rerendered it?

[Furzball]

So just checking in on the facts

A) the game counts the frames of the movie, so any edits we make to the movie will only work with the right amount of frames?

Basically in my zack project, I'm trying to edit some of the movies so that it is Zack instead of cloud. There will be demo material out of some stuff Square has made and best edits i can do to make him appear on some of the videos. (Example, the scene where cloud places aerith in the lake, I'm trying to edit the back of clouds head to look like zack, patially using images from crises core art and movies.)

[Swampthing15]

What exactly do you mean by remaking the movie? have you made a 3d scene and rerendered it?

ive not made any new material, but have edited the old movie scenes and some new scenes from the advent children, like the new opening movie that was release a while back.

So just checking in on the facts

A) the game counts the frames of the movie, so any edits we make to the movie will only work with the right amount of frames?

Basically in my zack project, I'm trying to edit some of the movies so that it is Zack instead of cloud. There will be demo material out of some stuff Square has made and best edits i can do to make him appear on some of the videos. (Example, the scene where cloud places aerith in the lake, I'm trying to edit the back of clouds head to look like zack, patially using images from crises core art and movies.)

Yes, original seconds x fps = frames the game counts. I believe the orignal movies use 15 fps, so if you use the standard 30fps the movie can only be half as long. It seems your project will take more effort than mine, mine is mostly merging some video files and making the audio match.

[Swampthing15]

alright guys, ive got the movie and audio meshed right, it works perfectly, outside of the game. haha but the audio is still a little faster than the video in game. Which i dont understand cause it works just fine on all the video players ive watched it on. would anyone have any insight on to why the game doesnt read audio and video at the same pace?

[nfitc1]

Yes, original seconds x fps = frames the game counts. I believe the orignal movies use 15 fps, so if you use the standard 30fps the movie can only be half as long. It seems your project will take more effort than mine, mine is mostly merging some video files and making the audio match.

No. I don't think you understood me at all.
The game doesn't care how long the original movie was. It plays the entire clip, no matter how long it is, or how long the original one was, before executing the next scene. Be that a battle or a field change. I changed the Junon Elevator ride up video with the escape out of ShinRa building FMV (which is probably 10 times longer) and it played the entire scene before the next video played. Replacing the Elevator down did pretty much the same thing, except I couldn't leave the area until the video was over and the scene had loaded.

[Swampthing15]

well how exactly did u change it? All the experience ive had and the people ive talked to says it works the other way.