posted 05-08-2002 01:31 AM               

but there are one problem: all sounds in game will be error.

posted 05-08-2002 03:56 AM               

WBM

posted 05-08-2002 08:57 AM               

The only problem is that the full tomb4.exe espect the sound in compressed way (like originals levels from the game) but levels built with the oficial editor are using uncompresed sounds.

You need a tool that let you compress the sound, i think that TRviewer can do that.

tp.

posted 05-08-2002 09:08 AM               

Thank you
Data.

posted 05-08-2002 11:10 AM               

I would be grateful if you could check with the Admins to see what they think of 'No CD' patches. My feeling is that Eidos won't accept this on the basis that it requires a modification to the TRLR EXE file (even if it is owned by the player).

"Your levels cannot contain any modifications or changes to any executable
file included in this distribution or those distributed with Tomb Raider: The
Last Revelation."

I would like to fix the sound problem but don't want to waste time doing so if distribution and use of the 'No CD' patch is not an option.

Let me know if you'd prefer to discuss this via email rather than here.

Thanks.

WBM

posted 05-08-2002 11:59 AM               

If this is indeed how the 'NO CD' patch works, then I withdraw my previous statement "If however you do own the official CD, then I do not believe there should be a problem." as this would most certainly be included; I am sorry.

posted 05-08-2002 01:36 PM               

No Golden Baldy for you Dreamer2000.

Ah well.. back to dreaming of being a programmer who knows how to make a little program that launches FMVs when a blank sound file is triggered.. I discussed this with a game designer from Eidos and he agreed that it was possible to use 'Last Accessed' as a flag.. but.. he doesn't have the programming skills to do it and neither do I.. sigh...

I will continue to investigate freeware macros as a means of launching FMVs externally. If any programmers or clever people would like to donate their time and skills to this effort I would be most obliged. Just contact me using the above email icon.

posted 05-08-2002 02:37 PM               

So mister Wee Bald Man, do you think that EIDOS want that nobody gets able to play fmv in custom levels?, if so then any solution that you can found will be ilegal, so don't waste your time about that then.

I personally i think that eidos don;t care if you can add FMV or not to your levels, i am sure that this option was removed just because they did not give any tool where the user can build his own FMV (the skill for do that is far away from most amateurs teenages).

If Core don't care about users playing FMVs why they don't release a "official" tomb4.exe that play fmvs?, they realeased for general public some WADS for be freely downloaded (even not trle oweners are able to donwload those wads, but they are useles without the whole editor), so why they don't do the same with a revision tomb4.exe?, alone this file is useles without whole files included in the editor.

if they don;t have time for patch the EXE they self, then why don't let other people do it and let trle' users get it.

Tp.

posted 05-08-2002 03:30 PM               

quote:

---

Originally posted by Turbo Pascal:

The tomb4.exe included in the official level editor is a fixed (patched) version that play levels from hard disk (even all those originals levels from the full game)

---

This is true, but Core are allowed to patch their own software - we're not.

quote:

---

anyway, but also the play fmv rutine was removed

So mister Wee Bald Man, do you think that EIDOS want that nobody gets able to play fmv in custom levels?

---

Core did not allow FMVs to be played for financial reasons: BIK is a third-party codec. Core did not want to pay for the third-party license to use Radtools' BIK format. As you say, all references to Radtools were stripped out.

I'm sure that they would love to have the mod community play FMVs but we have to find our own way to make this happen.

quote:

---

if so then any solution that you can found will be ilegal, so don't waste your time about that then.

---

This is only true if it involves modifying the EXEs (or involves piracy). However, there are other solutions to playing FMVs without modifying any of the files supplied by Core. FMVs launched using the free Radtools pack can be played at the same time as the TR engine is running. All we need is a small program which controls events externally. I will go in to more detail if you are interested in what this process involves. It's very simple to make for a programmer like yourself, but not for me as I do not know how to program.

quote:

---

I personally i think that eidos don;t care if you can add FMV or not to your levels, i am sure that this option was removed just because they did not give any tool where the user can build his own FMV (the skill for do that is far away from most amateurs teenages).

---

I agree that creating FMVs is a specialist skill but there are many people who are able to create FMVs that also use the TRLE (I am one of them). Core has mentioned in the past that they felt it may complicate things if they included the FMV capability. So they may have felt that it wasn't worth implementing.

However, the main reason is the thing in the world that restricts us most: money. It's a license and legal issue. Core CAN'T release this product with Radtools commercially because they don't want to pay for the license. But.. and this is our huge advantage, we CAN release our levels with BIK files because we're not selling our levels..

So the bottom line is: we are allowed to release BIK files and use the Radtool player to launch them.

The tool to make this happen would be similar to a macro which is waiting for a blank sound file to be triggered. When the blank sound file is accessed, the tool launches the BIK file and maximises TR engine when the BIK is finished. Lara can be kept waiting with the Lara disable function in fly-by camera.

The tool would require the timings to be entered (how long the FMV is, the names of the blank sound files), and would need to be launched before the TR game was played (run in the background).

I'll look for the full details of the sequence and post them here.

Best wishes,

WBM

posted 05-08-2002 03:55 PM               

1) The custom FMV tool is launched before the tomb4.exe is opened.

2) The tool waits for a specified blank WAV file to be Accessed (using a normal CD trigger from within TRLE).

3) When the exe 'sees' that the blank 'flag' WAV has been waved (no pun intended) via the 'File Accessed' attribute, it minimises the TR engine and launches a pre-rendered FMV (AVI preferably, as Windows Media Player is more widely available).

4) Meanwhile Lara is disabled for the amount of time that the FMV lasts (via fly-by camera Disable Lara function).

5) When the FMV has finished playing, the custom tool maximises the TR engine again and the game contines (Lara is re-enabled).

AVI playback whilst tomb.exe is minimised has already been tested successfully.

2nd Option) The same method as above but with an adequate freeware macro program which is physically hot-keyed by the player. This is not as elegant, but it would still provide FMVs..

---------

By the way, I'm just planting seeds. Trees will only grow when a good programmer provides sunshine and some water.

WBM

posted 05-08-2002 05:35 PM               

How the spy-resident exe will knwon which video will play?, or it's just one video per level cose you are just using one predefined blank wav as trigger?

posted 05-09-2002 04:58 AM               

The spy-resident exe would need to have input data fields specified by the level creator.

In the example below " " quote marks indicate data entry by level creator:

---------------

Name of blank WAV file = "001.wav" (001=X)

Location of blank WAV file = "C:\Program Files\Core Design\trle\audio" (this should be the default).

Location of FMV file = "C:\Program Files\Core Design\trle\fmv" (this should be the default).

FMV to play when triggered = "001.bik" or "001.avi" etc (the video file to play would be indicated by the parameter X as entered in Name of WAV file field).

Length of FMV = "126" seconds (this info may be possible to get from the file size but it would be more flexible if it could be entered manually. This tells the spy-resident how long to wait before minimising the video player and maximising the TR engine.) The maximum seconds allowed for an FMV would be slightly less than the maximum waiting time allowed by the fly-by's Disable Lara function.

Friendly label for FMV = "Lara jumps out of aeroplane" (this would be for the level creator's convenience).

---------------

The limit for FMVs 'events' per level would be: 8 because TRLE maximum Flyby-cams per level = 8 (0 through 7).

An 'event' is where there is no player control (single fly-by camera sequence is triggered, Lara control is disabled, then re-enabled).

The maximum FMVs per game would be dictated by the maximum levels allowed by TRLE x 8. I don't know what the max levels allowance is (this has to be investigated).

So, for each FMV there is a corresponding blank WAV file with the same prefix:

001.WAV plays 001.avi
002.WAV plays 002.avi
etc

The WAV files would be very small (I haven't tested the minimum size yet so I don't know what TRLE minimum WAV file size is, probably 1 second possibly less).

The limit to WAVs and total FMVs in game (all levels) would be limited by the legal amount of WAVs (or levels) allowed. TRLE may not accept WAV files beyond 128, 256, 512. It may accept up to 999. This needs to be tested.

Also, the WAV files would have to occupy appropriate slots - some of the sounds loop in the 95-115 area. Beyond 115 I don't know whether they loop - this needs to be tested. It may be that the level creator has to sacrifice some sounds in exchange for blank WAV files if all sounds loop above 115.

One of the nice things about being able to launch FMVs is that people could create simple FMVs that look like low-poly cut-scenes. So, being able to play FMVs could satisfy the want for real (engine-driven) cut-scenes.

Some people might like to use the FMVs purely as sequences of text screens like in the old black and white movies. The new possibilities for story-telling become immense.

WBM

P.S. dreamer2000, sorry for hi-jacking your thread.

posted 05-09-2002 09:20 AM               

becaose you are a nice wee bald man, i am going to help you in your quest.

Yes, your idea sound very factible, building a media player program is very easy, but the tricky part is to make the program "see" when a wav file is played from other process.

Just checking the file flag attrib can't help, cos there is not any evidence (until i knonw) in the flag when a wav was played, just when it was modified.

But there is a way called "hook", used for Virus and other debug and utilities program where they trap windows messages from all app current running, so it's posible to trap the openfile message and check if the file that is going to be opened is one from the wav list.

Of course we are asuming that tomb4.exe open and play the wav when it's triggered, but could be posible that he make some cache procces or somthing like that.

I will do a quick research about "hook", i do not garantee anything but stay tuned.

Turbo Pascal

posted 05-09-2002 10:10 AM               

Thank you Turbo Pascal! You are very kind. If Lara was real I am sure that she would be very grateful too. It would be so nice to hear her speak and to see her come to life again. She has so many stories to tell.

I will post any information which I can find regarding the 'seeing' of the WAV file access.

Gratefully,

posted 05-09-2002 05:43 PM               

After searching in the web all day, i found that traping windows api for open a file is almost imposible (well seems it's posible but it's far away from my skills), so i decided to use another way, it's not a elegant way but it work.

The spy program keep trying to open exclusive the target wav file every 100 milisecs, (0.10 secs) if in one moment he fail then it mean that another program opened the wav at that time.

I wil start coding toomorow a quick and dirty and not 100% featured fmv player with this file triggering event just to check if wee bald man's method really works.

Mister bald man, please email-me at cyber_pascal@yahoo.com so i can reply with a this dirty test player when it get ready.

Turbo Pascal