Billbord on demand?

Board Index » X3: Reunion » Scripts and Modding » Billbord on demand?

Boguey (2)

Posted 14 years ago.

Guys i am interested in placing an unknown object(the advertising billbord in sector elysium of light)in any sector i want. I already managed(somewhat) to do it,but has no animation.

Have a look in here:

I can place it at any coordinates i want,i can even rotate that thing. I want that thing more since i saw this clip

Roguey,you are good with that stuff..I read your comments on youtube. Is the "Animation,Tfactories and Tspecial.txt/pck" you're talking about? If so where and what lines should i change? I also saw that in the "MOV" directory ther's the "00002.dat" file that plays the clips within the unknown object.. Am i right?

Is so cool to have your own clip inside the billbord but I am thankful if i manage to play the original(not that i don't want mine);). Am the guy that suggested you "Roguey" to make a tutorial( and i stand by it). So guy's let's ask all of us on Roguey to make a tutorial for us. Please Roguey reconsider our favour and teach us your skill:)

[Roguey] added img and youtube tags, so image/video shows up in post.

Roguey

Rebelguey (24)

Posted 14 years ago.

hey m8,

Yea I need to write a proper tutorial on the creation of billboards. I havnt got any tools in atm, so ill have to just do a base outline for you.

firstly, you will need a video. X3/TC uses the same video codes as Windows, so if it plays okay in windows media player, then it should work fine in X3/TC. You will need to move and rename your video to mov folder (inside X3/TC), then rename it to a empty number number, ie: 500.mov

Now you need to work on types files. These are found inside the 01-13.dat's, the last numbers being the latest patch updates. So download modmanger and open up the files starting from 13.

You need to look for types/videos and types/VideoLists

types/video sets up how each video is played. So add one the counter 280;, and add a new line at the bottom with this syntax:

//video stream id;video stream id;movie id;move start (min; sec; milli; ) move end (min; sec; milli; )

Once the video has been done, then you need to add it to the play list, which is done in VideoLists. This is probably best adding or changing the play list for video group 1, on this line:

7;2101;2102;2103;2104;2105;2106;2107;// Only traditional adverts randomly

7 means how many video follow after, so keep that update. The id's like 2101, can be found in types/videos

after any changes, save them all and add to a new mod package.

Sorry its not more details, however I really need to write a full guide to make it easier.

danwithjesus

danwithjesus avatar

Boguey (2)

Posted 14 years ago.

Thank you for your reply...yeah that's me(see my desperation?)..The interesting part is that i found those lines in the videos/videolist.txt and figured out about the movies(*.dat) before i read your reply...oh yeah,i extracted all the game using modmanager..
these lines are

2101(a);0(b);0(c);0(d);2(e);0(f);14(g);440(h);0(i);34(j);320(k);// 1(l) Satellite(m);;;
- videos.txt

Is this what it means?

id name of movie cut in file movie(a);What?(b);What?(c);What?(d);movie file in mov dir minus the zeros(e);What?(f);sec(g);milisec(h);end(i);sec(j);milisec(k);// number of video(l) NAME(m);;;

after any changes, save them all and add to a new mod package.
- Roguey

I did all that and entered the game but nothing happened. Do i have to save the files as they ware only + those lines i created?:

280;0;0;0;500;2;00;010;2;04;150;//500.mov;;;
- videos.txt

and

7;2101;2102;2103;2104;2105;2106;280;// Only traditonal adverts randomly
- videolist.txt

I got to give you a lot of credit..this is harder than it looks or think.

Sorry its not more details, however I really need to write a full guide to make it easier.
- Roguey

I can't wait to read your tutorial. As far as i know,you're the only one able to do this tutorial because you have done that billbord advertising before. There's not a lot of info out there when searching google for this billbord. Thank you very much for taking time to answer my questions and I'll wait for the tutorial. BTW..i love your tutorials,though wold be nice if there were more of them..Nonetheless,Thank you:)
PS: What is atm?

Roguey

Rebelguey (24)

Posted 14 years ago.

Maybe this will help you (ive been working on it today):

- Video billboards

danwithjesus

danwithjesus avatar

Boguey (2)

Posted 14 years ago.

Oh Thank you m8...That is such a wonderful tutorial...I can't wait to try it out...Going now to do just that and I'll be back for commenting how all went...Thank you again BTW nice video(as usual):)

Roguey

Rebelguey (24)

Posted 14 years ago.

np - although you havnt read it yet Smile

btw, if you do have any problems with the video playing check how its compressed. My X3/TC seem rather pickie on which video to play because of the video compression. X3/TC doesnt like all formats!

danwithjesus

danwithjesus avatar

Boguey (2)

Posted 14 years ago.

Read what? If you're reffering to your tutorial, i've read it many times over. Somehow,it seems so easy yet so complicated. I see why you're the only one that has managed to make an advertising billboard with animation. I love your tutorials including this,but somewhat this doesn't seem to solve my quest.

I have done exactly as you did, but is still doesn't work. I just hear a quick sound(i assume it plays just the first seconds)and then it stays like that forever. I told my self that i should change the clip but still the same error(i think). I did manage one time to play a video,but it has shorten the movie in length and width.
My videos were 640 with 480. The first one i tested was 1:10 just as you mentioned in your tutorial. My second one was 4:36 min and the third was 7:49 min. I'm guessing in the videos.txt,instead of 280(that's how many were)change it to 281(from what i understood from tutorial). Added in the last line this 2307;0;0;0;5;0;0;0;7;49;0; //(that is the last video length).

Your tutorial taught me great stuff. I didn't know what was galaxy editor for. But my problem remains,I script those 4 types advertising billboards and still no anime. I know i'm missing something. I'd be thankfull if i can play the original adverts. I just don't want those empty things. In fact i like the adverts showing in the billboards. I just want to make them be playable in all the billboards i'm scripting. I hope you do understand my dilema. Is not the vid itself that matters so much,but the billboards to be playable and not empty picture. Not that i don't love how to put a video of my own.:)
Thank you for taking time to respond. BTW, what did you mean by checking how my video is compressed? You mean file extensions like avi,mpg,mpeg,mov and so forth? I tried 3 types avi mpeg and wmv and renamed to dat.

Roguey

Rebelguey (24)

Posted 14 years ago.

hi there,

well I had quite a lot of problems to get the video to actually play, because of video encoding - X3/TC wouldnt play many types of video including:

- wmv (crashed),
- mp4 (worked, but made a video box outside the game),
- mpg (crashed),

However avi with only type 1 video compression seem to worked - sorry I cant remmeber which one I picked (I used blink and smacker to change the video into another compression (still avi) here). If you hearing sound playing from the video, then its X3/TC not liking the video compression not anything else. So try another. I also scaled to the video to 1024 x 576 (which is the same as ego's videos).

I hope X3/TC was a bit more forgiven with its video formats - however its not.

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