Broken Sword I & II - Enhanced cutscene project - Update

clone2727 · Post by **clone2727** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 2:27 am

Taking an avi directly instead of the PNG's would involve altering the code of the dxa encoder, not the batch file. (If that's what you're talking about)

Phreddy · Post by **Phreddy** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 2:34 am

I see. I'll try to have a DXA encode of the new filterchain using clem's suggestion. Having a new version of the encoder that accepts AVI files as input would be a great thing to have though.

clem · Post by **clem** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 8:59 am

from what I gather, adding AVI support to encode_DXA would be a nightmare. AVI is just a container format which can contain data in various compression formats. any windows program would just pass that to the appropriate codec DLL for decompression, but since the tools are not specifically made for windows this would mean you'd have to implement the whole codec(s) again if you want to go platform independent.

as far as I know that's the reason why ScummVM used mpeg2 in the past instead of AVI files in the first place.

Sordid · Post by **Sordid** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 8:10 pm

I just watched the the test video....outstanding....this really makes a difference!!!

john_doe · Post by **john_doe** » Tue Sep 04, 2007 12:25 pm

I first wanted to add Avi support when making the Dxa encoder but as Clem correctly pointed out, it's hell on earth. It also has disadvantages, e.g. Avi files apparently only support one palette in 8-bit movies - at least the Smacker tool reduced everything into a single palette and the resulting Avi looked quite bad - and the files would have been much bigger since I really didn't want to add any kind of decompression.

Phreddy · Post by **Phreddy** » Sat Oct 13, 2007 3:14 am

Sorry for having been out for so long, but I got a new job and adapting to it consumed a bit of time. Also, the new computer doesn't recognize the HDD with all the important files.
Still, the filterchain used for this was renewed and I remember the filters and settings by heart. Therefore, if someone can provide the smacker version of Broken Sword 1's intro (mine is in spanish), I'll get cracking on a DXA version of the filtered encode to see how it looks.

[vEX] · Post by **[vEX]** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 8:40 pm

eriktorbjorn wrote:
Phreddy wrote:TI'll scour the web for a DXA codec (so that I can encode using VDubMod rather than a standalone application) or at least a standalone encoder that can take an AVI file as input.
I'd be surprised if you found one, really. From what I understand, DXA was something Runesoft invented, probably as a Smacker replacement, for the Macintosh and Amiga versions of The Feeble Files. ScummVM's DXA encoder extends the format further by adding some further compression methods, and allowing the sound to be a separate, compressed file.

So it's not widely used to begin with, and ScummVM uses a non-standard version of it.

Seems like FFMPEG supports DXA now:

$ mplayer INTRO.dxa -audiofile INTRO.fla
MPlayer 1.0rc2-4.2.1 (C) 2000-2007 MPlayer Team

[...]

Playing INTRO.dxa.
libavformat file format detected.
[lavf] Video stream found, -vid 0
VIDEO: [DXA1] 640x200 0bpp 12.000 fps 0.0 kbps ( 0.0 kbyte/s)
Audio file file format detected.
==========================================================================
Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family
Selected video codec: [ffdxa] vfm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg Feeble Files DXA video)

That hopefully means one should now be able to use FFMPEG/mencoder to convert from an AVI directly to a DXA video.

john_doe · Post by **john_doe** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 8:48 pm

Afaik it only supports decoding, not encoding.

Phreddy · Post by **Phreddy** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 10:22 pm

I'll ask around and try to find out if ffmpeg supports or will support DXA encoding. In the meantime, I want to try clem's sugestion and give the filterchain a new try as I found a fixed version of one of the filters.

By the way, if there's any other cutscenes or game-related footage you would like me to take a shot at, do let me know. For instance, here are the results of a filterchain an extremely knowledgeable person created for me. The footage in question is Gabriel Knight's "Making of" AVI that came with the CD version (original is 160x120, has been upsized for better comparison with results):

PsYcO · Post by **PsYcO** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 10:24 pm

wow great improvement.

Phreddy · Post by **Phreddy** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 1:22 am

So, can someone upload the english version of BS1's intro in english or should I just go ahead and try again with my spanish version?

PsYcO · Post by **PsYcO** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 7:36 am

i thought they already were in the downloads page?

clem · Post by **clem** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 1:41 pm

PsYcO wrote:i thought they already were in the downloads page?

you mean there are original SMK versions of the videos at the download page? where?

Phreddy · Post by **Phreddy** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 1:19 am

I managed to replicate the original filterchain and introduce a few (likely unnoticeable) improvements. Expect a DXA encode sometime within the next 24 hours

.

Phreddy · Post by **Phreddy** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 9:58 pm

Currently encoding lossless intermediary file. In the meantime, here's another couple of screenshots
showing one of the frames with (IMHO) the most improvement:

By the way, I noticed some time ago that there's a music enhancement project going on as well that
targets Simon the Sorcerer, Beneath a Steel Sky, Discworld, Flight of the Amazon Queen and
Inherit the Earth. Is there something like that but regarding other games like the Broken Sword series?

[edit]I loaded the intermediary file in RAD Tools, used the "Smack It!" option and it came out awful:

http://www.bestsharing.com/files/FvI2Xy ... s.smk.html

I'm going to try again in a couple of hours.