SMKs are useless things - Cutscenes

William Wallet · Post by **William Wallet** » Mon Jan 03, 2005 9:18 am

Is there any way I can trick Myth into using a QuickTime movie instead of SMKS? I made a test .smk ages ago but could never get it to play in Myth.

Is there a particular format I need to use? I know my way around a whole bunch of video formats but SMK is not one of them.

Post by **haravikk** » Mon Jan 03, 2005 2:11 pm

I believe someone posted a link or instructions on how to get the original quicktime movies that the .smk files came from somewhere on Playmyth.net, I'll go have a look about.

Post by **TarousZars** » Mon Jan 03, 2005 3:40 pm

I think you misunderstood (or I misunderstand). What Will was asking for was how he could put video INTO Myth. Not take the myth movies out. So he is asking if you can get myth to do quicktime, or if it has to be smk, and if it has to be smk how does that work.

Sadly, I have no answer. =-(

Industry · Post by **Industry** » Mon Jan 03, 2005 8:32 pm

I have no answer either, but I do know that the linux version plays the cutscenes as layer 1 MPEG's, instead of Smacker video's.

Brainbug · Post by **Brainbug** » Tue Jan 04, 2005 4:04 am

if you check the playmyth.net news, you can see that the cutscenes are now available at the "airborne pigs" hotline server

William Wallet · Post by **William Wallet** » Tue Jan 04, 2005 4:58 am

Heh, I've no problem getting original cutscenes. I have Myth Extractor which can nick the TFL cutscenes, and the Soulblighter ones are a piece of piss to get at. I have a SMK viewer to watch them with too.

No - what I meant was creating new smks or perhaps getting Myth to use something like a Quicktime movie instead.

Industry · Post by **Industry** » Tue Jan 04, 2005 8:20 am

Huh, I've been playing with this for a couple of hours now. Using The Rad Video Tools to try and convert some mpeg files into smk files and then have Myth open them. It doesn't work for me yet either.
Very annoying, as I have tried about 15 different settings in the converter. I want to do this for a campaign I may one day make so I'll keep at it. William did you experiment with the Rad Tools any?

Industry · Post by **Industry** » Tue Jan 04, 2005 9:14 am

Okay. This is what I have learned. The smacker library that comes with Myth reads files that are of the SMK2 format. The current version of Rad Video Tools makes files in SMK4 format. At least that what hex editing the original prologue.smk and my new replacemet prologue.smk tells me. When I hexedited my new file to start with SMK2 it at least started. Of course, the video was completely garbage because its the wrong codec but at least Myth played something. Will keep at this. SOoo close.

ozone · Post by **ozone** » Tue Jan 04, 2005 9:22 am

I think someone probably has old rad tools that make smacker2 files...gotta be able to find it somewhere?

William Wallet · Post by **William Wallet** » Tue Jan 04, 2005 10:19 am

Aha! Paydirt with the SMK2/SMK4 thing. I haven't had a copy of those RadTools since 2002 and my Provincial Cavalry plugin. Nevertheless, I'll try and chase up a copy of the old one I supppose.

Huge thanks for giving me a new lead.

Industry · Post by **Industry** » Tue Jan 04, 2005 11:27 am

Okay. This finally worked for me. I... oh hey look, you figured it out too. Anyway, I downloaded the Old Smacker Tools which they still have on their website and it creates SMK2 files just fine.
You can get a copy of them here:
http://www.radgametools.com/down/Smacker/SmkTools.exe
and I think those are MS Windows only.

Then you can convert your qt or avi or collection of bitmaps or whatever into a .smk file for a cutscene. Which you then put in a cutscenes directory off of the Myth root directory.

:) Da Cid (: McCl · Post by **:) Da Cid (: McCl** » Tue Jan 04, 2005 8:49 pm

I think Will already tried actually putting SMK files into Myth, it's just they never worked. From memory. It was a loong time ago.

Mhitty Conga Bwafoah

CIK · Post by **CIK** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 12:24 am

There "may" be a post 1.5.1 update that plays all cutscens has quick time movies. So you can either wait for it or make sure you have a quick time version available for this "update".

carlinho · Post by **carlinho** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 4:32 am

uhh..if you find the way let me know....it sounds fun to be able to place movies into the game...

William Wallet · Post by **William Wallet** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 10:51 am

WOW!
Thanks man!

A post 1.5.1 thing with Quicktime movies would be awesome - but also, think of the joy of forcing people to convert their movies into such an archaic format! Almost a sadistic kind of pleasure... but I get away from the point.

Actually, though my SMKs never got off the ground, in Freedom 1 I left in cutscene names (like MIRRINGALE.SMK) so that in case I ever got it to work I could just insert the things. I was going to do the same for Freedom II. In any case, cutscenes aren't something that would be in the same .sit/zip. Too damned big and unecessary - but if one day I nut out some flash films of the cutscenes, maybe I'd offer them up to anyone who'd host em.

The Tain

SMKs are useless things - Cutscenes