Author Topic: Updated Video Codec (2018 Edition)  (Read 4174 times)

Offline Drakmar

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Updated Video Codec (2018 Edition)
« on: August 13, 2018, 04:16:02 PM »
I've had a bit of time this week to work on a few stuff (actually had a day off from work, which has been nice), and decided to take a look at the video codec issue again. I've managed to convert them to the H264 codec, which does slim down the videos a bit further and puts them back on a mainstream codec. Naturally, the audio codec has remained at its default due to Outpost 2's built-in requirements (16-bit Signed PCM).

Now, the really interesting bit here is that when I switched over to Windows to play the game, Outpost 2 can't decode the videos, even though the host system can play them fine (audio plays fine though). Digging deeper, I discovered why. The built-in player is actually using the (ancient) "Video for Windows" component, which is why I haven't managed to switch over to a codec that doesn't require us to install something extra. That said, it's still an improvement over FFDShow, and there is a Video for Windows version of the H264 codec, so I figured I'd share with all of you anyway.

I do want to point out that during my attempts to grab a fresh copy of the videos from the download page, I noticed that the link is actually broken. It points to outpost2.com instead of outpost2.net. Simple enough to fix, but casual people interesting in starting out may not think to do that.

H264 Encoded Videos Download: https://sam-node.com/nexus/index.php/s/T4MDTCjQmbizRgL/download
VfW H264 Codec: https://sourceforge.net/projects/x264vfw/

Edit: I've also gone ahead and updated the Wiki with this new information.
« Last Edit: August 13, 2018, 04:20:14 PM by Drakmar »

Offline Hooman

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Re: Updated Video Codec (2018 Edition)
« Reply #1 on: August 21, 2018, 12:23:44 AM »
Ahh, thanks for looking into this!

A shame about the codec issues. Still, this does provide an alternate solution for people who don't want to install really old codecs that may contain security bugs (which is why I think the old codecs got disabled in the first place).

Though perhaps we could use a link to the wiki article here:
Wiki: In Game Videos