Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri & Alien Crossfire > Modding
Playing the Alpha Centauri and expansion WVE videos
jopower:
I've just done a bit of sleuthing for those wanting to edit and play the AC (and other game) videos stored in WVE file format. I did discover that the little program has a history of inclusion with turn of Y2K era games. Below are my general findings:
Primary association: Component of a DIVX Movie Conversion
WVE's are XML project files created by WaveEditor, an audio-editing program included with some CyberLink multimedia-editing applications; references an audio file and includes audio effects and adjustments. WaveEditor projects are often used for exporting modified audio for use in PowerDirector video projects (.PDS files). WVE files can be exported to .WAV, .WMA, .MP3, and .M4A files. Unfortunately, WaveEditor and PowerDirector are commercial products. CyberLink Media Suite also does the job, but is also commercial. On the other hand, you have a full set of edit tools and can make your own clips to add to many games using the format. ;)
Winamp will play WVE's, but there's a few too many things that come along for the ride... As some don't like this behavior, we'll advance to better options. :-\
The file "playuv15.exe" does the job nicely. Guess what? It comes in the game! Navigate to the installed folder for your game. Look in there for a "Movies" folder. It will be the only EXE in the folder. While there, you can simply drag and drop the icon of a file to be played on the Playuv15 icon and off it goes! The screen will blank to black, then a smaller screen, centered, in the video's natural resolution, opens and the show is on. There is no interface and the "Esp" key is your only stop control beyond awaiting the video to end. I'm using WinXP Sp3 and have seen a dozen with no troubles. It is completely reliable so far. :)
I did find an original ZIP with the info text intact. It is a bit DOS, so you'll have to use a command box to use switches (or a DOS emulator like DOSbox). Here's the full text readout (note no mention of WVE files, but so what!):
Play uV v1.50a - uV/uV2/TGV/ASF Player
by Martin Griffiths, Electronic Arts (UK), 1997.
usage: playuv [<options>] videofile
<options> =
-xres <n> video mode resolution (x)
-yres <n> video mode resolution (y)
-gamma <n> gamma level (default:100))
-doublex horizontal x2
-doubley line doubled
-skipy line skipped
-xsize <n> stretch movie to x size <n>
-ysize <n> stretch movie to y size <n>
-loop play looping
-window don't use fullscreen
-8 8bit(tgv only)
-16 16bit(all formats)
-32 32bit(all formats)
-nodoublebuffer Don't double buffer
-software Disable YUV hardware acceleration
-noaudio disable audio
-ddraw <n> direct draw device <n>
-verbose output more info.
Since there is no copyright indicated (but I'm a fair use guy) I give credit and thanks to Martin Griffiths for his fine tight code work (only 155kb!) and provide the ZIP file I found for everyone else to enjoy. 8)
I also discovered another player: "Play It Again" (6 kb) at: http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~nicko/playit.htm
But it is designed to play on the Psion 3 series device. I haven't tried it on a PC yet, but you can give it a shot. It is freeware, so I've attached it with Playuv below. Here's the info on it from the author, P.K.Spencer:
"Play It Again is a very small utility designed to repeatedly play a .WVE file (as the Siena won't support these, this version will not run on that machine) given the options the user sets. This tiny program is ideal for practical jokes - record a .WVE file, fire up Play It Again and set it playing while you leave the room - leaving the other ocupants to work out where the voice is coming from. " (Fun lil' devil ain't he?) ::)
Hope that helps a few to have much fun with the video files in the game and the various mods out there. 8)
sisko:
welcome to the site, jopower! and thx for sharing.
Buster's Uncle:
jopower, would you be interested in chiming in here? http://www.weplayciv.com/forums/showthread.php?6523-AC-Intro-Movies
Buster's Uncle:
Even better, would you be interested in chiming in further here at AC2?
Now that I think about it, this should go in the modding forum, shouldn't it?
Davyboy:
I looked into jopower's post and made a discovery regarding playuv15.
Afaik(ew) the de facto usage of the prog was to literally drag a (.wve) file onto the playuv15 icon and sit back while the stuff cooks...
Seeing all the command line switch info provided by jopower got me thinking and I tracked down an alternative source of the same zip here: http://keeper.lubie.org/html/dk2_tools_other.php and a link to a similar (cut down?) version of the same called " Rap Player ".
Now, rap.exe isn't a lot of cop; but with the 'readme' info some teeny lightbulb started to flicker... viz. To get a wve to play in RAP -- you have to have that file in the same directory and it has to be renamed "rap.tgq". Sounds a bit of a drag right?
Well, it works, although it 'works' with hardcoded -doublex and -loop switches as mentioned in playuv15...
Which begs the question .. which I will return to after a small digression.
If you drop a copy of playuv15 into your /Windows/system/system32 folder and reboot. Then drill down to your movies folder and associate a wve file with playuv15, then ANY movie file launches 'on click'. Shame on all of you for not telling me about this 15 years ago http://alphacentauri2.info/Smileys/akyhne/grin.gif
Don't try this with rap.exe because it will look for "rap.tgq" and hang your system because it can't find it. Also, be wary of using playuv15 in subsequent "open with" situations -- afaik it runs .wve AND .tgq vidfiles just hunky.
From a cmd line playuv15 can indeed be invoked with all switches with the following additional functions (from memory)
[ESC] = quit/exit
[Shift] = pause --- ahaaa!!
[Spacebar] = restart
OK Then. So the question is --- what MAKES .wve and .tgq wideos??? I'm looking into that too but there seems to be a lot of web[poop] out there ...
Did someone let the Alpha Codex loose?
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