Background video creation

[haunted_i]

OK, I've looked all over this forum, and it hasn't been asked before.

What is required in a SM background video file?

I know they need to be .avi but what else? I tried encoding some with Quicktime Pro using Cinepak compression, but with SM set to 'Randommovies' it never loops the videos like with other files, and if it goes back to the same video again it's stuck on the last frame again.

Do I need a specific time/file length, specific dimensions, or a different avi codec?
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DJ bring the retard!

[Bolt-Edge]

Ok so you want a background movie to play during the song eh?

I'm not an expert on this but i think I can help

Start by going to Stepmania and then going to the song editor and find your song. On the chart, find where you want the movie to start. Once you find the spot, press B and it will bring up a background menu. Go down to Add Change To Song Movie and find your movie that you want to put in (EDIT:Make sure the movie you want is in the song folder). Press enter and it will play in the background until the Cleared sign comes up

If you want it to stop and play a different movie in the middle of the song, just find the spot where you want it and put a BG change there.

I suggest bringing the background back to normal at the last note to make it look normal. At the last step, Goto the BG menu and press Add Change To Still and find the BG picture

I hope this helps
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I hear it's amazing when the famous purple-stuffed worm in flap-jaw space with the tuning fork does a raw blink on hari-kiri rock! I need scissors! 61!

[haunted_i]

Not exaclty. I'm looking for info on movie files in general, for playing under the 'randommovies' background option, which pulls random movies from the 'randommovies' folder during any song, since all but a handful of my simfiles have specific videos they access.

Thanks all the same, tho.
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DJ bring the retard!

[Bolt-Edge]

Oh, all you need are some .avi files in the Random Folder section and turn on Random Videos in SM in options
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I hear it's amazing when the famous purple-stuffed worm in flap-jaw space with the tuning fork does a raw blink on hari-kiri rock! I need scissors! 61!

[haunted_i]

I did that. I copied avi files from my songs folder, and they run fine. But any I encode myself from other files (like iPod commercials) don't play properly. They don't loop, and look bad, and I need to know how to make proper avi's to go in that folder.

[Bolt-Edge]

Can you reword that second sentence, I dont quite get what your trying to say, sorry
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I hear it's amazing when the famous purple-stuffed worm in flap-jaw space with the tuning fork does a raw blink on hari-kiri rock! I need scissors! 61!

[AMxJM]

He's trying to figure out how to properly encode a file so he can use his own custom movies in Stepmania.
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[Bolt-Edge]

Oh well I dont know sorry
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I hear it's amazing when the famous purple-stuffed worm in flap-jaw space with the tuning fork does a raw blink on hari-kiri rock! I need scissors! 61!

[[ES] GARYsurvivor]

DivX, that's what I used. Even if you don't have the codec installed for viewing, StepMania can still play it.

[coolforever]

But how do I encode my movie into a Divx file? I just don't know how to do it using windows movie maker...

[[ES] GARYsurvivor]

[coolforever]

Well gary, since you can't help me with it, can anyone else try to tell me what to do?

[[ES] GARYsurvivor]

It's just the fact that the file would be too big to transfer to me. If you could find some way to host it, I could download it over a period of like...5 days. I could do it then!

[haunted_i]

OK, that's helpful. DivX in an avi wrapper. Is there anything special I have to do to make them loop? 'cause they don't right now.

[[ES] GARYsurvivor]