Eric Lengyel: Created page with "NOTOC '''Figure 1.''' The Movie Importer dialog. The '''Movie Importer''' tool is used to generate movies in the proprietary C4 Engine `.mvi` format. This functionality is part of the '''Movie Tool''' plugin. To generate a movie, either choose '''Import Movie''' from the C4 Menu or type the `imovie` command in the Command Console. This causes this Import Movie dialog, shown in Figure 1, to be displ..."

2023-07-15T11:38:39Z

Created page with "__NOTOC__ right|frame|'''Figure 1.''' The Movie Importer dialog. The '''Movie Importer''' tool is used to generate movies in the proprietary C4 Engine <code>.mvi</code> format. This functionality is part of the '''Movie Tool''' plugin. To generate a movie, either choose '''Import Movie''' from the C4 Menu or type the <code>imovie</code> command in the Command Console. This causes this Import Movie dialog, shown in Figure 1, to be displ..."

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__NOTOC__
[[File:Movieimporter.png|right|frame|'''Figure 1.''' The Movie Importer dialog.]]
The '''Movie Importer''' tool is used to generate movies in the proprietary C4 Engine <code>.mvi</code> format. This functionality is part of the '''Movie Tool''' plugin.

To generate a movie, either choose '''Import Movie''' from the [[C4 Menu]] or type the <code>imovie</code> command in the [[Command Console]]. This causes this Import Movie dialog, shown in Figure 1, to be displayed.

== Source Images ==

The source images for video frames can be in TGA format or the SEQ format generated when [[Recording Movies|recording movies]] (and these can also be mixed in the same movie). All of the video frames must have the same dimensions, and these dimensions must be a multiple of 8 pixels in both width and height, or an error will occur when trying to generate the movie.

Click the '''Add''' button to select source images. The file selection dialog that appears shows files inside the <code>Import</code> folder hierarchy, so this is where source images should be saved prior to generating a movie. Multiple files can be selected at once by holding the shift key or simply typing Ctrl-A to select all files in a directory. You can switch between Targa (TGA) files and Sequence (SEQ) files using the popup menu at the bottom of the selection dialog.

Any numbering in source image file names does not need to include extra 0 characters to pad all the numbers out to the same length. When a string of numerical characters is encountered in a file name, it is treated as a single symbol for purposes of sorting the files. The files are displayed in the movie images list in the order in which they will appear in the movie.

== Movie Settings ==

{| {{Table}}
{{Tablehead|Setting|Description}}
|-
{{Tablerow|'''Output resource name'''|Specifies the name of the movie resource that gets generated relative to the <code>Data</code> directory.}}
|-
{{Tablerow|'''Compression quality level'''|Determines the quality level at which the movie's video frames are compressed. Higher numbers mean better quality, but at the cost of larger movie files.}}
|-
{{Tablerow|'''Frame rate (frames/s)'''|Specifies the playback frame rate for the movie.}}
|-
{{Tablerow|'''Maximum consecutive delta frames'''|Specifies the maximum number of delta frames that can occur consecutively before a new key frame is forced. A value of zero means that every frame is a key frame.}}
|-
{{Tablerow|'''Maximum delta/key frame size ratio (%)'''|Specifies the maximum ratio between the size of a compressed delta frame and a compressed key frame that will be allowed. For any frames that could be delta frames but exceed this limit, a key frame is forced.}}
|-
{{Tablerow|'''Include alpha channel in video track'''|Indicates that an alpha channel should be generated for the movie. This results in larger movie files and should only be checked if the source frame images actually contain useful alpha information.}}
|-
{{Tablerow|'''Audio Settings / Input resource name'''|Specifies the name of an audio file relative to the <code>Import</code> directory. If this is left blank, then the movie will not have an audio track.

An audio track must be stored as an uncompressed <code>.wav</code> file with 16-bit samples and one or two channels.}}
|}

== See Also ==

* [[Movie Player]]
* [[Recording Movies]]

[[Category:Movies]]

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