Could someone direct me to some information on changing the concourse?

Also adding custom outscenes; who would know?

If you have any information on opening the concourse scenes from some kind of 3d software I am all ears. And what determines what movie files are loaded at a certain point during gameplay?

A file called CUTSCENE.TXT determines which movie is played at which time. It is in your XwingAlliance\FrontRes\Cutscene folder.

It is a text file that shows which movie is played after which mission is completed, and if the movie is played before or after the mission briefing for the mission # specified.

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"Peace through superior firepower"

[This message has been edited by TK421 (edited May 10, 2000).]

I wonder.... Does anyone know what format the movie files are in? I've got a butt-load of SWMA models and a pretty good 3D modelling/animation package. I could make my own cutscenes. http://www.xwingalliance.com/forums/smile.gif)

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Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day... Teach a man to fish and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.

As could I! http://www.xwingalliance.com/forums/biggrin.gif)

Perhaps this could be a new project for us when we script new missions.

Thanks for the info, ill go check it out now.

Originally posted by Vark111:
I wonder.... Does anyone know what format the movie files are in? I've got a butt-load of SWMA models

And exactly how big is a butt load? http://www.xwingalliance.com/forums/wink.gif) Or should I say that's a rather unusualy storage facility you have there Vark, ha ha

The movies are in SMN format, but I've yet to find anything that can convert or play them.

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"Peace through superior firepower"

K,

So what is SMN format.

Perhaps the movies do not have to be in any particular format as long as the cutscene.txt is pointing to the proper file.

I would try playing with it but im too busy doing something at this moment.

ok sorry should have cleared that up,

the CUTSCENE.TXT file points to the Cutscene file first (the SNM file). After that it calls up the small graphic you see in the CUTSCENE screen (the CBM file). As there are no file extensions (eg BATTLE1/CUT1 not BATTLE1.SNM/CUT1.CBM) to the part that calls up the cutscene file or the bitmap file, I believe XWA wouldn't accept any other file than a SNM file or CBM file for the name
specified, it's typical PC thinking.

It's looking for SNM files, so you give it a name and it will look for NAME.SNM, if you have something like NAME.MPG but no NAME.SNM XwingAlliance won't be able to find it.

The .snm formatt is the compression format that LucasArts decided to use. It contains a set of instructions for pixel locations and designations. Defiant from Datamasters was able to extract the first frame but had no other success as the next frame is not a similar set of instructions pointing to a picture but rather instructions on what pixels to change in the animation.
From what I understand there has been no further exploration into the snm format.
As for the cbm format, I belive there is a veiwer that allows conversion from cbm to bit but nothing yet that will reverse that.

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If the wind will not provide, take to the oars.

Which means that if we do create custom cutscenes they will have to be files (.avi, mpeg, whatever) that are run seperately from the software.

Including a cutscene in a mission pack may have to be simply an introduction movie of sorts. Many games have their intro movies seperate from the actual game as it is.

So what about the concourse? I heard that someone...

So what about the CMB, councourse backgrounds? I saw a link to the Vashkara project describing that they had been working on a 52 mission campaign from the imperial side with custom cutscenes and new concourses, but when I try to hit that link I get no page that comes up.

I can get around the movie problem by creating seprate files, but the concourse?

Hangar also, just wondering.

There is still research into allowing players to launch from ISD hangers and others, but it's still an ongoing process. The concourse is a cbm file and cannot as of yet be changed.