Smacker
cutscenes have been used in dozens of games so far. Some
of the games that you may be familiar with are JediKnight
(of course), XvT. Balance of Power, and the newest:
Rebellion. Most people think that making JK cutscenes will never really take off. Because of the size of most video formats, people will decline the chance to download a cutscene of any kind. The average cutscene for a Dark Forces level is about 1 MB, and after downloading a 1.6 MB level, they probably won't be downloading the movie. In this tutorial I will bring you through step-by-step the creation of a simple Smacker cutscene, add sound, and remove a flaw that sometimes occurs when converting DarkForces cutscenes to JediKnight videos. This tutorial will also explain the logistics behind Smacker Compression. While you are doing this tutorial please keep in mind that this is a very basic documentation on how to use the Smackers Video Tools suite. This is not a full-fledged JediKnight tutorial. In this tutorial I will not explain how to add subtitles, add to an EPISODE, or where to put your finished SMK file. I might do this when I figure out how. - Jonathan Clark |
![]() |
Title: | Size: | Description: |
Smacker Video Tools | 1.6 MB | This is the primary tool for editing and viewing Smacker files. The tools are constantly being upgraded, and the new file usually replaces the old one. You must have this file if you are going to edit JK cutscenes. |
Tutorial Files | 345 KB | Zipped BMP and WAV files needed to complete this tutorial. |
ABOUT: SMACKER VIDEO COMPRESSION
From what I have seen, Smacker
Video files are among the most efficient format. The
compression ratio is an astounding 1:12, AVI's
compression ratio is 1:1.5 avg. It's player uses both
DirectDraw Accelleration and MMX. But, how does it manage
such a massive amount of compression? I really must commend Jeff Roberts on his amazing work. The compressor processes all of the frames in a sequence and removes the parts that are identical. Look again at some of the original JK cutscenes. Notice that in some areas there is a small amount of pixelization. Watch the cutscene before the Fuel Station. Pay attention to the sky. This is Lucasart's subtle way of making the movie smaller. Unlike MotS cutscenes, these are real art. From what I gathered, MotS cutscenes start their life as COGs, Level Geometry, and 3DOs. Next it is rendered in a video. I agree that MotS cutscenes cannot compare with JediKnight videos, but while some are complaining I sympathize with LEC. How would they ever hire an actress to play Mara Jade? Use this information when making cutscenes. The less activity on a screen = the less memory per frame. |
PART ONE: SMACKING
BITMAPS
|
Smacking Bitmaps is the most important thing in making SMK files. The primary imagefile that you will be using will be a standard Windows-bitmap. You can also Smack AVI movies and GIF80a images if you are using 3DStudio to make animations. Smacker files can only hold 256-color frames, so if you can, set your renderer to 256 colors only or to dither the image down to 8 bit after rendering. I recommend saving animations as a series of bitmaps. This makes it easier to modify the graphic without having to decompile the animation. |
DFCUT.ZIP - 345 KB (WinZip file) Download this file. It contains all of the sound files, cutscene files, and bitmap files that you will need to complete this tutorial. You will also find this file in the DOWNLOAD section. |
|
The first step is to decompress the
download to an empty folder. Download and extract
DFCUT.ZIP into DFCUT (folder). |
|
Launch Smackers Video Tools. If you are reading this you have probably already explored the many tools and functions of this program. Select the SMACK tab and find the DFCUT folder. Select 000.BMP to 028.BMP by holding down the Shift key and dragging. Click on the SMACK button. |
|
|
Now, click on CREATE LIST. Close the next dialog. It will ask you if you want to save your list. Click on yes, and save it as DFLOGO.LST. Repeat the last two steps with the bitmap files named: DARKLOG*.BMP. Save this list as DARKFADE.LST |
By now you will have two LISTs. Select
DFLOGO.LST. Click on the TYPE button and select FLIC.
Click on the SMACK button once more, and wait until is
finished. Click on DONE. Repeat this for
DARKFADE.LST. When you installed Smacker Video Tools
it added a new item to your Media Player's Device menu.
This will allow you to play your Flics. Flics are one of
the most commonly used file formats. It is small and
takes little time to compile. Good format for previewing.
|
|
Now, select both DARKFADE.FLC and DFLOGO.FLC in the menu to the side by clicking on each file while holding down Ctrl. Create a list for the two files by clicking on the Smack button. Remember to move DFLOGO.FLC up one so that it comes before DARKFADE. Save it as DARKLOGO.LST. | |
Finally, select DARKLOGO.LST. Click on TYPE and select CREATE A SMACKER FILE. Click on SMACK. |
PART THREE: FIXING AN ERROR
|
By now you should have tested your
brand-new Smacker animation. Hold it! In the bottom
right-hand corner there is a smudged line and the Dark
Forces logo is off-center. I'm not really sure about what happened here, but I assume that it has something to do with the edges of the bitmap. If you implement a static border on this graphic the problem will go away. Also, for all you DF players, you might notice that something is missing - the background starfield. For this part of the tutorial you will need to use Windows Paintbrush. |
The first step will be to add the starfield. Open 000.bmp and stars.bmp in two different windows. Right-click on Black in the color palette on both documents. Select the entire 000.bmp image and copy it into STARS.BMP. Everything black is now transparent. Save it as 000FIX.BMP Repeat this step for all files. This solves all of your problems in one: it centers the image, adds the starfield, and removes the smudge. |
PART THREE: MIXING
SOUNDS
Now comes the fun part. Mixing sounds looks like it
is easy, and it is. Go to the MIXER tab. You will find
that the SMACKER toolkit is in order, showing you what
step to go to next. Go to the DFCUT folder and select
DARKLOGO.SMK in the top box. In the lower box select DFLOGO.WAV, which is also in your DFCUT folder. |
|
Leave everything as a default. If you want the sound to pan, you would have to modify the sound file so that it would be played in stereo. Look at the other tabs to see what the other controls can do. Select DARKLOGO.SMK and DFLOGO.WAV. In the text input box at the top of the window, enter DFLOGO.SMK. This will save the end file as DFLOGO.SMK. Click on MIX. | |
Now, select the PLAYER tab. Click on DFLOGO.SMK. Try changing different controls on the PLAYER panel. Set it to different resolutions. The Dark Forces screen res. is 320x200. |
NOTE: For all of the SMK files that you make, always click on the ANALYZE button. Right-click on the graph and select the 4XCD-ROM. If any frame of your animation go above the green line, then that frame uses up a lot of data - and space.
END OF TUTORIAL
Sunday, April 12, 1998 - 8:54 PM Pacific Daylight Time