Lights! Camera! Action!

Sat Apr 17, 2004 9:09 am by Invader Zim

Hello, I am pretty new here, heck, I AM new here. Well, to start, I am no techno ruler or have any sort of knowledge about programming and the like, but I have a question or few. Also, if I am out of line with my posting, as in, which forum it is supposed to be located in, sorry, but, I put it here because I figured if the regulars on this forum can actually hack the game enough to modify it, then you should have no problem answering it. This is because my question is a real 'nuts and bolts' type rather than a story board or a 'how do you make the ship >fire missiles<' type of question.

First, is there any way to play any of the cinimatics of Star Lancer or Free Lancer without playing or loading the game? I always liked the movies and it was always a real pain to wait getting the whole game loaded and getting to the ITAC terminal. And then for some reason, it would not even save the last movie to the terminal records, of Star Lancer that is. I have not completed Free Lancer yet so I really do not know what movies there are, except for the intro of course, also of which I can not play unless I load up the game. Is there not some way I can play the cinimatics from the explorer? I just barely got around to learning about smacker and brink vid, I pursued those because of BATTLE TECH and Zone Raiders. But these Lancer games, I can not even find the files, let alone play them. What sort of program do I need in order to play the files, once I find them?

Also, this is a ship question. Is there any way to, hmmmm, import? the ships from Star Lancer into the Free Lancer game so that I could use them? I always thought that the Star Lancer crafts were just plain cool, especially that Grendal, it was slow, and had no blind fire, but it looked cool, at least, 'I' think so. I know that it would totally screw the story as far as continuity's sake, but come on people, I think I have seen Battlestar Galactica's, Crimson Skies, and the ENTERPRISE! Now tell me that those aren't a little bit of a stretch. Well, I guess if you overlooked a few differences you could fit them in and not the SL ships because the SL ships are from the FL's past and therefore they are already in the story and whatnot and maybe since the other 'space crafts are not in the story at all, the people that came up with them worked out there own little story as to their incorporation of the ship into the FL universe.

Another ship idea, any Invader Zim fans out there? Besides Me? I think an Irken Voot Runner would be a neat idea too, but that's just me.

Okay, thanks for reading my way longer than it probably needed to be post. I really hope that someone can give me an answer to the first point, but as far as the ship ideas, that's more of a 'say wouldn't it be neat to...' thing.

Sat Apr 17, 2004 9:27 am by DullesGuy

For the cinimatics, no, I don't think so. You CAN play the Introduction (background information of FL) but not the actual game footage. It's rendered on the fly.

Second of all, no. I believe that the ships in Starlancer are in different format and cannot be imported.

Sat Apr 17, 2004 1:47 pm by Glitch

To play the Starlancer movies you'll need to download a program called Bink and Smacker, it will load the files with a .bik extension on them. Yeah, and you can't play the storyline movies since they're rendered by your video card, and as such, are not a movie

As for the ships, I don't know, I'd imaging that somone might be able to do it, but I haven't heard of anyone doing it successfully

(This site is best viewed with your eyes open)

Sat Jul 17, 2004 8:45 am by Invader Zim

Hello, I do not mean to bring up something as old as this when it is probably not that popular to begin with, but, I just got done reformatting my computer, and installing this and that, and getting a few of my games back from various people. Anyway, as for the cinimatics in Star Lancer, I understand that the in game movies like when a torpedo is fired or the ships jump/warp in/out, or a ship launches from a base or carrier, I understand that those are probably so deep in the code of the game that the only way to play them is to play the game. That and probably the news briefs too. But what about the intro movie? And those after action news brief reports that you get every 5 or 6 missions or so? Is one not able to play those outside of the game? Or does one simplly HAVE to be in the game in order to play them? I have a bink and smacker program, and I was able to view some animations, like the splash screens, and when the pilots come back from a mission and walk to the big map screen. But what about the short animations like when the guy is lined up before a firing squad, or when he is shipped off for reassignment, or gets a medal, or the funerals? What about those? My computer was running so bad at the time that I started this thread that my system would not even play any vids of anything properly, so I really did not get a chance to see any of the cinimatics/animations of Free Lancer. However, I think that I know the difference between a cinimatic clip and an in-game animation, and I am certain that the only way to view the ingame animations is when you are in the game, but, I am also just as certain that the cinimatic clips are SOMEWHERE to be found, no? This is because that the in-game animations look just like any other animation in the game, except they are automated, but the cinimatic clips, while also being automated, look remarkably much more realistic the the game footages.

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