Rare Tex Murphy Screenshot

Hmm I did a test download myself and got visual and audio. So I don't know what happened. I'm using a standard media player.
It could be a codec issue. That's frequently the case when audio doesn't work. Maybe try downloading ffdshow, it might do the trick.
Hmmmm, did load the codec you suggested, still no go. Does 20 meg seem a bit small for a minute and a half of video? Anyone else get it to run?
I noticed that on the YouTube link you sent me that Dosbox has a sub menu from Start->Programs that seemed to account for codecs. If all else fails, maybe someone else can make a movie.
I could try, though I'm not sure where to start with that.

Did you notice in charcode.ap near the end are the subtitles for an UAKM trailer? I'm not sure if the video is actually stored anywhere, but I assume the code to play it occurs immediately after (as is the case with the other subtitles). I've played around a bit with the code preceding the subtitles (after the string of 00s). It definitely relates somehow to that particular character, as I copied Clint's code and replaced it over Zack's and Zack's videos no longer played - when I spoke to him the travel button disabled and all I could access was the auxiliary panel.

If there's a way to tell one character to play another's videos maybe we could get the trailer to play.
@Bjyman, are you saying you have figured out the scripting engine in PD?

I'm working on a resource extractor for UAKM, and have delayed looking at the script files, as I haven't found the parser in the exe yet. It'll probably be the last thing I'll try to decode, currently working on the videos.

Oh, I guess I should say 'Hi everyone'. I've been hiding in the shadows for a few years now, just came out to stretch my legs...

-SAJ
@saj I've figured out some of the scripting.
@Matt or Matthew - Yes I noticed the UAKM stuff. I think it carried over from the Pandora Demo, as you can also play the demo version of Witt's Apt in Pandora.

I think I've found an obscure way to play another character's video while not at that character. You can do that if the value is above a the value range for the character you're currently AND the value is a recognized value for the previous character you visited.

For instance, lets say the range for Rook's videos is from 00 to 0A and that Zack has a recognized value for 0B and Zack was the person you talked to before Rook. Well if you put 0B in for a Rook placeholder and call it you should get the 0B value from Zack on Rook instead of a crash. Accordingly, you could do this for any value Zack had that was above 0A. So you may want to find a character who has the least amount of movies. I'd try it with the credits, but if trailer's value is 00 you'd still be out of luck. Well you'd have to go to the trailer first and that's a feat on it's own.
Yeah, I noticed that too, though I didn't realize it had to do with the character you previously spoke to. When I got to the end of Zack's videos, Louie's started playing.

I guess it must load the info on where to find the videos into memory when you speak with a character and only overwrites as much as needed when you speak to another, or something like that.

Earlier, I swapped c01.ap and c02.ap (renamed the files) and got Chelsee videos when at the Brew and Stew. If the trailer is in one of the cXX files, maybe that could be another roundabout way of playing it. The trouble is knowing which one.
You got me curious so I looked at the files around that area and it appears that C63.ap is the alien entity movies and C66.ap is the tutorial movie and then C70.ap is the horse in Tex's bedroom. But there's still a gap unaccounted for the UAKM demo movie along with Tex entering the Flamingo to save Emily. Maybe they're stored on a file that doesn't start with C.
Last edited by Bjyman on March 19, 2014 • 10:34 am, edited 1 time in total.
Edit: A program to view movies in Pandora has been released.
I just examined a couple of AP files from PD, to compare with what I know about the APs in UAKM, and got a little disappointed (but not really surprised). The file types in PD are a little different. While UAKM is using 'BIC' and 'PTF' for video containers, it looks like PD is using 'H2O'. Found one similarity though, compressed files in UAKM use a 'DBE' container, the format is identical to the 'ACC' format in PD. Successfully tested it decompressing an image in VAAPHOTO.AP.

New thread for technical details?

-SAJ
fyi - I didn't know about the videobam climate until after the fact. But if you want to take this to another thread feel free to do so. I noticed the H2O stuff too and I was like water! I also posted somewhere else that I thought the .ap files may be Borland databases.
AP files are simply multiple files merged into one. The first 16 bit value (little endian) is the offsets counter, followed by that many 32-bits pointers where the last entry points to the end of the file.

Dissecting the individual files is where the fun starts...

Files that start with 'DBE' (or 'ACC' in PD) are standard LZ compressed files, usually containing images.

'PTF' and 'BIC' are the media containers in UAKM, containing audio, video or both. I can play some of the PTFs in my app.

'OBJT' files describe the 3D location borders.

'SQZ' files I haven't figured out yet, but my guess is that they contain the compressed textures for the 3D locations...

-SAJ
Gufino over at the BFG forum just released an app to play Pandora videos. I haven't look at it, but all this AP modifying may not be necessary anymore.

http://www.bigfinishgames.com/tpdviewer ... ctives-fmv
Awesome! That certainly makes things easier.