This project is a work-in-progress.
Q: What is this?
A: A small video player written in C for DOS. As of currently, it only supports a single video/audio format, created specifically for this application. Converters are included in this repository.
Q: Why is the audio so terrible?
A: I wanted it to work on modern computers, and modern sound cards are quite complicated to set up, so my only option was the internal speaker.
Q: Why is the video so terrible?
A: I'm sticking with VGA mode 13h, so enjoy it in its 240 color, 320x200 pixel glory.
Q: How do I run this?
A: Try to read some of the documentation, or you could just email me.
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Export raw video file as series of PNG files (must be 320x200) at a reasonable FPS (less than 70fps). Exported files must be in format prefix_000000.png in ascending order.
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Modify parameters of conv/_comp/create.bat
set LOCATION=[full path to folder storing PNG files]
set PREFIX=[prefix of all png files]
set EXTENSION=[extension (usually png)]
set COUNT=[number of frames]
set FPS=[frames per second]
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Run create.bat, it will extract and compress the frame data
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Copy the .lz4hc-64000 file to dos/bin and rename it accordingly
/*
* Video is stored in a series of LZ4 compressed 256-color bitmaps
* We update the palette every frame
*/
/* LZ4 compressed frame */
struct frame_data {
unsigned char palette_size; // palette size minus one, since 256 is the limit
unsigned char *palette; // 18-bit color palette
int size;
unsigned char *data;
};
struct video_data {
unsigned short frame_count; // total frame count of entire movie
unsigned char frame_rate; // frames to display per second
struct frame_data *frames; // compressed frame data
} video_binary;Tools for compressing video files are in conv/_comp
FrameExtract.exe extracts frames out of a series of PNG files, and exports them to a large binary, its source is at conv/_utilties/FramePack/FrameExtract
LZ4FramePack.exe compresses the frames with the LZ4 compression algorithm, its source is at conv/_utilities/LZ4FramePack
/*
* Audio is stored in 8-bit unsigned mono channel Microsoft header WAV data,
* use a sample rate of < 48000Hz (11000Hz seems to run the best)
*
* The audio is played through PCM over the internal speaker, so the audio
* quality is quite poor
*/Audio is no longer packed with midi