Multimedia functions

`CDAudio`

CDAudio (eCDAudioFunction, int param)

This function allows you to play and control an audio CD in your game. Different tasks are performed, depending on the value of the AudioFunction parameter. If there is no CD-ROM drive on the system, the function does nothing.

The PARAM parameter is used by some of the functions for various reasons; if it is not needed for the particular function you are calling, pass zero instead.

The tasks performed are as follows depending on the COMMAND parameter:

eCDIsDriverPresent - checks if there is a CD-ROM driver available on
   the system. Returns 1 if there is, and 0 if there is not.
eCDGetPlayingStatus - checks whether the CD drive is currently playing
   an audio track. Returns 1 if it is, and 0 if it is not.
eCDPlayTrack - starts playback from track PARAM on the CD. If the track
   does not exist, or if it is a data track, nothing happens.
eCDPausePlayback - pauses the currently playing audio track.
eCDResumePlayback - continues from where the track was paused.
eCDGetNumTracks - returns the number of tracks on the CD
   currently in the drive. If the drive is empty, returns 0.
eCDEject - ejects the drive tray if the drive has the ability. This is
   a feature you'll play with to start off because it's neat, and then
   realize that it has no real use in your game.
   Your script does not continue until the drive is fully ejected.
eCDCloseTray - the reverse of Eject. This will pull the drive tray back
   in again. Your script does not continue until the drive has been
   fully closed.
eCDGetCDDriveCount - returns the number of CD drives in the
   system, normally 1.
eCDSelectActiveCDDrive - changes the current CD drive to PARAM,
   where PARAM ranges from 1 to (number of CD drives). All the other
   CD Audio functions operate on the current CD drive.

NOTE: These CD Audio functions are slow compared to all the other script functions. This will not be noticeable if you call them from most scripts, but using CDAudio in a repeatedly_execute script will noticeably slow down the game.

Cross-Platform Support

Windows: Yes, but supports 1 CD-ROM drive only
Linux: Yes, but supports 1 CD-ROM drive only
MacOS: No

Example:

CDAudio(eCDPlayTrack, 3);

will play track 3 of the CD that's in the CD ROM drive.

`IsSpeechVoxAvailable`

IsSpeechVoxAvailable()

Returns whether the SPEECH.VOX file is being used by the game. This could be useful if you have an optional speech download pack, and you want to know whether the player has it or not.

Returns 1 if the speech files are available, 0 if not.

Example:

if (IsSpeechVoxAvailable()==0)
    Display ("You don't have the voice pack");

will display a message if the voice pack is not available.

NOTE: This function used to be called IsVoxAvailable, but has now been renamed to avoid confusion.

`PlayFlic`

PlayFlic (int flic_number, int options)

Plays a FLI or FLC animation. The game checks for FLICx.FLC and FLICx.FLI (where X is FLIC_NUMBER) and if it finds one, plays it. The game is paused while the animation plays.

OPTIONS has these meanings:

0  player can't skip animation
1  player can press ESC to skip animation
2  player can press any key or click mouse to skip animation
+10 (i.e. 10, 11, 12) do not stretch to full-screen, just play at flc size
+100 do not clear the screen before starting playback

Example:

PlayFlic(2, 1);

will play flic2 and the player will be able to skip the flic by pressing the ESC key.

See also: PlayVideo

`PlaySilentMIDI`

PlaySilentMIDI (int music_number)

This command is obsolete.

Use the AudioClip.Play command and set its Volume property to 0 to simulate this effect.

`PlayVideo`

PlayVideo (string filename, VideoSkipStyle, int flags)

Plays a supported video file. The game is paused while the video plays.

As of 3.6.0 AGS only supports OGG Theora videos (*.ogv). Prior to 3.6.0 it also supported AVI and MPG, but only on MS Windows, and if necessary codecs are installed on player's system. Please see the notes in the end of this article for more information on this.

VideoSkipStyle defines how the player can skip the video:

eVideoSkipNotAllowed     player can't skip video
eVideoSkipEscKey         player can press ESC to skip video
eVideoSkipAnyKey         player can press any key to skip video
eVideoSkipAnyKeyOrMouse  player can press any key or click mouse to skip

Flags has these meanings:

0: default mode; the video is be played at original size, with its own audio; game's audio is muted.
+1: the video will be stretched to full screen, with appropriate black borders to maintain its aspect ratio.
+10 (i.e. 10, 11): video's own audio will be muted, and game audio will continuing playing.
+20 (i.e. 20, 21): both game's and video's audio will be playing.

NOTE: In 256-color games, PlayVideo is not supported. Please use a FLC/FLI video with the PlayFlic command instead.

Example:

PlayVideo("Intro.ogv", eVideoSkipEscKey, 11);

will play the video "Intro.ogv", allowing the player to skip with ESC if they've seen it before. The video will be stretched to fullscreen, maintaining aspect ration; but it's audio track will be muted, while game sounds will continue to play.

OGG Theora format

As of AGS 3.6.0 PlayVideo can only play OGG Theora (*.ogv). The benefit of this format is that no extra codecs or drivers have to be installed on the user's system in order to play them. OGG Theora videos are automatically included into the game package when you compile the game. For that you need to make sure that file has a .OGV extension and is placed in your game project folder.

There are multiple tools out there that may convert another video to OGV. For instance, a good converter for Theora is ffmpeg2theora.

NOTE: Prior to 3.6.0 there has been a mistake in AGS, because of which the OGG videos could be positioned on screen with a slight negative offset, cutting few rows or columns of pixels. If you are still using AGS 3.5.1 or lower, you have to make sure that your video's frame sizes are multipliers of 16 and actual image placed aligned to the center. For example, if you want 320x200 video then increase canvas to 320x208 and place image at offset (0, 4). This is not a problem anymore in 3.6.0 or later versions.

Other video formats

In previous versions of AGS (3.5.1 or lower), PlayVideo could also play AVI, MPG and few other formats, but only on MS Windows, because the playback was implemented through the use of the DirectShow interface. Engine also relied on the codecs installed on player's system (for example, if you created your video with the XVid codec, the player will need to have XVid installed to be able to view it).

These types of video were not included into the game package. You have to place them separately near you game's exe for them to work.

Cross-Platform Support

OGG Theora: supported everywhere. AVI / MPG: Windows only.

Compatibility:

OGG Theora supported by AGS 3.1.1 and later versions.
AVI / MPG support was discontinued in AGS 3.6.0 and not supported until further notice.
Flag +20 (play both game and video's audio) is supported by AGS 3.6.0 and later versions.

See also: PlayFlic

`SetSpeechVolume`

SetSpeechVolume (int volume)

Sets the volume for in-game speech. VOLUME ranges from 0-255, where 255 is the loudest. The default speech volume is 255 so this function can only be used to reduce the volume.

Example:

SetSpeechVolume(200);

will set the speech volume to 200.