Bink Video Support

[subspark]

We use Bink a lot in Unreal 3 and also use it in our own proprietary 2.5d engine. It removes a lot of the overhead that comes with installing many of the other codecs out there such as distributing the right codec version with the game, game-incompatible codec updates, and many other obvious drawbacks that users have experienced so far.

Many game engines use Bink Video because of the following advantages and features as listed on their website:
http://www.radgametools.com/bnkmain.htm

All about Bink!

• Bink videos look amazing! Bink can scale its data rate from 1200 kps for 1280x720p videos down to 75 kps for Nintendo DS videos. Bink will always make the best possible video for your data rate.
• Bink's SDK is simple and powerful. Your game is always in control - there are no callbacks or other difficult-to-debug constructs. Using Bink is like using a codec that you wrote yourself.
• Bink is completely self-contained - it needs no special system software, it needs no other audio codec, it needs no other surrounding architecture. Just one small library and you are good to go - there are no external installation or dependencies.
• Bink is super, super fast. In some cases, up to 10 times faster than other modern codecs. It's fast enough to use for in-game videos, as well as cut-scene videos.
• Bink uses as little memory as possible. In some cases, up to 16 MB less than other codecs. You don't have to worry about a simple video codec hogging all your memory.
• Bink runs on every platform. You can use the same API and data files on 14 different platforms.
• Bink runs on most game engine middleware natively. Epic supplies pre-written Bink support for the Unreal Engine, for example.
• Bink has a VBR psycho-acoustic based audio codec capable up to 15:1 compression built-in. You don't need to license another codec for your audio.
• Bink can play many audio tracks at once - this allows the playback of 5.1 and 7.1 sound tracks (on supported platforms) as well as optional language tracks where you can turn on and off a language based on the system setting.
• Bink runs on every game platform and is customized to take advantage of each one. It uses SPUs on PS3, VMX on Xbox360, SSE 2 on x86, massive assembly optimizations on Nintendo DS, etc.
• Bink includes sound support for every platform it supports. We have 16 different modules for sound playback on the various platforms.
• Bink is super robust. The fact that it ships in so many games makes it better and better - it just doesn't crash. Bink can also handle bad input data - it just keeps chugging along until the input data gets better again.

The Nintendo DS example is particularly exciting to me because of all the full-screen animated video effects in our 320x200 game.
For us, one word describes Bink: transparency

For our adventure, we want our video's to be transparent in file size and totally transparent as video, blowing the player away with its undetectable compression.
At the same time we want the player to be able to just install the game and run it making the codec installation process transparent to the player.
Bink also works in conjunction with other full/partial screen effects including pixel shaders and script-originated effects (flashlight module). Again, transparent integration into room interactions and events.

The license is $6000 USD however I for one would be glad to chip in $300 bucks, CJ. If enough of us jump on the bandwagon we could cover the license fee rather quickly.
In any case, I really believe Bink would be a great fit with today's AGS.

Cheers,
Sparky.

[Knox]

I would match your 300$ (can) aswell.

[subspark]

I'm Australian but to clarify, I would be paying in US Dollars.

Sparky.

[Steven_Wagner]

From what I understand you can compress files into Bink format using RAD tools for free. I've put a Bink video into a game by simply replacing the original file.

What would be required is AGS to support Bink files. Now, it might be possible to get Bink to license the software to the AGS creator for free because it is freeware. They are selling it to for-profit companies. They mention, "Finally, note that these prices are for standard video games. Email us for simulators, kiosks, or other any non-game applications."

It is worth asking them.

P.S. Loving AGS. I'd love any and all video support.

[Gilbert]

AGS is free, but since commercial games can be made with it I'm not quite sure whether this is okay (note that for this reason there is a version of the engine without MP3 support for commercial game developers to avoid possible licensing problems).

[GarageGothic]

I highly doubt that a single 6000$ license (sold on per-product, per-platform basis) purchased for the AGS editor would cover any game produced using it. If that was the case, Epic Games and it's licensees would not have had to pay a single dime to RAD, once they had licensed the code for the Unreal Engine - and that's certainly not true.

As for free games getting special treatment, I think the most you could hope for - and I doubt even that - would be the same as the recently free-for-non-profit Unreal Development Kit where any Bink videos played in the engine are watermarked with a logo, and it'll cost you 300$ to get rid of that logo (not sure if that's per game or per user).

[Pumaman]

What's the advantage of Bink rather than just using the Theora video support that AGS already has?