Need help with .bik files for trade movies

from GalCiv2 Forums

Good morning GC2 community,

I've been working on a mod where I have started to customize the default races in the game.  I've had no issues so far with still pictures in .PNG format but I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong with my .BIK files.

I have RAD Video Tools and have been converting an animated GIF to AVI and then Binking it to 430x280 with the cropping feature of RAD Tools.  I then place them in the movie folder (the Twilight one, since I have TA) and point my RaceConfig.xml to it.

When I load my game and attempt to trade with that race, it somehow defaults back to the original trade videos for that race (in this case the female Altarian Republic leader).

Am I missing something? Does my .BIK file need other parameters beyond the dimensions?

Any assistance will be greatly appreciated!

modding
26,326 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Do you have any saved customizations in the My Documents\My Games\GC2TwilightArnor folder? Those will override the raceconfig if they exist.

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Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Thanks for the response Kryo,

I actually found that tip in another thread and went ahead and deleted everything in the folder except for my one saved game with no luck.  I've continued to mess with the .bik files thinking it has something to do with the frame rates or number of frames but still can't get it to play in game.  I'll try clearing that folder again when I get home.

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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

when binking a video don't change anything other wise it will flop.

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Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Crap   = / 

Even cropping and positioning?  (I know, what part of "anything" didn't I understand lol)

Thank you FoxThree

Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Figured it out and it was a very silly mistake.  It boiled down to me using a saved game.  The saved game somehow holds all the race data. Example I changed the leader name to see if that had anything to do with my issue and when I loaded the game it was still set to the default leader name.  I have been making changes and then checking them in new games bit by bit but this time I wanted to save an early game that had at least one race I could try to trade with.  That screwed me.
 
Cropping and resizing doesn't seem to cause any issues as long as they come out 430x280 (I did not mess with the frame rates).  All the .bik files were working after starting a new game.
 
In short I think it was a combination of:

Documents\My Games\GC2TwilightArnor getting cleared
 and
Then starting a new game instead of loading an old save
 
Thanks for you help guys!!