In game videos

To make in-game videos you'll need to start by recording a video (OBS Studio is a good choice for this task).

The different game versions (PC, XBOX, PS2) require videos to be in a certain format for the 'MovieMunge.exe' program (located in 'BF2_ModTools/ToolsFL/bin/').

Platform	Video Format	Conversion Tool
PC	.bik	Rad Tools
XBOX	.xmv	XBOX Video Converter
PS2	.pss	Pss Plex

MovieMunge Program

The MovieMunge program can be used as follows:

 :: Make sure that you have the 'BF2_ModTools\ToolsFL\bin' in your path

  MovieMunge.exe -input movie_list.mlst -output MovieName

The content of movie_list.mlst would look like the following:

movies\movie_1.bik
movies\movie_2.bik

Locating a movie to play

When playing a movie it's important to know the path to the movie and the internal movie name.

The internal movie name is the same as the input file name (so the above munged movie file would contain movies named 'movie_1' and 'movie_2').

If you are making a preview movie for the 1.3 UOP you'll want to ensure that in your addme.lua file your map list entry has a pattern like:

sp_missionselect_listbox_contents[sp_n+1] = {
						movieFile = "..\\..\\addon\\PVE\\data\\_LVL_PC\\PVE\\movies\\pre-movie",
						movieName = "preview",
						dnldable = 1,
						isModLevel = 1,
						mapluafile = "PVE%s_%s",
						era_c = 1,
						mode_con_g = 1,
					}

.mcfg file

It is important to have read in a .mcfg file that has the properties of the movie defined. If you are making a preview movie targeting the UOP1.3+ you would need to use a name that was located inside 'shell_movies.mcfg', usually 'preview' or 'preview-loop').

Note: find 'Name("preview");' in the file above. You'll see that the 'Name' 'preview' is defined and it refers to a 'movie_segment' 'preview'. This is the convention that should be followed. For a Preview Movie targeting the 1.3 UOP you do not need to create a new .mcfg file since the 'preview' movie properties already defined in 'shell_movies.mcfg'.

PlayMovie function

If you find yourself wanting to play a movie outside the established patterns (1.3 uop preview, ingame movies like in the campaign) the following may be of use to you.

-- Should be able to use this function to play a movie
-- movieFile - Path to the movie (ie - "..\..\addon\ABC\data\_data_pc\movies\preview.mvs")
-- movieName - the name of the movie (ie - "preview")
function PlayMovie(movieFile, movieName)
    print("PlayMovie: " .. tostring(movieName) .. " " .. tostring(movieFile))

    if (movieFile == nil and movieName == nil ) then 
        return
    end
    
    local fullpath = movieFile
    if( not endsWith(fullpath, ".mvs") ) then 
        fullpath = fullpath .. ".mvs"
    end

    if( string.lower( fullpath) == string.lower(gMovieStream) 
        and string.lower( movieName) == string.lower(gMovieName)  ) then 
            return
    end

    if( gMovieStream ~= fullpath) then
		print("CHANGING MOVIE FILE: " .. fullpath )
		ScriptCB_CloseMovie()
		gMovieStream = fullpath
		ScriptCB_OpenMovie(gMovieStream, "")

		gMovieName = movieName
		print("change  movieName: " .. movieName )
		ScriptCB_StopMovie()
		ifelem_shellscreen_fnStartMovie(movieName,1, nil, true)
    elseif( gMovieName ~= movieName) then
		gMovieName = movieName
		print("change  movieName: " .. movieName )
		ScriptCB_StopMovie()
		ifelem_shellscreen_fnStartMovie(movieName,1, nil, true)
    end
end