[tv]Fallout 4 Television mod

[AishaLove]

Very interesting, I wonder if there is a limit on how many frames or the FPS. I have chopped down long videos by reducing them below 24fps (film FPS in theaters) while still being able to view a relatively smooth image.

I am just thinking that lets say someone wants to do a full TV station with hours or even just 30 minutes or more of programming, that could mean massive hiuts to ram at full fps (higher fps more frames).

I think the lowest fps I got on a video to look ok was 12-14 fps but in game lower fps might even look ok. Processing the images might also reduce the impact on ram usage.

At least I am assuming it loads all the frams into memory when you load an area with a tv to view.

Edited January 16, 2016 by AishaLove

[AishaLove]

Seems that importing video files can be done. Again I wonder what the limits are on the fps and max number of frames.

It might be cool to have a movie playing on the TVs a long one, so that as we play we only see bits and pieces (unless we sit and watch) so that could give players a reason to look at the TVs in the world.

TBH I Don't even notice TVs in the world because I always saw them as a useless static prop. No benefit from paying attention. Maybe it could be made so sitting in proximity to a tv for a certain amount of time gives well rested bonus or maybe a temporary bonus to charisma but a temporary loss of inteligence?

Edited January 16, 2016 by AishaLove

[SirTwist]

I don't know how possible it is to try things this way. For Fallout 3 there was the iPip mod, and extensions, etc. (link posted at the end.) I am wondering if something similar can be used to play say an .avi, or a series of them, in the game? It might be a bit more difficult, but I think that it could be done. Of course we would need to move it from the pipboy to the tv's, and only ones with power. That would mean settlements, And other modders can make better, or even replacement, tv's for the game.

 

here's the link:

http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/16598/?

[tomomi1922]

Someone already successfully made a test animated DDS for the TV. Not sure when they will release something more interesting to look at.

[Deleted1205226User]

Principle is similar in FO3, FNV, Skyrim. DDS texture is like a spritesheet with the different images on a grid. Each images is played one after the other. You can adjust the time between each frame.

To have a view-able result, you shouldn't go under 1 images per a 10th of a second.

 

On a 4096x4096 textures you can place 256 images of 256x256 size, which will give you a 25,6 seconds film.

 

I'm very familiar with the F03 nif structure, much less with the Skyrim one.

I've made a tutorial for animating texture in F03, there's one existing for Skyrim engine.

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/47104/?

 

I've heard that there are similarities in FO4 and Skyrim meshes structures so I guess by comparing and with a little intuition it might be possible already to make something.

[zanity]

I've been looking into exactly this. But here is the issue. Ideally we want an engine that uses DX11 DYNAMIC TEXTURES, so an external video stream can be frame-by-frame converted into a dynamic texture in real-time. But Bethesda's engine is literally pre-historic, faking both its 64-bit and DX11 credentials as a marketing gimmick. At its heart, FO4 is a DX9, 32-bit engine, badly hacked to require a more powerful and recent PC set-up.

 

So, as some have said earlier, the animated texture trick (using a so-called spritesheet containing 30 seconds of 320x240 video in DXT1 compression mode) seems to be the best way to go- and was laready used in an old FO:NV mod.

 

But i propose a vastly better enhancement.

 

VLC player is the brilliant open-source FREE PC video player that handles just about any video file. It can be controlled programmatically and its output easily captured.

 

Now FO4 needs massive textures in picture mode to be compressed in DXT1 to achieve reasonable size, and real-time DXT1 compression is easily achieved.

 

So here's the method. A TV ingame will exist as TWO seperate models, TVa and TVb- switching every 30 seconds between the two. TVa will use spritesheetA and TVb will use spritesheetB.

 

When the ingame TV is activated, VLC player will be instructed to run in the background, and an external program will begin collecting 30 seconds of frame output, converting each frame into a 320x240 DXT1 'sprite' and assembling into the .dds spritesheet NOT currently in use by the game's renderer.

 

The sound for the TV will probably have to come from another external player, allowing Windows to mix the sound with that from the game. Synchronising the sound with the animated texture on the TV will be somewhat of an issue.

 

The official construction kit will probably be needed to allow an ingame interface to neatly signal the external code to begin its process for a chosen video file ingame.

 

Now if you remember the beginning of FO4, you will recall a TV in the living room seemingly playing a video file. However, I imagine the newscaster is actually a realtime 3D render converted to a texture, rather than a pre-recorded video- otherwise this existing functionality could possibly be hacked to allow user video files.

 

ANYHOO, I guess my question is whether people would be prepared to use install an external program like VLC and allow a mod to control it? Sadly Microsoft, with Windows 10, seems determined to dumb-down PC users to the point where their PC is more like a tablet or console.

[zanity]

PS I forgot to mention that on a good 4-core processor (essential for AAA gaming, whatever your GPU), a fraction of ONE i5 core will easily play a SD video file, capture the frame, convert to DXT1, and assenble into a game friendly texture file.

 

Clearly ingame TV watching is done in an environment where the game has a very light workload (eg., in a room in a house, rather than outside in the centre of the city), so processing power can't be an issue (unless you are attempting to set-up 'Time Square' like animated ads where the engine struggles the most on the map).

 

It is great that unlike in the past, with Fallout 3 etc, we are in a resource RICH computing environment with RAM and CPU cycles coming out of our ears. Personally I think heavy modding should be for mains-powered PCs. NOT laptops or consoles, so everything becomes possible. To be held back by the lowest common denominator is the death of ambitious mods.

[JebuNagazi]

Got some very usful imformation from you guys here thanks :) !

 

I am messing with trying to make a animated Hologram myself that you can place on the floor for this mod http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/18523/? im working on....

Been really hard to find any useful imformation about this subject so far but atleast now i know a little bit more.

 

Want to have transparant dancing hologram Strippers for my PIMP WORKSHOP mod to get the right mood of it, hehe!

[pra]

There used to be a functional TV mod for Fallout 4, it has been abandoned, though.

http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/11448/? This one. Would be nice of someone were to continue it.

[chucksteel]

That's a nice mod He had a FNV version too. He does have a tutorial on how to create your own video holotapes for people who wanted to add more.