Xanmovie

Well, I found Jason Yenawine, writer of the Xanmovie Player. It seemed that he went the way of Chris Roberts to Digital Anvil. So, I talked to him and got all the info I could from him about Xanmovie. Here's our e-mail conversation.

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-----Original Message-----
From: Ethan Duerichen [SMTP:ethanpd@hotmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, April 13, 2000 4:22 PM
To: jasony@digitalanvil.com
Subject: Xanmovie command lines.

To Jason Yenawine,

Hello, my name is Ethan Duerichen. I am writing on behalf of myself and several
members of the Wing Commander CIC Chat Zones at www.wcnews.com. I do not wish to
bother you, but I wanted to ask a couple questions. I understand that you created
the program Xanmovie. I have the Crusader: No Regret CD, and when looking at the properties of Xanmovie.exe, I came up with this:

Comments: Written by Jason Yenawine
Company Name: Origin Systems, Inc.
Internal Name: Happy
Language: English (United States)
Original Filename: Happy.exe
Product Name: Happy Movie Player / Subtitle Editor
Product Version: 2,0,0,0

What I'd like to ask you is if there is any documentation to your program? If
not, can you tell me how it works and what options it has? If it has any options,
do you use them with command-line switches, and if so, what different ones are
there? Particalar ones we were looking for were any full-screen or non-interlaced
options. Some of us have also found that there is a way to integrate Xanmovie into the Windows Media Player. This document was found at http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Zone/6130/index6.html:

Want to watch those AVI movies?
If you have No Regret, you have the tools!
Because the flicks and movie for No Regret were compressed under an in-house system, you can not watch them as you would standard AVI's.
Instead you will have to use XANMOVIE.EXE found on the No Regret disk in the /GATE/TRAILERS directory.

The easiest way to do this is to copy XAN*.* to C:\Windows.
While in a DOS window go to the /FLICS directory on No Regret.
Now just type XANMOVIE [filename.avi] to watch.

Or If you want to play them through Windows.
Copy the xanlib.dll found in /Gate/Trailer on the No Regret disk into your
C:\Windows\System directory.
Then edit your System.INI in you r C:/Windows directory and add
VIDC.XXAN=xanlib.dll down near the other VIDC (just do a search.)

You can also add MSACM.axan=axanlib.acm after it (but until we locate the
axanlib.acm the flicks will not have sound.)

Once you save and restart your system, when you go into the /Flics directory on No Regret and double-click on any AVI, Windows will now play the flics, (but without sound, sorry.)

Using these you can easily ALT+Print Screen in order to capture images.
CTRL+V into your favorite art program.

Do you possibly have any more information on this integrating process either? And
last, may I have your permission to post your reply into the Wing Commander CIC Chat Zones? I and the other members would greatly appreciate that. Thank you for
reading this.

Sincerely,
Ethan Duerichen

From: Jason Yenawine <jasony@digitalanvil.com>
To: 'Ethan Duerichen' <ethanpd@hotmail.com>
Subject: RE: Xanmovie command lines.
Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2000 11:23:13 -0500

Yes, that was me. It's been a while, so I can't remember all of the details.
I'll go check my archives and see what I can turn up.
jy


From: Ethan Duerichen [SMTP:ethanpd@hotmail.com]
Sent: Friday, April 14, 2000 8:29 PM
To: jasony@digitalanvil.com
Subject: RE: Xanmovie command lines.

Thank you very much. We really do appreciate this.

From: Jason Yenawine <jasony@digitalanvil.com>
To: 'Ethan Duerichen' <ethanpd@hotmail.com>
Subject: RE: Xanmovie command lines.
Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2000 22:21:40 -0500

<<XANMOVIE.EXE>> <<Xanlib.dll>>

These were the files of the last version of the player that I worked on. It plays
wc3, wc4 and crusader:no regret movies. There are no useful command line parameters except the name of the movie file.

There is an axanlib.acm driver, but sadly the wc movies are not in true avi format, so it won't do you any good.

jy


From: Ethan Duerichen [SMTP:ethanpd@hotmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 19, 2000 11:27 AM
To: jasony@digitalanvil.com
Subject: RE: Xanmovie command lines.

So, all the movie options are built into the games themselves and Xanmovie
just uses one configuration that cannot be changed. Thank you for telling
me.

You said that WC movies aren't in the true AVI format. However, I've been
able to find them, by using a program called, Ripper. This searches files
for anything inside following traditional picture, sound or movie files.
After getting the WC4 AVI's from the MOVIES.TRE file (I think), I can play
them through Media Player after integrating XANLIB.DLL to SYSTEM.INI, with
no sound of course.

Although you said that that AXANLIB.ACM won't work for me, could you send it
to me anyway? My curiosity always gets the better of me. I have lots of
junk that no longer works that I like to tinker with. Some I've even gotten
working again or given different effects. Besides, there's still the No
Regret movies that I'd like to see non-interlaced.

Once again, I must thank you for helping me out on this one. This has
certainly been much easier than scouring the ends of the Internet. I hope this
hasn't been much trouble for you.


From: Jason Yenawine <jasony@digitalanvil.com>
To: 'Ethan Duerichen' <ethanpd@hotmail.com>, Jason Yenawine
<jasony@digitalanvil.com>
Subject: RE: Xanmovie command lines.
Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2000 15:39:25 -0500

Answers below....

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ethan Duerichen [SMTP:ethanpd@hotmail.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, April 19, 2000 11:27 AM
> To: jasony@digitalanvil.com
> Subject: RE: Xanmovie command lines.
>
> So, all the movie options are built into the games themselves and Xanmovie
> just uses one configuration that cannot be changed. Thank you for telling
> me.

[Jason Yenawine] Yes, there are many options, but none exposed through the
command line. As you may have guessed, the executable is really the subtitle
editor, so all of the options are set using the GUI. (The GUI is disabled in this
build.)

> You said that WC movies aren't in the true AVI format. However, I've been
> able to find them, by using a program called, Ripper. This searches files
> for anything inside following traditional picture, sound or movie files.
> After getting the WC4 AVI's from the MOVIES.TRE file (I think), I can play
> them through Media Player after integrating XANLIB.DLL to SYSTEM.INI, with
> no sound of course.

[Jason Yenawine] The sound track of the movie files is invalid, so
you'll never get the media player to play the sound correctly.

> Although you said that that AXANLIB.ACM won't work for me, could you send it
> to me anyway? My curiosity always gets the better of me. I have lots of
> junk that no longer works that I like to tinker with. Some I've even gotten
> working again or given different effects. Besides, there's still the No
> Regret movies that I'd like to see non-interlaced.
>
> Once again, I must thank you for helping me out on this one. This has
> certainly been much easier than scouring the ends of the Internet. I hope this
> hasn't been much trouble for you.

[Jason Yenawine] No trouble at all.
jy


From: Ethan Duerichen [SMTP:ethanpd@hotmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 19, 2000 6:12 PM
To: jasony@digitalanvil.com
Subject: RE: Xanmovie command lines.

Sorry to bother you once again, but you didn't answer about AXANLIB.ACM, if you
could send me a copy, despite the fact that it doesn't work.

Thanks again.


From: Jason Yenawine <jasony@digitalanvil.com>
To: 'Ethan Duerichen' <ethanpd@hotmail.com>
Subject: RE: Xanmovie command lines.
Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2000 22:54:28 -0500

Sorry, but I can't help you on the acm compressor part.
jy

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I know this isn't much more than we already have but it's better than speculating. So, that's that.
 
Thanks for getting the info; been wondering about it for a while now.

I'd like to see the GUI for this sometime, but I guess that's impossible unless I eventually work for OSI....
 
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