Changing Wonder Videos in Civ2 MGE

[Blake00]

These days we can run Civ2 MGE's videos off the hard drive instead of the CD by putting all the videos into a 'Video' folder in the Civ2 install folder. I 'think' you need the Civ2 UI Editions fan patch to allow this though (just like I think you need the ToTPP to do the same with ToT).

I've tested and found that Civ2 will load the hard drive copy even if you have the CD installed. This allows for some interesting opportunities for custom scenario videos.

Video editing editing these days is easy however the saving of the video in a Civ2 compatible format is not.

To even get Civ 2 videos to play on a modern operating system you need the Indeo Video Codec package installed.

However I have no friggin idea how to get those codec into a video editing program.

• Does anyone know how to save videos in a compatible format that Civ2 will play?
• If not do they know of any threads where this was discussed in the past?
• Are there any old video editing programs that save in Indeo format?
• Or how to get the Indeo video format into a modern editing program?
• Or are there any basic NON Indeo video AVI formats that Civ2 would play?

 

[Blake00]

Sorry guys I just realised I posted this thread in the wrong forum. Should have been in the scenario creation or technical help areas. Mods feel free to move it.

UPDATE:

I looked for a video editor from the millenium turn (just like Civ) and found Ulead Video Studio 3 here:
https://archive.org/details/UleadVideoStudio3.0SE

You can download the ISO image, but it won't work for WIN10. I installed it on a USB drive and ran it on my stand-alone XP laptop (it has no internet access). And in the program I could start a AVI project (it's almost the last in line) using Indeo v4.5 codec, the right size and the right bit rate. The only thing that doesn't match with the original video is the sound (44,100 kHz).

Amazingly @Metro Polis managed to find an old video editing program that exports in Indeo format haha. His test videos actually work in Civ2 (see pic below)!! Only problem is he can't seem to get it to output at a low enough sound quality to be compatible with Civ2 so we either get silence or horrible speaker screeching . I'm going to load it into my XP VM and see if I can make any headway with it.

 

[Blake00]

SCORE! I've installed the editor on my XP VM, had a play and found the option @Metro Polis was looking for (it's in a really weird place lol).

If anyone else in the future decides to make custom wonder/intro/ending videos for their Civ2/ToT scenario then simply install the program we linked to above on a old computer or VM. Then select to make a project that outputs using one of the Indeo video AVI codecs. Drag and drop whatever videos and pictures you want to use. And then to solve the sound problem follow this guide below:

On the far left of the editor GUI there's a capital G with an arrow now to it. sort of like G>.
Click on that and it brings up a menu.
Click on templates manager.
Slect the 320x240 29.97 fps Indeo video option we're probably going to use.
Click on edit.
Click on compression tab.
Click on audio.
Go to the Attributes menu.
Scroll up and select 22,050 khz, 8 bit, Stereo (thats the format the civ2 videos were in)
Hit okay a few times until you're back in the editor and you're good to go!

Oh and you may need to edit the project to tell it to use that modified template.

Also for ToT you'd probably want to change that resolution in the template to 640x400. Can't go past 320x240 in MGE though as while technically it will work, the video will be cropped.

Rename the output video avi file to one of the wonder names eg WONDER00.AVI put it in the video folder in your Civ2 install location. Start the game use cheat mode to give techs and buy that wonder. Up it should come!

Congrats you're now making Civ2 videos haha!!!!!

Hell if someone wanted to really show off they could probably replace the Heralds and Council members too but that would be a loooooot of work.

 

[Metro Polis]

Cool, I've just tested it and it works with MGE smoothly (and probably the pre-MGE versions, too), for actually I don't really give a fudge about TOT, he, he!

EDIT: a fudge? I meant a fudge!

EDIT2: I have to test that some more: fudge you, fudge off!

EDIT 3: HAHAHA, this is great, never seen anything like that on a forum.

 

[Blake00]

For anyone interested we're pushing the videos thing even further by playing with the Heralds leading to some cool results. Results posted in this thread:
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/custom-heralds-and-transparency.648761/

 

[IgorJorobus]

Hi guys, as this post is fresh, I would ask here since it's very relatable. I have Civ 2 ToT on my Windows 10. The ISO used to install the game doesn't have the wonders AVI. I think that if I get somehow the AVIs, and place them into the "Video" folder of the installation path (correctly naming them), they will get presented during the game, is that true? And if that's true, where can I get those AVIs? I've been googling a lot this but couldn't find any help. Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[Blake00]

Hi guys, as this post is fresh, I would ask here since it's very relatable. I have Civ 2 ToT on my Windows 10. The ISO used to install the game doesn't have the wonders AVI. I think that if I get somehow the AVIs, and place them into the "Video" folder of the installation path (correctly naming them), they will get presented during the game, is that true? And if that's true, where can I get those AVIs? I've been googling a lot this but couldn't find any help. Thanks in advance for your help.

Yes I was able to play ToT with MGE wonder videos although I think I needed to install the ToT patch project for it to work. I got my Civ 2 MGE CD and copied the wonder videos into a 'Video' folder in my ToT install folder.

You'll need to find yourself a copy of regular Civ2 or one of its addons or MGE to get the wonder avi's off it. Google is your friend.

 

[IgorJorobus]

Yes I was able to play ToT with MGE wonder videos although I think I needed to install the ToT patch project for it to work. I got my Civ 2 MGE CD and copied the wonder videos into a 'Video' folder in my ToT install folder.

You'll need to find yourself a copy of regular Civ2 or one of its addons or MGE to get the wonder avi's off it. Google is your friend.

Hi Blake, thanks for the quick answer. I got a Civ2 regular copy, then copied the AVI videos to the "Video" folder in the ToT installation folder and got closer to achieve what's desired. I got to build a Hanging Garden and guess what, the Hanging Gardens AVI video got played, sound was great, but the video was totally black, some sort of grays on the background got seen but not more than that. How can I fix this so I can successfully see the cut scenes? Note: all other cutscenes packed with ToT works fine, such as the intro, and the defeath outro. I do have the ToT patch project installed.

 

[Blake00]

Hi Blake, thanks for the quick answer. I got a Civ2 regular copy, then copied the AVI videos to the "Video" folder in the ToT installation folder and got closer to achieve what's desired. I got to build a Hanging Garden and guess what, the Hanging Gardens AVI video got played, sound was great, but the video was totally black, some sort of grays on the background got seen but not more than that. How can I fix this so I can successfully see the cut scenes? Note: all other cutscenes packed with ToT works fine, such as the intro, and the defeath outro. I do have the ToT patch project installed.

You may need the Indeo codec installed as this is one of the big problems users face when trying to play Civ2 videos on modern machines. However I thought the ToT videos were using that codec too but maybe not. To be safe I'd recommend you install your regular civ 2 copy somewhere and see if it plays the videos. If it also fails to play them then that probably means its the codec issue and you need to install this:

https://www.free-codecs.com/indeo_codec_download.htm

Not sure if it works on win 10 though. Metro got some warning he didn't like on his win10. Whereas on my Win 7 I had no troubles installing the codec and sure enough it made all my Civ 2 videos work.

 

[IgorJorobus]

You may need the Indeo codec installed as this is one of the big problems users face when trying to play Civ2 videos on modern machines. However I thought the ToT videos were using that codec too but maybe not. To be safe I'd recommend you install your regular civ 2 copy somewhere and see if it plays the videos. If it also fails to play them then that probably means its the codec issue and you need to install this:

https://www.free-codecs.com/indeo_codec_download.htm

Not sure if it works on win 10 though. Metro got some warning he didn't like on his win10. Whereas on my Win 7 I had no troubles installing the codec and sure enough it made all my Civ 2 videos work.

Hey Blake! Thanks for the quick response, I'll perform those tries during the week and come back with results, cheers!

 

[IgorJorobus]

Hi guys, just came here to tell that it worked by installing the indeo codec with the URL provided by you Blake. They get reproduced!! Thank you very much for the help!

 

[Blake00]

Some examples of @Metro Polis 's excellent custom wonder videos work for our HoMM2 scenario. More details over in our thread here:
https://forums.civfanatics.com/thre...-of-might-and-magic.6127/page-5#post-15556670

Screenshots from new wonder videos...