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Gecky

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Does anyone know how to change the main menu animation?

You see, I would like to use a custom main menu video, but I don't know how to change the video for another, the one I want to use is this one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59a2BqhvQes

tuia

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Re: Does anyone know how to change the main menu animation?

That is a great custom main menu video, I remember watching it the first time and being awed by the World War 2 colour footage. If not incorrect, it was made by Merciless Creations team the user unexpectedpanda. The music associated with that custom main menu video is even better, it has a melancholic tune and suits the video very well. I now regret not having used that music for Battlefield 1942 custom installer, but decided to keep the whole original BF1942 soundtrack, which is also a work of art.

Download and extract background-unexpectedpanda.zip. Then, copy the extracted background.bik file to your Battlefield 1942\Mods\bf1942\Movies, overwriting the original background.bik. Or you can try the custom Battlefield 1942 installer, which has that main menu video and many other things.

Gecky

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Registered: 2024-02-10

Posts: 15

Re: Does anyone know how to change the main menu animation?

ah, thanks, this file was what I was looking for so I could play exactly as I did 9 years ago, with blood included! :-D Can't wait to try it tomorrow!  (P.S. Could you recommend some custom videos for RtR and SW main menus? Or somewhere where these videos are saved to download and use?

tuia

BFSoldier

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Re: Does anyone know how to change the main menu animation?

I think there are no custom videos for Road to Rome or Secret Weapons main menus. I will search for it, though.

Winston Smith

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Registered: 2014-09-10

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Re: Does anyone know how to change the main menu animation?

I changed my main menu background video recently. It wasn't difficult but the hardest thing was finding an MP4 to Bik converter. I found one online that worked. I didn't have a video in mind to use though so I used a stock video of a zen waterfall just as a test and haven't changed it yet. So now when I start BF42 I'm taken to a peaceful forest scene with water flowing and birds chirping - not so appropriate!

I found the audio is buggy though.

tuia

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Re: Does anyone know how to change the main menu animation?

Hey Winston Smith! Welcome back! Would you mind sharing your .bik video file? I remember searching for the .bik format specifications and it was some obscure video game format, but never got too much interested in researching it.

Winston Smith

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Re: Does anyone know how to change the main menu animation?

Thanks!

Yes, I'll have a look when I get home. At the time (about three months ago) I didn't have any particular video I wanted to upload I was just curious to know if you could put any video up. I had a few failures along the way but in the end I could change the video. The sound and video quality are not great, but that might be because the source video was too detailed.

tuia

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Re: Does anyone know how to change the main menu animation?

Looks like you can encode video and audio to a .bik file using RAD Video Tools, which is free to use. Bink video is a proprietary file format with their own video and audio codecs and Bink 1 format has been reverse-engineered by the FFmpeg project, but only decoding is supported, according to Bink Video Wikipedia article. That means you can play any .bik file with mpv or VLC, for example. FFmpeg project did not add encoding support to .bik file, probably to avoid any legal disputes with RAD Game Tools company.

tuia

BFSoldier

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Re: Does anyone know how to change the main menu animation?

Here is another custom main menu video from Merciless Creations. Pick your favorite.
Download background-merciless.zip and extract it, next copy background.bik file to your Mods\bf1942\Movies folder.

Winston Smith

Member

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Registered: 2014-09-10

Posts: 803

Re: Does anyone know how to change the main menu animation?

Looks like you can encode video and audio to a .bik file using RAD Video Tools, which is free to use. Bink video is a proprietary file format with their own video and audio codecs and Bink 1 format has been reverse-engineered by the FFmpeg project, but only decoding is supported, according to Bink Video Wikipedia article. That means you can play any .bik file with mpv or VLC, for example. FFmpeg project did not add encoding support to .bik file, probably to avoid any legal disputes with RAD Game Tools company.

Sorry not to get back to you yesterday. This is what I used: https://www.radgametools.com/bnkdown.htm

Winston Smith

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Re: Does anyone know how to change the main menu animation?

I made a tutorial showing how to convert a video file to .Bik, and then how to change the Battlefield 1942 intro and main menu videos to ones of your choosing.
The video wasn't scripted and the audio is a bit dodgy (perhaps a little loud so beware), and it's a bit long too... but the process works well enough.
https://youtu.be/2XHhvngp1S4?si=WkoXjwvSpMzT4xoo

tuia

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Re: Does anyone know how to change the main menu animation?

Nice and funny video! I believe you have to disable audio when encoding to create your background.bik video, because the audio being played in Battlefield 1942 main menu is from Mods\bf1942\Music\Slaughter4.bik file. So, you would have first to encode the video without audio to create background.bik file and then encoding the audio without video, if it is possible, to produce slaughter4.bik file. The intro.bik file should have video and audio together, of course.

Winston Smith

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Registered: 2014-09-10

Posts: 803

Re: Does anyone know how to change the main menu animation?

Thanks! Yeah I never thought about encoding the sound separately but that makes sense. There is sound in the video that I put as a background/intro, but there are a couple of glithcy chirp sounds. I guess encoding separately would make it cleaner. It's good enough for me as it is though.