I think full motion video has to be the worst major feature that's expected in a console game.
It's
1. Streaming
2. Usually dependant on blackbox libraries
3. Potentially visually impressive while lending almost zero gameplay
Which translates into:
1. Highly temperamental, likely to crash the game even if written correctly
2. Documented by experts for experts and it never works as a drop in
3. Every publisher wants it
Ah well, mostly I'm grumpy because I got the movie player working with minimum difficulty, it's getting the movie player to work in conjunction with our rendering engine[0] that's difficult. And due to various complications[1] I have to wait for someone to write some DMA code for me, which means that while I do get to go out and find someplace unhealthy to go drinking tonight, it means that I have to come in to work tomorrow.
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[0] We want to have nifty video playing in the background for the front end. There will probably be other uses.
[1] I do not speak PS2 DMA. I do not want to learn PS2 DMA.
Posted by matt at August 29, 2003 07:45 PM