Empty but valid MVE file

[AL|EN]

Hi,

How I can create an empty but valid MVE file? It could contain zero or one black/transparent frame etc.

[Sam.]

IIRC Disable Startup Movies just overwrote the MVEs with zero byte files, but the download link is bad so I can't check.  However, by looking at the MVE file format description and actual MVE files, I believe the attached is the minimal "valid" MVE file.  Haven't tested it and NI doesn't like it, but the latter isn't entirely unexpected as there is no data to decode, just header, magic number, shutdown chunk, and end chunk.

BLANK.MVE

[AL|EN]

@Sam. Yep, it's exactly what I wanted to do: disable startup movies by replacing them with empty mve. My approach would be different: coping whole bif is not optimal so let's unpack bif, replace files and pack bif again.

Thanks man! 

[Sam.]

After thinking it over, you may not even need the shutdown chunk as we haven't initialized any audio or video.  I'll make one later just in case.

FWIW, CamDawg has already added this to the to-do list for Tweaks Anthology.

[AL|EN]

@Sam. Well, such tweak already exist: https://github.com/BGforgeNet/bg2-tweaks-and-tricks/blob/master/tnt/tnt.tp2#L466. There is also possible to do such tweak by modifying bgmain.exe. I wanted to do it on my own where I could simply replace movie files, without touching CHITIN.KEY. It seems that it wont be enough.

[Sam.]

5 minutes ago, AL|EN said:

I wanted to do it on my own where I could simply replace movie files, without touching CHITIN.KEY.

Compiling a BIFF inherently modifies CHITIN.KEY, doesn't it?

5 minutes ago, AL|EN said:

It seems that it wont be enough.

?

[AL|EN]

@Sam. Yep, there is no point replacing startup movie files to the empty one inside biff if the process involves inherently modification of CHITIN.KEY.

[Sam.]

FWIW, here is the even more minimalist MVE file without the probably unnecessary shutdown chunk:

BLANKER.MVE

I still think you could pre-make a BIFF of these, and just overwrite the original BIFF with the custom one and not alter the CHITIN.KEY file (as per Miloch's strategy).