Bink/Smacker Support

[Locoweed]

I've checked previous posts and I can see that this topic has been brought up before (a few years ago) but no one has really provided any sort of conclusive answer.

Bink is a pretty popular video codec used in many games, but as far as I know the only way to play Bink/Smacker files is with the Bink/Smacker tools, which offers very limited playback functionality.

Are there any plans to add support to VLC? Is there some kind of licensing issue that prevents this?

Some kind of official answer would be nice. : )

[VLC_help]

We need GPL decoders. Or GPL wrapper that uses Bink DLL files (like in MPC). AFAIK nobody is really interested on this, since Bink is only used for game videos and cut scenes.
EDIT:
http://lists.mplayerhq.hu/pipermail/ffm ... 59227.html that might do the trick.

[Locoweed]

Is that something I need to do to get VLC to play it or did you mean the information you (or an interested programmer) would need to implement it?

[VLC_help]

did you mean the information you (or an interested programmer) would need to implement it?

Mostly that.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Bink Video should come soon. Please provide samples.

[VLC_help]

http://samples.mplayerhq.hu/game-formats/bink/

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Well, not those ones, that I know

[BuhoSolitario]

Hello, I just registered right now to say that there's already a RAD Tools (BINK/BIK Player) version for Linux. That's interesting because someone can study the code in it. Thanks

[Whisker]

Bink Video should come soon.

Just tried to play a .bk2 file with VLC (Windows/3.0.6, haven't tried the Linux version yet), but no joy. Sooo... any news on that?

If not, RAD Game Tools, Inc. claims to have the "most flexible licensing in the industry" (http://www.radgametools.com/sales.htm), so maybe it could possible to work something out with them. At least they state on their website that they have "bulk licenses, per-site licenses, and world-wide enterprise licenses available - just email us with what you need, and if we don't already have a license, we'll craft one to fit!" (contact email: sales3@radgametools.com). So asking them if they'd like to work with a certain Open Source

Disclaimer: I'm neither very familiar with US law nor a software developer but only some guy who likes to sometimes do a wee bit of superficial research and try to make sense of my findings. So the following might be nothing but a bunch of equine droppings. So:

<possible horseshite>
It might be an issue that RAD is based in Washington State because the (IMHO bloody stupid) DMCA could possibly handicap or even prevent a cooperation because AFAIK, VLC still(?) doesn't have a CSS decryption license.
On the other hand, it might be possible to get a permanent or at least temporary exemption for VLC on the grounds that it's non-commercial software, it's released under the LGPL, yada yada yada. As I said, I'm not a lawyer etc., but maybe touching base with the Free Software Foundation and/or Electronic Frontier Foundation could be helpful?
</possible horseshite>

Regards,
Whisker (a.k.a.: a certified Jack of all trades and master of few.)

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Bink Video should come soon.

Just tried to play a .bk2 file with VLC (Windows/3.0.6, haven't tried the Linux version yet), but no joy. Sooo... any news on that?

Give us the sample.

[Whisker]

Give us the sample.

It was an intro video from Fallout 4, size is about 26 MB. Can I upload it somewhere?

Or if you happen to know somebody who is playing the game ATM, the file can be found in the Steam directory under "\steamapps\common\Fallout 4\Data\Video", filename is "GameIntro_V3_B.bk2" (there are a couple other .bk2 files in the same dir which you could play around with, too).

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Give us the sample.

It was an intro video from Fallout 4, size is about 26 MB. Can I upload it somewhere?

Wetransfer or similar.

[alien2000a]

Hi there,

Just came across this while looking for a solution. I thought I should be able to help somehow and have uploaded a sample from a game to the following link. I can upload more if you need any. Many thanks for the hard work.

https://dosya.co/yye9h5x98vqw/DDV_3.bk2.html