Movie

A video-to-texture plugin for the solar2D (formerly corona-sdk) game engine

Features

• Plays Ogg Theora video files
• Capable of playing videos in a loop
• Renders video to a CoronaExternalTexture that can be used to fill a ShapeObject, ImageRect, etc
• Automatically plays audio in synchronicity with video

Usage

Add the plugin to your build settings like so:

plugins = {
    ["plugin.movie"] = {
        publisherId = "com.ansh3ll"
    },
},

Simple usage example like so:

local movie = require('plugin.movie')

local function movieListener(event)
    if event.phase == 'stopped' then
        print('Video watched to end? ', event.completed)
    end
    --
    for k, v in pairs(event) do
        print(k .. ' = ' .. v)
    end
end

local player = movie.newMovieRect(
    {
        x = display.contentCenterX,
        y = display.contentCenterY,
        width = 960,
        height = 540,
        channel = 3,
        listener = movieListener,
        filename = 'intro_cutscene.ogv'
    }
)

audio.setVolume(1, {channel = player.channel})
player.play()

A more advanced usage example can be found in the Corona/ directory here

If you would like to take the DIY option and use a MovieTexture to fill an object of your choice, take a look at the implementation of MovieRect here

MovieTexture

A texture object that can play a video

MovieTexture methods

• newMovieTexture - loads a video file and returns a MovieTexture
• movieTexture:play - starts/resumes video playback
• movieTexture:pause - pauses video playback
• movieTexture:stop - stops video playback
• movieTexture:update - updates audio/video frames (call this once every frame)

MovieTexture properties

• movieTexture.isActive - the status of the video decoder (false when playback is done)
• movieTexture.isPlaying - false if playback is paused
• movieTexture.currentTime - the current time position of the video in seconds

MovieRect

A convenient way to load and play videos without worrying about the plugin's inner workings

MovieRect methods

• newMovieRect - returns an ImageRect preloaded with a MovieTexture
• MovieRect.play - starts/resumes video playback
• MovieRect.pause - pauses video playback
• MovieRect.stop - stops video playback and frees the MovieRect object

MovieRect properties

• MovieRect.texture - reference to the MovieRect's MovieTexture
• MovieRect.channel - the channel used for audio playback (use this to set volume, etc)
• MovieRect.playing - false if playback is paused

MovieLoop

A convenient way to load and play videos in a loop without worrying about the plugin's inner workings

MovieLoop methods

• newMovieLoop - returns a GroupObject that automatically plays a video file in a loop using 2 MovieRect objects
• MovieLoop.rect - returns a handle to the currently playing MovieRect
• MovieLoop.play - starts/resumes video playback
• MovieLoop.pause - pauses video playback
• MovieLoop.stop - stops video playback and frees the MovieLoop object as well as its associated MovieRect objects

MovieLoop properties

• MovieLoop.iteration - the current looping iteration (equal to 1 when no looping has occurred yet)
• MovieLoop.playing - false if playback is paused

Caveats and recommendations

• Only mono and stereo audio is supported. Videos with more than 2 audio channels might not sound as expected
• Playback speed is limited by the engine's fps. It is thus recommended to use videos with a framerate several values below your game's fps as set in config.lua
• Depending on video resolution, memory usage could be high
• The MovieLoop object consumes around double the memory consumed by the MovieRect object
• The MovieLoop object might not work very well with really short videos (e.g: videos under 10 seconds long)
• Underpowered devices might experience frame drops, audio stutters and audio/video desynchronization issues
• The plugin is susceptible to all limitations of the theoraplay library. As a result, the only valid pixel format is TH_PF_420. This, however, shouldn't be an issue for most use-cases
• It is recommended to remove all other enterFrame event listeners before video playback to ensure smooth playback
• It is recommended to wait around half a second after initializing any of the movie objects to allow for buffering of frames

Simple mp4 to ogv example using ffmpeg

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -c:v libtheora -q:v 7 -c:a libvorbis -q:a 5 -pix_fmt yuv420p video.ogv

Credits

• theoraplay by @icculus
• Insipired by the theora plugin by @ggcrunchy as well as a video wrapper provided by a user of the Solar2D discord
• macOS and iOS builds by @kwiksher