Movies on Billboards

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

I see this reddit post today where someone is showing off a movie file on a billboard. I'm extremely interested in learning how to do it if it's a thing that can be done for this game. Would love to hear thoughts, possibilities and how the heck to do this. Not only am I thinking billboards but Drive-In movies, gas station pump screens, etc.

 

Here's a link to the Reddit post for those who didn't see it

https://www.reddit.com/r/CitiesSkylines/comments/5g1f6c/a_billboard_animator_that_actually_animates/

[Judazzz 1,936]

Yeah, I saw that too, and it's pretty awesome! If I understood it correctly it's basically possible to load movie files/containers as textures, which would open a whole range of new possibilities (animated billboards, road/signal signs, perhaps even animated ground decals?) Looks like that 32GB RAM my laptop supports might be needed soon  

[tony56a1 79]

@Judazzz Yep, whole change is just using MovieTextures for the texture in Billboard Animator ( btw, just updated it with the video thing, can someone verify it? ). Thing is, since this is instantiated via Unity rather then the game, it's a lot easier to control the behaviour of the screen plane(and since it's just a plane, there's also no need to worry about UV mapping). For in-game stuff, you'll probably have to talk to someone who's done texture replacement mods before, and ask them about how to do the texture replacement, adding additional textures, etc.

Also decoding videos is a pretty expensive operation obv, relative to its usefulness in the game. So not sure if we can really do "ads in gas station pumps" until we get carbon nanotube terahertz CPUs or something

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

@tony56a1 Is that your work?

Edit: Nevermind, I just realized you are the author of Billboard Animator. Great work!

[tony56a1 79]

@Mr_Maison Indeed it is, feel free to try the video thing out at http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=703971825

[tony56a1 79]

So I found some drive in theater assets, and got them working with the mod. Give it a try!

https://gfycat.com/WealthyPowerfulHarpseal

[Celast 77]

Maybe a stupid question, but  does this also work with GIFs?  you would think they are lighter then fullon movies?

[tony56a1 79]

@Celast this is just using the built in support for movie textures in Unity. If GIFs ( or preferably, something from this century like APNGs ) can be displayed via existing APIs, I'd be happy to give it a try. Otherwise, we're stuck with what we have atm ( this is also why OGV is the only supported format for videos BTW ).

[tony56a1 79]

So been messing around with a couple of things with Billboard Animator:
 

1. Been trying out some alternate shaders for the video displays for a more LED-like screen, does it look alright?
2. Recently added support for configuration of videos on building assets/automatic placement of videos when plopping buildings. Would appreciate any feedback on that!

[Ocram's Razr 964]

Is it possible to animate only the illumination map? I want to make simple animated neon signs, not movies. Here is what I want to accomplish

[boformer 3,169]

13 hours ago, OcramsRzr said:

Is it possible to animate only the illumination map? I want to make simple animated neon signs, not movies. Here is what I want to accomplish

Well, why not? Just use the same diffuse for all animation frames.

[Ocram's Razr 964]

How resource intensive would that be? How many billboards with a short animation (10-20 seconds) of illumination map and single diffuse could run in a mid-sized city on a computer with just the recommended configuration? Would short animations of just the diffuse be any different (performance-wise)?

[tony56a1 79]

This can be accomplished with what @Ronyx69 is doing with their animated UV params mod I believe ( it basically configures something that the game is already using for its own animated assets ), shouldn't cost anything extra, performance-wise.

[AmiPolizeiFunk 446]

Video of somebody building a city in Cities:Skylines inside a build of Cities:Skylines inside a building of somebody building a Cities:Skylines Asset inside a Cities:Skylines build.

[freakymarcus 0]

I have been trying unsuccessfully to play videos on the Animated Billboard "A" in conjunction with the Billboard Animator mod (thanks @tony56a1 for creating this amazing mod, but why did you pull it off of the workshop?).

I have been following this guide since the original guide is no longer available in the workshop: http://www.citiesmods.com/billboard-animator/

I am pretty sure the files have been saved to the correct "videos" folder and they are all pretty small (>1MB) and at 500x250 pixels. They are all .ogv files but the mod seems unable to detect them. I can't see them in the selection panel. Other than this, all the images have been working just fine with the billboard.

Any help will be most appreciated!

[Delta2k5 311]

6 hours ago, freakymarcus said:

I have been trying unsuccessfully to play videos on the Animated Billboard "A" in conjunction with the Billboard Animator mod (thanks @tony56a1 for creating this amazing mod, but why did you pull it off of the workshop?).

I have been following this guide since the original guide is no longer available in the workshop: http://www.citiesmods.com/billboard-animator/

I am pretty sure the files have been saved to the correct "videos" folder and they are all pretty small (>1MB) and at 500x250 pixels. They are all .ogv files but the mod seems unable to detect them. I can't see them in the selection panel. Other than this, all the images have been working just fine with the billboard.

Any help will be most appreciated!

If I recall correctly you've got to activate the video feature in the mods settings first   
Anyway it also could be a bug as the mod seems to be gone from the steam workshop - so probably it's not maintained anymore and the video functionality is broken. Just guessing.

[freakymarcus 0]

Thank you @Delta2k5 I don't believe there is any video activation option available in settings (I actually don't think the mod comes with any settings panel).

Are you using that mod at the moment? It is such a pity that the videos don't seem to work, I think they add ten times more fun to the game and obviously it worked at some point, judging from the videos the author himself posted above!