View source for Startup Media

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== Startup Music ==
Startup music is music that plays on the main menu when booting up the game, but does not play when returning to the main menu from elsewhere in the game. 

=== {{src|2}} Engine ===
Source will play '''{{path|sound\ui\gamestartup*|mp3}}''' when it finishes loading the main menu after the application is launched. The asterisk matches anything at all (including nothing), so feel free to give your files descriptive names. If more than one file matches, a choice will be made at random.

All files must be encoded at 44.1 KHz.

{{tip|Startup music can be disabled by starting with <code>-nostartupsound</code>.}}
{{warning |Only [[MP3]] files are supported, and they do not loop.{{workaround|If a [[Looping a Sound|looping]] [[WAV]] is desired, edit [[valve.rc]] to add the line {{code|play #*ui/gamestartup.wav}} (or something similar) to the end of the file. Only one music track is supported using this method.}}}}<!--Astrisk probably helps with RAM usage-->

=== {{gldsrc|2}} Engine ===
GoldSrc will play '''{{path|media\gamestartup|mp3}}''' or Redbook CD track 29 when it finishes loading the main menu after the application is launched. The track will loop and continue to play until a map is loaded.
{{bug|If the game directory is {{path|valve}}, the startup track will continue to play across multiple maps until another track is called!}}

== Startup Videos ==
'''Startup videos''' is the video that plays when booting up the game, after the game has reached the end of the list inside the {{Code|StartupVids.txt}} file, the main menu appears.

You can change the startup video for a game by placing the following files in the {{path|<moddir>\media}} folder:
* {{path|valve|avi}} file (or other specified in StartupVids.txt {{only|{{src}}}}) - for {{gldsrc|4}} (Retail/WON version) and {{src06|4}} or earlier
* {{path|valve|bik}} file (or other specified in StartupVids.txt) - for {{src07|4}} and later
* {{path|valve|webm}} file (or other specified in StartupVids.txt) - for {{gldsrc|4}} (post-25th anniversary update), and {{source|4}} games/branch that have been modified to have WebM support (such as {{Strata|4}}), aswell as {{csgobranch|4}} and {{src2|4}}.
** Please note that in {{Gldsrc|4}} (post-25th anniversary), audio in the WebM video are muted and instead the game will try to play the {{path|<moddir>/sound/ui/valve_sound|wav}} file instead, which is much lower quality when played in-game (unless MetaHook is used).

If you are making a mod for {{hl2|4}} (or other {{source|4}} games) you can place any AVI, [[BIK|Bink Video]] (BIK), MOV (for {{mac|4}}), or [[WebM]] (if the engine have WebM support added) file in your mod's {{path|media}} folder. In order for the video to play when you start your mod you will need to create a {{code|StartupVids.txt}} file in the {{path|media}} folder. Inside {{code|StartupVids.txt}} you simply specify the filename(s) of the video(s) you want to be played on a separate line. 

For example:
{{CodeBlock|<nowiki>media/vid1.avi
media/vid2.bik
media/vid3.webm
</nowiki>}}

Keep in mind that an AVI video will need to be encoded using the Cinepak codec. It is not known whether audio codecs other than [https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/xaudio2/adpcm-overview Microsoft ADPCM] are supported.

DivX is also supported, however there appears to be a size limit to the startup video, so if a video is not played then its file size is too large, this has been tested with an AVI file over 100 MB.

You can get the BIK video encoder for free from RAD on their site at [http://www.radgametools.com/ RAD Game Tools]
{{note|RAD Tools is a commercial product and can't be used legally without purchasing a license for its use in your Source mods. This was pointed out to be by Jeff of RAD Game Tools.}}

For MOV (QuickTime), it is only supported in {{mac|4}}.
{{Confirm|Does the MOV intro also plays on {{win|4}} or {{Linux|4}}?}}

For WebM, it is only supported in {{gldsrc|4}} (after {{hl}}'s 25th anniversary update), {{csgo|4}} (after Panorama update), some third-party {{source|4}} games, and fully supported in {{source2|4}} onwards.

When encoding the startup video note that older version of {{src07|4}} does not properly support all resolutions of BIK video, and only support 1024x768. When using an unsupported video size (let's say 720x480) only the first few seconds of the video will display. After that it will freeze and you will only hear the video's sound, also the game may possibly briefly freezes with a "Not Responding" shown on the game's titlebar (if run on windowed mode), or the Busy cursor appears with the hl2.exe is not responding message. Another possibility is that the video will not play at all. This was later fixed in {{src13|4}} and {{l4dbranch|4}} onwards respectively, and these later games do play the startup videos in higher resolutions without freezing.

=== To Remove the Startup Video ===
Simply create {{Path|StartupVids|txt}} in {{path|media}} and leave the contents blank.

If you want to skip the startup videos, you can add the {{code|-novid}} parameter to your [[Command Line Options#Source_Games|Command Line]].

{{Note|In {{p3|4}}, the startup video (except the Zoom Platform) was hardcoded into the a entity on the {{Path|mainmenu|bsp}} map instead of the StartupVids.txt file, which would run a command to play all 5 intro files ([[Akella]], RWS, Trashmasters intro, and the Source and {{nvidia|1}}'s PhysX legal and copyright notices). To skip the startup video, rename the following files in {{path|p3\media}} and {{path|p3_english\media}} (or {{path|p3_<language>\media}}) folder:<br>
*{{path|logo_1_akella|bik}}
*{{path|logo_2_RWS|bik}}
*{{path|logo_3_TMS|bik}}
*{{path|SOURCE_LOGO|bik}}
*{{path|NVIDIA|bik}}
Alternatively, you can also use {{code|-nostartupmenu}} and {{code|-dev}} at the same time to disable loading the main menu map automatically, and skip the intro.
}}
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[[Category:Tutorials]] [[Category:Modding]] [[Category:Tutorials]] [[Category:Sound System]]