Freeware option to make a branching dvd?

[yoda313]

So I'm making divx's out of a bunch of game video scenes (cutscenes from star wars games). Now one of them (Jedi Knight Dark Forces 2) has a "choose your own fate" switch where you choose to be either a good or bad jedi. And halfway through the cutscenes change accordingly.

I have tda but I'm not sure if it does branching. What I want to do is have the first of clips play then have a menu choice for "good" or "bad" to finish the video sequences. I'm planning on using tmpgenc to make the divx clips into dvd compatible mpgs but I want to know what software will let me make the switch when I author it (sorry for the run on sentence but technobabble tends to do that ).

Of course I could just as well make two dvds with the good and bad videos but I'd rather not waste the space. If there's a cheap method to do this I'd appreciate it. I've never really needed to make an advanced menu so this is really my first move into the area (besides making motion menus occasionally which is quite simple in tda).

Thanks for any tips.

[Bjs]

Sounds simple enough ...

Take all videos leading to choice first , if they follow each other , this could be "video 1" complete video file .

As for the "user" choice , Take a snapshot of the last frame when choice needs to be made by user , add the words "good" and "bad" to still frame , be wise on chosen font and colour , some dont look good .

Save this frame .

As for the following , make good "video 2" , and bad "video 3" .

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Of course all will be needed to be converted to mpeg2 first .

Batchdemux all converted videos .
Re-encode audio to ac3 at 48khz .
If main menu required , create it to match video format .

You will need one small mpeg2 video for dvdauthorgui too work , this can be edited out later .

Now add main menu , add buttons as required .
Add each title and corresponding audio .
Add menu item "choice" , add buttons .
Dont worry about the commands .
Now allow dvdauthorgui to author creation

You now more onto pcgedit ... load creation "open dvd" .
Scan for bovs should be auto , but no need to run it .

Now the trick here is the command bizz knowhow ...

Will have to check my files to see which would be appropriate for project ..

Or check out the guides I have done , some contain info on pcgedit which could be handy ...

I'll get back with pcgedit commands in a few days ...

[yoda313]

Thanks bjs. I've briefly looked at dvdauthorgui but not intensely. Sounds interesting. I'll give it a try.

[jimmalenko]

I'm 99.9% sure that dvd-lab can do it, and I'd be 100% sure it won't require too much "command-level" hacking with PGCEdit ...

None, in fact

[yoda313]

Thanks but I'd prefer not to buy another program for one or two minor projects. I'll give dvdauthor gui a try. Though I don't like the idea of having to demux my mpgs to get it to work. But it only takes an extra few minutes so why not. I'll be working on this over the next week or so and give updates. Thanks for the tips

[jimmalenko]

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