Film Viewer Instructions

[FA_Refugee]

Can someone direct me to information, where is it? how does it work?, etc.
Thanks

[Soulyss]

If you open up the directory where Aces High is installed you will see an application "ahfilm" this is the film viewer program.  The films themselves reside in the sub folder "films" as ".ahf" files.  Running the film viewer is fairly straight forward, a few minutes of fiddling should reveal most the playback features. 

I personally haven't messed with some of the more advanced features so unfortunately I won't be much help there. 

In game the film viewer is activated with ALT+R and can be stopped at any point with the same command at which point you'll be prompted to enter a file name and given the option to save the film.

You can also turn on an option to auto film every sortie, in game hit ESC to bring up the clipboard and go Options --> Preferences --> Flight and click on "auto film sorties".   With this enabled whenever you're flight ends and you return to the tower you will see the save film pop up window. 

Hope that helps.

[FA_Refugee]

Thanks Soulyss,
The application ahfilm won't open with double click or right click open.  Does that sound like a problem with my AH download/install?

If you open up the directory where Aces High is installed you will see an application "ahfilm" this is the film viewer program.  The films themselves reside in the sub folder "films" as ".ahf" files.  Running the film viewer is fairly straight forward, a few minutes of fiddling should reveal most the playback features. 

I personally haven't messed with some of the more advanced features so unfortunately I won't be much help there. 

In game the film viewer is activated with ALT+R and can be stopped at any point with the same command at which point you'll be prompted to enter a file name and given the option to save the film.

You can also turn on an option to auto film every sortie, in game hit ESC to bring up the clipboard and go Options --> Preferences --> Flight and click on "auto film sorties".   With this enabled whenever you're flight ends and you return to the tower you will see the save film pop up window. 

Hope that helps.

[mechanic]

There have been alot of posts about film viewer problems since the latest patch. Could be something out of your control. I rekon the next patch will clear that up for alot of people. No idea what causes it, my film viewer is working ok right now. 

[Soulyss]

hrm... when things don't run right I quickly get into territory that I know less and less about.

Do you get an error message when you attempt to run the film viewer, or otherwise have any problems running the game itself?  

Or if you're trying to run the film viewer at the same time the game is running it won't work since the film viewer actually co-ops the AH program itself to run (I believe that's how they keep the .ahf files so small).  

[mtnman]

I generally view films by going directly into my "films" folder.  I select a film and double-click it or right-click/open it.

I never actually open the filmviewer myself, it opens as the film opens.  Try it that way.

Once the viewer opens, I just click the play button.

A couple of "hints"-

You need to adjust your head position inside the viewer, for best results.  You do this just like in the game, by using the arrow keys and Page Up/Page Dn, and then saving that view with F10 (the number-pad allows you to "look around" i.e. the number 4 looks left, and number 5 looks up...).  Personally, I set these views, and then re-start the film and watch it "properly".  Now, these views will save "forever", but will be "wrong" if you view a film from a sortie using a different plane-type.  In other words, if you set the views for a spitfire, they'll be "wrong" for a 109.  You'll get some odd perspectives, looking at the headrest, etc...  You need to re-set the views for each plane-type, and when you do that, they're not going to work for the original plane-type anymore.  In teh game, the various view-sets are saved for each plane...  It's not as simple in the viewer...

Speaking of views, over on the right-hand side of the viewer screen, I'd recommend checking the icons, trails, and "use saved views" options.  This gives you quite a bit more information, including where you were looking, and when...

At the top of the screen, there's a slider that defaults to 1x.  That's play speed.  I slide it up to 2x for boring parts of the film, and return it to 1x (or slower) for other parts.

You can also edit films using the viewer.  So, if you film a 45 minute sortie, but only want to save a 5 minute segment, you can do that.  You can also remove text, voices, etc...

 

[FLS]

When you play back films you can click on any aircraft listed on the left side and watch the film from that aircraft. There is no icon for the player aircraft that recorded the film so it can be hard to see from the other aircraft viewpoints. The trail function makes it easier to follow the maneuvers. The crossbars in the trail are timechecks. You can select view options on the film viewer or use the Function keys on your keyboard. You can use the keypad for views or the sliders in the viewer. You can also use padlock in the viewer but when you lose sight you have to reset the view just like when you fly in the arenas. You can only use padlock from the player aircraft that recorded the film.

[Chilli]

I know this is asking a lot, but could someone do a tutorial on setting up camera shots.  I am assuming this is the feature that allows the camera to pan in a specified direction while editing a recorded AHfilm.  Specifically, I am interested in two effects, "wingman fly by" and the other " "attacker, deflection fly by".

Hopefully, I will finally get my mind around the X Y Z time start; time end; etc.

Thanks, and the beer is on the way!!!

[FA_Refugee]

Thanks to all for the responses.  I tried opening the .ahf in the film folder and get a message that says Windows can't open the file.  Is there something I need to do to accociate the .ahf file with the AH viewer?

[Soulyss]

I know this is asking a lot, but could someone do a tutorial on setting up camera shots.  I am assuming this is the feature that allows the camera to pan in a specified direction while editing a recorded AHfilm.  Specifically, I am interested in two effects, "wingman fly by" and the other " "attacker, deflection fly by".

Hopefully, I will finally get my mind around the X Y Z time start; time end; etc.

Thanks, and the beer is on the way!!!

Fulmar posted a link to a tutorial he put together that should help you out.
http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,280348.0.html

[Soulyss]

Thanks to all for the responses.  I tried opening the .ahf in the film folder and get a message that says Windows can't open the file.  Is there something I need to do to accociate the .ahf file with the AH viewer?

If you're trying to open the file by double clicking on the film itself then yes you will have to associate the film in Windows to the proper application (on my machine Windows keeps trying to open it in Firefox grr.....).  Alternatively you can fire up the film viewer and use the "open" command from there.

[Skuzzy]

In the oft chance you have two installations of the game in your hard drive, use the "Start" button to access the program list on your computer, then open the "Aces High" group and you will see "Aces High Film Viewer".  Try running it from there.

[FA_Refugee]

In the oft chance you have two installations of the game in your hard drive, use the "Start" button to access the program list on your computer, then open the "Aces High" group and you will see "Aces High Film Viewer".  Try running it from there.

Bingo!  That's the ticket.  all programs >open Aces High II folder >open Aces High II film viewer> file>open .ahf file.

Is something messed up with my installation that prevents the other way from working?
Everything else in game seems to be working fine.

[Skuzzy]

Is it possible you have two different copies of "Aces High" installed on your computer and you happen to be trying the older version of the film viewer?

Do a search for "ahfilm.exe" on your hard drive(s) and see if two copies are found.

[FA_Refugee]

Is it possible you have two different copies of "Aces High" installed on your computer and you happen to be trying the older version of the film viewer?

Do a search for "ahfilm.exe" on your hard drive(s) and see if two copies are found.

When I search for that file I get 0 results.  But I notice I do have two shortcuts on my desktop. I have been using only one of them to open the game, it's named Aces High. In properties type of file is "shortcut (.Ink)"  The other one is named AH2188 and in properties>type of file is "application EXE" When I open it I get an installation wizard.  I stop right there because I don't want to mess up the other one that is working fine except for the film viewer.   

any suggestions?