DVDi Technology Briefing

DVD Interactive (DVDi^®) is the creator of an original technology and development approach that provides for rapid development of DVD-Video interactive products.

This is accomplished with a suite of proprietary software tools that automatically generate assets, selectable buttons and masks, storage locations, and branching details that are otherwise extremely time consuming to create and not possible with existing authoring packages.

Retail DVD-Video authoring software is unstable and too slow to execute with large volumes of data and detailed branches.  Its interface is difficult to use, prone to human error with branches and button placement, and relies on all assets to be created already externally.  

DVDi^® addressed all of these problems by automating the process of button placement, branching, and rendering all assets required.  The tool suite generates data that a DVD Authoring package can simply burn to a DVD.

The approach of DVDi^® is to empower design and artistic creation by removing the drudgery of repeated operations and allow automated incorporation of DVD-Video selective playback capabilities, command operations, and asset integration on both a small or large scale. 

DVDi^® has also developed a series of software tools and libraries that permit rapid deployment of common features that can be expected in interactive DVD-Video titles.  This is done in a combination of programming in C/C++ and assembled DVD-Video scripts.

DVDi^® Technology Supports DVD-Video Technical Specification:

DVD Specification
 The ability to play video and audio from any location on the DVD.  However, DVD players cannot create, draw, or otherwise render any graphics or sound that was not already created and stored on the DVD.

DVDi^® Solution -- Our proprietary DVDi^® Tool Suite frees artists from creating all of the possible screens and clips for a game by generating DVD-Ready assets. 
-- DVDi^® Tool Suite uses a database (MS Access, Excel, etc.) and configuration files to determine how to create DVD-Ready video assets; e.g. what art pieces are assembled (background, foreground, masks, additive objects, etc.) with text of variable colors that is made from anti-aliased True Type Fonts.  
-- The tool suite uses Microsoft’s Direct X SDK, permitting application of 2D and 3D effects.
-- Unique audio streams can be specified in the database so they can be interleaved with the video

DVD Specification
The ability to play from any of 8 separate video angles and 8 separate audio tracks with up to 32 separate subtitles.

DVDi^® Solution -- DVDi® uses a concert of DVD playback options to reuse assets, minimize data storage, and maximize variety on the otherwise limited dynamic aspect of the DVD-Video spec.

DVD Specification
The ability to prompt the viewer with up to 25 selectable rectangular regions filtered through a 4-color overlay mask where each color can be assigned 16 levels of opacity for highlighting while playing a video or holding a key frame statically. Each region becomes a user selectable button that can branch to any other video or command script.  

DVDi^® Solution -- DVDi^® uses this feature in a multitude of ways to provide for a powerful interactive experience.

-- 3,000 hi-res trivia questions with Correct Answer display.
-- 6,000 hi-res questions without Correct Answer display.
-- 3,000 hi-res questions with spoken voice over and/or music.
-- Transparency and varying levels of opacity permit pixel accurate highlighting (not perceived as rectangles), etc. This allows for irregular shapes to be highlighted or overdrawn.
-- Multiple transparent selections occupying the same space offer selected shapes within other shapes for complex interfaces.
-- Button branches, location, and dimension can be quickly and efficiently created by DVDi^® Tool Suite as well.

DVDi^® Solution -- DVDi®’s Proprietary Tool Suite uses this to track game states, events, character inventory and keys, triggered locations, player location on board/world, current player, number of players, score, timed events, measuring user response time, time-outs, etc. We are able to store data in any combination of bits (1-bit, 2-bit, 4-bit, 8-bit, and 16-bit granularity).

DVDi^® Solution -- DVDi®’s Proprietary Tool Suite automatically creates command scripts that instruct DVD Players what video clips including which subtitle, angle, and audio track and offset to play in different circumstance.

DVD Specification
DVD Access was intended to play up to 99 Chapters from a front-end menu

DVDi^® Solution -- DVDi®’s AnyWherePlay™ offers random access any any time to nearly 100,000 unique positions on a DVD-Video disc including virtually limitless dynamic interactive subtitles (where the remote control can select subtitles like front-end menus during movie playback).