I thought it was a long shot, but assumed it would do what it says on the tin. Basically I enabled the option and built the application which contained an .avi video file. When I opened the application it said something along the lines of it not being able to find the .avi video file. So, what does the include external files option do?
I'd love to know too. there are a couple of external files I'd like to stick into the .exe. Right now even though I'm using some internal file coding or something I still have to bundle the .bmp externally from the game.
To include a file, you need to reference its complete path. So, case study:
You have a game, called mygame.mfa, located in "c:\games\my game\"
You have your video in "c:\games\my game\vids\video.avi"
Normally, you'd refer to the video like this:
appdrive$+appdir$+"\vids\video.avi"
HOWEVER, MMF's too thick to read that.
You need to open it from the full path, using a file selector. eg:
On Start of Frame
--- Play video: "c:\games\my game\vids\video.avi"
When you build to a standalone exe, MMF will find all the files you selected using File Selector dialogs and build them into the exe. So all your absolute references become internal references.
Some extensions don't have a file selector action to open a file. They just prompt an expression editor. This, obviously, won't get built into the game.
So, to deal with it, we use array object, and do this:
NEVER
--- Array: Load array file "C:\path\folder\file.mpg"
Array object has a dialog, so doing this will work almost like a 'load' command. It's enough to force MMF to include the file when it builds, even though the event itself won't be handled at runtime.
Now, I have a feeling that to refer to this file from here on in, you have to simply type:
"file.mpg" in order to load it. I THINK that's how it works.