IGN spoke to president of Factor 5 Julian Eggebrecht about all different aspects of their new tool for the GameCube.

IGNcube: What sparked Factor 5 to dabble in video compression formats?

Julian Eggebrecht: The obvious problem with the small size of the GameCube discs. Space. And as we saw with our video material in Rogue Leader, space for high-quality FMV would be a big issue for games with larger amounts of FMV. In addition to these general platform considerations we wanted to use a lot more video in our next GCN title, so that fact pushed the issue to the top. We started looking into the best compression codecs available and there simply is nothing else than MPEG-4 when you try to get DVD-movie quality in a third or a quarter of the space of a movie-DVD.

IGNcube: How long did it take you to develop a suitable video compression scheme for GameCube?

Julian: From the point of when we looked at the MPEG-4 spec on paper to a fully optimized driver it took about three months. Of course we already had some experience with single-frame compression. We did provide compression libraries to Nintendo early in the GameCube lifecycle and a few years ago we did Rebel Assault 2 for the PlayStation, a technical exercise in FMV compression, so this field is not new for the company.

IGNcube: Why did you partner with DivX in the end?

Julian: DivX is the perfect partner in the MPEG-4 field. DivX is the widest known and best implementation of an MPEG-4 encoder currently in existence. Their encoding toolkit is mature and second to none. Also, they have the experience in licensing this technology and simply great brand recognition. On top of that our two technical teams "clicked" just perfectly and it took only a few days to create a special GameCube SDK version of the DivX encoder.

We are certainly exited about creating new technology, but our main business is making games. So whenever we have a technology that can be used by others as well we try to find the right partner to do the distribution, licensing, and other issues a game developer is not good at. For MusyX we have Nintendo at the present time, for our MPEG-4 technology DivX is the perfect match.

IGNcube: Explain what DivX for GameCube brings to the table.

Julian: Very simply put: DVD quality video for GameCube. Perfect quality without disk-space problems. The other solutions currently available are either based on old single-picture technology or MPEG1. We skipped MPEG1 and 2 and right away went to MPEG-4. This is the compression technology that next- generation video formats, basically next-gen, HD-DVD will most likely use. The reasons are clear: You can get MPEG2 or current DVD quality at much lower bit-rates than MPEG2 and you can, with a tiny bit of image quality loss, go to bit-rates so low that MPEG2 would be unable to handle them at all.

IGNcube: Exactly how much video, under DivX for GCN, could be stored on one 1.5GB optical disc?

Julian: That is very tough to answer because the bit-rates are completely variable. But let us say this, we did encode complete two-hour movies, put them on a GCN disc and the quality was almost exactly the same as that movie on a regular DVD.

IGNcube: Are there any drawbacks to using DivX for GCN? Is there a significant hit on processing power, for instance?

Julian: DivX is the most sophisticated video compression out there, so it is also the most processing-power intensive to decode. We are supporting almost all the really advanced optional bits in the MPEG-4 standard so DivXNetworks was very surprised that we got it going at full resolution and full-speed at all. We know that at least one other team tried it and gave up even with the baseline features -- so they never went to the sophisticated parts. To put it simply, full- screen 640x480 at 30 FPS progressive video is not cheap. It is not for free. But it is cheap enough even to run in the context of a lot of other things going on on-screen. If you look at all the footage on the backgrounds in Rogue Leader, or the little movies in the level selection room, that's no problem. Of course full-screen video is the very basis and there is nothing better out there for great intro, outro, and cut-scene movies.

IGNcube: How can GameCube developers gain access to DivX for GameCube?

Julian: They contact DivXNetworks via their DivX for GameCube webpage at http://www.divxnetworks.com/products/divx_GameCube_sdk.php.

IGNcube: How easy is it to use DivX for GameCube, as a developer?

Julian: We had one developer try it out as a test and it took him only an hour to get the whole thing going in his application. So it is very, very simple. Especially developers who have used Nintendo's own video tool should find it extremely easy to implement.

IGNcube: Finally, the obvious question: are you using DivX for GameCube in your next GCN title? Extensively?

Julian: Of course, otherwise we wouldn't have developed it. Very extensively. There will be a lot of video. And a game. Don t ask me what game, though.

Thanks for your time Julian. We hope GCN developers will take advantage of this new tool.

Interview by Matt Casamassina

Source: IGN Cube