NOTICE: Development is halted until some issues are resolved in gen2brain/mpeg. Don't recommend using this package yet.

A simple abstraction layer over gen2brain/mpeg to make it easier to play videos on Ebitengine. It uses MPEG-1, which is an old video format but kinda does the job at the expense of x2-x3 video sizes.

First, you need a video in MPEG-1 format. You can grab one somewhere or convert your own with ffmpeg:

ffmpeg -i my_video.mp4 -c:v mpeg1video -c:a mp2 -f mpeg -q 8 my_video.mpg

Then you write a simple program to play it on Ebitengine:

package main

import ( "os" ; "log" )
import "github.com/hajimehoshi/ebiten/v2"
import "github.com/hajimehoshi/ebiten/v2/audio"
import "github.com/tinne26/mpegg"

type VideoPlayer struct { player *mpegg.Player }
func (vp *VideoPlayer) Layout(w, h int) (int, int) { return w, h }
func (vp *VideoPlayer) Update() error { return nil }
func (vp *VideoPlayer) Draw(screen *ebiten.Image) {
	mpegg.Draw(screen, vp.player.CurrentFrame())
}

func main() {
	// initialize audio context (necessary if the video has audio)
	audio.NewContext(44100) // sample rate must match the video

	// open the video and create the mpeg player
	src, err := os.Open("my_video.mpg")
	if err != nil { log.Fatal(err) }
	mpeggPlayer, err := mpegg.NewPlayer(src)
	if err != nil { log.Fatal(err) }
	mpeggPlayer.Play() // activate the playback clock

	// run the video player!
	err = ebiten.RunGame(&VideoPlayer{ mpeggPlayer })
	if err != nil { log.Fatal(err) }
}

The mpegg.Player also provides easy access to the main mpeg properties and a few control functions:

• Player.Play(), Player.Pause() and Player.IsPlaying() to play or pause the video.
• Player.SeekFast(time.Duration), and Player.Position() time.Duration to control the playback position.
• Player.MPEG() (*mpeg.MPEG, *sync.Mutex) to access the underlying mpeg.

Check the package's documentation to explore these and a few more.

TODO: write about biggest sizes and framerates viable even for low-end laptop CPUs.

TODO: write about audio and video sync limitations on Ebitengine being ~10ms coarse.

Here's a small list of useful ffmpeg flags. See the ffmpeg tips doc for the full commands and further info:

• -v quiet -stats: prevent noisy command output but still show conversion progress.
• -ss 3 -t 10: convert only a fragment of the video (start at second 3, convert 10 seconds of video).
• -q 4: set the quality level explicitly. Lower is better.
• -filter:v fps=VALUE: set framerate explicitly (better don't go below 24!).
• -s 640x480: adjust video resolution.
• -an instead of -c:a mp2: remove the audio to keep only the video.
• ffprobe -i my_video.mpg -hide_banner: show video info if you have ffprobe.

The code is licensed under the MIT license.

This package is only a small wrapper, all credit goes to gen2brain/mpeg, based on the original phoboslab/pl_mpeg C library, and hajimehoshi/ebiten.