How to create this structure

PeterWright wrote on 11/29/2004, 10:51 PM
Hope I can describe this ok.

I have a series of video scenarios each of which which pose a dilemma, then return to a "Discussion" menu so that workshop participants can talk about the issues, then click on a button on that Menu to view the remainder of the story.
To help this, the two halves of the story are separate MPEG clips, and the intention is to have an End action to the first half which goes to the Discussion Menu.

Now, to create the "Discussion Sub Menu" it seems I have to also have a link to that sub-menu on the original menu, and if I try and delete the link, the sub-menu is deleted too.

I don't want to be able to get to this menu by clicking, only by playing the first video clip.

Any ideas how to achieve this?

So far I have tried having a blank Text only link, but the space it leaves still gets highlighted. I guess I could amend the navigation so that the "dummy links" are cut out of the loop, but there may be a more elegant way.

Thanks for any ideas.

[edit - the method I described above seems to work perfectly, so perhaps that's the way to go - just have to be careful that no visible buttons are capable of navigating to the invisible ones.]

Comments

ScottW wrote on 11/30/2004, 5:05 AM
Given the constraints with how DVDA creates and maintains submenus, your solution is the only one I can think of as well.

One variation would be to create a seperate discussion menu for each scenario - these would be done as empty text boxes with a black background on your main menu - the timeout on the main menu would be 0 (or as close as it comes) taking you to a submenu that allows selection of the scenario. The end action on the first part of the scenario takes you to the specific discussion menu which only has a single button on it that takes you to the second part. The end action on the second part takes to to the sub-menu that selects which scenario.

This would make it easier to create your dicussion selection menu since the only buttons on it would be the ones taking you to the particular scenario as the discussion menu buttons would be "hidden" on the main menu that you can't really get too.

--Scott
PeterWright wrote on 11/30/2004, 4:27 PM
Thanks Scott

I've now got it working exactly as required - the ability to design custom functionality and interface for each project is so good with DVDA2.
ScottW wrote on 11/30/2004, 6:06 PM
And yet could be so much better as well. I'm afraid that DVD Lab Pro is spoiling me. I just purchased the upgrade from Lab to Pro and will likely migrate away from DVDA2 entirely over the next month or so. Ah well.
PeterWright wrote on 11/30/2004, 6:54 PM
Scott, could you list the features of DVLabPro which are dragging you away from DVDA2 ?

Thanks
ScottW wrote on 11/30/2004, 8:36 PM
Well, first the ability to have more control over the entire authoring process. For example, you had problems with DVDA deleting your menu entirely if you removed the link from your main menu - not an issue with Pro.

I recently authored a "proof of concept" DVD with Pro that had a "trivia challenge" as part of it - basically the concept had 2 questions you had to answer in X seconds and then at the end it told you what your final score was - to do this I had to have the ability to count the correct answers and branch to the appropriate ending video based on the final count - not a problem with Pro (well, as long as you know how to do some low level authoring); impossible to do with DVDA.

As part of this project I had a menu that had an introduction, then the buttons appeared, the menu looped until a button was selected and then transitioned to the appropriate choice (in a seemless fashion). Again, not a problem with Pro - can't do it with DVDA.

"on navigation" commands - that is a film strip type thing on the main menu that as you navigate thru it, the main image changes (no need to activate a selection - it changes based on navigation); can't do with DVDA - a snap with Lab Pro.

Ability to have mixed formats (which I've not used) on the same disk - 16:9 and 4:3 together. Can't do it with DVDA.

There's other stuff that I've not yet touched, like scripting.

The workflow is a little different for Pro since it doesn't have a built-in encoder, but once you get used to that aspect, well, the features start to rapidly outweigh anything DVDA has to offer.

--Scott
PeterWright wrote on 11/30/2004, 10:13 PM
Thanks Scott -

Obviously a well put together program.

I haven't needed that level of functionality ... yet .. but if I do, I'll check out DVDLab Pro - unless of course DVDA has been updated by then.

Peter