refactor(loadscreen): Refactor the single player load screen to use TheDisplay for intro video playback by Mauller · Pull Request #2273 · TheSuperHackers/GeneralsGameCode

Mauller · 2026-02-08T12:53:45Z

Merge with rebase

Merge after unify(loadscreen): Merge LoadScreen and move several GUI related files to Core #2332

This breaks out changes from #2053 that involve the refactoring of the video playback.

I split this into two commits, one with the changes to TheDisplay for adding extra functionality, the second is the load screen refactor changes.

The other changes will come along after for video scaling options and for disabling the custom overlay during video playback.

This also fixes how the video playback is displayed in the progress bar.
Now the video progress filles the entire bar before resetting the bar for the normal data loading portion of the intro screen.

Replicate in generals

Mauller · 2026-02-08T12:55:43Z

GeneralsMD/Code/GameEngineDevice/Source/W3DDevice/GameClient/GUI/W3DGameWindow.cpp

 	}

+	// if the display has a movie playing then we need to draw the displays video buffer
+	if (TheDisplay->isMoviePlaying())


This is added in addition to the original drawing functionality as some screens still use the original method, such as the challenge load screen.

The challenge load screen does something more complex with it's video handling and needs looking at seperate from this change.

greptile-apps · 2026-02-08T12:57:09Z

Greptile Summary

This PR successfully refactors video playback in the single player load screen by centralizing video management in TheDisplay object instead of managing video buffers and streams directly in LoadScreen.

Key Changes:

Removed video buffer/stream management from SinglePlayerLoadScreen class
Added getMovieProgress() method to Display class to expose video playback progress (0.0 to 1.0)
Added parameterless overloads of drawVideoBuffer() and drawScaledVideoBuffer() that use Display's internal video buffer
Updated W3DGameWindow to draw Display's video buffer when isMoviePlaying() is true
Simplified load screen logic - now calls playMovie(), polls progress in loop, then calls stopMovie()
Fixed video progress bar to properly fill during playback and reset before data loading phase
Changes are mirrored identically across Generals and GeneralsMD codebases

Benefits:

Cleaner separation of concerns - Display owns video playback infrastructure
Eliminates duplicate video management code
Simpler and more maintainable load screen implementation
More accurate progress tracking for video playback

Confidence Score: 5/5

This PR is safe to merge with minimal risk
The refactoring is well-structured with proper encapsulation, existing null checks in isMoviePlaying() protect against null pointer dereferences, the changes maintain backward compatibility by keeping original method signatures, and identical implementations across Generals/GeneralsMD reduce platform-specific bugs. Previous review concerns about null checks and progress bar handling have been addressed.
No files require special attention

Important Files Changed

Filename	Overview
Core/GameEngine/Source/GameClient/GUI/LoadScreen.cpp	Refactored to use TheDisplay's video playback methods, simplified progress tracking, and improved video progress bar logic
Generals/Code/GameEngine/Source/GameClient/Display.cpp	Implemented `getMovieProgress()` to calculate video playback progress with proper null checks
Generals/Code/GameEngineDevice/Source/W3DDevice/GameClient/W3DDisplay.cpp	Implemented parameterless video buffer drawing methods that use internal `m_videoBuffer` and `m_videoStream` members
Generals/Code/GameEngineDevice/Source/W3DDevice/GameClient/GUI/W3DGameWindow.cpp	Added logic to draw TheDisplay's video buffer when `isMoviePlaying()` is true and no local video buffer exists
GeneralsMD/Code/GameEngineDevice/Source/W3DDevice/GameClient/W3DDisplay.cpp	Identical implementation to Generals version with parameterless video buffer drawing methods

Sequence Diagram

sequenceDiagram
    participant LoadScreen as SinglePlayerLoadScreen
    participant Display as TheDisplay
    participant VideoPlayer as TheVideoPlayer
    participant WindowManager as TheWindowManager
    participant GameWindow as W3DGameWindow
    
    LoadScreen->>Display: playMovie(movieLabel)
    Display->>VideoPlayer: open(movieName)
    VideoPlayer-->>Display: VideoStream
    Display->>Display: createVideoBuffer()
    Note over Display: Store m_videoStream & m_videoBuffer
    
    loop While movie is playing
        LoadScreen->>Display: isMoviePlaying()
        Display-->>LoadScreen: true
        LoadScreen->>Display: getMovieProgress()
        Display-->>LoadScreen: progress (0.0-1.0)
        LoadScreen->>LoadScreen: Update progress bar
        LoadScreen->>WindowManager: update()
        LoadScreen->>Display: update()
        Display->>Display: frameDecompress() & frameRender()
        LoadScreen->>Display: draw()
        Display->>GameWindow: draw window
        GameWindow->>Display: isMoviePlaying()
        Display-->>GameWindow: true
        GameWindow->>Display: drawVideoBuffer(coords)
        Display->>Display: Render video to screen
    end
    
    LoadScreen->>Display: stopMovie()
    Display->>Display: Delete buffer & close stream

_{Last reviewed commit: 097b484}

greptile-apps

_{3 files reviewed, 1 comment}

_{Edit Code Review Agent Settings | Greptile}

Core/GameEngine/Source/GameClient/GUI/LoadScreen.cpp

xezon

Does the loading bar in videos still work?

Mauller · 2026-02-13T10:31:27Z

Does the loading bar in videos still work?

No i removed the video playback being part of the loading bar since the code behind it is hacky and it didn't add anything to the playback.
The window the bar is part of also needs hiding when rescaled videos are played otherwise the stretched background image shows behind the video.

Mauller · 2026-02-14T16:26:03Z

Tweaked to now show and properly update the progress bar during the video playback.

The bar now correctly displays where the video is during its playback, the bar then gets reset for the normal loading portion of the intro screen.

greptile-apps

_{8 files reviewed, 1 comment}

_{Edit Code Review Agent Settings | Greptile}

GeneralsMD/Code/GameEngine/Source/GameClient/Display.cpp

Mauller · 2026-02-15T10:06:15Z

This should be good to go

greptile-apps

_{8 files reviewed, 2 comments}

_{Edit Code Review Agent Settings | Greptile}

GeneralsMD/Code/GameEngineDevice/Source/W3DDevice/GameClient/W3DDisplay.cpp

xezon · 2026-02-15T10:13:37Z

So is this still a pure refactor or now a bugfix?

xezon

Greptile still has comments

GeneralsMD/Code/GameEngine/Include/GameClient/Display.h

Mauller · 2026-02-15T10:42:43Z

So is this still a pure refactor or now a bugfix?

it's prob a mix of both with the change of the load bar behaviour

Mauller · 2026-02-15T10:46:39Z

Tweaked

GeneralsMD/Code/GameEngine/Source/GameClient/GUI/LoadScreen.cpp

Core/GameEngine/Source/GameClient/GUI/LoadScreen.cpp

GeneralsMD/Code/GameEngine/Source/GameClient/Display.cpp

GeneralsMD/Code/GameEngineDevice/Source/W3DDevice/GameClient/GUI/W3DGameWindow.cpp

xezon

OK

GeneralsMD/Code/GameEngineDevice/Source/W3DDevice/GameClient/GUI/W3DGameWindow.cpp

Mauller · 2026-02-19T21:20:41Z

Manually merged to generals, there are some differences in the loadscreen.cpp which made it a little more difficult to determine how to merge.

xezon · 2026-02-19T22:01:08Z

Perhaps a unify is better before this?

Mauller · 2026-02-20T10:58:13Z

Perhaps a unify is better before this?

Zero hour changes quite a bit of the load screen behaviour, including adding the challenge load screen.
The changed behaviour is also dependent on data being present for the factional theming of the load screen.

xezon · 2026-02-20T19:47:48Z

Zero hour changes quite a bit of the load screen behaviour, including adding the challenge load screen. The changed behaviour is also dependent on data being present for the factional theming of the load screen.

I went ahead and made a merge of them with #2332

xezon · 2026-02-21T12:06:15Z

#2332 is merged. This change can now advance.

Mauller · 2026-02-21T13:42:20Z

#2332 is merged. This change can now advance.

Will take a look soon

…eo playback (#2273)

…heDisplay for intro video playback (#2273)

Mauller · 2026-02-21T14:34:34Z

Rebased and tweaked this based on the merge

xezon

My expectation is that this breaks Generals Campaign videos in its current form.

xezon · 2026-02-21T16:57:43Z

Core/GameEngine/Include/GameClient/LoadScreen.h

 	UnicodeString m_unicodeObjectiveLines[MAX_OBJECTIVE_LINES];

-	VideoBuffer *m_videoBuffer;
-	VideoStreamInterface *m_videoStream;


There also is video buffer in ChallengeLoadScreen

Challenge load screen is still using the old method due to extra complexities that need handling seperately.

So there will be another refactor?

That needs handling on it's own for now, it uses a seperate video player handling object and it's not just a single video being played. The challenge screen is composed of multiple different videos.

xezon · 2026-02-21T16:59:51Z

Core/GameEngine/Source/GameClient/GUI/LoadScreen.cpp

 	{
-#if RTS_GENERALS
-		// if we're min speced
-		m_videoStream->frameGoto(m_videoStream->frameCount()); // zero based


What is the replacement for this? The intent here is to show the last frame of the video as a static image.

The load screen background shows instead like in zero hour.

Why? Better preserve the original behavior.

xezon · 2026-02-21T17:01:29Z

Core/GameEngine/Source/GameClient/GUI/LoadScreen.cpp

-			m_videoStream->frameRender(m_videoBuffer);
-
-#if RTS_GENERALS
-			moveWindows( m_videoStream->frameIndex());


What is the replacement for this? As I understand, this is necessary to show the moving pictures and texts during Generals Campaign Videos?

i will double check this, might need to add a method to get the current frame from the video playing in TheDisplay

i need to look at this a bit more because the refactor to display the movie using TheDisplay causes the output to also show in all nested GameWindows.

Outstanding questions

Mauller self-assigned this Feb 8, 2026

Mauller added Minor Severity: Minor < Major < Critical < Blocker Gen Relates to Generals ZH Relates to Zero Hour Refactor Edits the code with insignificant behavior changes, is never user facing labels Feb 8, 2026

Mauller commented Feb 8, 2026

View reviewed changes

greptile-apps bot reviewed Feb 8, 2026

View reviewed changes

Core/GameEngine/Source/GameClient/GUI/LoadScreen.cpp Show resolved Hide resolved

xezon reviewed Feb 10, 2026

View reviewed changes

Mauller force-pushed the Mauller/refactor-loadscreen-video-playback branch from 54be1bc to a71ec34 Compare February 14, 2026 16:25

greptile-apps bot reviewed Feb 14, 2026

View reviewed changes

GeneralsMD/Code/GameEngine/Source/GameClient/Display.cpp Show resolved Hide resolved

Mauller force-pushed the Mauller/refactor-loadscreen-video-playback branch from a71ec34 to 03e38b6 Compare February 15, 2026 10:05

greptile-apps bot reviewed Feb 15, 2026

View reviewed changes

GeneralsMD/Code/GameEngineDevice/Source/W3DDevice/GameClient/W3DDisplay.cpp Show resolved Hide resolved

GeneralsMD/Code/GameEngineDevice/Source/W3DDevice/GameClient/W3DDisplay.cpp Show resolved Hide resolved

xezon reviewed Feb 15, 2026

View reviewed changes

GeneralsMD/Code/GameEngine/Include/GameClient/Display.h Outdated Show resolved Hide resolved

Mauller force-pushed the Mauller/refactor-loadscreen-video-playback branch from 03e38b6 to 53ae2e5 Compare February 15, 2026 10:46

xezon reviewed Feb 18, 2026

View reviewed changes

Mauller force-pushed the Mauller/refactor-loadscreen-video-playback branch from 53ae2e5 to ebb01a2 Compare February 19, 2026 20:40

xezon previously approved these changes Feb 19, 2026

View reviewed changes

GeneralsMD/Code/GameEngineDevice/Source/W3DDevice/GameClient/GUI/W3DGameWindow.cpp Outdated Show resolved Hide resolved

Mauller force-pushed the Mauller/refactor-loadscreen-video-playback branch 2 times, most recently from 39c7788 to 14332fd Compare February 19, 2026 21:19

Mauller added 2 commits February 21, 2026 13:58

refactor(display): Add the ability to directly use TheDisplay for vid…

1ef65cc

…eo playback (#2273)

refactor(loadscreen): Refactor the single player load screen to use T…

097b484

…heDisplay for intro video playback (#2273)

Mauller force-pushed the Mauller/refactor-loadscreen-video-playback branch from 14332fd to 097b484 Compare February 21, 2026 14:34

xezon reviewed Feb 21, 2026

View reviewed changes

Comments

Conversation

Mauller commented Feb 8, 2026 • edited by xezon Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Mauller Feb 8, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

greptile-apps bot commented Feb 8, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Greptile Summary

Confidence Score: 5/5

Important Files Changed

Sequence Diagram

Uh oh!

greptile-apps bot left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

xezon left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Mauller commented Feb 13, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Mauller commented Feb 14, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

greptile-apps bot left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Mauller commented Feb 15, 2026

Uh oh!

greptile-apps bot left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

xezon commented Feb 15, 2026

Uh oh!

xezon left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Mauller commented Feb 15, 2026

Uh oh!

Mauller commented Feb 15, 2026

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

xezon left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Mauller commented Feb 19, 2026

Uh oh!

xezon commented Feb 19, 2026

Uh oh!

Mauller commented Feb 20, 2026

Uh oh!

xezon commented Feb 20, 2026

Uh oh!

xezon commented Feb 21, 2026

Uh oh!

Mauller commented Feb 21, 2026

Uh oh!

Mauller commented Feb 21, 2026

Uh oh!

xezon left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Mauller commented Feb 8, 2026 •

edited by xezon

Loading

Mauller Feb 8, 2026 •

edited

Loading

greptile-apps bot commented Feb 8, 2026 •

edited

Loading

Mauller commented Feb 13, 2026 •

edited

Loading

Mauller commented Feb 14, 2026 •

edited

Loading

Mauller Feb 21, 2026 •

edited

Loading