How to read movie location in draw()

Casey_Scalf

I am wondering how to read a movie file inside of draw()?

The example https://processing.org/reference/libraries/video/Movie.html reads the file inside of setup()

I want to be able to change what movie is being played while the sketch is running. I.e. use the up and down arrows to cycle through some videos in a folder. If the movie's location is assigned in setup() it cannot be changed once running.

For instance, if I try to use movie in the draw() it runs INCREDIBLY SLOW. As would be expected since it is creating a fresh movie object each frame.

import processing.video.*;
Movie myMovie;

File dir = new File("/Applications/SimplMix/ProcessingFork/vidz");
File[] fileArr = dir.listFiles();

void setup() {
  size(1280, 720);
}

void draw() {
  myMovie = new Movie(this, "/Applications/SimplMix/ProcessingFork/vidz/NewFall.mov");
  myMovie.loop();
  myMovie.play();
  image(myMovie, 0, 0);
}

void movieEvent(Movie m) {
  m.read();
}

_vk

Well this seams to work:

import processing.video.*;

Movie movie;

void setup() {
  size(640, 360);
  background(0);
  // Load and play the video in a loop
  movie = new Movie(this, "transit.mov");
  movie.loop();
}

void movieEvent(Movie m) {
  m.read();
}

void draw() {
  if (movie.available() == true) {
    movie.read(); 
  }
  image(movie, 0, 0, width, height);
}

void keyPressed(){
  if(key == 'n'){
  movie = null;
  movie = new Movie(this, "movie2.mov");
  movie.loop();
  }

}

But I would prefer to load all my videos at setup, in an array and just change the index, like:

import processing.video.*;

Movie[] movies = new Movie[2];
int index = 0;

void setup() {
  size(640, 360);
  background(0);
  // Load and play the video in a loop
  movies[0] = new Movie(this, "transit.mov");
  movies[1] = new Movie(this, "movie2.mov");
  movies[0].loop();
}

void movieEvent(Movie m) {
  m.read();
}

void draw() {
  //  if (movie.available() == true) {
  //    movie.read(); 
  //  }
  image(movies[index], 0, 0, width, height);
}

void keyPressed() {

  if (key == 'n') {
    movies[index].stop();
    index++;
    index%=movies.length;
    movies[index].loop();
  }
}

GoToLoop

I like to even turn off draw() w/ noLoop(). And use redraw() inside movieEvent().
Also I find background() & set() faster than image() for JAVA2D renderer:

http://forum.processing.org/two/discussion/comment/40848/#Comment_40848

Casey_Scalf

I look forward to exploring both these possibilities on the plane - thank you for the ideas.

@_vk I like the idea in the second example. I am trying to have the option for a user to add more videos to the folder and then restart (in an ideal world no restart needed the array could be refreshed).

Is there a way to have only one movie object that has a new file path loaded from this array? I think it may be possible. Once again, I'll have to hack around.