Bevy H264

This plugin is a very primitive solution to playing .h264 videos in Bevy. Note that this can ONLY play .h264 videos and does not support b frames. No audio support!

This is a continuation of Bevy Video

I recommend encoding your videos with ffmpeg and using the -bf 0 option and x264-param slices=1 like below

ffmpeg -i test.mkv -c:v libx264 -bf 0 -x264-params slices=1 test.h264

Your ffmpeg must be compiled with libx264

Usage

Create the component with

let decoder = H264Decoder::new(
    &mut images, // ResMut<Assets<Images>>
    asset_server.load("test.h264"), // The video file to load
    false, // Repeat?
    1.0 / 60.0, // Frame Time. This will play the video at 60 FPS
);

Fetch the image handle with

decoder.get_render_target();

I recommend inserting the decoder component onto the entity that will use the render target handle in their material If loading the video from a file, insert the H264DecoderLoading component

H264DecoderLoading {}

As image changes are not reflected on a material until a material has been accessed mutably, read the event

fn modify_materials(
    query: Query<&Handle<StandardMaterial>, With<H264Decoder>>,
    mut update_ev: EventReader<H264UpdateEvent>,
    mut materials: ResMut<Assets<StandardMaterial>>,
) {
    for update in update_ev.read() {
        if let Ok(asset_handle) = query.get(update.0) {
            let _ = materials.get_mut(asset_handle);
        }
    }
}

and add the system to your app with

.add_systems(Update, modify_materials.after(decode_video))

Pause the video by inserting the H264DecoderPause component onto your decoder entity. If decoder.repeat == false, then at the end of the video H264DecoderPause will be inserted.

This is not hardware accelerated at all. If you want an FPS of 60+ then make sure to compile in release mode

Patent and license on h264

Nothing below is legal advice, just my findings on the subject matter The h264 codec has many patents related to it, listed here https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/10v3op0/which_year_should_we_treat_h264_patents_as/

MPEG LA also requires a license if you are selling your application bundled with the videos https://www.via-la.com/licensing-2/avc-h-264/avc-h-264-license-fees/ The codec itself is shipped with Windows and Mac, thus the only fees that an application should have to worry about is Section 2 Title-by-Title. If you ship 12 minutes or less, then there is no royalty fee. Otherwise, the fee is $0.02 per title. I am making an assumption that selling 1 copy of your application counts as 1 "title"

If you do decide to ship a commercial application with h264 videos, I highly recommend doing research and contacting a lawyer