AmiReel/README.md

AmiReel

Windows WPF replacement for amigadb-render.sh. The first milestone implements:

• multiple ordered AVI inputs;
• 3840×2160 at 50 FPS;
• automatic NVIDIA NVENC detection with libx264 fallback;
• configurable trim, fade and end-card hold;
• PNG/JPG screenshots at a configurable interval;
• animated WebP screenshot preview;
• optional custom paths for ffmpeg.exe and ffprobe.exe;
• automatic FFmpeg library probing when shared avformat/avutil DLLs are present beside ffmpeg.exe;
• non-fatal missing thumbnails;
• live FFmpeg log, progress and cancellation;
• one-file Windows publishing with embedded FFmpeg and FFprobe.

Build

Requirements:

• Windows 10/11 x64
• .NET 8 SDK
• matching Windows x64 ffmpeg.exe and ffprobe.exe in ThirdParty

Development build (does not require FFmpeg until render is started):

dotnet build .\AmigaDB.VideoRenderer.csproj

Portable publish:

.\publish-win-x64.ps1

The publish target intentionally fails when either FFmpeg executable is absent, preventing creation of an application that cannot render.

Distribution and FFmpeg

The application embeds the selected FFmpeg binaries and extracts them into its private local runtime cache. Include the license and source/build offer required by the exact FFmpeg distribution you choose. Do not remove its copyright and licensing notices.

If you prefer not to use the embedded binaries at runtime, you can point the UI at external ffmpeg.exe and ffprobe.exe files. Those paths are saved in the user settings file under %LOCALAPPDATA%\AmiReel\settings.json.

If the selected FFmpeg folder also contains shared FFmpeg DLLs such as avformat-*.dll and avutil-*.dll, AmiReel will use those libraries for media probing in place of ffprobe.exe while keeping rendering on ffmpeg.exe.