# [SOLVED] Do video games use codecs like AVC or VC 1



## Tyrone Burton (Aug 24, 2012)

Just wondering really. I know that video games on disc and download are rendered and information stored on discs are just commands to the GPU, but do games have codecs like film.


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## JimE (Apr 16, 2009)

*Re: Do video games use codecs like AVC or VC 1*

Depends on the game. Older games often used video files for cut scenes that were created from material outside the game. These were sometimes playable outside the game as well. Current games tend to use cut scenes created using the game engine itself and aren't standalone "video" files. The game engine doesn't use codecs, it creates the video on the fly, or in the case of cut scenes, decodes the video. But no codecs are involved as game engine is written to create the video output. So I guess you could technically say the game engine is a codec.


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## Tyrone Burton (Aug 24, 2012)

*Re: Do video games use codecs like AVC or VC 1*

Cool. That explains why some cutscenes in games might be letterbox or look different to other game cutscenes,did all older video games use mpeg for there cutscenes, and the same for newer games, do they all use AVC or VC1?


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## JimE (Apr 16, 2009)

*Re: Do video games use codecs like AVC or VC 1*

Varies from game to game and the technology available at the time. 

And just for clarification. As most current games use cut scenes created by the game engine itself, there are no codecs used.


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## Tyrone Burton (Aug 24, 2012)

*Re: Do video games use codecs like AVC or VC 1*

Ok, thank you.


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