Smacker video is a video file format (with the .SMK file extension) developed by RAD Game Tools, and primarily used for full-motion video in video games. Smacker video supports 256 colors, and includes transparency support. While being a palette-based format, which is inherently limited to having not more than 256 colors in each frame, Smacker videos may still contain more colors in total due to "palette rotation" whereby the next frame may have a different palette. This usually results in SMK files that look better if the source video has more than 256 colors. RAD's format for video at higher color depths is Bink Video.
The compression rate of Smacker can reach 1:12, but at the loss of quality (pixelation).
New versions of the Smacker file format also introduce Bink audio codec support.
Blizzard used this format for the cinematic videos seen in its famous games Warcraft II, StarCraft and Diablo I. The Maxis game SimCopter also uses this file format for ingame drive-in theaters.
Famous quotes containing the word video:
“We attempt to remember our collective American childhood, the way it was, but what we often remember is a combination of real past, pieces reshaped by bitterness and love, and, of course, the video past—the portrayals of family life on such television programs as “Leave it to Beaver” and “Father Knows Best” and all the rest.”
—Richard Louv (20th century)