Tutorial: Modding the Background of the Menu (MP4 to Bik)

This guide will show you the ropes of turning ANY MP4 video into a bik file. This is useful for modding the video into the menu background of the game.

Required Applications

RAD Video Tools:

This program will be the main tool that compresses your video into the ".bik" format.
(http://www.radgametools.com/bnkdown.htm)

Quicktime Player:

We will be needing this(but not using) because it is required if you want the audio to be playing in the bik file along with the video. (If you do not get this, the video will not have audio). Make sure that you download it with ALL components.
(http://www.apple.com/quicktime/)

VLC Media Player(Optional):

This player allows you to preview your bik files before adding it into the game.
(http://www.videolan.org/vlc/)

Get Your MP4 Video

If you are trying to get a video off youtube, you can use a site like this (http://www.clipconverter.cc/) to download any of them in a selected format(In this case, I suggest MP4).


Make sure you have the right portion of your video ready to be converted. Cut any unnecessary parts before we convert.

Using RAD Tools - Converting

Assuming that you have QuickTime and RAD Tools installed:
Do not open QuickTime(We'll never really need to open it).
Open RAD Video:



When you open the application, select a video in the Explorer



Select "Bink it!"

Converting Phase

So, I myself have trouble understanding the majority of what shows up on this screen, but you do not really need to(You can just select "Bink" from here and get started).


If you would like to gain more info on this screen(or anything else on RAD Video), go here:
(http://www.radgametools.com/binkhlp2.htm)

After hitting "Bink" just go through the process and wait it out. From my experience on an older computer, I believe this can take 30 minutes.
If you get an error, refer to the above link.

Modding Your Menu Background

This is the part where you actually get to mod the background and test it out.
First, go to (C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Left 4 Dead 2\left4dead2\media) and backup "l4d2_background01~ l4d2_background05". You do not need to back them up, but it beats having to verify integrity or reinstall.
Place your bik file and the folder into a good viewing position


Make 4 duplicates(Totaling 5) of your bik file and rename them respectively to "l4d2_background01~ l4d2_background05". then place them inside the folder.
If asked, "Replace All".

Your Changes Are Complete!

Your background may have a strange pink/green line on the edge(s). I honestly have no idea how to change that, but these are the basic steps.

Anyway, now go out there and show the world your new menu!
Unfortunately, this means there'll be more clips of little anime girls dancing suggestively.

[AstroTheRedPanda]

to whom thou concerns, HOW DO I GET AUDIO WITH IT????

[StinkyTacoFarts]

finally! i looked everywhere

[dsaS]

https://youtu.be/AnVDEHDpDI4

[のあ]

@sendan
Thanks for advising.

[chaelex]

I've followed all the exact steps, I checked the videos on VLC and they looked fine. but when I boot up the game they get all stretched and squiggled apart, anyone else having this issue?

[∆ B L O O D S ∆]

Yes, it's depend on your CPU power and some other thing. It's literally rendering.

[Soda McCaslin]

istg it take 1 hour to convert .mp4 to .bik

[∆ B L O O D S ∆]

Does it have a limit on video length? i converted 1 second video to bik, the preview is normal but when i enter the game there are green stripes all over the screen.

[Orange, maybe Mandarin.]

@Fursda, i hope you already found a fix to your problem but in case you haven't, your custom menu backgrounds cannot be too large / heavy. I also crashed everytime i return to menu after getting into a game, and i realized that only 1 video doesn't crash me, and that video's size was significantly smaller than the other 4. So i compressed and optimized the other 4 into smaller sizes, and i stopped getting crashes when i return to menu.

In my case, if the video goes over 350MB in size, it'll crash me when i go back to the menu, so i keep everything below 350MB. It's already kinda late, but hope this helps!

[Orange, maybe Mandarin.]

So i tried what @Sendan said, and yeah it worked perfectly. Turning the video into 1920x1070 clears the green pink line without doing any visible changes to the video.

To resize the vid and turn it into a BIK file in one go, you can go to the "Input video settings" section, and type the desired Video width and height below the "Scaling type..." button. In this case, type 1920 for the Width, and 1070 for the Height. By doing so, RAD Tools will automatically resize the video into that proportions whilst also converting it into a BIK file. Hope this helps!