What is a BIK file?
The files with .bik extension are used for playing movie clips in video games on both PCs and gaming consoles. BIK file enables standard video to be compressed greatly while optimizing video quality for the target platform. BIK videos can be run on Windows Media Player (WMP) but you should have the Windows 7 Codec Pack installed on your computer. You may see a warning message while playing that WMP doesn’t recognize the file format but you can still play the video.
BIK file format
BIK Video is a proprietary file format for videos developed by RAD Game Tools. This file format includes its own video and audio compression algorithms and uasually supporting resolutions ranging from 320×240 up to high definition video. The FFmpeg project format reverse-engineered this format and also open-source libavcodec library support Bink decoding. This file format has been used basically for full-motion video sequences in video games, and has been used in games for Mac OS, Windows and all sixth-generation game consoles (Dreamcast, GameCube, PlayStation 2 and Xbox) and all major seventh-generation gaming platforms such as PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable and Wii.
Breif History
It was included into the Front Line Awards Hall of Fame by the Game Developer magazine in 2009. The winners for the award were announced in the January 2010 issue of the magazine. BIK format’s 2nd version was released in 2013. This advanced format is available for Windows, Mac OS, Linux, major touchscreen smartphone platforms such as Android and iOS, all three major seventh-generation consoles such as PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360, all major eighth-generation platforms. BIK 2nd variant is faster than 1st version, and it supports higher resolutions as well.
