I'm looking for a cross-platorm (failing that, linux/ubuntu specific) way to output a video file from a C++ program. Doing some research it looks like libavcodec may be something I could use, but I can't find any documentation or helpful information about it.
Has anyone here had any experience doing this or know where to look? Any idea why resources for this seem to be so scarce?
What do you mean "can't find anything"?
Documentation
If you dance barefoot on the broken glass of undefined behaviour, you've got to expect the occasional cut.
If at first you don't succeed, try writing your phone number on the exam paper.
I have seen that page; it doesn't seem to actually document libavcodec. Digging a little deeper there all I could find was a way to use ffmpeg to convert a series of already created images into a video, which I suppose I could do, but I'm looking for a more direct/efficient method.
Welcome to the real world of programming.
It's a world where there isn't "a tutorial for everything", and you have to use a wide variety of skills to actually get anything done at all.
Documentation is either poor, non-existent or just plain wrong in equal measure.
Any information about 'foo' you do find on the net will be sparse and hard to come by. Sometimes, it will be wrong in detail, but the intent might just help you figure out the key missing step yourself. Joining the forums/email lists of the 'foo' maintainers website is a must.
The standard libraries are the best documented and tested libraries you're ever going to see. Poor documentation and bugs are pretty much a fact of life in a lot of 3rd party libraries.
Other essential reading is going through the bug history of the 'foo' project, not only to see what bugs have been fixed, but to see what bugs are currently outstanding. For one thing, it might stop you from wasting a lot of time on a known issue. For another, you might discover a simpler test case for the bug and be able to contribute to its resolution. Bugs with really simple test cases get fixed first.
Where your progress writing code which used only the standard library may have been running into possibly 100's of lines a day, with plenty of good quality help available all over the net, progress when you're really "on your own" can be very slow indeed. It also might be completely wrong as well, so be prepared to be able to throw away a lot of effort and start again.
If you dance barefoot on the broken glass of undefined behaviour, you've got to expect the occasional cut.
If at first you don't succeed, try writing your phone number on the exam paper.
Those are some interesting points you make. Posting here was part of my search, but I guess I'll keep looking.
