Quick Links:
YouTube Community: http://www.youtube.com/group/worldinconflict
WicBase: http://wicbase.com/wicmovies.php
Menu
Basic Tutorial
1.1 Making a WiC movie
1.2 Setting up the movie maker
1.3 Using the movie maker
1.4 I've done that / I read the movie maker manual but i want post production help (Basic Virtual Dub Tutorial)
1.5 Common pitfalls of the first time machinima maker
Advanced Section
2.1 Premier Pro 1.5 (Basic editing and exporting)
2.2 Sound Forge 8 (Getting game sounds from WiC)
2.3 The Codec and You: Video Codecs / Compressors (What DivX options should I use?)[/i]
For Vista Users: Read First
Vista requires you to set permissions in order to save camera paths. Ensure you are running WiC with administrator rights. To do this right click the WiC Shortcut and say Run as administrator. In addition you will need to allow WiC to write to its program files folder. I am not sure on how this is done exactly but I would assume you have some properties you can edit on the folder itself to enable this. This needs to be done in addition to the instructions below.
Making a WiC movie
So you want to make a World in Conflict movie? Not sure where to start? Well keep reading.
Firstly, get an idea, what is your movie going to be about? Then go out there and get some replays that you can use to make this movie. At the moment you can not script units so the only real stage you have are real live games or if you have some time and people to help you out you could go and make a private server and stuff around on that.
Setting up the Movie Maker
You have your replays? Good. It's time to get to work. Download the manual from this link. Now you can ignore it... until you get into trouble. You will need a wicautoexec file in your My Documents/World in Conflict directory to bind the time control keys and the instructions for that are in the manual...What's that? You CBF? Oh alright i uploaded mine here. Just paste that in your WiC directory inside your My Documents. Once you have done that make sure you have your console mode enabled on your WiC shortcut. You haven't? Right click the shortcut you use to get into WiC and at the end of the target line type -console. It should look like this
"C:\Program Files\Sierra Entertainment\World in Conflict\wic.exe" -console
Sidenote: This has to be the biggest 'psych' from Massive as the broadcasting tool was released as a small zip file with an executable file and a few other things in it a few weeks prior and we were kept in suspense waiting for this tool only to be told "Oh you have had it the whole time...didn't you know? :P". I was ROFLing when i found out.
Using the Movie Maker
Load WiC and run the replay from the multiplayer menu. Make a mental note of which demo you are using you will have to load it several times. Once you are in the replay hit the ~ (tilda) button twice it brings up a console you can type in. Type in Cincamnew <filename>. Obviously you replace <filename> with what you want to call your camera track file. I suggest you name it something like 84-1 this is for demo 84 and is the first revision.
Now we finally get to the fun part. Use the ctrl+n key to fast fast fast forward to the point in time where you want to film, it goes at 40x speed so if you have a slow computer i suggest you don't look directly at the action, if you need to watch what's going on use ctrl+b or ctrl+v for slower speeds. When you see what you want to video i suggest you pause the playback (ctrl+z) and put the camera where you want it and press the "i" key. This creates a camera looking where you are looking right now. You can then resume normal playback and lets say you are tracking some units moving down a road at a constant speed. You let the video play out for 10 seconds, pause it, then put the camera where the units are now and hit "i" again. During playback the camera will move from point A to point B over that 10 second period.
You are now happy with what you are done. Hit F8 to save the camera path. Exit to main menu and reload the replay. Reload your camera path by opening the console and typing "Cincamload <filename>". Fast forward to just before when you set the camera to start moving then reduce to normal speed. Just before WiC takes control of your camera hit "F10" and "F6", this will remove the GUI and camera splines. When WiC takes control of the camera hit the "." button.
This will begin recording. You will notice your computer slow down and start lagging badly. Do not panic...much. This is about as normal as Black Mesa having a training accident. The inbuilt game recorder turns all your settings up and records frame by frame, not in real time. When you are done recording hit the "." button again. Your new video is now in your install folder for WiC (Most likely in the Program Files\Sierra Entertainment path).
I've done that / I read the movie maker manual but i want post production help
From here i use a program called Virtual Dub. Get the latest release build here if you haven't already. Then open your movie that you just made in WiC. If you are in the same situation as me and could not get the compressor to work then this is most likely a large file and may be missing header information. Virtual Dub will repair it.
Lets just say you want to put the video on YouTube. In Virtual Dub go to Video -> Filters -> Add.. -> Resize -> Ok -> Set the width to 320 and height to 240 and the filter mode to "Precise Bilinear" -> Press Ok -> Press Ok again. Your output window on the right is now much smaller. Now we set the codec. Go to Video -> Compression -> Select the DivX codec (If you do not see the DivX codec in the list go and get it here. Then attempt the process again). For those who do see the codec, select it and hit Ok. Click Audio and select "No Audio" (The inbuilt movie maker does not record sound, you'll have to do that yourself if you want in-game sounds). You are now ready to compress your new movie. Go to File -> Save as AVI... -> Give it a name and put it somewhere you will find it -> Press Ok.
Hint: I highly recommend working on your movie at a higher resolution then what you intend to produce it at. I (stupidly) just worked at 320x240 in premiere for my movie and now i regret it as it requires further stuffing around to get a better version to put on stage 6. When you finish making your movie then you can resize it.
That's it! You have just made your first WiC movie. Go ahead and upload it to YouTube. Join the "World in Conflict" group here so we can all see your video.
Current convention for WiC movies:
1. Upload a version to YouTube
2. Add it to the WiC Community listed above
3. Upload a higher resolution version to Stage 6 and put that as a comment in your YouTube video and add it to the new Stage 6 WiC channel.
Quick Tips / I didn't read a thing you wrote earlier:
1. Set your resolution to 1024x768 or lower when you are recording, you are probably just going to downsize it anyway.
2. If you are unable to use the compressor like me then you will be limited by the 4gig file size. This translates to about 40 seconds of video so you will have to plan your scenes around that limitation for the time being.
3. Read the manual. It has more advanced functions in it and will help after your first few tries.
4. Start small. Don't try and record a feature film right from the start, you will most likely run into problems.
5. Upload your video to YouTube and join the WiC group as mentioned above it will help keep all the videos easily accessible.
I made this as a quick end-to-end guide for people with less experience with video editing. It is only a minimal approach to making a video and only intended to supplement what was written in the official manual. It is by no means comprehensive. If i have made a mistake (I'm sure there will be one in there if you look hard enough) feel free to flame me until i fix it :D
1.5 Common pitfalls of the first time machinima maker
Pitfall 1: Not using the in game movie maker camera splines
There are many 'first try' videos out there with people trying to control the camera manually. Don't do this. It looks awful and jerky you have access to camera splines, use them.
Pitfall 2: Not turning the in game HUD off
F10 is your friend. It will turn off the HUD and make things look a lot nicer. F6 will turn off the camera splines if you are using those as well.
Pitfall 3: Not using the in game movie maker to record your sequence
The in game movie maker is special in that as soon as you start recording it will turn all your graphics to maximum and record frame by frame. This will give you a far better result then anyone could achieve with fraps.
Pitfall 4: Clipping through terrain / buildings / other units
It does look bad and for a minor adjustment in the camera spline it is worth fixing.
Advanced Section:
Using Adobe Premier Pro 1.5 and Sony Sound Forge 8
This section comes from my work on "Ambush at Pine Valley". I am assuming you have messed around with the in game movie maker and Virtual Dub. I finally got the in game compressor working but i have been happy enough with the results that i get from using uncompressed video until the final render that i have kept using uncompressed video output from the in game movie maker.
Premier Pro 1.5
This will not be an exhausting tutorial, merely an example of my workflow in order to give you something to work with and learn from.
Step 1: Create a new project. Set the resolution to your screen resolution that you are recording at.
Step 2: Run the output video from WiC through Virtual Dub in order to fix the index block problem. Save them as uncompressed AVIs in a working folder. Once this is done you can delete the original WiC output as you will most likely need the space unless you have a terabyte to work with.
Step 3: Import the videos from the working folder into PP (Premier Pro).
Step 4: Create a new "Bin" (Everyone else calls them folders but meh) and put your raw videos there. Note that renaming and deleting here will not affect the files on your computer, only in PP.
Step 5: Drag your first video from the project area into the monitor area (The left one of the two video screens that appear on the default workspace).
Step 6: Determine the "In" and "Out" points (The little left and right curly brackets) for that shot. Once it is done click and drag on that video and place it back in the project area. This creates a copy of it within PP. I strongly suggest you put these in a separate bin of their own and when you have created each "Shot" then rename it as well.
Step 7: Once you have all your shots sort them out in a linear fashion as to the order in which you want them to appear in your movie. Select all the shots involved and look at the bottom of the project window for the little button with three rectangles with the tool tip "Add to sequence". When you click this a window will come up asking how you wanted to add these. The default should be acceptable but just read it in case you have need of any of the settings in this window. Your shots are now added to the sequence. You can play this in the right monitor window.
If you need to get game sounds from WiC i suggest you skip ahead and come back to this next part later
Step 8: Import your audio and use the monitor system in much the same way (Instead of video, the audio waveform will be shown) and add them to the sequence. I suggest doing this manually by dragging directly from the project window into the sequence bar.
Step 9: You have finished making your movie in PP. Now all you need to do is render it. Go to File -> Export -> Movie. Make sure you have nothing selected on the sequence bar when you do this or it will try to export just that selection. A save file dialogue box comes up and there is a settings button where you can modify the codec that you want to use and resolutions, ect... which were the settings you created when you first made the file. If you don't need to change this you can just hit save and watch your movie render.
A little while later....
Some more time has passed....
Still waiting....
Will this ever finish.....
My dog can draw faster then this....
DONE!
Enjoy.
Sound Forge 8 and WiC
I strongly STRONGLY suggest you have WiC in a windowed mode when doing this. Since you have already done the video the screen resolution is of no consequence, so I recommend turning your graphics down to minimise and glitches that could occur so you have the smoothest sound possible.
Step 1: Go to the speaker in your task bar on the bottom right and double click it. Click "Options" -> "Properties". Change the radio button (The little round tick box that you can only ever select one of...) to Recording. If that is greyed out you may need to change your mixing device in the top combo box to your input device. I have a really stupid integrated system on my desktop at the moment and so I resorted to Plan F which was getting a stereo 3.5 mm male to male plug and running that lead between my line out and line in. Stupid idea, but it worked.
Step 2: Start SF and create a new recording. Set the sample rate at 42,000 Hz the bit depth at 16 and the channels to stereo.
Step 3: Click the Record button (Or Ctrl + R). Make sure the monitor check box is not ticked.
Step 4: Open WiC (Or alt tab to it) and open the camera file for the scene you want to record. I found that by keeping good documentation throughout the filming process it made going back through to do audio a lot less painful. Queue up WiC and pause the replay about 5 seconds or so before the bit you want to record.
Step 5: Press the Record button in SF.
Step 6: Alt tab back to WiC and resume the replay at the normal speed. When you have recorded all the audio you need alt tab back to SF and stop the recording.
Step 7: Save the new audio file (Probably as an MP3).
Step 8: Rinse and Repeat.
The Codec and You: Video Codecs / Compressors
What is a codec?
Since videos are made up of anywhere from 24 - 60 frames a second and in a digital format each one of those frames would be represented by a PNG or whatever image the uncompressed system uses. The aim of a codec is to reduce the size of the file by altering the way in which the video is represented. A basic codec can be seen as using the first frame as a reference and from then on only recording any information that has changed from that first reference frame. After a certain amount of frames the codec makes a new keyframe and starts again.
What codec should i use?
Whether you are going to put your video on Stage 6, YouTube or just host it somewhere the most widely used format is DivX. The current version at the time of writing is 6.7.
What about the in-game compressor?
Yes you can use this by running the game in online only mode. If you run it in normal mode it will crash. I strongly suggest you don’t use this. This will slow down your movie recording quite significantly and since you will be editing the movie later and probably re-encoding it again later you will loose quality.
What settings should I use in DivX when I encode?
Bit Rate
This depends greatly on the final resolution you will be distributing the file in, the target file size and quality desired. I suggest you go and download a bitrate calculator, this one is designed for working out bitrates for putting videos on CDs but it will give you a rough idea if you have a target file size and a duration.
Bits and Bytes
This is rather important. They are two different things and sometimes get used interchangeably by people who don't know any better. A Byte is made up of 8 (Eight) bits. Most people talk about files in terms of MegaBytes, but talk about data rates in terms of Bits. In DivX the numbers used are in KiloBits (1000 Bits). Sorry had to include that part for people who may get confused.
Manual Bit Rate Calculations
Let my start off by clarifying that bit rate is not dependant on the resolution that you are going to be using. However the higher the resolution you use the higher the bitrate will need to be to maintain the same quality.
The formula: BitRate (KiloBits / second) = Size of the file (KiloBits) / Duration (Seconds)
Naturally some grade 6 maths will help you get anything you want from this. I normally set myself a target file size and knowing the duration of my video I work towards that.
Encoding Type
DivX has multiple ways of encoding but I will focus on single and multi-pass encoding. Why bother with multiple passes…Simply encoding is a balance between time spent encoding and quality. The more time you spend encoding the better the quality your movie will be. When you are doing drafts a single pass DivX just to get a preview of the final sample is sufficient but when you are doing a final product you really should be doing a multi-pass encode.
How do I do a multi-pass DivX encode?
In virtual dub with your movie open…Go to video -> Compressor -> Select DivX and press configure -> Set the bitrate as mentioned earlier -> Make sure quality fader is at 10 -> In the combo box select Multipass - 1st pass -> Press Ok -> Ok -> File -> Save as AVI *Make sure you tick the add to batch mode so I can execute later tick box -> Name it something like "Movie pass 1.avi" -> Press Save
For the second pass repeat the process above changing the DivX combo box to Multipass - Nth pass and make the file name "Movie pass 2.avi"
When that is done go to File -> Job Control -> Start.
Let it do its thing.
The first pass is unusable and can be deleted when the second pass is created. The second pass file is the one you want to use.
YouTube Community: http://www.youtube.com/group/worldinconflict
WicBase: http://wicbase.com/wicmovies.php
Menu
Basic Tutorial
1.1 Making a WiC movie
1.2 Setting up the movie maker
1.3 Using the movie maker
1.4 I've done that / I read the movie maker manual but i want post production help (Basic Virtual Dub Tutorial)
1.5 Common pitfalls of the first time machinima maker
Advanced Section
2.1 Premier Pro 1.5 (Basic editing and exporting)
2.2 Sound Forge 8 (Getting game sounds from WiC)
2.3 The Codec and You: Video Codecs / Compressors (What DivX options should I use?)[/i]
For Vista Users: Read First
Vista requires you to set permissions in order to save camera paths. Ensure you are running WiC with administrator rights. To do this right click the WiC Shortcut and say Run as administrator. In addition you will need to allow WiC to write to its program files folder. I am not sure on how this is done exactly but I would assume you have some properties you can edit on the folder itself to enable this. This needs to be done in addition to the instructions below.
Making a WiC movie
So you want to make a World in Conflict movie? Not sure where to start? Well keep reading.
Firstly, get an idea, what is your movie going to be about? Then go out there and get some replays that you can use to make this movie. At the moment you can not script units so the only real stage you have are real live games or if you have some time and people to help you out you could go and make a private server and stuff around on that.
Setting up the Movie Maker
You have your replays? Good. It's time to get to work. Download the manual from this link. Now you can ignore it... until you get into trouble. You will need a wicautoexec file in your My Documents/World in Conflict directory to bind the time control keys and the instructions for that are in the manual...What's that? You CBF? Oh alright i uploaded mine here. Just paste that in your WiC directory inside your My Documents. Once you have done that make sure you have your console mode enabled on your WiC shortcut. You haven't? Right click the shortcut you use to get into WiC and at the end of the target line type -console. It should look like this
"C:\Program Files\Sierra Entertainment\World in Conflict\wic.exe" -console
Sidenote: This has to be the biggest 'psych' from Massive as the broadcasting tool was released as a small zip file with an executable file and a few other things in it a few weeks prior and we were kept in suspense waiting for this tool only to be told "Oh you have had it the whole time...didn't you know? :P". I was ROFLing when i found out.
Using the Movie Maker
Load WiC and run the replay from the multiplayer menu. Make a mental note of which demo you are using you will have to load it several times. Once you are in the replay hit the ~ (tilda) button twice it brings up a console you can type in. Type in Cincamnew <filename>. Obviously you replace <filename> with what you want to call your camera track file. I suggest you name it something like 84-1 this is for demo 84 and is the first revision.
Now we finally get to the fun part. Use the ctrl+n key to fast fast fast forward to the point in time where you want to film, it goes at 40x speed so if you have a slow computer i suggest you don't look directly at the action, if you need to watch what's going on use ctrl+b or ctrl+v for slower speeds. When you see what you want to video i suggest you pause the playback (ctrl+z) and put the camera where you want it and press the "i" key. This creates a camera looking where you are looking right now. You can then resume normal playback and lets say you are tracking some units moving down a road at a constant speed. You let the video play out for 10 seconds, pause it, then put the camera where the units are now and hit "i" again. During playback the camera will move from point A to point B over that 10 second period.
You are now happy with what you are done. Hit F8 to save the camera path. Exit to main menu and reload the replay. Reload your camera path by opening the console and typing "Cincamload <filename>". Fast forward to just before when you set the camera to start moving then reduce to normal speed. Just before WiC takes control of your camera hit "F10" and "F6", this will remove the GUI and camera splines. When WiC takes control of the camera hit the "." button.
This will begin recording. You will notice your computer slow down and start lagging badly. Do not panic...much. This is about as normal as Black Mesa having a training accident. The inbuilt game recorder turns all your settings up and records frame by frame, not in real time. When you are done recording hit the "." button again. Your new video is now in your install folder for WiC (Most likely in the Program Files\Sierra Entertainment path).
I've done that / I read the movie maker manual but i want post production help
From here i use a program called Virtual Dub. Get the latest release build here if you haven't already. Then open your movie that you just made in WiC. If you are in the same situation as me and could not get the compressor to work then this is most likely a large file and may be missing header information. Virtual Dub will repair it.
Lets just say you want to put the video on YouTube. In Virtual Dub go to Video -> Filters -> Add.. -> Resize -> Ok -> Set the width to 320 and height to 240 and the filter mode to "Precise Bilinear" -> Press Ok -> Press Ok again. Your output window on the right is now much smaller. Now we set the codec. Go to Video -> Compression -> Select the DivX codec (If you do not see the DivX codec in the list go and get it here. Then attempt the process again). For those who do see the codec, select it and hit Ok. Click Audio and select "No Audio" (The inbuilt movie maker does not record sound, you'll have to do that yourself if you want in-game sounds). You are now ready to compress your new movie. Go to File -> Save as AVI... -> Give it a name and put it somewhere you will find it -> Press Ok.
Hint: I highly recommend working on your movie at a higher resolution then what you intend to produce it at. I (stupidly) just worked at 320x240 in premiere for my movie and now i regret it as it requires further stuffing around to get a better version to put on stage 6. When you finish making your movie then you can resize it.
That's it! You have just made your first WiC movie. Go ahead and upload it to YouTube. Join the "World in Conflict" group here so we can all see your video.
Current convention for WiC movies:
1. Upload a version to YouTube
2. Add it to the WiC Community listed above
3. Upload a higher resolution version to Stage 6 and put that as a comment in your YouTube video and add it to the new Stage 6 WiC channel.
Quick Tips / I didn't read a thing you wrote earlier:
1. Set your resolution to 1024x768 or lower when you are recording, you are probably just going to downsize it anyway.
2. If you are unable to use the compressor like me then you will be limited by the 4gig file size. This translates to about 40 seconds of video so you will have to plan your scenes around that limitation for the time being.
3. Read the manual. It has more advanced functions in it and will help after your first few tries.
4. Start small. Don't try and record a feature film right from the start, you will most likely run into problems.
5. Upload your video to YouTube and join the WiC group as mentioned above it will help keep all the videos easily accessible.
I made this as a quick end-to-end guide for people with less experience with video editing. It is only a minimal approach to making a video and only intended to supplement what was written in the official manual. It is by no means comprehensive. If i have made a mistake (I'm sure there will be one in there if you look hard enough) feel free to flame me until i fix it :D
1.5 Common pitfalls of the first time machinima maker
Pitfall 1: Not using the in game movie maker camera splines
There are many 'first try' videos out there with people trying to control the camera manually. Don't do this. It looks awful and jerky you have access to camera splines, use them.
Pitfall 2: Not turning the in game HUD off
F10 is your friend. It will turn off the HUD and make things look a lot nicer. F6 will turn off the camera splines if you are using those as well.
Pitfall 3: Not using the in game movie maker to record your sequence
The in game movie maker is special in that as soon as you start recording it will turn all your graphics to maximum and record frame by frame. This will give you a far better result then anyone could achieve with fraps.
Pitfall 4: Clipping through terrain / buildings / other units
It does look bad and for a minor adjustment in the camera spline it is worth fixing.
Advanced Section:
Using Adobe Premier Pro 1.5 and Sony Sound Forge 8
This section comes from my work on "Ambush at Pine Valley". I am assuming you have messed around with the in game movie maker and Virtual Dub. I finally got the in game compressor working but i have been happy enough with the results that i get from using uncompressed video until the final render that i have kept using uncompressed video output from the in game movie maker.
Premier Pro 1.5
This will not be an exhausting tutorial, merely an example of my workflow in order to give you something to work with and learn from.
Step 1: Create a new project. Set the resolution to your screen resolution that you are recording at.
Step 2: Run the output video from WiC through Virtual Dub in order to fix the index block problem. Save them as uncompressed AVIs in a working folder. Once this is done you can delete the original WiC output as you will most likely need the space unless you have a terabyte to work with.
Step 3: Import the videos from the working folder into PP (Premier Pro).
Step 4: Create a new "Bin" (Everyone else calls them folders but meh) and put your raw videos there. Note that renaming and deleting here will not affect the files on your computer, only in PP.
Step 5: Drag your first video from the project area into the monitor area (The left one of the two video screens that appear on the default workspace).
Step 6: Determine the "In" and "Out" points (The little left and right curly brackets) for that shot. Once it is done click and drag on that video and place it back in the project area. This creates a copy of it within PP. I strongly suggest you put these in a separate bin of their own and when you have created each "Shot" then rename it as well.
Step 7: Once you have all your shots sort them out in a linear fashion as to the order in which you want them to appear in your movie. Select all the shots involved and look at the bottom of the project window for the little button with three rectangles with the tool tip "Add to sequence". When you click this a window will come up asking how you wanted to add these. The default should be acceptable but just read it in case you have need of any of the settings in this window. Your shots are now added to the sequence. You can play this in the right monitor window.
If you need to get game sounds from WiC i suggest you skip ahead and come back to this next part later
Step 8: Import your audio and use the monitor system in much the same way (Instead of video, the audio waveform will be shown) and add them to the sequence. I suggest doing this manually by dragging directly from the project window into the sequence bar.
Step 9: You have finished making your movie in PP. Now all you need to do is render it. Go to File -> Export -> Movie. Make sure you have nothing selected on the sequence bar when you do this or it will try to export just that selection. A save file dialogue box comes up and there is a settings button where you can modify the codec that you want to use and resolutions, ect... which were the settings you created when you first made the file. If you don't need to change this you can just hit save and watch your movie render.
A little while later....
Some more time has passed....
Still waiting....
Will this ever finish.....
My dog can draw faster then this....
DONE!
Enjoy.
Sound Forge 8 and WiC
I strongly STRONGLY suggest you have WiC in a windowed mode when doing this. Since you have already done the video the screen resolution is of no consequence, so I recommend turning your graphics down to minimise and glitches that could occur so you have the smoothest sound possible.
Step 1: Go to the speaker in your task bar on the bottom right and double click it. Click "Options" -> "Properties". Change the radio button (The little round tick box that you can only ever select one of...) to Recording. If that is greyed out you may need to change your mixing device in the top combo box to your input device. I have a really stupid integrated system on my desktop at the moment and so I resorted to Plan F which was getting a stereo 3.5 mm male to male plug and running that lead between my line out and line in. Stupid idea, but it worked.
Step 2: Start SF and create a new recording. Set the sample rate at 42,000 Hz the bit depth at 16 and the channels to stereo.
Step 3: Click the Record button (Or Ctrl + R). Make sure the monitor check box is not ticked.
Step 4: Open WiC (Or alt tab to it) and open the camera file for the scene you want to record. I found that by keeping good documentation throughout the filming process it made going back through to do audio a lot less painful. Queue up WiC and pause the replay about 5 seconds or so before the bit you want to record.
Step 5: Press the Record button in SF.
Step 6: Alt tab back to WiC and resume the replay at the normal speed. When you have recorded all the audio you need alt tab back to SF and stop the recording.
Step 7: Save the new audio file (Probably as an MP3).
Step 8: Rinse and Repeat.
The Codec and You: Video Codecs / Compressors
What is a codec?
Since videos are made up of anywhere from 24 - 60 frames a second and in a digital format each one of those frames would be represented by a PNG or whatever image the uncompressed system uses. The aim of a codec is to reduce the size of the file by altering the way in which the video is represented. A basic codec can be seen as using the first frame as a reference and from then on only recording any information that has changed from that first reference frame. After a certain amount of frames the codec makes a new keyframe and starts again.
What codec should i use?
Whether you are going to put your video on Stage 6, YouTube or just host it somewhere the most widely used format is DivX. The current version at the time of writing is 6.7.
What about the in-game compressor?
Yes you can use this by running the game in online only mode. If you run it in normal mode it will crash. I strongly suggest you don’t use this. This will slow down your movie recording quite significantly and since you will be editing the movie later and probably re-encoding it again later you will loose quality.
What settings should I use in DivX when I encode?
Bit Rate
This depends greatly on the final resolution you will be distributing the file in, the target file size and quality desired. I suggest you go and download a bitrate calculator, this one is designed for working out bitrates for putting videos on CDs but it will give you a rough idea if you have a target file size and a duration.
Bits and Bytes
This is rather important. They are two different things and sometimes get used interchangeably by people who don't know any better. A Byte is made up of 8 (Eight) bits. Most people talk about files in terms of MegaBytes, but talk about data rates in terms of Bits. In DivX the numbers used are in KiloBits (1000 Bits). Sorry had to include that part for people who may get confused.
Manual Bit Rate Calculations
Let my start off by clarifying that bit rate is not dependant on the resolution that you are going to be using. However the higher the resolution you use the higher the bitrate will need to be to maintain the same quality.
The formula: BitRate (KiloBits / second) = Size of the file (KiloBits) / Duration (Seconds)
Naturally some grade 6 maths will help you get anything you want from this. I normally set myself a target file size and knowing the duration of my video I work towards that.
Encoding Type
DivX has multiple ways of encoding but I will focus on single and multi-pass encoding. Why bother with multiple passes…Simply encoding is a balance between time spent encoding and quality. The more time you spend encoding the better the quality your movie will be. When you are doing drafts a single pass DivX just to get a preview of the final sample is sufficient but when you are doing a final product you really should be doing a multi-pass encode.
How do I do a multi-pass DivX encode?
In virtual dub with your movie open…Go to video -> Compressor -> Select DivX and press configure -> Set the bitrate as mentioned earlier -> Make sure quality fader is at 10 -> In the combo box select Multipass - 1st pass -> Press Ok -> Ok -> File -> Save as AVI *Make sure you tick the add to batch mode so I can execute later tick box -> Name it something like "Movie pass 1.avi" -> Press Save
For the second pass repeat the process above changing the DivX combo box to Multipass - Nth pass and make the file name "Movie pass 2.avi"
When that is done go to File -> Job Control -> Start.
Let it do its thing.
The first pass is unusable and can be deleted when the second pass is created. The second pass file is the one you want to use.
[Edited 18 time(s). Last edit at Jun 14, 2008 01:44 by [TEA]Nukelear.]
Thanks for this! *bookmarked*
As soon as I get my new video card and can really crank the visual settings up, I'm not going to attempt making any Academy award winning movies... but as soon as I get my new baby and holidays come around... BAM... consider me part of the movie making scene!
BTW, Nukelear your "How I learned to stop worrying about TA and love the bomb" movie is the only one ive seen so far that uses the Movie Making tool. A real pity...
Loved it though. You working on anything else? <3
As soon as I get my new video card and can really crank the visual settings up, I'm not going to attempt making any Academy award winning movies... but as soon as I get my new baby and holidays come around... BAM... consider me part of the movie making scene!
BTW, Nukelear your "How I learned to stop worrying about TA and love the bomb" movie is the only one ive seen so far that uses the Movie Making tool. A real pity...
Loved it though. You working on anything else? <3
very nice indeed
however i have one suggestion.
i would propose to use stage6.divx.com instead of youtube - most people have the divx codec installed anyway and stage6 allows a MUCH better quality (due to larger files) than youtube does.
however i have one suggestion.
i would propose to use stage6.divx.com instead of youtube - most people have the divx codec installed anyway and stage6 allows a MUCH better quality (due to larger files) than youtube does.
Quote from GexMax:
very nice indeed
however i have one suggestion.
i would propose to use stage6.divx.com instead of youtube - most people have the divx codec installed anyway and stage6 allows a MUCH better quality (due to larger files) than youtube does.
This was suggested in the old thread in the general forum but no one had the karma to create a WiC group. It was roughly agreed that we would use YouTube and just link to stage6 in a comment for the higher quality videos. I'll be happy to use both when we can get the community set up in Stage6.
Edit: Added it in to the main post. I do like how stage 6 say the size of the video. Any idea how the karma works? Maybe i can stat pad my way to the top of that too :P
[Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at Oct 31, 2007 15:41 by -=ŠÞ=-Nukelear.]
Plz answer on this question.
I have put the Text document with the different commands for pause, play forward and so on where they say it should be.
But it still don't works...
When i for example want to pause to set up the camerapath it don't pause and continues to play the replay.
And the second question.
Is there any possibility to see both sides in the replays since me and my clan are going to make a serious movie in the future (Red Apocalypse Movie)...
I have put the Text document with the different commands for pause, play forward and so on where they say it should be.
But it still don't works...
When i for example want to pause to set up the camerapath it don't pause and continues to play the replay.
And the second question.
Is there any possibility to see both sides in the replays since me and my clan are going to make a serious movie in the future (Red Apocalypse Movie)...
hmm it seems as if i screwed up virtual dub...
i record the movie just like normal - load the avi file into virtualdub, use all the settings you write above (which worked just fine in the first try)
but now i get this error message:
if i changed something i wouldnt know what... it just doesnt work anymore (neither with dr.divx btw)
the result of the first try can be seen here
anyone got an idea why virtualdub is behaving like this now?
[edit]
if i save it uncompressed it works... so its just the divx codec... not really much to get on with though...
[edit2]
nevermind... a reboot somehow solved my problem... must love windows *sighs*
i record the movie just like normal - load the avi file into virtualdub, use all the settings you write above (which worked just fine in the first try)
but now i get this error message:
if i changed something i wouldnt know what... it just doesnt work anymore (neither with dr.divx btw)
the result of the first try can be seen here
anyone got an idea why virtualdub is behaving like this now?
[edit]
if i save it uncompressed it works... so its just the divx codec... not really much to get on with though...
[edit2]
nevermind... a reboot somehow solved my problem... must love windows *sighs*
[Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at Oct 31, 2007 20:32 by GexMax.]
@GexMax would you tell me which version do you have? Normal, Uncut or Collectors edition?
[gegen-synchro.de]
"Das größte Problem der Iraker ist der Rentenbeitragssatz im Jahr 2050." Volker Pispers
"In Deutschland gilt derjenige als viel gefährlicher, der auf den Schmutz hinweist als der, der ihn gemacht hat." Carl von Ossietzky
i do not get the compressor running. I got Uncut too.
[gegen-synchro.de]
"Das größte Problem der Iraker ist der Rentenbeitragssatz im Jahr 2050." Volker Pispers
"In Deutschland gilt derjenige als viel gefährlicher, der auf den Schmutz hinweist als der, der ihn gemacht hat." Carl von Ossietzky
Quote from -=Ptek=-KillerCobra:
Plz answer on this question.
I have put the Text document with the different commands for pause, play forward and so on where they say it should be.
But it still don't works...
When i for example want to pause to set up the camerapath it don't pause and continues to play the replay.
And the second question.
Is there any possibility to see both sides in the replays since me and my clan are going to make a serious movie in the future (Red Apocalypse Movie)...
I have run against this problem and never really found a concrete solution to it yet. It may require wait tags put into the camera path file. When you are recording the camera path it splits up the time evenly so the camera is always moving even if you left time for a pause.
No. The only way that can happen is if you were a spectator when it was recorded.
Quote from GexMax:
[edit]
if i save it uncompressed it works... so its just the divx codec... not really much to get on with though...
[edit2]
nevermind... a reboot somehow solved my problem... must love windows *sighs*
That's odd. So you can get your internal WiC compressor to actually work?
He didn't get the internal compressor works. I was on IRC and chatted with him.
[gegen-synchro.de]
"Das größte Problem der Iraker ist der Rentenbeitragssatz im Jahr 2050." Volker Pispers
"In Deutschland gilt derjenige als viel gefährlicher, der auf den Schmutz hinweist als der, der ihn gemacht hat." Carl von Ossietzky
Quote from -=ŠÞ=-Nukelear:Quote from GexMax:
[edit]
if i save it uncompressed it works... so its just the divx codec... not really much to get on with though...
[edit2]
nevermind... a reboot somehow solved my problem... must love windows *sighs*
That's odd. So you can get your internal WiC compressor to actually work?
sorry for the confusion i meant the reboot solved the virtual dub problem NOT the ingame compressor problem :)
So, does the movie maker render every scene at the highest possibility setting your machine can handle?
Meaning that even if I played the game on the lowest setting, it'll still be recorded and rendered at the highest setting that my computer can support (ie, play without shadows and craters and other cool effects and the movie maker puts those in the move?)
Meaning that even if I played the game on the lowest setting, it'll still be recorded and rendered at the highest setting that my computer can support (ie, play without shadows and craters and other cool effects and the movie maker puts those in the move?)
Quote from chaplain118 (demo):
So, does the movie maker render every scene at the highest possibility setting your machine can handle?
Meaning that even if I played the game on the lowest setting, it'll still be recorded and rendered at the highest setting that my computer can support (ie, play without shadows and craters and other cool effects and the movie maker puts those in the move?)
Well, here's what the horse's mouth said in this post: [www.massgate.net]
Quote from [MSV]Mir:
You cant record videos with higher details than your computer can handle. What you can do is recording videos at higher settings than your computer can handle at a playable framerate.
Since the video recorder will always keep the correct time between each frame it doesn’t matter if it takes your computer a few seconds to render each frame (except that it will take a long time to record the video).
So yeah, you can go beyond what you normally play at, but there are still limits to what your computer can handle before it crashes. I usually play on medium with a few custom settings. When I record, I increase settings to high. I offset the demands on my system, however, by reducing resolution to 800x600 and going to windowed mode (system handles better this way and since the largest size my movies ultimately will have is 640x480, the lower res is fine).
its not that much of a difference but i would always try to stick to "normal" formats like pal or ntsc because that can make life easier when using more "advanced" editing programs like vegas or premiere - for example i always used 720x576 in the program so you might rather want to use at least 800x600
[Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at Nov 04, 2007 13:57 by GexMax.]
Firstly, Thank you Nukelear for a great post.
Any ideas on how to best get the ingame audio?
Is it posible to grab the FX only?
Movie n00bie.
Quote from -=ŠÞ=-Nukelear:
(The inbuilt movie maker does not record sound; you'll have to do that yourself if you want in-game sounds)
Any ideas on how to best get the ingame audio?
Is it posible to grab the FX only?
Movie n00bie.
Quote from [N^Cn]turtle:
Firstly, Thank you Nukelear for a great post.
Quote from -=ŠÞ=-Nukelear:
(The inbuilt movie maker does not record sound; you'll have to do that yourself if you want in-game sounds)
Any ideas on how to best get the ingame audio?
Is it posible to grab the FX only?
Movie n00bie.
I have been spending a lot of time lately on my own movie in which i had to overcome this problem and others. I will be updating my first post with an advanced section for advice on using Adobe Premier and Sony Sound Forge in conjunction with Virtual Dub and the in-game movie maker tool. It will be up shortly since I am writing this while i wait for my movie to finish its final render.
Updated the post with a menu and an advanced section including a section on how to use DivX and making a multipass encoding in Virtual Dub.
Yet another update with manual bit rate calculations for those who want to be precise about file sizes and quality.
Very nice Nukelear!
Thanks for sharing with the rest of the community!
Thanks for sharing with the rest of the community!
Community Developer
Ubisoft Massive
Umm I don't know if anyone mentioned this before... but the WiC compressor records sound as well, so I don't understand why you'd need Sound Forge?
I can't help me, but I think i'm too stupid for this tool. I've made everything from the tutorial but nothing works.
I don't see any paths, anyway I don't even know how to create one. Would be cool if some one could bring up a simple but detailed tutorial or help me private with that tool. I have so mutch ideas and I want to bring them in. :(
I don't see any paths, anyway I don't even know how to create one. Would be cool if some one could bring up a simple but detailed tutorial or help me private with that tool. I have so mutch ideas and I want to bring them in. :(
Quote from [KSK]Cassiopeia:
I can't help me, but I think i'm too stupid for this tool. I've made everything from the tutorial but nothing works.
I don't see any paths, anyway I don't even know how to create one. Would be cool if some one could bring up a simple but detailed tutorial or help me private with that tool. I have so mutch ideas and I want to bring them in. :(
Try to list what you did in step by step points.
A crude way to make sure you have the movie maker working properly is to just start a replay, bring up the console (hit tilda twice), type cincamnew test, hit tilda again to close the console, press i, move the camera a bit, press i again. You should see to camera points joined with a spline.
Quote
Umm I don't know if anyone mentioned this before... but the WiC compressor records sound as well, so I don't understand why you'd need Sound Forge?
Really? I read in the documentation that it couldn't so you'll have to enlighten me as to how you did this. Is there an option to just record audio only through one of the compressors?
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