Emulator Resources / Making AVI / FCEU / Linux

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This page explains how to take a FCM file and convert it to a TASvideos.org quality AVI file suitable for publicaton.

This was written by me, Bisqwit, and explains my method. There are certainly many ways to accomplish the same outcome.

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Common instructions

First check out the common Linux-specific instructions.

Acquiring and compiling FCEU

  1. Download Bisqwit's patched FCE-ultra source code from here: http://bisqwit.iki.fi/src/fceu-rerecording-bisqwit-linux-snapshot-2008-02-20.tar.bz2
  2. Extract source code in a directory of your choice.
    • Such as $HOME/nes/fceu.
  3. Compile fceu. (cd src; make)
    • If it complains of missing dependencies (such as libraries that were not found), fulfill those dependencies and try again. I know it requires libgd2, for instance.

Note: This version of FCEU works on both 32-bit and 64-bit platforms.

Using this version of FCEU

  1. Copy the FCEU binary to the directory where you want to use FCEU. Such as $HOME/nes/fceu.
  2. Create the script for running FCEU for the initial encoding pass. Example below. 

   #!/bin/sh
   #
   EXE=~/nes/fceu/fce
   #
   # Which file do you want to place your audio and video in.
   VIDEO_RESULT="`pwd`/test0.avi"
   #
   SL="-slstartp 0 -slendp 239 -slstart 8 -slend 231 -no8lim"
   #
   #
   VIDEO="-ovc x264 -x264encopts crf=0:me=dia:turbo=2:frameref=4"
   AUDIO="-oac mp3lame -lameopts mode=3:preset=60:aq=0"
   VIDEO="$VIDEO -vf decimate=10:0:0:1 -nocache"
   VIDEO="mencoder \
         - -o '$VIDEO_RESULT' \
         -mc 0 -aspect 4/3 \
         NESVSETTINGS \
         $VIDEO \
         $AUDIO \
         &> mencoder.log"
   #
   rm -f s.log
   $EXE $SL -xscale 1 -yscale 1 -pal 0 -soundq 1 -sound 48000 \
         -no8lim 1 \
         -videolog "$VIDEO" \
         -cpalette ASQUIRE6.PAL \
         -nothrottle 0 \
         $*
Call this script as RUN. Needless to say, you only need to create it once.

To create the initial encoding of the movie, simply execute this script like this: 

   ./RUN -play moviefile.fcm romfile.nes
The emulator will execute and produce a test0.avi file. You can stop the emulator at the time of your choosing by hitting ESC; this terminates the recording. The emulator window does not need to be "on top"; task switching is ok.

For the the instructions of what to do after the initial encoding, read the common Linux-specific instructions.

Encoding logo

This version of the FCEU patch uses the nesvideos-piece mechanism for embedding the logo animation into the movie. It works by reading a sequence of PNG files from a predetermined location and overlaying them with the movie image.

For FCEU recordings, which are of 256x224 resolution, it accesses the files from: /home/bisqwit/povray/nesvlogov5/logo_256_224_fXXX.png, where XXX is the frame number. (For PAL, the resolution is 256x240 instead of 256x224.) The path /home/bisqwit/povray/nesvlogov5/ is hardcoded within the program. To change it, simply edit nesvideos-piece.cc, find the setting, change it and recompile FCEU.

The logo timing is determined by the following settings in nesvideos-piece.cc 

   #define LOGO_LENGTH_OVERLAP (6.3-LOGO_LENGTH_HEADER)
   #define LOGO_LENGTH_HEADER (1.0)
This instructs the emulator that the total length of the logo animation is up to 6.3 seconds, and that the first 1.0 seconds of it will be displayed before the FCEU movie even loads. The rest of it will be overlayed with the FCEU movie.

Get Firefox!EmulatorResources/MakingAVI/FCEU/Linux last edited by Bisqwit on 2008-03-19 16:37:45
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