Dump the video

Downloads

• Lagarith Installer
• UtVideo Installer

Emulator settings

Codec settings

• Check Enable Null Frames
• Check Use Multithreading
• Select Mode: RGB (Default)

• Select UtVideo RGB VCM in codec list and configure it
• Set Intra-frame prediction type to Predict Median

Set up the package

• audio encoding
• video encoding
• audio and video muxing
• YouTube stream uploading

Downloads

• TASEncodingPackage with all encoding dependencies:
  • 64-bit version
  • Code repository
• AviSynth+ installer
• VirtualDub portable
• Notepad++ installer for adjusting the script
• AviSynth synthax highlighter (paste %AppData%\Notepad++ in windows explorer address line and put the file there)

Your files

• logo.png - standard definition
• hdlogo.png - high definition
• logonds.png - standard definition for NDS
• logohdnds.png - high definition for NDS
• logoGrey.png - high definition for VirtualBoy

• See Encoding Guide / Logo for what should be on your logo. Note also that your logo must be approved by a Senior Publisher.

YouTube upload

Adjust the AviSynth script

• If you don't have the Visual C++ Redistributable installed, one of the scripts won't load.

Multiple segments

AVISource("movie.avi", "movie_02.avi")

Movie length

• If the game restarts, select the frame right before restart
• If the music stops playing at some point, where nothing new is shown visually, pick the frame when it stops playing.
• If the music loops, and the picture does not change, find the frame when the first full loop ends

Subtitles

Movie info

• The game name
• The branch name, if applicable (paste inside 'such quotes', so that the result looks like that "'branch'")
• The Author's name
• The completion time
• The rerecord count

• Always double-check the game names put into submissions. Always apply our standards to them.

Timing and placement

• subFF is the first frame for subtitles. Use the first frame of the first level for that (after the fade-in ends), whenever they don't cover important game elements (in particular, the player character), when a countdown has ended (usually on "Go!") or whenever they are not visible during fade transitions for the entire duration.
• subEntry is how many subtitle entries (from 2 up to 4) are going to be present in the encode.
• subYpc is in how many percent of the video height to shift the subtitles down by. Use 0 to have them on top, other positions must be figured out at previews.
• subAlign gives the alignment relative to the encode width (which is automated depending on which align you use). 8 aligns to the center, 7 - to the left, 9 - to the right.
• subXpc is used when you need to push the subtitles away from the screen edge. Leave 0 if you align at the center.
• subFF2delay, subFF2delay2 and subFF2delay3 are used when you need to have a delay between subtitle entries.

• Always make sure that your subtitles don't cover any important in-game elements, action, overscan area or internal game borders (avoiding screen transitions is also a good habit). Adjust the timing and position if you have to. If unsure, ask in tasvideos chats (IRC or Discord), or send a private message to a Senior Publisher.

LWLibavVideoSource for tricky codecs

• Can decode anything that FFmpeg can, including sometimes-troublesome codecs like CamStudio and FFV1
• Doesn't care about bitness

• Harder to use
• Must build an index file
• Slower than an installed codec

How to use

1. Download LSMASHSource from the above link, and copy the 32- and 64- bit LSMASHSource.dll files to the appropriate plugin locations.
2. Instead of writing AviSource("file.avi") in your AviSynth script, you would write LWLibavVideoSource("file.avi", fpsnum=60000, fpsden=1001, format="RGB24").
   • You must supply accurate values for the fpsnum and fpsden parameters, or the filter will mess up the framerate. Check the dumped video's framerate and match it. For 59.94 fps NTSC video: fpsnum=60000, fpsden=1001. For 60.099 fps SNES video: fpsnum=60099, fpsden=1000. For 60 fps video: fpsnum=60 (you can leave out fpsden and it will default to 1).
   • VirtualDub/FFmpeg/x264 don't like LWLibavVideoSource's default format, so you will always need to supply the format parameter. "RGB24" is a good default to use as it will do a lossless, fast conversion.
3. The first time an AVS script with a call to LWLibavVideoSource gets executed, it will generated an index file for the source video with the extension .lwi.
   • If the script is loaded for the first time in VirtualDub, you will not see any progress meter and the program will simply appear to hang while the file is being generated. This could take an hour or more for 4K video!
   • You can instead run your script for the first time with ffprobe -hide_banner myscript.avs and you will get a progress indicator while the file is built.
4. Dub the source video's audio with AudioDub( WavSource("file.avi") ) as LWLibavVideoSource does not read any audio data.

Troubleshooting

• This index file needs to stay with the source file or the filter will have to regenerate it each time.
• AviSynth seems to decide at random that it's time to rebuild the index file for no good reason. To avoid this, always make a backup copy of the .lwi file immediately, and set the original to read-only.
• The index doesn't seem to like being copied between computers. If you are getting an error message stating that the video track of the file could not found, you may need to let the index file get rebuilt on the new computer.

Run global.bat

• Aspect ratio options
  • If you encode for a handheld console, type 1
  • If your console is intended for use with a CRT TV, type 2 (exception: Dolphin. Type 1 in this case.)
  • If your console is intended for use with an LCD TV, type 3
  • If you're encoding for a game that needs other aspect ratio (like multi-screen arcades), type 4 to enter the specific aspect ratio
• What encode do you want to do
  • Encode all in one flow (3) or choose a single method. Be ready to wait several hours for each encode.

Encode file names

• The game name should be concise, use common abbreviations (smb for Super Mario Bros.) and precedent when possible (chipdale instead of chipndale). Required.
• Add the region letter (j or e) if it is not USA (if USA version exists at all). Optional.
• Use -tas if it's a speedrun, otherwise use -playaround. Required.
• If it's not the first version of that game by the same author, add v2 (or any other appropriate number), otherwise avoid. Optional.
• Add the branch name only if it is not default. Note: when setting percentage, use p instead of %. Optional.
• Separate multiple authors names with a comma (,) or an underscore (_).
• Encode type is usually only needed if it's an alternate encode (e.g. camhack or slowed down encode)

battletoadsj-tasv3-1player-feos

Upload to Archive.org

• Go to https://archive.org/upload/ and drag'n'drop the file you are about to upload onto the gray area.
• The titles, as well as the item link, will be autofilled.
• In the Description field, provide the submission link
• Subject Tags: some words from the submission page title, or just tas.
• Select a specific collection from the pop-down list, if allowed: Speed Runs.
• You might also need to remove the additional metadata.

Catalogue the submission

Capture the screenshot

• Drag the lossless AVI to VirtualDub
• Find the frame that has the most intense action
• Press Ctrl + 1 and paste in standard Paint program.
• Save as PNG, file name can be any.
• Drag the file onto PNGOUT.EXE

Claiming

• Edit its text and select Publication Underway in the movie status drop-down list.
• Add a comment in the text under the horizontal ruler (4 minuses) like:

[user:feos]: Processing...

Publishing

• Always double-check the game names put into submissions. Always apply our standards to them.

• Set flags if any of them are appropriate.
• Type the movie file name, taking the name of encodes, just dropping away -tas/-playaround, and putting the author at the beginning:

feosv3-battletoadsj-1p

• Choose screenshot from your computer
• Put the direct link to downloadable encode from the Archive.org collection into the mirror site URL field.
• Put the YouTube HD stream link to the online-watching URL field.
• For the Description and categories tab, type in the movie number to be obsoleted (if it was decided by the judge), fill the description (1 paragraph about the game, 1 about how it was played in that TAS). If it obsoleted some movie, and the new time is actually shorter, you can calculate the frame difference yourself and manually create the module:

 This movie beats the [1000M|previous run] by [module:frames|amount=300|fps=ntsc] seconds

• If this run has commentary, add a note about it to the movie description under a ruler ----, telling the user their form, and how to access them.
• Add tags listed by the submission author. Still, don't copy them blindly, some physics-abusing tricks do not mean it is Heavy glitch abuse, the same is with Heavy luck manipulation.

Links

• Publisher role
• Publisher Guidelines
• Encoder Guidelines
• Encoding Checklist
• Screenshots
• Movie Tag Guidelines