It was discussed a while ago on this forum about the possibility of converting the runs into flash format for online viewing. The advantage of this is being able to watch movies instantly from anywhere. I've done a quick demo of this using one of my old runs here: http://fatedgames.6te.net/tal/k1.html. Of course, this is a quick demo so the interface isn't as cleaned up. I can encode further runs in this format and provide the hosting. Let me know if anyone is interested in this idea.
Joined: 7/12/2004
Posts: 146
Location: Dirty South, USA.
I'm going to suggest against newgrounds. It might be a good site if their advertisements didn't try to install spyware on your comp...
Anyways, that's very cool.
If for honesty, you want apologies, I don't sympathize.
Joined: 5/1/2004
Posts: 4096
Location: Rio, Brazil
what are the advantages of this over an avi of same quality that uses less bandwidth? because this is essentially an avi movie in a swf. what codec was used? sorenson?
edit: now i think it was just a sequence of gifs
what are the advantages of this over an avi of same quality that uses less bandwidth? because this is essentially an avi movie in a swf. what codec was used? sorenson?
edit: now i think it was just a sequence of gifs
it was done using Camtasia Studio, AFAIK.
The big advantage is that it starts immediately. AVIs usually are not streamable so you have to download the whole thing before you can watch it.
Philip
Camtasia? No wonder the framerate was dropped dramatically.
Before you start recording your "window-selected" movie, ther are options that needs to be set. When you set the Video Codecs to use, you can also select to set the framerate for recordings to 60fps. Very useful for games that must have 60fps to be seen properly.
Other than that, yes. I really LOVE the streaming method to view a movie. That way, you can see parts of it earlier and stuff. I'd like to see this being used on more movies.
glad you all like it. I was planning to start by encoding the "star" runs beginning with SMB.
Just don't forget the DISCLAIMER OF DEATH
lol, how could one forget :p
what codec was used? sorenson?
For this particular run, techsmith was used.
Camtasia? No wonder the framerate was dropped dramatically.
The framerate for this run was pretty good, since kung fu is a very basic game. I didn't record the screen or anything, I did a direct conversion from avi to swf. I'll be switching from camtasia though to programs that can handle this operation better.
Edit: If anyone has an .fcm of pom's smb, I'd really appreciate it. I tried converting it from the fmv, but I got desync. Either that or I could try encoding phil and genisto's version, since it was faster but never got a chance to be published.
Edit 2: never mind, I got it encoded through Virtuanes
well, I've got my hosting all set up. I realize that hosting runs of entire games is not a very practical idea, especially with some games being at over 200mb in size. Instead, I was thinking encoding for online viewing the best parts of your favorite runs. Something like a Top 50 best time attack moments. It could be a favorite level or a very noteworthy boss battle--this is where I'd need your help in choosing. Just tell me what you'd like to see.
This actually reminds me a lot of this topic: http://tasvideos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=268
Why not ask the developers of our favorite emulators to work on an "export to SWF" feature that actually makes use of the fact that the only thing you actually need to store is a few sprites and information on how they move? Then you could probably fit any movie into the size of a ROM or less.
If you mean programming the sprites to move instead of the standard way of capturing every frame, then it starts to get really complicated. You'll have to convert emulator info directly into flash script and make sure all the sprites, sounds, scrolling, and little details are in sync. It becomes no longer a capture of the game, but rather a self-playing flash emulation. I'd love to be proven wrong though, as it will save a lot of space. :)
Anyway, I got working on a new encoding method that produces much better quality. I did a small flash compilation of P & G's Super Castlevania, which can be found here. Don't click if you have a really slow connection. (I know I should have compressed it more but I'm too tired now. :P)
Now that's more like it! Good choice of codec. This is stream-worthy now.
And it also inspired me to go play SCV4 again. It's been a while since I did that... ^_^;
Joined: 3/13/2004
Posts: 1118
Location: Kansai, JAPAN
This looks like a really cool project: flash highlights! You are the SportsCenter of Time Attacks. All you need now are some shiny graphics, fancy transitions between the clips, and a voice-over laden with catch-phrases.
"You can't stop Simon Belmont, you can only hope to contain him!"
I have smb, smb2, gradius, and metroid runs fully encoded now. I seriously doubted my ability to compress these, looks like I can host full runs after all! :D
Very neat.
Suggestions / Requests:
1: Is it possible to add a 'start immediately' option, vs a 'loading', and 'click play' when completed loading, like most flash things have.
2: Allow scaling 1x, 2x, 3x, and default to 2x?
Is it possible to add a 'start immediately' option, vs a 'loading', and 'click play' when completed loading, like most flash things have.
how it works is that each run is cut down into 1 mb clips. After one clip is done it pauses to load the next. You shouldn't have to press play though when it is done though, try waiting a few seconds and it should play automatically.
Allow scaling 1x, 2x, 3x, and default to 2x?
hmm, I suppose I could make an option to play the clips in a new window that can be resized. Another problem I have is that the site in its current form isn't very 800x600 resolution friendly. I'll think of ways around this.
Problem: I watched half of the Gradius movie. After that i pressed back in my browser, next page in the flash selector, and then the MegaMan2 video, which started somewhere in the middle (just before the BubbleMan level pause glitch actually). Any clue what went wrong?
Edit: The next clip to be played after that one was from Metal Man's level.
I haven't fully encoded rockman 2, it just has the highlights for now so starting at bubbleman is correct. Full runs so far are smb1, smb2, gradius, metroid, alttp. I should probably label them.
Edit: added notes on segmented videos. Working on adding a fullscreen function. New short url for the site is http://www.timeattacker.tk
Looks awesome. Glad to see more than one site hosting time attacks. I also like how, with long time attacks, you show the highlights of them which makes it more exciting. It's a shame about the pauses, but what can you do. Keep 'em comin'!
so somehow my site got linked to by milkandcookies.com sending a thousand visitors and 10 gigabytes of bandwidth my way in only 24 hours. Somehow I managed to keep it alive though... :|
