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Yay, a war declaration flame thread starter post that appears from nowhere!
Umm, yeah. I like GB better than DMG.
But then again, GB is Great Britain, gigabyte, Guinea Bissau etc and DMG is damage, Dungeon Master's Guide and dimethylglyoxime, so is this just a case of a pot calling the kettle black?
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AngerFist wrote:
Get your .avi from here
Craziness raised to the threehundredfortysecond power!
It looks as weird as it sounds, and is as weird as it sounds. I'm amused, but I feel like I'm watching something from another planet.
This must be like a puzzle game.
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Perhaps you need to copy the image to a server of your own controlling.
They maybe can't afford it if hundreds of thousands of forum users all over the world load avatars from their server every second because people link directly to their server instead of copying the avatar to a server to each one's own controlling. (You know, when a image is displayed on a page, it needs to be loaded from its location. Here you're telling everyone's browser to load the avatar from www.avatarist.com, every time a post of yours is viewed.)
Now it's off-topic, but I'd recommend you choose / make a personal avatar for yours instead of using a stock one like that goomba pic. People learn to associate avatars with posters, and if multiple people use the same avatar, there will be confusions.
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Zurreco wrote:
So... should we assume that net and com are US?
You are free to assume whatever you want, but I know a few Finnish ISPs that use .net addresses (suomi.net for example), and a few Chinese and Japanese ISPs that use .com addresses (I would have to dig logs, don't remember right now). With those, I can extrapolate that .net and .com aren't USA indicators quite always.
Edit: But often, they are.
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CAPTION: not decisively judged yet
net 4
Unknown 3
com 2
ca 1
uk 1
edu 1
sg 1
CAPTION: rejected or cancelled
net 157
Unknown 126
com 91
se 51
fi 35
br 33
ca 23
edu 15
th 7
de 7
jp 6
nl 5
pl 5
uk 5
au 5
fr 4
at 3
nu 3
ru 2
sg 2
lu 2
do 1
pe 1
is 1
es 1
ar 1
CAPTION: published or going to be published
net 171
com 96
Unknown 84
se 56
ca 54
fi 47
br 22
edu 12
nl 10
de 9
is 6
au 6
nu 6
jp 5
at 3
ru 3
fr 3
cl 1
pe 1
do 1
ch 1
tw 1
Based on the IP address recorded in the logs where the first edit to the submission text came from.
EDIT: Updated to include my own address as .fi too. It was previously "Unknown" because it was a LAN address.
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SXL wrote:
Bisqwit wrote:
See, that's easy.
seriously ?! maybe to you but...
Well, there was some sarcasm hidden in that line...
But perhaps now you can see why I am not overly optimistic about a fully automated process emerging. I see each of the steps I did as more or less necessary. A few were caused by the process itself, so they're not strictly necessary. (Such as checking the consistency of the scripts involved.)
The point of my scripts is to avoid me having to remember and to retype complex commandlines. The KOODAUS-H script for example, launches mencoder with these options (copypasted from my Rockman 2 encoding which just finished):
mencoder test0.avi -oac copy -ovc x264 -x264encopts partitions=all:me=umh:qp_step=20:qp_max=45:pass=3:subq=7:direct_pred=auto:frameref=15:\
bframes=0:me_range=64:brdo:bime:mixed_refs:trellis=2:ratetol=60:nofast_pskip:bitrate=210 -sub /home/bisqwit/nes/xgetimage/rockman2/test0.sub -subfont-text-scale 3 -subcp UTF-8 -font '/opt/blackdown-jdk-1.4.1/jre/lib/fonts/LucidaSansRegular.ttf' -mc 0 -vf decimate=10:0:0:1 -o "result.avi" -aspect 4/3
But then again, the "easy" is quite subjective. For example, see the second entry at http://www.rinkworks.com/stupid/cs_calls.shtml
Edit: split the long mencoder line so as not to make the post text column too wide
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JXQ wrote:
For example, there is a section detailing how the subtitled should appear on the AVI, but not a word on a possible method to insert these subtitles into an AVI.
Oh. Well, that's because.
-- Instructions on subtitle insertion are perhaps missing. I don't know which page you referred to so I can't tell for sure.
-- Regarding the tone, it's intentional to some degree; I wish that the encoders have the type of mind in them to search for best possible tools and settings to achieve the end result. And to learn to use them optimally, without relying on a single source of information. Phil has it. I have it. Dehacked has it. Nach has it. The other encoders have it less, but as experience grows, they're getting there. Maza is getting there. Highness is getting there.
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SXL wrote:
any (emulator wise)general encoding script :)
That's what I have tried to do with the Linux AVI making instruction pages... I have submitted scripts and emulator patches.
My patches make the work quite easy for me.
1a. I verify the relevant RUNxxx script (where xxx depends on emulator) and check that the audio encoding settings are sufficient for this particular game and console, and that there's no left-over cruft from some test movie project that I occassionally do.
1b. I run the emulator using the RUNxxx script.
2a. Occassionally (but not always), I verify the produced test0.avi file once while the emulator runs, and if there's something unexpected, for example the logo taking too long or missing entirely, I'll stop the emulator, edit the emulator source code, recompile it with changed settings, and go back to step 1b.
2b. I stop the emulator when I see it fit. (When the movie has finished, and the ending has finished, and at least one loop of the last song of the ending has been heard.)
3. I move the produced test0.avi to the directory where I want to work with it. That is usually of form /home/bisqwit/nes/xgetimage/consolename-gamename/ .
4. I bootstrap the directory by copying the nesvideos.cfg file from some previous publication's dir that codec-workwise resembled the new one.
5a. I backup the old subtitle file.
5b. I run GENSUB to produce a new subtitle file.
5c. I edit the new subtitle file to adjust timings, and fill in the game name and author name.
6a. I verify the KOODAUS-H script, which is my h264 variant of the encoding script, and I check that it starts the encoding from pass 1. Save if necessary.
6b. Then I launch the KOODAUS-H script, and it runs.
7a. Occassionally, I check the result.
7b. If the video quality or subtitle positioning is unsatisfactory, I stop the KOODAUS-H script, adjust the bitrate in nesvideos.cfg, edit the KOODAUS-H script to not run the entire work (step 6 onward) again but start from pass N where N is a judged per case basis. Then I goto step 6b.
7c. If the movie is long enough and I find a suitable spot, I edit the subtitle file and copy the "this is a tool-assisted movie" blurb to that spot. If necessary, I interrupt the KOODAUS-H script and add at least one more pass so that the changes take effect.
8. Once done, the resulting AVI is waiting to be published.
See, that's easy.
My patches are highly tailored for my needs. The most striking example:
* My logo animation is stored as 360 tga files located at the /home/bisqwit/povray/nesvlogov5 directory. 360, multiplied by the number of different resolutions for which it is rendered. Currently, that is 5. The emulator reads these TGA files at the beginning of movie playback, and blends them into the AVI.
I offer copies of these scripts freely, but most users who receive them, end up having dozens of questions and spending hours troubleshooting them. It's works-for-me-ware.
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PUUH.
What a reading this thread was.
Random pieces of replies here.
* I fully support Nach's work and decisions.
* I fully support Maza's work too.
* It might not be clear to everyone, but publication decisions are not the question of "who", but "what". We have strict quality standards, and in the face of those standards, it is not uncommon for an encoding to be rejected by a publisher, and vetoed by another encoding (whether it be a different or the same encoder). The names of persons are not at stake here; the AVI files are. That different persons have different levels of experience and those persons have names, does not make it a names issue. It is a quality issue.
* Pre-uploading to someone before starting the bittorrent upload is not* faster than starting the bittorrent upload right-away, when superseeding is used. In both cases, the whole file must still be once uploaded in its entirety through the slow link. Truncated explained this also very well.
Re: feitclub's and fruitbane's problem, probably something wrong at client-side.
* Re: Megaman movies getting all the attention from publishers: Would you like us delaying them instead. Have you seen any Megaman submissions turbo-published lately? Where were complaints about SMW?
<JXQ> I don't like #nesvideos.
That's sad to hear. Can you elaborate? I'd like to see you more there.
<JXQ> However, the chances of that happening are slim when the page explaining how to encode things comes across like a condescending jackass (“spoon-fed instructions”).
Whoa, now the encoding instructions are TOO EASY? :o This is a first.
Because for a long time, the problem has been that encoding movies has required the basic ability of searching and applying information; understanding a thing and two about codecs. There's no "windows program that just does it and that's all". This has fended off a lot of people who are afraid of studying and learning stuff, starting from using the commandline.
But I guess nothing can be perfect, and people have bad days too.
*) Significantly.
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Somehow, you managed to avoid the splash animation at the end of Bubbleman stage before the Wily door. Weird.
So you did not utilize Item1 trick in Wily3 after all (right after the robotic fishes). Why's that?
Congratulations on improvements in Wily4. It pays off to think differently.
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It just isn't a question of CPU power or network cable power; it's a question of manpower :P
To contribute, you'd need to learn and do. There is no "windows program" which does everything while you just watch. As unfortunate as it is.
If someone developed one... but there's still much manual information that needs to be entered a way or another, such as the movie length, the placement and duration of subtitles, the content thereof (both of which depend entirely on the movie content), and optimal compression settings (mainly the bitrate) for the particular movie. Often it needs partial or whole redoing for reason or another.
And, as we witness, there's no pressing shortage on encoders as much as there is for publishers.
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OgreSlayeR wrote:
Well I'm sure 95% of the people here will agree this isn't SDA+Tools, so I can understand why there are standards. There really isn't an excuse to have a bad quality AVI when you aren't encoding from a VHS tape.
That, and my site was born from the will to provide a good quality AVI when everything I could find in the net was a bad quality WMV (of the particular movie that time, that is Morimoto's SMB3j). (Since those times, the quality requirements have went up as our tools and knowledge have improved; the AVI I published back then would not be acceptable today.)
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schneelocke wrote:
Time to maka Maza a publisher? That seems like the easiest solution to that particular problem.
With no offense, I don't trust Maza is careful enough to do a good job, considering all the site's guidelines regarding publications.
But, since nobody is perfect and there's plenty of people to fix up mistakes, and I may be wrong about what I wrote, I'll do as suggested anyway :)
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As for screenshots:
* We have strict quality standards about screenshots. Screenshots submitted by users are often bad quality. The dimensions might be bad, or it might have been converted into/from a JPG, or cropped from a fullscreen screenshot and colour-reduced in the process.
It's best to leave it to those who can. Ideas can be given, of course. Displaying a sample screenshot is recommended. This will still require us to go and capture the actual screenshot at good quality.
As for description -- it's best that the author's comments and the publication message are kept separately. All the hype from the author may not always be right, or it explains things from wrong perspective. The role of the speaker behind the description is to be the person who also published the previous movie (in case of obsoletion), or a site representative in all cases. He can use words like "we" and "our", that the submitter cannot.
Oops. I did not mean to crush your idea. Being quite pessimistic at times, I just told why your idea cannot be implemented in its most naïve form. That doesn't mean it cannot be refined and utilized.
