I concurr. It's simply a blast watching all of these videos. It reminds me of when I was a kid and would play these games with my friends. I actually enjoyed watching the game get played more than I did playing the game itself. This site has been a godsend for me because now I can watch virtually ANY game out there and see it beaten. I guess if there was anything I could ever want it would be a section of the webpage which had just game completions. Sure they could be a speedrun, but they wouldn't pass through all the cinemas, intros, cutscenes, etc. These would be videos of 100% completion with every part of the game included. (Of course hosting .avi files of these runs would be insane, but that's what the emulator movies are for. :-) )
Still, what these people have accomplished here is nuts. I think I'm going to go and watch Castelvania now. :D
Makes sense. I'll give that a try and let you know how it works out. The file size just concerned me because only about five minutes turned out to be HUGE in regards to file-size and I was concerned about whether or not the full 1-hour plus movie would fit on a DVD. :)
It should. Although you might not be able to tell unless you use a player that bobs the video (most software DVD players will do this, and ffdshow will also allow you to do the same). But, when you burn the disc, barring any other problems, Samus should indeed flicker when she's supposed to (although, of course, if you view the video on an LCD display, the flickering is liable to turn into a 50% transparency).
My golden test is how a standalone DVD player responds. If it plays good and proper there, then it will also look good on any device that handles interlaced video properly (such as software DVD players).
Well VirtualDub did handle the audio level problem, and your script worked great with Super Metroid! (Although I did have to make a few adjustments as the file size was gigantic. The four minute test I did took up WAAAAAAAY too much space so I had to lower the resolution to the "low resolution standard" DVD format of 352x240). My monitor is an LCD screen so I did only see the slightly transparent Samus and on some parts she completely disappeared, while in others she was just fine. Again, I'll have to test that on a real TV to see how it turns out.
I was actually using uncompressed PCM audio in my files. I now see that in VirtualDub I can go and increase the audio volume so I'm going to give that a try. (As I've noticed now that the audio in TMPGEnc is also pretty low but I just never noticed it before).
I'll go and download Avisynth to be able to try out that Script you have written. Hopefully it will be able to keep the flickering and avoid the "invisible Samus" issue. :)
I've got a question for you. I recently made a DVD of all the MegaMan/Rockman 1-6 TASes here on the website and while the video has come out absolutely perfectly, the audio is frighteningly quiet. I need to turn up the volume on my speaker system considerably in order to hear any audio from my DVD. I burned the DVD using TMPGEnc DVD Author and inside the software the audio level was perfect. I just don't understand why it came out so quiet on the DVD.
(I'm also trying to make a DVD of the Super Metroid 100% run that I have a version of and am trying to figure out how to interlace the frames so that when Samus is hit, or is going down an elevator, she doesn't disappear. :D )
I had the same problem when I used FCE Ultra 98.12 and was able to figure out how to fix it. First you need to download the software 'VirtualDub'. After you generate your AVI file open it up in VirtualDub. Under the video menu select 'Frame Rate'. (Or press CNTRL-R). In the window that pops up, check the option titled "Change so video and audio durations match". In the Video and Audio menus, select 'Direct Stream Copy' as well. Now go to the file menu and select 'Save AVI as' and give you file a name. This will ensure that the audio and video synchs up properly. It has fixed every issue that I have had.
For the 1 GB limit problem, make absolutely sure that whatever encoder you are using is NOT using the Legacy-AVI format. Legacy-AVI format only allows up to 1 GB of file size before it corrupts everything. The latest AVI format will allow up to 2 GB.
If you still have problems, let me know and I'll post all of my settings in VirtualDub. That program is a godsend for creating AVI files and fixing any little bugs.
Phil told me, let the video dump from fceu with the audio desynced.
Then on virtuadub, choose - "video" - "frame rate"
and mark the option "change so video and audio durations match". and save the avi using same lossless compression.
Thanks Phil, that fixed it
THANK YOU!!!! All of the movies I've been recording out of FCE Ultra 98.12 have been aurally desynching during the movie playback. It was driving me nuts trying to figure out how to fix it. Then I read your post and everything is working just fine now. Thank you so much. :-)
Added metroid %100 & deadly towers. Still a lot of runs not being worked on...
Woo-hoo! Looking forward to a 100% Metroid run. (Crosses fingers that it's in the original suit. Though it should be possible to hex-edit the .fcm file and remove the entry of the password?).
It's going to be suitful run, but it's in hold at the moment. Hopefully I get my nerves back in one piece soon and continue that run.
And like Bag said, it's not possible to hex-edit the password input because it affects random factors (I think).
No rush. Take your time on it. I've got a 100% suitless run that I downloaded in order to see the game finished 100%, so a suited run would just be a cosmetic thing that would be nice to have. It's good to hear that somebody is working on it though. Again, it's no rush. (I've realized that even if it were possible to hex-edit out the entry of the password, in the time it would take for me to accomplish that the suited run would be released anyway. :-D ).
I decided to make a 2nd 100% speedrun because the first one was pretty bad in planning. I could improve the in-game time to 1:07 with which I'm satisfied for now.
Available in skill-based section on:
http://www.freewebs.com/saturnsmovies/snes9xmovies.htm
VERY entertaining movie! This is just what I was looking for. I had downloaded a multi-part AVI file done by someone over at Metroid2002.com, but the quality of the file and the overall appeal of the movie was just lacking. I had been looking for a good .smv file of a 100% run and yours is perfect for me. The slight errors and "flaws" actually make it more appealing as the run seems more realistic.
I'm a Clinical Data Analyst which means that I sit in front of a computer for 40+ hours a week and look over copious amounts of clinical data to ensure that everything is reported right and there is nothing discrepant about the data. (I work for a company that handles the data of a clinical trial for pharmaceuticals).
Aside from my work I play Texas Hold'Em pretty regularly; I golf whenever the weather allows it; I enjoy watching movies put together by you guys here showing the completion of the games I remember from my childhood; I've made a hobby out of chemistry and love to mix things and see what happens. (I've even put together a collection of the elements that make up the periodic table). I also enjoy going to a shooting range and firing off a few rounds from a revolver or rifle.
1): Wart from SMB2 (USA). The music and funky colors in that final room were really quite the contrast from the rest of that particular level. Sure the boss was pretty easy, but it felt good when I finally took him down.
2): Ganon from the original Zelda. I think a lot of the older games seem much "better" to me because back then there wasn't the internet around to completely spoil every last aspect of the game. Back then, when you finally got to Ganon it was a great surprise to finally see him. It gave you that great adrenaline rush.
3): All the bosses from Zelda: OoT. This game was put together so perfectly in terms of the boss battles. All of them seemed to really pull you in and get you psyched for the fight.
Though it should be possible to hex-edit the .fcm file and remove the entry of the password?).
Nah, I was reading in the other topic that the timing of the password affected random stuff.
Damn. Ah well. I guess I'll have to break out Metroid and put together a super long not at all speedy attack in order to see the game completed in the original suit. :-)
Though I now wonder if it would be possible to edit the movie file and replace some of the button presses with a "nothing" code so that instead of going into the game and pressing down and start then entering the password, the file just has the controller motionless for that period of time until the actual game start was scheduled to occur. Ahhh. My brain hurts just thinking about it. :-D
Added metroid %100 & deadly towers. Still a lot of runs not being worked on...
Woo-hoo! Looking forward to a 100% Metroid run. (Crosses fingers that it's in the original suit. Though it should be possible to hex-edit the .fcm file and remove the entry of the password?).
Hoepfully we'll also see someone put together a complete run of Zelda II as well as a run of the original Zelda's second quest. :D
(I would seriously love to take on one of these, but my skills have faded immensely and wouldn't get much accomplished). :D
First post at the forums here, but I've been reading for a while. I found out about these videos a while back and was amazed at the few that I had seen. I also kept looking around for high quality movies to view, but was never able to find any. I kept wondering what it would be like to have a movie quality as good as the way they look on an emulator. Then I saw the wonders of the .fcm files and how I could create a movie as big, or as small, as I wanted in any quality I wanted. I was a very happy individual. :D
I am a HUGE fan of the complete run throughs and the 100% item collection because growing up and playing a game, that is always what I tried to accomplish. The videos here on this site that show a full completion of certain games is remarkable. Sadly, some of those runs were dont on Famtasia which doesn't really co-operate with me in regards to AVI re-recording. :( So I'm pretty much limited to the FCEUltra versions of the movies. (I'm hoping that a 100% NES Metroid, done in the original suit, will be done as well as a Zelda II 100% run).
My reason for making this post is that on the web I found a VirtuaNES .vmv file of a complete warpless run through Super Mario Brothers 2 (Japan). I tried to play it in my current version of VirtuaNES (0.92) but quickly found out that the game desynched almost immediately so the movie would not work. I then figured out that the movie was made in version 0.78 so I had to dig around the internet to find that version. (Which wasn't easy to do). While I was happy that the movie played just fine in version 0.78, I was saddened to find out that 0.78 does NOT have AVI recording support. :( So I can watch the movie when I want, but it has to be done through the emulator.
I've come to find out that the mappers changed between versions 0.78 and 0.92 in regards to SMB2J. I was wondering if anybody had the source code for Version 0.78 available so I could use the mappers from 0.78 in a compilation of 0.92. (After I figure out how to compile 0.92 as it does not appear to be as simple as compiling MAME is).
Thanks.
