Posted: 11/27/2005 4:43 AM
Post subject: Why post the movie files for TAS superplay movies as a zip?
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DK64_MASTER
Joined: 10/24/2005
Posts: 1080
Location: San Jose
I was just wondering why, when you download a movie file for a random movie, that it is in a zip format? Couldn't this inherently lead to more problems (I remember recently downloading corrupt zip files, but that got fixed)? Does zip compression even compress the files (which are already small) enough to make a big difference? I know a zip file is handy for downloading multiple files at once, but each zip file I've encounter on this site, only has one movie file in it. Although it doesn't really make that big of a difference for me, I'm just wondering. Thanks in advance.
<agill> banana banana banana terracotta pie! <Shinryuu> ho-la terracotta barba-ra anal-o~
Posted: 11/27/2005 4:43 AM
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GWing_02
Joined: 6/6/2005
Posts: 124
Bisqwit doesn't have infinite bandwidth, and every little KB helps.
Posted: 11/27/2005 4:45 AM
Post subject: Re: Why post the movie files for TAS superplay movies as a z
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Phil
Active player (410)
Joined: 3/16/2004
Posts: 2623
Location: America, Québec
DK64_MASTER wrote:
I was just wondering why, when you download a movie file for a random movie, that it is in a zip format? Couldn't this inherently lead to more problems (I remember recently downloading corrupt zip files, but that got fixed)?
So I wasn't alone. I knew it wasn't from my side.
Posted: 11/27/2005 4:52 AM
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nitsuja
Emulator Coder, Skilled player (1301)
Joined: 12/21/2004
Posts: 2687
Computer TASer of 2011 TAS of 2011 First edition TAS of 2011 Computer TAS of 2011 Sega TAS of 2010 Sega TAS of 2008 Sega TAS of 2007 Glitchy TAS of 2007
I think the compression makes a big difference, because movie files of input are extremely compressable. For instance, it will reduce an 800 kb movie to probably 4 kb. (Maybe it doesn't seem like it, but that's a big difference when it's added up across many downloads.) There was a problem with how the site stored or retrieved the zips recently, but it's at least worked around / not breaking the downloads anymore.
Posted: 11/27/2005 5:14 AM
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Pyrolistical
Joined: 11/16/2005
Posts: 46
Just add support in the emulator for playing movies directly from a zip. Then rename all the .zip to .tas and have the emulator support that as well. *pokes nitsuja*
Posted: 11/27/2005 5:17 AM
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DK64_MASTER
Joined: 10/24/2005
Posts: 1080
Location: San Jose
nitsuja wrote:
I think the compression makes a big difference, because movie files of input are extremely compressable. For instance, it will reduce an 800 kb movie to probably 4 kb. (Maybe it doesn't seem like it, but that's a big difference when it's added up across many downloads.) There was a problem with how the site stored or retrieved the zips recently, but it's at least worked around / not breaking the downloads anymore.
Duhh, I should really check things out before I post. The longest movie I could find quickly (the SMWTLC movie) was approx 28kb in the zip format. Now uncompressed, it at approx 950kb. So it does make a huge difference. Ok I got my answer. Thanks for the info. BTW playing from the zip file would require nitsuja to know how zip compression works on a random movie file (right?).
<agill> banana banana banana terracotta pie! <Shinryuu> ho-la terracotta barba-ra anal-o~
Posted: 11/27/2005 5:41 AM
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OmnipotentEntity
He/Him
Player (36)
Joined: 9/11/2004
Posts: 2624
Or he could just use zlib.
Build a man a fire, warm him for a day, Set a man on fire, warm him for the rest of his life.
Posted: 11/27/2005 5:42 AM
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GWing_02
Joined: 6/6/2005
Posts: 124
Nahhh that's too easy. =P
Posted: 11/27/2005 11:01 AM
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Dada
Joined: 11/22/2004
Posts: 1468
Location: Rotterdam, The Netherlands
DK64_MASTER wrote:
Duhh, I should really check things out before I post. The longest movie I could find quickly (the SMWTLC movie) was approx 28kb in the zip format. Now uncompressed, it at approx 950kb. So it does make a huge difference.
It does. That's about 34 times as small, which is a huge difference in the long run. Any download can get corrupted, by the way. It depends on the amount of transmission noise how likely that is to happen. But that barely ever happens anymore these days.
Posted: 11/27/2005 10:26 PM
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yarbles
Joined: 8/1/2004
Posts: 143
Location: Colorado
At least with a zip file's built in CRC checking, you will know it is corrupted when you try to uncompress it, rather than when you try and play the file back.
Posted: 11/27/2005 10:42 PM
Post subject: Re: Why post the movie files for TAS superplay movies as a z
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Bisqwit
Editor, Active player (296)
Joined: 3/8/2004
Posts: 7469
Location: Arzareth
DK64_MASTER wrote:
I was just wondering why, when you download a movie file for a random movie, that it is in a zip format?
Everyone already answered, but I'll confirm what they said. Foremost, it's to save bandwidth. Take the Chrono Trigger movie for example, it's 2 MB as SMV, but in a ZIP file it only takes 22 kB. And it also provides a file integrity indicator. If ZIP decompresses it properly, you know it wasn't damaged in transmission.
Posted: 11/27/2005 10:44 PM
Post subject: Re: Why post the movie files for TAS superplay movies as a z
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Phil
Active player (410)
Joined: 3/16/2004
Posts: 2623
Location: America, Québec
Bisqwit wrote:
And it also provides a file integrity indicator. If ZIP decompresses it properly, you know it wasn't damaged in transmission.
That's not entirely true. It can be damaged a little and still uncompress like it already happens to me some days ago.
Posted: 11/27/2005 10:45 PM
Post subject: Re: Why post the movie files for TAS superplay movies as a z
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Dada
Joined: 11/22/2004
Posts: 1468
Location: Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Bisqwit wrote:
Take the Chrono Trigger movie for example, it's 2 MB as SMV, but in a ZIP file it only takes 22 kB.
When I read this, I quickly rushed towards the list of SNES runs to see if a Chrono Trigger run had been released without me knowing, but alas.
Posted: 11/27/2005 10:46 PM
Post subject: Re: Why post the movie files for TAS superplay movies as a z
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Bisqwit
Editor, Active player (296)
Joined: 3/8/2004
Posts: 7469
Location: Arzareth
Omega wrote:
When I read this, I quickly rushed towards the list of SNES runs to see if a Chrono Trigger run had been released without me knowing, but alas.
There's a complete WIP though.
Posted: 11/28/2005 6:09 PM
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Highness
Player (70)
Joined: 8/24/2004
Posts: 2562
Location: Sweden
When reading this I have to agree that a .tas file would be awesome to have, or just support for the zip files. It has occured to me many times, but I for some reason did never ask for it in the emulator pages.
Posted: 11/29/2005 6:36 PM
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Saturn
Player (209)
Joined: 2/18/2005
Posts: 1451
Pyrolistical wrote:
Just add support in the emulator for playing movies directly from a zip. Then rename all the .zip to .tas and have the emulator support that as well. *pokes nitsuja*
You should be glad with what nitsuja already contributed to this emulator to make it one of the best and most complete in movie recording. It was surely much work and I thank him alot for that.
See my perfect 100% movie-walkthroughs of the best RPG games on http://www.freewebs.com/saturnsmovies/index.htm Current TAS project (with new videos): Super Metroid Redesign, any% speedrun
Posted: 11/29/2005 9:41 PM
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Bag_of_Magic_Food
He/Him
Active player (278)
Joined: 5/29/2004
Posts: 5712
Yeah, Nitsuja writes all that nice code, and here we have people who won't even open a zip file...
put yourself in my rocketpack if that poochie is one outrageous dude
Posted: 11/29/2005 10:05 PM
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Fihlvein
He/Him
Joined: 7/28/2004
Posts: 135
Location: Finland Realms
Yeah, why? I thought RAR is more efficient.
Posted: 11/29/2005 10:30 PM
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Rick
Former player
Joined: 6/25/2004
Posts: 607
Location: Maine
I don't think that everyone has the ability to use RAR files without having to download WinRAR or something. Zip files are a completely different story, however.
http://wiki.rustedlogic.net/The_Cutting_Room_Floor The Cutting Room Floor wiki.
Posted: 11/30/2005 12:41 AM
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OmnipotentEntity
He/Him
Player (36)
Joined: 9/11/2004
Posts: 2624
Not really, only Windows XP and higher (and maybe a version of MacOSX) natively support the zip format. As for rars, 7zip supports that.
Build a man a fire, warm him for a day, Set a man on fire, warm him for the rest of his life.
Posted: 12/8/2005 11:34 AM
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Warp
Banned User, Former player
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
Omega wrote:
Any download can get corrupted, by the way. It depends on the amount of transmission noise how likely that is to happen. But that barely ever happens anymore these days.
Uh, are you sure? I thought TCP/IP makes sure that no corruption happens (corrupted packets are resent until it succeeds).
Posted: 12/8/2005 11:36 AM
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Warp
Banned User, Former player
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
Fihlvein wrote:
Yeah, why? I thought RAR is more efficient.
Rar is proprietary, commercial and not well supported through platforms. If compression ratio was crucial, 7zip would beat rar anyways.