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Don Pellegrino
Pod Liberation Authority HYDRA RELOADED
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Posted - 2010.10.23 05:30:00 -
[1]
Hi
This is my technical guide to making an Eve-Online video. It is focussed around solving the most frequent technical issues and problems that can be seen in videos being published in the MyEve forum. Videos made using this method will readable in any recent player (including VLC) without glitches and have a very good quality/filesize ratio.
There's basically 3 steps to making a video: Recording, Editing and Rendering. Most issues happen during the Rendering step.
1- RECORDING
The most popular program being used these days is Fraps. http://www.fraps.com/
It's very straightforward to use.
Here are the settings that I'm using: Screenshot As you can see, INSERT is my "Start recording" button.
Recording at 30fps is enough to ensure a fluid video considering that the video will have to be sped up during the editing anyways. Recording Full-size is absolutly needed. Not recording sound helps the FPS a little bit and so does "Don't sync audio and video". Most of the time, the fps while recording will vary between 25 and 30 fps; it is totally normal.
However, fraps has 2 major downsides: It normally costs $37 and it uses A LOT of CPU.
XFire is a good alternative to fraps, is free and uses about 5 times less CPU than fraps does, but on some computers, XFire just doesn't work at all. http://www.xfire.com/download/now/ Here are the settings I'm using: Screenshot and Screenshot
Wheter you are using fraps or XFire - at an average screen resolution - 1 second of video takes about 10mb of hard drive space, so make sure that you have about 250Gb of free space before making videos as the uncompressed edited video will take alot of space, too.
2- EDITING
Currently, the two most used programs are Sony Vegas and Adobe Premiere. Both are proprietary and somewhat expensive. This guide isn't an editing tutorial, so I'll just show the optimal settings that I use in Sony Vegas to keep a very good image quality and avoid ending up with a stretched video or massive interlacing.
Here's an example of problematic interlacing: Picture
First of all, go to File -> Properties Set the Height and Width to the resolution used to record the clips (1440x900 in my case). Frame order should be "None (progressive scan)" to avoid massive interlacing problems. Pixel size ratio should be "1.0000 (Square)" to avoid stretching. 29,970 is high enough to remain perfectly fluid without taking up too much disk space.
Here are the settings that I'm using (I tried to force start Vegas into English mode, but it only translated the options, not the labels, sorry about that) : Screenshot Audio settings: Screenshot Leave the other tabs' options to default.
You can now drag your video clips into the project. Make sure that they are played in the right resolution: Screenshot If the image is stretched (in the preview, check that your capacitor is a circle, not an oval), try toggling "Maintain aspect ratio" : Screenshot and Screenshot
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Don Pellegrino
Pod Liberation Authority HYDRA RELOADED
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Posted - 2010.10.23 05:31:00 -
[2]
3- RENDERING
Once your video is ready to be published, go to File -> Render As and then click on Custom. Now, the video needs to be rendered at the highest quality settings possible because the formats supported by Vegas and Premiere are typically very inefficient. Again, make sure that the width and height are correct. Optimal settings: Screenshot Audio settings: Screenshot
In Premiere, just render an uncompressed video.
The final uncompressed video takes about 100-150Gb on your hard drive per 15 minutes, depending on screen resolution.
Now, there's litterally hundreds of different ways to end up with a decent filesize. Currently, the H.264 codec is pretty much unbeatable when it comes to quality/filesize ratio. x264 is the open source H.264 encoder. .AVI and .MKV are only containers, not codecs and both can be used for H.264 video.
I personally recommend VirtualDub to reincode videos as it is free, very fast and easy to use. Staxrip is another popular program. x264vfw is the free, open source plugin for windows. http://sourceforge.net/projects/x264vfw/files/ Screenshot Choose between the 32-bit and 64-bit versions depending on your Windows version. Have a look at Start menu -> My Computer -> System Properties to find out : Screenshot Now, download the right version of VirtualDub (32-bit or 64-bit). http://virtualdub.sourceforge.net/ By the way, "AMD64" is the official name of the 64-bit architecture, even if your computer has an Intel CPU.
In VirtualDub, open the uncompressed file and go to Video -> Compression. From the codec list, select x264vfw, do not check the "Force keyframes" box and then click on Configure. The settings I'm using: Screenshot Make sure to check the "VirtualDub hack" box. The Rate Control slider lets you set the quality of the final version. I personally try to choose a value between 16 and 20 as those numbers are a great balance between quality and filesize. 500 to 600mb is perfectly fine for a 20 minutes video. Press OK twice. Finally, go to File -> Save as AVI, choose location and file name (.avi extension) and enjoy!
Is there anything preventing you from making a video anymore? Do you still have any technical problems left? Did this guide help you?
Thanks for your input!
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Intigo
Amarr Genos Occidere HYDRA RELOADED
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Posted - 2010.10.23 12:49:00 -
[3]
People should try out PlayClaw too. ___________________
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Flinx Evenstar
Sniggerdly Pandemic Legion
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Posted - 2010.10.23 21:41:00 -
[4]
As a complete noob when it comes to H.264 compression, I will love you long time if my next vid comes in under 1gig.
In the editing section, you might want to add some post production software like After effects.
Nice little guide, good job ---
I does like have spaceship vids n stuff
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Don Pellegrino
Pod Liberation Authority HYDRA RELOADED
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Posted - 2010.10.23 22:00:00 -
[5]
Edited by: Don Pellegrino on 23/10/2010 22:02:25 Edited by: Don Pellegrino on 23/10/2010 22:01:45
Originally by: Flinx Evenstar Edited by: Flinx Evenstar on 23/10/2010 21:45:46 As a complete noob when it comes to H.264 compression, I will love you long time if my next vid comes in under 1gig.
In the editing section, you might want to add some post production software like After effects.
Nice little guide, good job
PS. I'd disagree about fraps using a lot of CPU, it hardly registers on my machine, the bottle neck is the disk write speed. Use a fast drive that is not the one EVE is installed on for optimum perf.
Of course, it depends on your hardware, but in my case, with a 3 years old dual core CPU, fraps would use 50% of CPU and eve would use the other 50% and be unplayable. Recording straight to the main hard drive can be a problem if your disk is slow, but I have an SSD, so . I just move my raw clips to an external hard drive after the fight. I could also record straight to it, I guess.
edit: I never heard of PlayClaw, I'll give it a try.
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Flinx Evenstar
Sniggerdly Pandemic Legion
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Posted - 2010.10.23 22:22:00 -
[6]
Originally by: Don Pellegrino
Of course, it depends on your hardware, but in my case, with a 3 years old dual core CPU, fraps would use 50% of CPU and eve would use the other 50% and be unplayable. Recording straight to the main hard drive can be a problem if your disk is slow, but I have an SSD, so . I just move my raw clips to an external hard drive after the fight. I could also record straight to it, I guess.
I don't want to make your very nice thread into a techno geek fest, but the problem is that EVE writes to the hard drive ALL the the time, so when you need fraps to write 1600x1000 uncompressed screen shots 30 times a second, the write buffer gets a bit busy, which also effects EVE. That cpu jump you see could well be it swapping out to ram, when the write buffer is full. The fraps program itself is very simple, and should never be using 50% cpu.
I've frapsed out to an external drive over usb 2.0 with no problems, reminds me I need to get an external SATA just to be sure. ---
I does like have spaceship vids n stuff
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AlleyKat
Gallente The Unwanted.
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Posted - 2010.10.24 18:25:00 -
[7]
Originally by: Flinx Evenstar
Originally by: Don Pellegrino
Of course, it depends on your hardware, but in my case, with a 3 years old dual core CPU, fraps would use 50% of CPU and eve would use the other 50% and be unplayable. Recording straight to the main hard drive can be a problem if your disk is slow, but I have an SSD, so . I just move my raw clips to an external hard drive after the fight. I could also record straight to it, I guess.
I don't want to make your very nice thread into a techno geek fest, but the problem is that EVE writes to the hard drive ALL the the time, so when you need fraps to write 1600x1000 uncompressed screen shots 30 times a second, the write buffer gets a bit busy, which also effects EVE. That cpu jump you see could well be it swapping out to ram, when the write buffer is full. The fraps program itself is very simple, and should never be using 50% cpu.
Pretty much this.
I've been a beta tester for Fraps for several years. It used to have an issue with CPU affinity, but no longer and should/doesn't use that much CPU and can only be a bottleneck of some kind as indicated above. Record to a second drive wherever possible.
With regards to codec, it is very hard to fault H.264 using MP4 - there is a two-click option in After Effects to render in this codec. In addition to this, as it's MP4 it doesn't have the associated gamma issues that mkv does.
Fraps is a bargin, imho - $37 for a lifetime of updates? A round of drinks costs more...
There are also 30 day free trials of Vegas and PremiFre available....Sony Vegas or Adobe Premiere Pro CS5
The interface really hasn't changed that much in 5 years to be honest on either of them - but CS5 absolutely FLIES when it renders, espicially in After Effects, highly recommend it.
AK EVE-ONLINE Video-Making Tutorials Vid - New Tricks |
ThrashPower
Gallente Genos Occidere HYDRA RELOADED
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Posted - 2010.10.25 01:37:00 -
[8]
awesome thread, now I wont have to pester my corp mates who will only give me vague inconclusive replies anyway
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Wensley
Minmatar Rionnag Alba Northern Coalition.
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Posted - 2010.10.25 09:42:00 -
[9]
Any tips for capturing video on lower-end laptops? I can't find any solution that gives me more than about 5 fps and that's far too low to do serious PvP :(
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AlleyKat
Gallente The Unwanted.
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Posted - 2010.10.25 11:00:00 -
[10]
Originally by: Wensley Any tips for capturing video on lower-end laptops? I can't find any solution that gives me more than about 5 fps and that's far too low to do serious PvP :(
Drop the gfx down as much as possible...record to a USB drive...run Fraps in half-res mode...not much more I can think of tbh...it's deminishing returns though, you might be able to get a screen capture at a resonable fps but the quality will be lower.
To be honest, high IQ videos don't make for great videos, no more than high quality CG made the recent Star Wars I, II and III any good. Content is king. I've watched some pretty low quality eve vids with awesome fights....and that's all an eve pvp vid needs, as that is what viewers will judge it on, or what they should judge it on.
AK EVE-ONLINE Video-Making Tutorials Vid - New Tricks |
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Don Pellegrino
Pod Liberation Authority HYDRA RELOADED
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Posted - 2010.10.25 12:20:00 -
[11]
Originally by: Wensley Any tips for capturing video on lower-end laptops? I can't find any solution that gives me more than about 5 fps and that's far too low to do serious PvP :(
- Use XFire - Record at 15fps, Full-size (Alleykat disagrees with that, but I personally find Half-Size to be totally unenjoyable) - If you are using Windows 7 or Vista, use the classic interface instead of Aero. - Try to reduce the CPU usage as much as possible by disabling everything that runs in the background, like iTunes or uTorrent. - Record to an external hard drive...
That's all I can think of.
Originally by: AlleyKat It used to have an issue with CPU affinity, but no longer and should/doesn't use that much CPU and can only be a bottleneck of some kind as indicated above.
I'm far from being the only one that has some serious CPU issues with fraps. Recording to an external hard drive has no effect whatsoever to CPU utilization. I don't know why, because other recorders save 30 screenshots per second just like fraps does. Disk utilization in my case is similar for both fraps and XFire. Anyways, I personally prefer recommending people to try XFire first since it's free and records and the quality is equally as good as fraps.
I edited the OP to mention that VLC can't read raw fraps video files and that this program can read them. Download the Full version and install it with the default settings
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AlleyKat
Gallente The Unwanted.
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Posted - 2010.10.25 18:25:00 -
[12]
Originally by: Don Pellegrino
- Record at 15fps, Full-size (AlleyKat disagrees with that, but I personally find Half-Size to be totally unenjoyable)
Well, I think my quote is simply that quality of the image has no real bearing on the quality of the fight in the context of a PvP movie, and that (I think, but stand to be corrected) people look at the shield/armour/hull readings and the general situation of the battle in hand.
Farjungs' videos were in half-res - and some might say that they were/are some of the best solo-thron PvP videos made - they certainly knocked spots off everything else at the time.
Wensley was looking to lower the fps, and if dropping the IQ is how he can achieve that, then that is a choice he'll need to make - and as he is looking to record PvP footage, the IQ is far far less important than the actual fight itself. If someone wishes to judge a PvP film on how good it looks, rather than the skill, or 'intenseness' of the fight...well, I must humbly disagree with that position, should that be their position.
With promotion vids, trailers, docuvids or just glory shots - I think your argument has more bearing, but even then I would have to hold a candle to anyone who wishes to put forth the effort and take the time to really try and create something of value - regardless of whether they used the latest in editing software in 1080p - or 480p using Windows Movie Maker.
The community is large and varied, as such the content created by them will be also and it all has a place here.
This is not Hollywood with 60 mill budgets, these are players who are trying to communicate something with sometimes the barest of resources - for free.
They need all the support and encouragement they can get - which I'm guessing is why you posted this guide in the first place? It's certainly why I created 20 video tutorials, and have also spent considerable time on personal 1-2-1 sessions using combinations of VOIP and webinars linking into my desktop with people over the last 3 years also...
I digress - in a content v quality PvP video debate, I stand firmly on the content side.
AK EVE-ONLINE Video-Making Tutorials Vid - New Tricks |
Don Pellegrino
Pod Liberation Authority HYDRA RELOADED
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Posted - 2010.10.25 18:38:00 -
[13]
Originally by: AlleyKat They need all the support and encouragement they can get - which I'm guessing is why you posted this guide in the first place?
Exactly!
Originally by: AlleyKat I digress - in a content v quality PvP video debate, I stand firmly on the content side.
Same here, content is more important AS LONG AS quality doesn't ruin it. In my opinion (feel free to disagree), not being able to read the distances on the overview, the ammo type loaded into the guns, etc kinda ruins it. Apart from the chat window, text is not resizable in eve and Half-size makes any text totally unreadable.
We're mostly arguing about opinions here, which is pointless, but I think that we both are mostly agreeing.
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jedi2005
Deep Core Mining Inc.
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Posted - 2010.10.26 09:57:00 -
[14]
Originally by: Wensley Any tips for capturing video on lower-end laptops? I can't find any solution that gives me more than about 5 fps and that's far too low to do serious PvP :(
Put eve in fullscreen mode instead of windowed mode.
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adriaans
Amarr Ankaa.
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Posted - 2010.11.27 02:53:00 -
[15]
I have been running fraps and eve on same hardrive for a long time now, however I am getting very tired of sudden massive stuttering in the middle of fights causing me to either have to stop fraps or be far less efficient in fights, and thats bad. (especially when i dual or triple account) (for the record, my cpu is keeping up fine (high end quad core), the bottleneck is the hardrive)
From what I know if you fraps with a 2nd hardrive that shouldn't be much of an issue anymore, so what would you reccommend me getting? Any particular type/brand that would be reccomended or some that i should avoid? Preferrably an external hardrive as I need one of those anyway for backup purposes, and as a side question, would that be as effective? I can connect that to my 2nd SATA connection right?
Thanks for any suggestions or insight
--signature-- F.CS boost: Here Vid: Link |
Prometheus Exenthal
Genos Occidere HYDRA RELOADED
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Posted - 2010.11.27 03:44:00 -
[16]
i would not recommend rendering into an uncompressed format for no other reason than that it takes TON of space. grab a free lossless codec (i use lagartih) and render from vegas into that instead of no compression.
its as close as you can possibly get to nothing without the INSANE file sizes.
other than that, good basic guide - MY LATEST VIDEO - HONOURABLE SAMURAI |
Wu Jiaqiu
Minmatar Dreddit Test Alliance Please Ignore
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Posted - 2010.11.27 03:47:00 -
[17]
Sticky
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Jalif
Minmatar Snuff Box
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Posted - 2010.11.27 10:14:00 -
[18]
Yo Don,
If I would put some input in this thread, you will update a part of the main post?! Think I could add a good contribution to this.
Latest PVP Video: Jalification III |
AlleyKat
Gallente The Unwanted.
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Posted - 2010.11.27 13:28:00 -
[19]
Originally by: Prometheus Exenthal i would not recommend rendering into an uncompressed format for no other reason than that it takes TON of space. grab a free lossless codec (i use lagartih) and render from vegas into that instead of no compression.
its as close as you can possibly get to nothing without the INSANE file sizes.
Absolutely - but remember to pre-render!
AK
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Dannerkongen
1st Recon
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Posted - 2010.11.27 13:52:00 -
[20]
ill halp!
the solution to "low fps" on a low-end lappie is to get a higher-end lappie.
but go ahead and try to discuss it.
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Don Pellegrino
Pod Liberation Authority HYDRA RELOADED
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Posted - 2010.11.27 14:35:00 -
[21]
Originally by: Jalif Yo Don,
If I would put some input in this thread, you will update a part of the main post?! Think I could add a good contribution to this.
Sure, mail it to me ingame. ____________________________________________
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Viscount Hood
Gallivanting Travel Company
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Posted - 2010.11.28 14:11:00 -
[22]
Does anyone know how to turn off all windows so you are just left with your ship and the background. I used to be able to do it with Ctrl-tab, but that got turned off some years ago.
Thanks.
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Don Pellegrino
Pod Liberation Authority HYDRA RELOADED
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Posted - 2010.11.28 14:38:00 -
[23]
Ctrl-F9 ____________________________________________
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Harrigan VonStudly
Original Sin.
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Posted - 2010.11.28 18:03:00 -
[24]
Bookmarked for future reference. Thank you for taking the time to post this. It certainly helps for someone like me who wishes to make videos but is not that "technically savvy" when it comes to making them, being a video making noob and all. Your post has given me the data to at least try starting one.
Cheers O/
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