Hard Light Productions Forums
Community Projects => The FreeSpace Upgrade Project => Topic started by: Singh on November 18, 2005, 06:54:19 am
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Well, this is the best place to put this methinks.
Dont kill me (http://www.game-warden.com/singh/SCPX.exe)
(edit: updated. 11/12/2005, 10:04 PM Singapore Time. 20+mb, Xvid codec. .exe format for compression reasons. Give it ~15 mins to upload)
ok,
before I continue with this, what is really, really needed is not only feedback on what has finished thus far, but ideas on what comparisons to specifically incorporate next; as well as which of the more popular mods to include towards the ending. This is mostly because all of my previous creations have been nothing short of crap, and the glory of hte SCP doesn't deserve such insidious things, hence the focus on quality atm :D
And if you ask why....well, why not? The SCP could use some appraisal, as well as a video with which to pimp itself elsewhere - that, and I have too much time atm :p :drevil:
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i thought it was very cool, escpecailly at the end, when the old ship fades to the new one, i like that alot, and there should be more of that. and, less choppyness
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Wow.
I really love the concept and the amount of effort put into this. I've also got some ideas if you'll indulge me although you can probably ignore them just fine ;)
Firstly - the text needs to be short and sharp. It starts off good but rapidly gets into masses of text that (while relevant) aren't exactly pleasing to the eye. This'll probably turn into quite a large post but what the hell... The first block of text should be spaced across the entire screen (they all should, the black space looks kinda wrong).
The second block "In 2002 however.." seems to ramble a bit. Although I can see you seem to have lifted the same "feel" as was used in the FS2 intro movie... I don't think we need "ruins of the past" etc. Perhaps something like:
In 2002 however,
Volition released the source code for FreeSpace 2.
The code was taken on by a small team,
and the results are so much more than anyone could've imagined.
The movie clip shown after this piece goes on a little too long... it should be about 2 seconds (the same as the first shot of the Iceni). This is a personal taste thing but I think it'd help to keep things moving along nicely. Also - too much of the pre-rendered movies will make the SCP ships look less impressive.
The next block of text (The project offered much..) again goes on a little bit too much. Perhaps something like:
Out of nothing, The Source Code Project grew.
What began as a visual upgrade mutated
into something much greater than the sum of its parts.
At this point (as you begin to show the *excellent* morphing between the old and new ships) it'd be nice if the music could change into something a bit more up-beat... something as equally exciting as the new ships.
Also, the text (Where Volition left us ruins..) could read something a bit less negative like:
Now... prepare yourself...
...For The FreeSpace Upgrade Project...
Still having the ships do flybys... also at the end you use a different font (I'd leave that block of text out entirely by the way). Finally a nice fade to black with a nice big SCP symbol and link to the SCP main site.
If you're planning on extending it - it would be nice to have the music get even racier and show off some of the new explosions, beam and warp effects, glow points and all the other neat new stuff....
...and if you wanted to take it further you could go on to show a screen such as "Others have adopted what was built... and dreams have become realised" then cut entirely to The Babylon Project, BlackWater Ops, Inferno, WC Saga, the Star Trek / Wars and Battlestar Galactica ships and any other neat things that'd really show off the game.
Don't get me wrong though - it looks like I'm being negative here but I'm incredibly impressed by this. I'm also really excited at how much potential this has if it can look incredible and really get people interested in what's going on.
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Linky no worky :(
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yeah, throw some fighters and a couple capships blowing up too, those 3d shockwaves will catch peoples' eyes.
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What codec are you using? All I'm getting is audio.
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Looks good, but it needs explosions. ;), and I agree with Kal, when it goes to the dogfights and such, change the music to that deep fast paced battle music. But, good job allready, make non SCP user's eyes water. :yes:
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Great video, but a couple of major points...
1) Consistent misuse of it's rather than its :p
2) Volition didn't "fall"; it's still making games
3) :v: *does* know what the SCP is doing; daveb checks in here once in a blue moon and is always impressed
4) I'd hardly call FS2 retail "ruins". Way too negative. Don't forget all the cool campaigns that exist for FS1 and FS2.
5) The SCP didn't start as a visual upgrade; that was relatively recent. During the first year or so it was focused primarily on new sexps, subtle enhancements, and tweaks of that nature; plus the occasional major feature. Yes, it was ported to DX8 fairly early, but it wasn't until the last year or so that the graphics stuff started really rolling out in force.
Also, the movie cuts out right after the Hercules. Is that intentional or did I get a bad download?
And I love the Hercules fade effect. :) Did you use the camera sexps for that?
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Nice, i like most last part with changing models :)
Ony one thing why movie cuts afer Hercules :/
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Nevermind my earlier query. Once I actually saved it to my hard drive instead of opening it from its current location, it actually played the video. Very strange.
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Good so far, assuming this isn't finished yet. May I add my tuppence worth?
Suggestion 1: at 00:28 where the second paragraph fades in fade out the first at the same time then about half a second later fade in a background anim of some code scrolling (use the SPC source for added realism ^_^).
2: at 00:42 Just fade in the bit that says 'the project was called the SCP' then wait a little while and fade in the rest and fade out the first para + the line 'the project was called'. Maybe scroll the line 'The SCP' up a little at the same time.
3: don't take any of these suggestions too seriously ^_^
4: Don't release the final version until all the various SCP GFX bugs are fixed, like the thruster trails.
5: Change the lines 'where volition has left us ruins...we have made cities in the sky' to something like 'Recycling the ships of yesterday...to build the fleets of tomorrow'
6: The bit where the Herc flies across the screen and fades to the HTL version let it do into the distance for a few seconds then... blow it up and have a wing of shivans fly across, preferably going from lower left to upper right. Music would have to be timed for effect. Anybody know if there's a clean version of the intro music?
7: Put a second white, weaker sun behind the camera as IMO the HTL herc looks a little dark in that shot.
8: Quick 1/3 second shots of each followed by a shot of the sath from the front coming towards the screen and fade out for about 3 sec
9: Start with a clip of a beam charging and firing, then let loose the dos of war! ^_^. Then cut to various small clips of action. A missile barrage here, a shock-wave there, a capship beaming another and so on. Kinda like the FS2 trailer.
10: End it all with a few short clips of campaigns that use special SCP features, like the bit at the end of Transcend or the dance number in JAD2.
11: sprinkle along the way lines such like 'supercharged GFX', 'totally modifiable' and 'Create YOUR missions like never before'
12: Stick to one font thrughout the vid
12+1: Don't take these suggestions too seriously ^_^
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Wow.
I really love the concept and the amount of effort put into this. I've also got some ideas if you'll indulge me although you can probably ignore them just fine ;)
Sure, np. That's the entire point of this thread, to collect feedback and attempt to make a higher-quality product.
Firstly - the text needs to be short and sharp. It starts off good but rapidly gets into masses of text that (while relevant) aren't exactly pleasing to the eye. This'll probably turn into quite a large post but what the hell... The first block of text should be spaced across the entire screen (they all should, the black space looks kinda wrong).
Understood. I'll increase the size of the font, and change the text, according to Goober's recommendation as well.
The second block "In 2002 however.." seems to ramble a bit. Although I can see you seem to have lifted the same "feel" as was used in the FS2 intro movie... I don't think we need "ruins of the past" etc. The movie clip shown after this piece goes on a little too long... it should be about 2 seconds (the same as the first shot of the Iceni). This is a personal taste thing but I think it'd help to keep things moving along nicely. Also - too much of the pre-rendered movies will make the SCP ships look less impressive.
The next block of text (The project offered much..) again goes on a little bit too much. Perhaps something like:
Ok, as mentioned above, im changing the text, since its obviously wrong. But realize, I am trying to go for the FS2 intro feel on it as you mentioned, as it plays an important part in storytelling the mods later on. However, with your point below, I must mention that this isn't more for the freespace upgrade, than it is for the SCP itself.
At this point (as you begin to show the *excellent* morphing between the old and new ships) it'd be nice if the music could change into something a bit more up-beat... something as equally exciting as the new ships.
Also, the text (Where Volition left us ruins..) could read something a bit less negative like:
Now... prepare yourself...
...For The FreeSpace Upgrade Project...
Still having the ships do flybys... also at the end you use a different font (I'd leave that block of text out entirely by the way). Finally a nice fade to black with a nice big SCP symbol and link to the SCP main site.
If you're planning on extending it - it would be nice to have the music get even racier and show off some of the new explosions, beam and warp effects, glow points and all the other neat new stuff....
Yes, I intend to extend it. What you have seen here is actually just the first bit that I've managed to piece together in Adobe Premier. I still have to set up more camera shots in FRED, and then capture it in FRAPS with default FS2 (which is just the SCP with all the features off) and then with FSO, and then just about paste it together inside the program. This is how the fade effect is achieved, and it is quite easy, since both movies are exactly the same, only with different effects. However, I doubt i'll be able to do too much more, as not only is my PC limited, but so is my HD space >_<
This is where I need a bit of help - I need volunteers, ones with not only good PCs, but with FRAPS and the ability to record videos, compress them without quality loss and then the ability upload them somewhere for general access. These are just simple ship moving from point A to point B so far - once the explosions and heavy stuff start, even x0.25 time compression isnt going to save my poor system :(
...and if you wanted to take it further you could go on to show a screen such as "Others have adopted what was built... and dreams have become realised" then cut entirely to The Babylon Project, BlackWater Ops, Inferno, WC Saga, the Star Trek / Wars and Battlestar Galactica ships and any other neat things that'd really show off the game.
I intend to take this to the following mods, assuming they allow me permission to release up-to-date videos of their stuff:
Inferno (no new vid is actually needed, since I can just use one of the older ones - which still look spectacular)
BSG
TBP
Don't get me wrong though - it looks like I'm being negative here but I'm incredibly impressed by this. I'm also really excited at how much potential this has if it can look incredible and really get people interested in what's going on.
It's no problem, really. As mentioned, any feedback is better than none.
Great video, but a couple of major points...
1) Consistent misuse of it's rather than its
2) Volition didn't "fall"; it's still making games
3) *does* know what the SCP is doing; daveb checks in here once in a blue moon and is always impressed
4) I'd hardly call FS2 retail "ruins". Way too negative. Don't forget all the cool campaigns that exist for FS1 and FS2.
5) The SCP didn't start as a visual upgrade; that was relatively recent. During the first year or so it was focused primarily on new sexps, subtle enhancements, and tweaks of that nature; plus the occasional major feature. Yes, it was ported to DX8 fairly early, but it wasn't until the last year or so that the graphics stuff started really rolling out in force.
1. Bah! Grammer Inquisition strikes again :p
2. understood...
3. understood again (smacks self for extreme stupidity)
4. Will change that immediately.
5. Understood again. I'll have to change that as well from the looks of it :/
Also, the movie cuts out right after the Hercules. Is that intentional or did I get a bad download?
And I love the Hercules fade effect. Did you use the camera sexps for that?
The movie cuts out after the Herc cause that's all I have to show atm, so yes, it is intentional :p
The fade effect was done in premier. Carl taught me that one - kudoz go to him, not me :D
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I'm only getting Audio.
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yeah same here
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For the audio bit: the clip uses Intel Indeo Codec, so you may want to try and get that. Are you using WMP to open, or VLC? Cause VLC doesnt seem to like it very much >_<
Ok, here's the revised script so far.
[opening sequence]
Music: FS2_Brief_02
FS1_Ancients 1 background plays for 5 seconds before fading out to text.
First scene/text (revised):
In 1999,
Volition and Interplay INC.
Released Freespace 2 for the PC,
One of the Best Space Sims of its time.
But soon after the seperation of the two giants,
It was quitely kept aside,
In hopes of being revived one day.
Fade out 00:16-00:18
[scene 2]
at 00:18, we transit to a two-second shot of the Iceni as it goes through the nebula.
Fade out to text at 00:21.
In 2001 however,
Volition Released the Source Code for FS2
Although they would never know it,
this simple act, this simple gift,
would become the revival that had been so hoped for.
The code was taken on by a new team,
and a new project was launched to use it.
It promised a new engine based on the old,
A new power, built on the legacy of the past.
Fade out text at 00:35 to a shot of the fleet, from the Cutscene FS2_Colossus 00:36-39, fade out to 00:41.
[scene 3]
The Project Offered much.
It started as a simple upgrade...
But now, it is become so much more.
The Project was called
The Source Code Project
It offered to ressurect a dream,
one left behind by it's creator.
And it has done that task Admirably
Fade out to black, 00:51.
[scene 4]
Music cuts to FS2_Brief_05.
Fade in to the words "Where Volition has left us monuments to the past"
Clip of the Aeolus passing by fades in at 00:53 and we watch it move accross the screen. At 00:55-00:57, it fades to the new Aeolus. At 00:57-00:58, the following line fades in:
"We have made them the Wonders of a new World"
The Aeolus passes by till around 01:00, after which it and the text quickly fades out to black at 01:01.
[Scene 5]
Fade to text from 01:02 to 01:03
"Where we have been left but a legacy"
Shot of the old Herc fades in at 01:03. It approaches us till around 01:05, at which point the first text fades out, and new text pops up, and the new herc begins to fade in.
"We have made it so much more."
Text fades out at 01:08-01:09, Herc 2 flies by and fades out at 01:10.
[/scene stuff]
That's all I have atm. I have to go and pick up my father from the airport, so i'll post the next bits when I get back....
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I only got audio until I downloaded it to my hard drive first, then opened. Try that.
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Consider
"Upon the foundation that volition created"
"We have built cities in the sky"
Sounds more poetic...
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I didn't read the bit about VLC player properly, I thought it would just be reccomending it because Singh's last video wouldn't work in anything but VLC.
CaptJosh, what did you save the file to if not your Hard Drive?
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CaptJosh, what did you save the file to if not your Hard Drive?
Open from the site rather than saving it to disk.
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The fade effect was done in premier. Carl taught me that one - kudoz go to him, not me :D
Oh crap, that wasn't what I meant... I should have worded that better. :nervous: The fade itself is very cool, of course :) but I was wondering how you synchronized the old ships and the new ships so well. If I had to do it, I'd set things up so that some ships fly along designated waypoints, and then I'd use WMC's camera sexps so that the camera moves in exactly the same way every time you run the mission. Then I'd just capture video for the mission twice: one with effects off, and one with effects on. ;)
As for FRAPS slowing down your system: I highly recommend GameCam (http://www.planetgamecam.com/). I downloaded it a couple of months ago when I did my run-through of Bearbaiting, and I was so impressed with it that I registered it within hours after downloading it. It only runs in WindowsXP for DirectX games, and it doesn't work for FS2 retail, but it captures video extremely smoothly and with no apparent FPS drop whatsoever. :)
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The fade effect was done in premier. Carl taught me that one - kudoz go to him, not me :D
Oh crap, that wasn't what I meant... I should have worded that better. :nervous: The fade itself is very cool, of course :) but I was wondering how you synchronized the old ships and the new ships so well. If I had to do it, I'd set things up so that some ships fly along designated waypoints, and then I'd use WMC's camera sexps so that the camera moves in exactly the same way every time you run the mission. Then I'd just capture video for the mission twice: one with effects off, and one with effects on. ;)
As for FRAPS slowing down your system: I highly recommend GameCam (http://www.planetgamecam.com/). I downloaded it a couple of months ago when I did my run-through of Bearbaiting, and I was so impressed with it that I registered it within hours after downloading it. It only runs in WindowsXP for DirectX games, and it doesn't work for FS2 retail, but it captures video extremely smoothly and with no apparent FPS drop whatsoever. :)
That's exactly the way I did it, and it's pretty much the bueaty of the whole thing. Even if I cannot run any of the higher-end missions on my own, I can simply upload it somewhere and have someone else run through it with ease :D
As for Game-cam. I'll try it out - but my base FPS is pretty damn low as it is. However, since audio sync isnt an issue here, it may just work out with negative time compression.
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I like the general direction this goes in. Obviously the appropriate comments on improvement so far I'd have to agree with, but yes, I like the idea.
I especially the like transitions and the use of the original music.
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oh... for the love of God and all that is holy, use a real codec, use divx.
I can't see it!
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XviD!! :p
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anything that doesn't requier me to pay $14 to view.
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It uses Indeo codec.....only one that seems to work best with my copy of Adobe Premier. DivX wouldn't show in the list either, so that wasnt an option.
In either case, work has halted on this atm, since (a) I am in Malaysia visiting cousins and (b) due to (a) I am over 300 clicks away from my computer :p
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Bob. Instead of trying to open from current location, save it to your hard drive first, then open it. If you still can't see it, then you don't have the Indeo 5 video codec, which is free.
In fact, here's a link to an installer:
http://www.free-codecs.com/download_soft.php?d=273&s=188
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Cant get Indeo codec for osx, and the os9 version no worky so i guess i just dont get to see it at all, shame :(
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I intend to take this to the following mods, assuming they allow me permission to release up-to-date videos of their stuff:
Inferno (no new vid is actually needed, since I can just use one of the older ones - which still look spectacular)
BSG
TBP
Well, it's old already, but it sure shows some different possibilies of the engine:
http://www.game-warden.com/starfox/Non_SF_related_stuff/SoL_preview.wmv
I'd love to give you a clip of the final product which looks a lot more impressive, but it's not complete... :(
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I've got a suggestion: yeah, the Aeolus transfer shows the quality of the new maps, but it doesn't do a damn thing to show off the new model. How bout show it flying at an angle, kinda like what you did with the Herc?
Kudos on the herc transfer btw :D
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Cool. Most of my suggestions were already hit, but I'll check back for updates. :)
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Looking awesome. The bit at the end just hits home about how far we've all come. Nice one showing this off, Singh. :)
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For those of you whom werent on GW, re-download the vid. its been updated clips-wise during the outage, and now I need to change the text and more stuff. The next major update should be coming over the weekend once I begin to record more stuff :)
As always, soundtrack suggestions are VERY welcome as well as possible sources, if any.
If someone can tell me which "store" I can go to *cough* "acquire" *cough* the Crimson tide soundtrack, that'd be really (by PM of course) appreciated.
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That's great singh, except for one little problem. "File not found"
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Bah. Try now. Linky fixed :D
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tis been updated. Not much has been updated; so tis upto you if you wish to download or not :D
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For the love of God...don't use wmv.
While a lot of people use Windows, not all of them do...
It's a pure Windows format, and MS does all it can to enforce its format anyway...
...anyone can play and avi.
With fddshow it doesn't matter wheter it's avi with Xvid or Divx videostream or ogm or mkv with embedded captions.
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For the love of God...don't use wmv.
While a lot of people use Windows, not all of them do...
It's a pure Windows format, and MS does all it can to enforce its format anyway...
...anyone can play and avi.
With fddshow it doesn't matter wheter it's avi with Xvid or Divx videostream or ogm or mkv with embedded captions.
....Except that Premier has some idiotic trouble encoding in xvid atm, and doing so in Indeo video inflates the size to 80Mb or so.
Sorry, but dont exactly have that much option. I'll see if i cant fix the Xvid codec on the thing - but no promises :(
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Don't *encode* in Premier.
The reason VR-Dub was written is that no other program on the market was good at 'simple recompression' of videos. It's freeware and it's easy to use.
I don't say that you shouldn't use Premier. *EDIT* in premier - it's very good at it AFAIK. You have to cut and work with the media in some raw format anyway (Indeo is recommended) since MPEG-4 encodes are very slow to seek; so I don't see why 2 step production would mean that much more work.
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its not that much work - its the utter and mostly ****ty quality loss. You're essentially cutting the quality twice when going from Indeo to Xvid. At least, I think it will :P
No harm giving it a try, I guess.
*goes off to compress
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its not that much work - its the utter and mostly ****ty quality loss. You're essentially cutting the quality twice when going from Indeo to Xvid. At least, I think it will :P
No harm giving it a try, I guess.
*goes off to compress
That can't quite happen.
Indeo is a lossless copression format - so it CAN'T introduce artifacts of its own.
Granted encoding into any MPEG-4 format (WMV 6-9 included) is an art onto itself (I know that little from my own ex-video pirate experiences). However there *is* a good middleground size/quality wise, there has to be otherwise animefansubbing groups wouldn't release anything with the codec...and they actually do.
I suggest trying 2-pass encoding with default setting and 900kbps main average bitrate setting.
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ok singh, small problem. none of my media players can play .wmv3 fromat vids properly. it freezes up when the second line appears at the start of the video. if i skip ahead it'll play a small portion but freeze up again. (the only players ihave that will play it are WinAmp and Windows Media Player, but the clip freezes up. :()
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Ok - try this and ignore the other video for the moment.
Rather than re-upload everything, I've uploaded the latest scene, in xvid format. The compression is set quite high, so their is a little quality loss. It's 5mb total.
Click me for super fighter ninja furball mayham! (http://www.game-warden.com/singh/SCPX.exe)
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Warning. It's an executable.
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thats cause it's compressed that way! :p reduced the file size from 10mb to 5mb.... :p
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Interesting. Shame about the Pirates of the Caribbean music. I kind of like the frantic gameplay aspect of it, it feels like you're in the middle of the action and there's amazing details in every corner of the screen. There's a lot going on and in general it looks fantastic.
Try not to wash out the screen with too much white though. Consider that a little can go a long way, as well; remember the burning Faustus from the FS2 intro? It's only on screen for a second but it's a great detail. The Mjolnir dying is a nice touch, but don't linger too long on the Lucifer. A skybox and a few capships duking it out in the background (Terran destroyer slagging a Moloch, perhaps) could be neat too.
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reupload the whole goddamn vid! :p
oh, this one is great. ;)
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Interesting. Shame about the Pirates of the Caribbean music.
Ok, since everyone's complaining about it, might as well put up the choices. They've all been uploaded, so just listen and vote on which one to use.
Gladiator Battle Theme (http://www.game-warden.com/singh/Gladextract3.mp3)
Matrix Revolutions End theme (http://www.game-warden.com/singh/PersistanceMP3.mp3)
Crimson Tide Battle Extract (http://www.game-warden.com/singh/Rolltide1.mp3)
Destroy it full, Red Alert 2 :p (http://www.game-warden.com/singh/ra2destfull.mp3)
Alexander Sountrack (extract only) (http://www.game-warden.com/singh/MoW_Btl1.wav)
Frantic will be used for the Inferno bit (coming up next), and hte entire piece will be made around it, as opposed to the other way around.
Other options: extracts from Alexander soundtrack (will post later) and maybe, just maybe, the Burly Brawl (but that isnt much of an option)
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Another thing I was hoping to ask.
I dont want to suck GW's bandwidth dry with thing, as a lot of development stuff will be going on, including uploading and downloading trailers and so forth. Is there any possible way that I can ask for temporary hosting over at HLP, or anywhere else? I dont need much, just 100mb of space - I just feel guilty for using GW's space for this, especially considering the number of leechers Matthewpapa has been having recently for the FS2 ISO's....
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thats cause it's compressed that way! :p reduced the file size from 10mb to 5mb.... :p
Argh....!
Knew it.
You're using PCM-Sound aren't you? That's *UNCOMPRESSED*. That's also the reason why you can squeze the files with a compression method.
Start compressing audio too (I can tell you how it's done in VR-Dub, but not Premier)
Recommended audio formats: mp3 or ogg (vobris).
For the later you're gona need VR-Dub Mod.
On a sidenote: with an mkv file (Matroska) you can have subtitles with custom font, size, position - embedded into the container file (mkv) but not burned into the video.
About the new portion - there's too much white glare. (Maybe have suns with no glare?).
The pacing is very good though, and there's a good sense of momentum carried from scene to scene, that lets the action flow even without cluttering the scene with ships and beams and BOOMs - which is good.
A BoE scene could be good, but wihtout buildup, pacing and coreography - highpoints of the trailer so far - it would be just a huge clutter on screen....and you may reserve that moment for the Star Wars project as a tip of the hat.
The Lucifer would work a lot better with a lower ambient factor or just against a dark background, it's the prime 'black-ship' with a scrary red (or now in cutscene colors, red-green) glowmap.
You should go beyond the cutscene effect - I wonder if any ship has acceptable cockpit rendering by now. With that you could give the exact same 'in-my-pants' moment Lt. Ash had....then let the Lucy swoop by, start tracking and show the action from an 'above the shoulder' perspective as it unleashes hell.
I wonder if it would be possible to do orbital bombardment by now (many campaings used the reverse - ground based canons), though you could just show some of Omni's planet models with the Lucy howevering like Damocles' Sword.
PS.: I like the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack. Hans Zimmer RULZ in any music though.
PS.PS.: You may have had trouble with the mp3 encoding as Windows likes to *upgrade* the codec along with Windows Media Player.
This (http://www.divax.it/programmi.asp?file=Radium%20Mp3%20Codec) or this (http://www.free-codecs.com/download/LAME_ACM_Codec.htm) should solve that.
The first is an old pirate response to 'Mircosoft's kindness'.
The later is the best damn free mp3 codec out there. It's an ACM codec so Premier should be able to use it.
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Whole vid has been updated once more. Finished the inferno mod scenes (although not totally happy with it - may change it in the future). Next up is TBP - but that's going to take a while till I can clear up disk space and get my new external HD online :nod: :)
I cant quite put what is wrong with the Inferno section...probably the lack of sound. If in the end its still not so good, I'll simply change it to a section of one of the trailers, as opposed to snippets of the older ones.
Edit: FYI, the link's changed.
Click me for an everybody-friendly xvid codec video :) (http://www.game-warden.com/singh/SCPX.exe)
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Damn, the music is gorgeous. brings out that chilling feeling when listening some quality musc.
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Man, i can only download that at 4kbps!
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The music is pretty much spot on :nod:
With some fine tuning, this is going to be very good. There is a small problem with the contrast between your SCP footage and the Inferno stuff, the other being very movie-like where the other is, well, simple turkey shoot.
Also, as you propably know, the text needs some work. Not just the text itself, but just about everything about it starting from the font that keeps changing from one shot to another. Try to add some coherency by choosing a single good font and sticking by it, without too many "cool" effects (shadows, glows etc.). Catch me online on icq some day and I might have a few suggestions :)
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The music is pretty much spot on :nod:
With some fine tuning, this is going to be very good. There is a small problem with the contrast between your SCP footage and the Inferno stuff, the other being very movie-like where the other is, well, simple turkey shoot.
Also, as you propably know, the text needs some work. Not just the text itself, but just about everything about it starting from the font that keeps changing from one shot to another. Try to add some coherency by choosing a single good font and sticking by it, without too many "cool" effects (shadows, glows etc.). Catch me online on icq some day and I might have a few suggestions :)
Trust the man, he made some mighty impressive cutscenes for TWVP, that will someday hit the public when the staff finally has time on its hands.
On the file and encoding:
Oooowww....don't use ACM. (Media player, didn't even recognize it. Had to use VR-Dub / Mplayer to do). You may not notice it, but I did since usually use headphones....and it ain't pretty.
Try 2-pass encoding. Simply put, it's like VBR encoding in mp3.
During the first pass, the encoder collects statistics in a log file about the video to determine the bitrate demands.
On the second pass, it encodes with that data, assuring maximum quality / bitrate.
About the footage:
I didn't like the music selection for Inferno - though it's just personal preferance in this case IMHO.
That part, although the most true to gameplay, lacks the direction the earlier portions had. I know, it's hard to coreograph dogfights, but you can assure the scenery at least.
Lighting also wasn't top-notch. It was too dark...
The Lucifer's in too much glare - put a lightsource (ergo the sun) somewhere on the side, behind the ship, but not right behind it. That should illuminate the ship's glowmap, and the jump-anime will be the stark background for the black-ship.
You shouldn't dwell on the ship, but you could at least let it pass the camera, like the Herc did (with some Shivans flying formation?).
I liked the earlier presentation of the Deimos - use a harder direct lightsource, to amplyfy its shine. By putting it in the ship's path you can still retain the glowmaps' beauty.
That said, so far, so good. Keep it up.
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Crimson Tide Battle Extract (http://www.game-warden.com/singh/Rolltide1.mp3)
Ooh! Someone used this music in another campaign trailer recently. Anyone remember which one it was?
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Crimson Tide Battle Extract (http://www.game-warden.com/singh/Rolltide1.mp3)
Ooh! Someone used this music in another campaign trailer recently. Anyone remember which one it was?
Into the Halls of Valhalla IIRC.
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Into the Halls of Valhalla IIRC.
Actually now that Galemp reminded me, I think it's Lightning Marshall. Though with search b0rked I can't check. :(
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Very good, except for when that Serphim does a loop in the scene with the Orion.
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It actualy hits an ursa, that's why it loops.
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Nice feel to it with the new music but the text does need work. I can't quite put my finger on it but it doesn't sit well with me.
The actual footage is excellent though, very atmospheric and full of action and eye-candy.
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Crimson Tide Battle Extract (http://www.game-warden.com/singh/Rolltide1.mp3)
Ooh! Someone used this music in another campaign trailer recently. Anyone remember which one it was?
No, which means it was probably a .wmv :p
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Needs less painful compression. That's about my only real complaint though, besides the aforementioned text issues. Inferno doesn't live up to the potential of the rest of the video, and it desperately needs more flyby action; the Herc still is the most climactic.
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Impressive footage but the compression is too bad. :(
I think it will great if you inegrate the new shockwave, the explo from TBP, the new Beams from the MediaVP 3.6.7 and so on. The footage will be more and more impressive and more eye candy.
The Unreal 2 music for the Inferno footage suit a little well.
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The Inferno stuff with be FRED'ded from the looks of it. What you see here was based off the four released trailers they have now - all of which are quite old and truthfully, quite hard to make any sense of together. In a few days, I think i'll be able to achieve with Inferno the same thing I did with normal Fs2.
Metaldestroyer: i'll try my best to get that in. I think I can squeeze it into the second battle scene, with an exploding Fenris or something. Where do I get the TBP explosions, though? I already have Media VP 3.6.7 but using the new beams slows things down to a crawl.
I'll take note of the suggestions for the sunlight and change everything. It'll take time to re-FRED and then take the footage again.
As for the text....i'll change it to a single font, as recommended, but as for teh actual content - dont just complain about it not being right, and then not offer something to replace it. This is the best I could come up with - if its not right, then please do suggest something to replace it.
Or better yet, if you really dont like it, then at least recommend to remove it. Either way, im stumped when it comes to the content of the text, or what to do with it - which is waht feedback and suggestions are meant for! :p
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Ok, the Crimson Tide music, at least in some places, is a hybrid of some music from star Wars and the theme to The Hunt for Red October.
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Too bad it isn't the REAL Crimson Tide music. :p
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As for the text....i'll change it to a single font, as recommended, but as for teh actual content - dont just complain about it not being right, and then not offer something to replace it. This is the best I could come up with - if its not right, then please do suggest something to replace it.
Or better yet, if you really dont like it, then at least recommend to remove it. Either way, im stumped when it comes to the content of the text, or what to do with it - which is waht feedback and suggestions are meant for! :p
I don't critizise your text, just the fact that there are some simple errors in it. Refer to the earlier post for comments on that :)
Also... can you change it so that the Aelous is in the center of the screen instead of slightly top right? And another tip: Use widescreen! Add black bars if you have to, but do it anyway :nod:
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As for the text....i'll change it to a single font, as recommended, but as for teh actual content - dont just complain about it not being right, and then not offer something to replace it. This is the best I could come up with - if its not right, then please do suggest something to replace it.
Use less text, and try to be less ... how shall I say... "over-dramatic", it's not the 2nd coming of Jesus
Could you post the text here, so we can directly edit it to make suggestions and fix a few grammar errors ? I'm to lazy to write it down from the video.
The shot of the Deimos would be better is the whole ship was visible.
Herc fly-by = A1 supar
Overall, better compression quality is really needed, try to do a multi-pass encoding, if you can get it working.
And I'm with Cannonfodder on this one, widescreen would give it a more cinematic feel
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@Singh
Free hosting, 2.5GB of space, http://fileh.com
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Looks nice Singh, theres one or two points I'd make though..
Whilst the transition for the Aeolus and the Herc are good, the one for the Deimos looks a bit...odd, I think it's the complete lack of discernible background stars or images, I think that's compression related, but if you could start with [V]'s nebs in the background at first and fade to Lightspeeds, that would have quite an impact ;)
Personally I'd like to have seen more third-person views of the battle, I'm assuming that this is for inferno, if not, I'd suggest keeping away from Mods if this was for the FSU, simply because this project is about Freespace 2, not it's extensions, but that's my opinion :)
Finally, I actually quite liked the wording, whilst this isn't the second coming, what has been achieved by this community is laudible and we should be singing our own praises, I can assure you that no-one else will do it for us. Teensy little spelling error right at the beginning, you write 'Quitely put to one side', theres an 'e' missing, it's 'Quietly put to one side', other than that, good stuff :D
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small question (in a rush - no time to respond) - how do i use widescreen?
Will be doing more filming later today.
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Nothing to do with widescreen, but....
Just a thought, but take a look at the Eve Never Fades video...
http://myeve.eve-online.com/download/videos/
I love the way the video jumps between tranquil and violent, those sudden contrasts work really well, maybe a simlar technique using 'old and new' instead might work?
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small question (in a rush - no time to respond) - how do i use widescreen?
Will be doing more filming later today.
Use VirtualDub (or maybe you can do it in Premiere), to cut off part of the image. Cheap but effective trick.
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Or if your recording software has custom resolutions you can use that.
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The text might look beter if you didn't fill the whole screen with it. The way it is now gives an images of a huge amount of text, even though there isn't that much of it. Cut it in to smaller faster switching amounts.
e.g:
/fade text in
In 1999
Volition and interplay INC
Released Freespace 2
for the PC
/fade text out
/fade text in
One of the best space sims
of its time
/fade text out
/fade text in
But soon after their separation,
the two giants quetly kept it aside;
inhopes of it being revived one day
/fade text out
/go to next scene
This way it wouldn't suffocate the view with text.
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Gladiator Battle Theme (http://www.game-warden.com/singh/Gladextract3.mp3)
Matrix Revolutions End theme (http://www.game-warden.com/singh/PersistanceMP3.mp3)
Crimson Tide Battle Extract (http://www.game-warden.com/singh/Rolltide1.mp3)
Destroy it full, Red Alert 2 :p (http://www.game-warden.com/singh/ra2destfull.mp3)
Alexander Sountrack (extract only) (http://www.game-warden.com/singh/MoW_Btl1.wav)
Links dead. :(