[Eltrotraw]

So I've been playing around with the idea of doing a Freespace "Let's Play" (for lack of a better term right now) and putting it up on youtube, because, frankly, I believe that the game needs more attention than it has. I know so many people have been turned off by the controls, because it's scifi, because it's a (space) combat sim and other reasons, but still... we all love the game, right?

Well, recently I did end up finally starting it, just that after seeing others play the game(like ShivanSpS) suddenly I'm feeling a little daunted to keep going with it, but I decided to keep going. At this point I've just finished "In the Lion's Den" and I'm planning on finishing the last mission arc in the next recording session.

Here's a link to the "first" video in the recording series, anyway, if anyone's interested. In the vein of a "Let's Play", I do speak with audio commentary. It took me a few videos to find a good match for audio/input as well, but I apologize. I'm considering redoing those segments to get better versions of those up.

My computer IS outdated(1 gHz RAM, ATI 9800 video card), so I do have to play with lowered settings, and I'm using CamStudio to record which has given me mixed results... but...

I do go through training and all that just for posterity, but who's paying attention >_>

I think I'm posting in the right place for this, but I can't help but feel this is coming off as an advertisement. Don't shoot me.

[General Battuta]

Not advertisement at all. Great idea.

Shame you can't play with the latest MVPs and bloom and all, though.

[Rodo]

You could skip the hole briefing/debriefing and just add a personal commentary when changing the loadouts and ships about why you choose this or that ship and the different loadouts, this will make your videos shorter and to the point, after all.. what you are trying to show is the gameplay right?

EDIT: well you've got most of the game already uploaded,  .

[Eltrotraw]

Not advertisement at all. Great idea.

Shame you can't play with the latest MVPs and bloom and all, though.

Some of the new revisions look amazing. I did try it on my computer(for lulz) but I had to stop pretty fast because the framerate was unplayable.

You could skip the hole briefing/debriefing and just add a personal commentary when changing the loadouts and ships about why you choose this or that ship and the different loadouts, this will make your videos shorter and to the point, after all.. what you are trying to show is the gameplay right?

I was considering skipping the briefing/debrief segments, but I attempted that before and I think I tried to fit too much exposition into too little time.

Well, that, and I'm a little impartial to the briefings/debriefs...

I wanted to show the gameplay, yeah, but I feel that the other parts of the game add to the experience.

[Jeff Vader]

I think I'm posting in the right place for this, but I can't help but feel this is coming off as an advertisement. Don't shoot me.

I'm more irritated with people who register here to advertise something that is remotely related at best (other space-related games for example) without demonstrating any particular interest towards FreeSpace. Your video(s) is/are FS2-related, which makes this most OK.

[Lucika]

A nice idea, I was planning to do the same. I might do FS1 or some user-made campaigns.
But I strictly disagree on the "no-briefings-needed"-policy. After all, those are the cornerstones of the story! It's like you'd constantly keep skipping the cutscenes in ST:EF or sg.

[The E]

Yeah, the briefings, and the pre-mission setup are big parts of the experience.

I also noted that you used FSOpen 3.6.9. Please don't do that.

[Lucika]

Yeah, the briefings, and the pre-mission setup are big parts of the experience.

I also noted that you used FSOpen 3.6.9. Please don't do that.

http://www.viddler.com/explore/Goldom/videos/94/

Wonder which version is that.

[The E]

No idea. I only know that Eltro's vids were done with .9 because it said so on the pilot select screen.

[Eltrotraw]

I think the reason why I started with .9 was tbh I didn't notice version 10 when I booted up the game, but I tried it a few days later >_>

I'm not sure if it were some settings or not, but my previously mentioned old/outdated computer had issues running it at a consistent framerate. I believed it was because I was running it with .10 because when I tried it with .9, things were running much more smoothly.

I'll try .10 again if you'd like. Maybe I did miss something if that were to be the case.

[The E]

There are known issues with .10 and inconsistent framerates. Look at the support board for probable solutions. Or go straight to .11. In fact, that should be the way to go if your machine is not that beefy, because 3.6.11 has several speed improvements.

At any rate, I would recommend deleting .9 for the very simple reason that .9 is very unsupported. The new mediavps were built for .10, as are nearly all the mods that are around right now.

[Dark RevenantX]

It's surprisingly hard to record FS2 smoothly on the highest settings (even when resolution is reduced).  I barely had a good recording framerate in this video and the resolution loss is obvious.  It's too bad you don't have a better computer to do these with, but you'd need a powerful video card and an SSD to get any really good recordings.

[The E]

An SSD? Seriously? I think a regular HDD still has better write access times....

[jr2]

...

www.iobit.com

Download links on menu at the left of the screen

download and run:
Advanced System Care Free (make sure it's the free one, also be sure to run both Maintain Windows and Diagnose System sub-routines)
Smart Defrag (be sure to set up to run at system start in the options and to schedule a deep optimize once every two weeks - schedule, checkbox next to hard disk, use drop down box to select Deep Defrag)
GameBooster (enable game mode before FS launch)

This should help you get the max out of your system.    Hope this helps you and the rest of the guys too.

[MatthTheGeek]

I manage to capture FS with good settings, good quality and correct framerate with the Xfire recorder. Look here to have an idea of what I mean with "good quality".

[jr2]

I used to use FRAPS.  It's been years though and I never used anything else, so I have no clue how it compares now - not to mention, it does cost money.  If you got two computers and hooked up your video card dual head out in clone mode and had the second computer with a video capture card IMO that'd be best.  Now, to find a free computer that would handle that...

[Eltrotraw]

Late reply, but I did just finish the playthrough
(whee promotion)

There are known issues with .10 and inconsistent framerates. Look at the support board for probable solutions. Or go straight to .11. In fact, that should be the way to go if your machine is not that beefy, because 3.6.11 has several speed improvements.

At any rate, I would recommend deleting .9 for the very simple reason that .9 is very unsupported. The new mediavps were built for .10, as are nearly all the mods that are around right now.

I just finished the rest of my run and I think I realized a few problems with .10
- Apparently, the warp signatures get distorted after some strain on the system, but only if 3d warp/flash on warp were activated. This didn't happen on .9
- I was able to run the game with glowmaps activated and still have it go reasonably well in .9, but not in .10

I had to adjust for this, but honestly imo I waas going fine with .9 most of the way through. Your reasons for me wanting to play on .10 seem like they'd be more valid if I was going through a fan campaign and not the main one.

...This should help you get the max out of your system.    Hope this helps you and the rest of the guys too.

Thanks, this did help performance a bit, though I think it bogged down the recording software though(GameBooster, anyway).

I manage to capture FS with good settings, good quality and correct framerate with the Xfire recorder. Look here to have an idea of what I mean with "good quality".

What're your specs, though? My computer is a pretty damned outdated one with 1 GHz RAM and an ATI 9800 videocard - optimized for 2003, iirc but new stuff for 2009/2010 it pretty much struggles to run.

[The E]

I just finished the rest of my run and I think I realized a few problems with .10
- Apparently, the warp signatures get distorted after some strain on the system, but only if 3d warp/flash on warp were activated. This didn't happen on .9
- I was able to run the game with glowmaps activated and still have it go reasonably well in .9, but not in .10

I had to adjust for this, but honestly imo I waas going fine with .9 most of the way through. Your reasons for me wanting to play on .10 seem like they'd be more valid if I was going through a fan campaign and not the main one.

My reason for wanting you to play with .10 or .11 are simply that if you have a problem (And you will, once you encounter the famous red-alert-bug, or wish to play on widescreen resolutions), the only fix is to use .10 anyway. Oh, and the next set of mediavps will require a .11 or .12 build, so you kinda have no choice in the matter if you want to get all the best eyecandy.

As for user-made campaigns, since there are more user-made ones out there than official ones, some of them of the "You need to play this" quality level (Silent Threat: Reborn, Transcend, Sync, Derelict, Blue Planet and others), I'd say that would be a proper incentive to keep up to date with the SCP releases.
Of course, I am biased

[Eltrotraw]

I understand that much, it's just that I didn't find it too urgent for the sake of playing through the default campaign for now. Most of the actual problems with the recording have been with the recording software and not the game, strangely enough.

Still, I'll use .10 for the other campaigns as advised, I've already finished Derelict and I'm just thinking which one to start next(or even record!) for another playthrough session, and possibly dedicate a chunk of free time for that sometime in the future.

[General Battuta]

It's gotta be Blue Planet, Transcend, or Silent Threat Reborn.'

Would hold off on Blue Planet until it gets its voice-acted re-release in a little while.