[Tnn]

I use Mve2Avi to convert FS2 cutscenes using DivX codec, and they look very good in any Window player, at any resolution, full screen.
But in game they look horribly blocky!

I guess because the movie is 640x320 while the game play is 1024x768 so when it scale-up full screen, it get blocky. So I try playing in 640x480 res. Same thing, the movie still badly pixelated.
 
Did I miss something? Is this something wrong with DirectShow?
Please help.

[karajorma]

Why am I getting a strong sense of Dejav-Vu reading this?

[Swamp_Thing]

Because the same exact question was posed just a couple of days ago?
We need a sticky thread, including all this stuff about MVE files, media_vp´s, hosted FS files and everything else, to save time. Every so often, someone comes along and asks the same questions all over again, when a simple search of the forum would give the answers easelly...

Welcome to the forums, Tnn. You can find your answers by browsing this forum, or by a simple search. All these issues have been adressed dozens of times before. Just make a quick search.

[Kosh]

It would be easier to just dl the cutscenes.........

[karajorma]

Actually mine are quite blocky too. I thought it was cause of MVE2AVI.

[Tnn]

I did search the forum, using key words: avi, cutscene, mve, movies... and read through them but none address the problem of blocky movies though..

I found out that if I encode the movie real dark, using brightness/contrast filter, it will mask the pixelation.

Still, if the movies look gorgeous on a stand-alone player (mplayer, BsPlayer...) they should look as good in game! That's why I posted, hoping somebody know the answer.

And thanks for the welcoming, Swamp_Thing, it's good to be here

[karajorma]

I think you hit the nail on the head when you said it was due to the resolution they were played in.  The only way around the problem then is to ask the SCP for a resolution switch when a movie is played (same as in the retail version).

Considering how unstable the movie code is though I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for it.

Of course it could be a problem with the MVE2AVI program too.

[Tnn]

It's not the Mve2Avi, or the resolution either, because I have transcoded the .mve movies to .Avi, using Xvid codec, and they look absolutely gorgeous, the color is brilliant, no artifact, no pixelation at all, even at 1024x768. They look better than the original .mve movies (this is strange, but true!)

Yet, In Game They Look Crappy! WHY?

[karajorma]

That is odd then. The problem is that the versions of the movies that are available for download are rather crappy at 1024x768 when viewed in media player so no one notices the problem cause they just attribute it to the poor quality of the avi.

If you can post one of the good quality movies up somewhere then we could at least have a decent starting point.  (or at least detail the divx settings you used so I can make a similarly good version).

You're using MVE2AVI 2.4h right?

[Tnn]

Here are some stats for sample movie Endprt2b.mve (43MB):

MVE2AVI (V2.4)

Xvid: (V4.11)
- 1pass quality 100% (other settings at default)
- Mp3 Audio at highest quality (7K/s)
- Resulting .avi file size : 20MB

DivX: (V4.11)
- 1pass quality 95%
-  Performance/Quality: Fastest (other settings at default)
-  Mp3 Audio at highest quality (7K/s)
-  Resulting .avi file size : 50MB

Comments: In this case (Animated movie, not real life video) Xvid seems better than DivX, with higher quality, smaller file size.
Playing under Window Media Player, they both scale up nicely in 1024x768 resolution, but DivX shows some pixelation while Xvid has none and the color are richer too. I give Xvid

[Kosh]

Originally posted by karajorma
Actually mine are quite blocky too. I thought it was cause of MVE2AVI.

Blockiness is because of three factors:

1.) Your bitrate. The higher this number is, the higher quality your AVI will be, but it increases the file size.

2.) The amount of action going on in the scene. Some scenes are called "codec killers" because they have lots of moving things in them, so blockiness in inevitible in some cases.


3.) The codec itself. Some codecs are simply better than others. Divx is actually considered to be one of the best (if not the best) for AVI's.

[Flaser]

XVid though is up there, but it is a lot harder to use - but in able hands with a lot of coding experience you can achieve better results, though the same is true for DivX.

WMV9 is also promising - BUT! For heaven's sake NEVER EVER use a WM format. Reasons:

From than on the video will be Windows only, though there are filters for other OS it's not perfect.
It is buggy and ugly: browsing/seeking a WM file is a lot slower than any decent avi, ogm or mkv file.
They also eat CPU power like there's no tommorow. To decode high-res DivX/Xvid/3xix a 500 Celeron or 1 Gig CPU is fine. WM needs at least 2 Gigs.
From then on it will be impossible to code, recode or manipulate the media with anything else then an MS media editor - which are famed for their horrible stability and 'user-friendliness'

[karajorma]

Originally posted by Kosh
Blockiness is because of three factors:

1.) Your bitrate. The higher this number is, the higher quality your AVI will be, but it increases the file size.

2.) The amount of action going on in the scene. Some scenes are called "codec killers" because they have lots of moving things in them, so blockiness in inevitible in some cases.


3.) The codec itself. Some codecs are simply better than others. Divx is actually considered to be one of the best (if not the best) for AVI's.

I'm no expert but I'm sure I remember trying the uncompressed avi that MVE2AVI produced and seeing a lack of quaility in that too. I'll have to double check.

[ChronoReverse]

The quality of the original MVE's is already horrible.

I've ran it through some filters to reduce the blockiness and fake more details but unless we get the original RAW avi's (might not even have been made), there isn't too much we can do.

[Flaser]

....beside re-rendering the cutscenes for FS2. FS1 is another issue, those were far superior for their time.

[ChronoReverse]

Frankly, the FS1 cutscenes were far better than the FS2 ones.  I can't comprehend why they encoded the FS2 cutscenes such that they suffered from so much more blocking than the FS1 cutscenes.

[karajorma]

Probably so that they wouldn't need a fourth disk.

[ChronoReverse]

I didn't read the original post XD

I use Mve2Avi to convert FS2 cutscenes using DivX codec, and they look very good in any Window player, at any resolution, full screen.
But in game they look horribly blocky!

I guess because the movie is 640x320 while the game play is 1024x768 so when it scale-up full screen, it get blocky. So I try playing in 640x480 res. Same thing, the movie still badly pixelated.

This could be because the directshow decoder is performing deblocking.  I don't know what they're using in FS2_open, but they may have somehow turned deblocking off or are using a different way to render it.

[MatthewPapa]

Originally posted by Flaser
FS1 is another issue, those were far superior for their time.

Ahh Yes.
I remember when I first saw the intro for Freespace 1 on a demo CD I had got with my old Dell. I had trouble re-attaching my jaw after that.

[Kosh]

Originally posted by ChronoReverse
Frankly, the FS1 cutscenes were far better than the FS2 ones.  I can't comprehend why they encoded the FS2 cutscenes such that they suffered from so much more blocking than the FS1 cutscenes.

I think it was either because they were too heavily compressed, or there was too much action for the MVE format to handle (in the beginning and ending cutscenes this is true). MVE is a much older format than Divx 5.