ROQ Renders (Intro Animation)

[Destructavator]

After much frustration and work I've finally gotten some ROQ files to render successfully with switchblade, however I'm not sure how they would look in the game.

Regarding the intro animation, where does the game look for the ROQ file and what filename does it look for?  If I know these two things I can do better testing of the intro animation that I'm still working on and start posting links to proposed versions once I know it will look at least half-way decent.

[Mattn]

put them in base/videos (if this directory doesn't exist for you - just create it)

the file must end with roq - filename.roq

you can start a playback with "cinematic <tab>" or "cinematic <filename>" on the game console

[Destructavator]

Thanks, I did that and it worked!

As soon as I get a good version uploaded to my site's public folder, I'll post a download link so people can try it out.

EDIT: I've also noticed that VLC media player can open ROQs, but it doesn't play them the same way it shows up in the game, VLC also displays artifacts and glitches that the game engine doesn't.

[Destructavator]

Well, after more testing, here is what I've found:

I got the game to play back a video-only ROQ perfectly, but if I add an audio track to the ROQ the game throws up - although the video content will still play, the audio track is recognizable but somewhat garbled and slightly detuned, and once the video stops playing the game outputs no sound whatsoever until the game is exited (back to desktop) and restarted.

I did some research on audio in ROQs, and yes, I properly encoded the audio at 22KHz, and VLC plays it back without any issues now, but the game still doesn't handle the audio part properly.

I tried switchblade both v4 and v3 for encoding the soundtrack.  I also tried pre-encoding the soundtrack at 22KHz so switchblade wouldn't have to convert anything, yet still the game only plays the visual part properly, sound garbled.  (VLC media player still plays both audio and video fine.)

I noticed that the game has an older version of the SDL.dll compared to the SDL.dll that comes with switchblade, I don't know if that makes any difference or not.

I also went to the game's config menu and changed the audio settings before firing up the ROQ, it didn't help.

If anyone can offer any further suggestions to try (or point out something if I'm forgetting something stupidly) please let me know.

I'm also going to re-try a few more things, if I still can't get it to work I'll just put the ROQ up for download with a link here so other people can try it.  I'm also going to try it under Kubuntu and another computer to see if that makes any difference.

I tried these experiments with both the 2.2 main release and the 2.3 development release, same results: perfect video, garbled sound, then no sound at all playing the game after the video is stopped.

[Destructavator]

http://www.destructavator.com/public/vid1.zip

Well, there's the ROQ intro, if anyone can make it work properly in the game, please let me know...

It (the game engine) still seems to want to play the audio part of it back at the wrong frequency...

EDIT:  Under Kubuntu Linux I got the Kaffene media player to play it back fine, although I haven't gotten it to play in the game at all on that platform (yet, still working on it...)

[Mattn]

i will try to fix this stuff asap. It would be nice if the size of the video would not be bigger than 30-35MB - imo over 70MB for the intro is way too much. Can you shorten it a little bit? Or speed up the playback speed while the camera is flying through the space?

[Destructavator]

Sure, I can reduce the filesize by using different quality settings - I had been using the default settings (maximum quality), but if I turn them down a bit it should make the file smaller - I'll work on it and see what I can come up with.

[Mattn]

that would be nice, thank you very much. It should have a reasonable size and a reasonable quality. But in general: The less in size, the better

[Destructavator]

Here, this might be better:

http://www.destructavator.com/public/vid2.zip

I cut the video bit rate down to slightly less than half of what it was before, I've found that if I cut it anymore it starts to look rather ugly and blocky (especially at full screen), and I also changed the audio from 16 bits to 8 bits, still at 22KHz.  The file size is now much smaller - the default full quality settings are 3,000,000 bits per second, this latest one was reduced to 1,400,000 bits per second.  (Those are bits, not bytes!)  The framerate, according to research on ROQ files and the switchblade documentation, is restricted to 30fps and can't be higher or lower, so that remains unchanged.  Dimensions are still 512x512, although I had to alter the rendered aspect ratio/scale so that it displays at the proper proportions when the game plays it.  (This reminds me, if anyone else wants to test this ROQ with VLC, it won't look quite the same as VLC doesn't re-stretch the video to full screen the way the game does - I've found through testing that the Quake engine automatically stretches the video to the right proportions while VLC does not.)

I wonder - as development of the game progresses and more videos are eventually added, perhaps all the videos could be available as a separate and optional download?  I know dial-up users who want to get the game would prefer a small package for the game, although I'd imagine that those with faster connections and/or more patience would be willing to wait long enough to download more and high-quality content.  Can the game be easily programmed to display still shots instead (automatically) if it doesn't find videos in the base folder?  (This might not be needed for the intro, but it might be applicable for UFOPedia videos, etc.)  Just an idea...

[Mattn]

the video must not be played in fullscreen - can also be some 16:9 ratio - if that would have a positive effect on the filesize

i will test the new version

[Mattn]

imo a 16:9 would look better

also the trip to moon is not shortened - it still takes ages until you traveled from earth to moon where just nothing happens - and back, too.. can't you shorten that part of the sequence?

[nemchenk]

Just my opinion, but the orbit around the Earth could also be shortened, or even cut.

Respectfully,

nemchenk

[Destructavator]

I don't know if you remember, but there were actually plans to include more short clips in the intro animation - it was in one of the threads called "Renders" I believe, where BTAxis, myself, and Winter were discussing integrating brief shots to break up the monotony and make the intro more interesting.  I remember Sitters was going to work on some of the additional clips.  Did this plan change?  My spare time is erratic, and I was not active in this forum for a while after I uploaded the last intro I had made in AVI format for feedback.

If, instead, you want me to simply shorten this version, I can do that, but it would take time as I'd have to re-do the soundtrack to fit, as well as alter the source video project.  It would mean taking a few steps back in the development of the intro video, although I admit it could be worth it if a smaller, shorter intro is desired.

I personally would be willing to go either way, a longer version with additional clips or making a shorter one based off of what has already been created (and therefore a smaller filesize).

EDIT: Yes, I looked back in the forum, it got pushed back a page. As Winter said:

I think it's brilliant, practically done. The music now fits very well. However, we should definitely try to splice in some more short clips during the dragging bits, like what you suggested.

Quote
I have a few ideas for additional, short clips (no longer than a few seconds) that the intro could jump to and then back to the main video:

- A shot of an alien hand pushing buttons/controls on a console with a display screen showing a picture of the approaching Earth (A view from inside one of the alien ships, in other words)

- A close-up shot of a single carrier opening its doors to deploy some ships toward the Earth

- A brief view of an alien face (mostly just the eyes) as an alien inside one of the ships stares at the instruments and controls in front of them and the Earth on their display screen.

There are, of course, many other possible shots that would look good, these are just off the top of my head - I will say that if the final intro had more than just the same camera view continuously, it would make the intro movie look a lot more interesting.

All of these are solid ideas, and I'd certainly like to see at least some of them in the vid. Another possibility would be my earlier suggestion, a shakycam shot between two UFOs gradually entering the atmosphere, with sound effects slowly fading in as the atmosphere around the UFOs/camera becomes more dense.

Regards,
Winter

And BTAxis said:

I had a thought for a couple of cuts that may or may not work. These cuts are to Earth rather than to the aliens.

- A large dark room on Earth, with a large display in the background. The display shows a wireframe Earth and four red blinking dots. Warnings flashing on and off here and there, people running to and fro.

- A PHALANX base hangar, its roof opening up and a Stiletto interceptor appearing from within as the lift raises it up. The Stiletto lifts off and disappears towards the horizon.

Also, I imagined these cuts to be smaller than the rest of the movie, displayed in a corner or to the side, so you never really lose track of the Carriers as they move in on Earth.

[nemchenk]

* nemchenk eats his hat 

[Destructavator]

I do apologize - I didn't mean when I started this thread to say that this would be the final introduction in the game, I mainly posted these links to ROQs for these reasons:

1) To make sure I could render the final version (when it's ready) into an ROQ format, as I didn't know if I could build a proper ROQ or not,

2) To make sure the game could play back an ROQ properly, audio and video (and now it seems the audio shall need fixing),

3) So that there would be some kind of introduction video available until the final version is put together.

I'm sorry I didn't make that clear, my fault.

* nemchenk eats his hat

Yikes!  I do hope that wasn't too painful going down (or end up too painful coming back up)...


Getting back to the intro, as I said I'm willing to go either way.