podcast promotional

[2020]

request for those who wish to crowdsource a podcast
http://www.fundable.com/groupactions/gr ... 6899073787

i have two channels on itunes
and one of them has peaked because it has tron in its title i guess and the new tron legacy has stimulated interest generally

feel free to contribute
potentially an interesting experiment in crowdsourcing
whether it works/doesn't
we might end up generating funds to crowdsource different developments wrt community
eg video production
eg fortress-specific client

[pike]

/me don't have PayPal account
If it won't work this way, we should try YT. It's still way behind some other places, but the number of users makes it perfect way to promote the game.
And you can get decent quality even w/out HD: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH5B_AkiaAo

[sinewav]

How do you do it pike? How do your videos look so good? What's your system? Your software? Your... secret?

[pike]

How do you do it pike? How do your videos look so good? What's your system? Your software? Your... secret?

One thing really: right decoder.
I used one called x264vfw - H.264/MPEG-4 AVC. Iirc this vid was set on 50% quality
Just set your game resolution (or just screen size) to min.1280x720 and you can upload it as HD video.

[sinewav]

Ok, but I know all that already. Thanks. I guess what I really want to know is how you are capturing the video.

I have to capture Arma like a moron, because I don't have a computer or software strong enough to do any serious video. How I've done everything in the past is sending the game through the S-Vid out on my laptop to my tower and recoding at 640x480 (NTSC). That's the best I can do with my setup. I've been using the Xvid codec for a while now, and I get good results. Maybe if I knew your method, I might be inspired to invest in my system?

[Word]

I've made a good experience with aca capture pro, to keep the fps on an acceptable level I made debug recordings which i could record afterwards. The codecs I used were directx. xvid and ffdshow.
(when i combined aca pro, ffdshow and the debug thing i got the clip of eggman you can see here, the scenes before and after have been done with other programs and their quality is worse. Pike, what's your graphics chip?

[pike]

The secret is a good lossless encoder . Fraps has the best so far - the problem is that you can't use it with another (free) app. There are lots of lossless encoders around (Lagarith+CamStudio works best for me - still some way behind smoothness of Fraps).

If you have $37 to spare you should invest in Fraps (if it works any good on your machine). If not, I think trying to combine free applications (CamStudio, Taksi) with free encoders (Lagarith, MSU, HuffYuv) on high-end machine could give similar results

edit:

Pike, what's your graphics chip?

GeForce 7300 GT

[Word]

oh that's why the vid looks so fluent

[epsy]

ffmpeg -qscale 0

[sinewav]

OK thanks all. I guess ultimately I need something better than a 5 year old business-class laptop.

2020 good luck with fundable. I'd like to see this a win.

[Jonathan]

Just a random hint as I'm back in the online realms: Arma's graphics are pretty simple, but they're very hard on codecs. Which doesn't combine well with typical internet bitrates. You can help it a little by using softer and less contrasting textures. pike seems to have done that to some extent, and as far as YouTube goes it looks great.

I second the lossless (or VERY high quality) bit. Only when you have a golden master should you run it through a lossy encoder, and preferably a high-quality one like x264.

[2020]

things seem to have died down a little...
but i have no idea what the next video for 115 subscribers might look like...
will be a big decider