Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => Films and Screenshots => Topic started by: uptown on January 15, 2009, 04:28:52 PM

Title: Why is the quality so poor in my films?
Post by: uptown on January 15, 2009, 04:28:52 PM
http://www.vimeo.com/2842020 This is the 3rd one I've done and they all look like crap. Anyone got any ideas or suggestions? :salute
Title: Re: Why is the quality so poor in my films?
Post by: Fulmar on January 15, 2009, 05:18:42 PM
http://www.vimeo.com/help/compression

I have no idea what settings you're using for your video.  'Plus' members on Vimeo have access to higher quality video being displayed.
Title: Re: Why is the quality so poor in my films?
Post by: Denholm on January 15, 2009, 05:26:49 PM
I would guess that Windows Movie Maker doesn't have better export filters.

As for the film, it's not all that bad. There could be some improvements on the part of your exterior views. It seems you're zoomed in a bit too close at times preventing the viewer from seeing your opponent. While those occurrences were rare, there is one that was more common. I can understand why you use this option over others as I understand making films is quite time-consuming. However, you were constantly moving the camera around in exterior mode. Once you stopped you would begin moving the camera again within just a few seconds.

As suggestions for future projects you might want to experiment with smooth-panning and planning ahead of time which angle you want and where you want it to go. That will help eliminate the constant moving. There are those exceptions though where you want to simulate the fast-paced action by moving the camera rapidly to pursue your opponent. However I would use that feature when your film is about a 1-on-1.

Here are a few more suggestions to help spice up your film. Play with the, "Setup Camera Shots" feature. It makes for some dazzling camera effects if played correctly. Add sound-effects to help increase the immersion of the viewer actually being in the film flying the plane(s). (Yeah, wouldn't have worked too well with this one, music was a bit loud.) Remove Icons, it makes things more interesting. (I would only do that if you get your quality issues fixed.)

Overall it was an average yet entertaining Aces High film. :aok

Thanks for sharing, and don't wait too long until your next submission.
Title: Re: Why is the quality so poor in my films?
Post by: mechanic on January 15, 2009, 06:05:31 PM
yeah windows movie maker is no good with aces high for some reason. it works better with Il2, dont ask me why.
Title: Re: Why is the quality so poor in my films?
Post by: uptown on January 16, 2009, 09:43:16 AM
I changed the FPS settings, turned off icons, and am in the process now of setting up camera angles. The quality has improved but still not what I want. I think if I get into this(which I will),i'll have to buy some good software  i.e. Sony Vegas. Also, what is Fraps and is is free? :salute
Title: Re: Why is the quality so poor in my films?
Post by: reeb on January 16, 2009, 09:57:23 AM
uptown, when capturing your clips from the AH film viewer, do it at 1/4 speed then readjust the speed with your editor. You quality will get alot better. also when rendering with WMM you can increase the quality but you cant do HD. WMM is good to learn on but tends to have bad bad vid quality.
Title: Re: Why is the quality so poor in my films?
Post by: Denholm on January 16, 2009, 10:37:40 AM
Reeb, I believe capturing at 1/4 speed and increasing the speed in the film editor only increases frame rates, not quality.

FRAPS is for capturing video from within games or you can use it to capture the film directly from the AH FV. However since you have managed to export the film without troubles I wouldn't recommend buying it. As you yourself said, if you want to get into this, which you're certain you will, get Sony Vegas. The walls of possibilities collapse to show you a new room with more features. ;)
Title: Re: Why is the quality so poor in my films?
Post by: Fulmar on January 16, 2009, 11:39:35 AM
The 1/4 speed thing solves the jerkiness problem.  That is, your video looks like it stutters all the time (see 1plus44's videos).  This does not give u a better quality per se.
Title: Re: Why is the quality so poor in my films?
Post by: Kazaa on January 16, 2009, 12:06:28 PM
Well are your in game settings maxed in game?
Title: Re: Why is the quality so poor in my films?
Post by: uptown on January 16, 2009, 12:19:44 PM
Well are your in game settings maxed in game?
Yes
The 1/4 speed thing solves the jerkiness problem.  That is, your video looks like it stutters all the time (see 1plus44's videos).  This does not give u a better quality per se.
I found I could use the #keys to change views. It seems to solve the jerky problems.

Reeb,I seen a movie you done a couple of years ago and it was quite good.Was that done with WMP or purchased software?
Title: Re: Why is the quality so poor in my films?
Post by: Fulmar on January 16, 2009, 12:33:16 PM
The jerkiness is caused by the hardships Fraps puts onto your computer when recoridng.  This lowers your normal viewing FPS.  Changing views isn't really going to do anything unless you are using a view that has low detail in it (that is, the sky with no ground in the shot).  If your Fraps recording FPS number is below 30 FPS, you're going to have a jerky movie.

Now if we're talking warpiness, where a plane moves back and forth about 5-10 feet rapidly and continously, thats a ah film bug.
Title: Re: Why is the quality so poor in my films?
Post by: Morpheus on January 19, 2009, 06:00:49 AM
Well if you're using the fim veiwer to export your avi's there's the first problem. Fraps is the best way to get the highest quality film. A short 1 minute clip recorded with fraps that is "raw" and high quality will be well over 1 gig in size. Then you take that raw film and edit it with a good editing software.
Title: Re: Why is the quality so poor in my films?
Post by: uptown on January 19, 2009, 09:04:39 AM
I've came to the conclusion that AH2 film viewer and WMP are not the way to go if you want quality. I've downloaded Fraps and will buy Sony Vegas.
Title: Re: Why is the quality so poor in my films?
Post by: Fulmar on January 19, 2009, 09:23:56 AM
Well if you're using the fim veiwer to export your avi's there's the first problem. Fraps is the best way to get the highest quality film. A short 1 minute clip recorded with fraps that is "raw" and high quality will be well over 1 gig in size. Then you take that raw film and edit it with a good editing software.

Fraps recordings are anything from 'raw' or 'uncompressed'.  Though they are a large file size, they are still encoded with the 'Fraps codec.'  I cannot say this for the 'Save Output as AVI' method in the AH film viewer since I've never done it to see if it outputs with a compressed codec.  Though IIRC, the Save Ouput as AVI is limited in pixel size to 640x480 being the max.  While Fraps records video at the resolution of the window it is playing in, which gives it a higher pixel count.
Title: Re: Why is the quality so poor in my films?
Post by: Niros on January 20, 2009, 06:51:55 AM
Hello Uptown.

As Den said, you should work a bit with Camera Shots ( world pointing & world relative - are nice).
I'm glad you "hate" 262's as i do  :D
As you noticed , if you're too close to the plane , the pilot disapears.

You're a good stick in the pony (nice skin btw) ... i just hope to have a good fight with you when we'll meet eachother in the sky.


 :salute
Title: Re: Why is the quality so poor in my films?
Post by: JETBLST on January 21, 2009, 11:54:40 PM
One thing I've noticed is if you wanted to make training videos I think FRAPS is the way to go because I have been able use my cursor and it records everything as I would be teaching how to do a bomb run for instance.

FRAPS Also records the filmer's aircraft engine sounds too.  Which is what it is or what its worth.  The bombsite flies sideways in AHviewer where FRAPS records what YOU see and what YOU Hear. 

I got addicted to making videos now too.  LOL  I even went out and bought a new video card and a new sound card since Noah used my tower to design the Ark and run the math on how to feed the animals.  So...

But as for now?   WOW what a difference.  I will have a new video out.  It almost looks as good as Fulmars stuff.  Except for that cool environmental shaky he does with explosions and aircraft in flight.  Errrrr  I will figure it out.  But until then I'm experimenting.

Finally I would get a good movie maker.  Sony is what I would buy since that is what most fellas are using here.  I am using MAGIX Movie Edit Pro.  It gets the job done.

 :salute
Title: Re: Why is the quality so poor in my films?
Post by: Morpheus on January 27, 2009, 11:02:07 AM
Fraps recordings are anything from 'raw' or 'uncompressed'.  Though they are a large file size, they are still encoded with the 'Fraps codec.'  I cannot say this for the 'Save Output as AVI' method in the AH film viewer since I've never done it to see if it outputs with a compressed codec.  Though IIRC, the Save Ouput as AVI is limited in pixel size to 640x480 being the max.  While Fraps records video at the resolution of the window it is playing in, which gives it a higher pixel count.

I didnt realize we were going to nit pick here but OK. Raw in the sense of "UNEDITED" film. Thanks. I've spent countless hours when I was making films at working to get the best most clear picture possible. Fraps, is what I found to be the best/easiest way to get a high quality looking picture... Or, as close to exactly how the game looks while its being played.

I'm not sure how much more "raw" you could possibly get with a straight up AVI from the AHFV to the editing software without going into 1's and 0's and having nothing but a matrix up on your screen to edit.

Oh and btw, the fraps AVI's are NOT compressed. I dont know where you're drawing your conclusion from, but in terms of editing, the avi's are about as uncompressed as you get.
Title: Re: Why is the quality so poor in my films?
Post by: Fulmar on January 27, 2009, 11:47:06 AM
I'm not nit picking, I'm explaining what I know.

Why is the AVI movie generated by Fraps so big? How can I reduce the size?

The filesize is big because there isn’t enough time to encode the movie while the game is running. The movie frames are slightly compressed, but still require a large amount of disk space due to the high resolutions. Once you have finished capturing you should convert the saved AVI into one of the popular compressed movie formats such as mpeg or divx. Recommended programs for doing this are tmpgenc (Tsunami Mpeg Encoder), and VirtualDub.


Source: http://www.fraps.com/faq.php#videocap
Title: Re: Why is the quality so poor in my films?
Post by: Morpheus on January 27, 2009, 11:50:46 AM
You do realize that there are different settings in the paid version of fraps right? While recording, if you compress the film, even marginally, the quality suffers. There for fraps, in the new and paid for versions offers different, settings for quality.

And as far as avi's go... They are, as I just said, as uncompressed as you can get. For quality reasons.
Title: Re: Why is the quality so poor in my films?
Post by: WWhiskey on January 29, 2009, 10:03:58 AM
I changed the FPS settings, turned off icons, and am in the process now of setting up camera angles. The quality has improved but still not what I want. I think if I get into this(which I will),i'll have to buy some good software  i.e. Sony Vegas. Also, what is Fraps and is is free? :salute


 i use fraps and record from the AH film veiwer first, i record from full screen tho, it seems to help, i have fraps set at 25 sps, i run the AH film veiwer at 62 roughly , when i play the clips directly into the windows viewer they are very high quality, after i splice it all together in windows movie maker, the quality is greatly reduced, all the movies i have made for here are thru windows. i also tried sony, it is very kool but i could never reduce the size of the films, enough to download them on free, media fire, so after i made them on sony i would remake them thru windows.
fraps is great for making movies tho, i tried it free first, and the free one will work fine, if you like to edit many clips, but it is worth buying, the sony movie makers are very nice to , but very expensive as well, the nice thing about sony is the free thirty day trail!!  i could never figure all the goodies on it out, but then again im just a beginner at this stuff,i would like to be able to make my movies, higher quality as well!