Converting .avi to .roq

[Springheel]

Man, I have to say, I'm very disappointed with the results of the videos after converting them to .roq. Beyond the crappy colour, they're so pixelated, even at 512x512, that medium-sized text is difficult to read.

 

I don't think cutscene videos are going to take off in TDM if we can't find a way to achieve better quality.

[Bikerdude]

hang on, have I missed something. For video format did sotha use for 'the package'

[Springheel]

Do you mean, "The Transaction"? That wasn't video, that was an in-game cinematic. You can't use that for briefings or cut-scenes before or after the mission. .roqs are the only video format supported by D3. I think the only mission that has used a .roq so far is NHAT, for the forest shot. And that was quite pixelated too, as I recall.

[Mortem Desino]

All that I did for the three NHAT videos is build and edit the video in Sony Vegas. Vegas was kind enough to export in 512x512, and I ran that 512x512 lossless AVI into switchblade 3.

 

Its results were tolerable. Not as pixel-licious like the 320x240 Thief 1 videos, but stilll lacking a lot when compared to the 1080p BINK videos of modern games. It's not at all efficient to export in 1024x1024 because of the massive filesize.

[grayman]

Do you mean, "The Transaction"? That wasn't video, that was an in-game cinematic. You can't use that for briefings or cut-scenes before or after the mission.

 

You can't use a cinematic cutscene at briefing time because the world isn't there yet.

 

But you can use it at the end, while the world still exists, before the End Mission screen. I don't know how much of the world still exists after the End Mission screen, so it could be problematic doing one then. I haven't tried the Campaign structure yet, so I don't know if you can squeeze a cutscene based on the first mission into the space between the first mission's End screen and the next mission's briefing. If that's possible, you could steal a scene from the next mission, add it to the first, and use it as a set for that cutscene. Then it would look like it belonged to the next mission. You could even do a voiceover briefing for the next mission in that cutscene. All kinds of possibilities. If at this point you think I'm just rattling along here, you'd be right. I'll stop now.

[rich_is_bored]

Keep in mind that every time you convert from one video format to the next, the quality is going to get worse. The compression is pretty severe in that WMV you've uploaded so if that's what you're starting with the results shouldn't be that surprising.

 

I would hope since the footage was captured from the game, you still have the means to re-record it. Ideally you want to capture an image sequence but a lossless video format is a good option too.

[Springheel]

The compression is pretty severe in that WMV you've uploaded so if that's what you're starting with the results shouldn't be that surprising.

 

The .wmv looks fine on its own, and it was converted only once to .roq. I can't convert it any less than that, unless there is some video editing software that can export directly to .roq.

 

Assuming I find some other editing suite (and ever want to go through this again), what kind of formats are best to save in?

[Baal]

The .wmv looks fine on its own

I can clearly see compression artifacts, especially around the text. How did you capture it? Is it possible to save it in a different format?

[Springheel]

Let me rephrase. The .wmv quality is perfectly fine for my purposes, but the .roq is much, much worse.

[Baal]

That's the problem. With a better source the resulting roq might look better.

[Springheel]

What kind of source would be better for converting?

 

At the moment, the .wmv is 90% as good as I'd like the end video to be. The resulting .roq is 40% as good as I want it. I assume if the source is slightly better, the .roq would be slightly better. But if it's still losing 50% of its quality, that isn't good enough.

 

What kind of factors affect how much quality is lost during a conversion to .roq?

[STiFU]

You should definitely use lossless compressed video (or an tga image sequence) for the conversion. The problem is that wmv introduces some coding artifacts (like blocks, ringing etc.) to your video and the subsequent roq encoder will have to work with those artifacts, which is very likely to reduce the performance of the coder. In addition to that, further coding artifacts will be added by the roq conversion, so that you'll wind up with both the wmv artifacts and the roq artifacts.

[Johannes Burock]

because iam also working on a vid and found this in inet:

 

dont know if somebody tested this until now (i have to go to bed now and will test it tomorrow...)

 

http://forums.filefront.com/sw-jk3-modding-mapping-editing/221961-how-make-roq-video.html

[Springheel]

You should definitely use lossless compressed video (or an tga image sequence) for the conversion

 

I didn't have a choice in this case. If I should get other video editing software in the future, what format would be best to save video as for conversion to .roq?

[Mortem Desino]

I didn't have a choice in this case. If I should get other video editing software in the future, what format would be best to save video as for conversion to .roq?

Any lossless or uncompressed AVI would be perfect. I used sony vegas to make a 512x512 lossless AVI in the DV codec. Switchblade handled it like a pro.

 

because iam also working on a vid and found this in inet:

 

dont know if somebody tested this until now (i have to go to bed now and will test it tomorrow...)

 

http://forums.filefr...-roq-video.html

That guide makes two big mistakes.

 

1. I tried originally to use Quake Video Maker. The results, as GoldChocobo said, were "pixel-licious" . Even at the highest quality setting, the bitrate was unacceptably low. The RoQ was ugly and full of compression artifacts. A few stubborn artifacts persisted the entire length of the video (!).

 

2. He/she claims that RoQs must be encoded in 512x384 "because that's the dimensions that RoQs must be."

Wrong. While Jedi Academy might play video textures anyways in that resolution, there are many graphics cards (read: integrated cards, laptop "mobile graphics" cards, and low-end cards) that will not. The dimensions must be power-of-two (ex. 512x512, 1024x1024) if you want everyone to see it.

[Johannes Burock]

Any lossless or uncompressed AVI would be perfect. I used sony vegas to make a 512x512 lossless AVI in the DV codec. Switchblade handled it like a pro.

 

 

That guide makes two big mistakes.

 

1. I tried originally to use Quake Video Maker. The results, as GoldChocobo said, were "pixel-licious" . Even at the highest quality setting, the bitrate was unacceptably low. The RoQ was ugly and full of compression artifacts. A few stubborn artifacts persisted the entire length of the video (!).

 

2. He/she claims that RoQs must be encoded in 512x384 "because that's the dimensions that RoQs must be."

Wrong. While Jedi Academy might play video textures anyways in that resolution, there are many graphics cards (read: integrated cards, laptop "mobile graphics" cards, and low-end cards) that will not. The dimensions must be power-of-two (ex. 512x512, 1024x1024) if you want everyone to see it.

 

 

argh, and i hoped to give a answer to this big question...but so i havent to test this

 

how i understand it is not possible to integrate a (.roq) vid before the mission starts. but before it ends. is it also possible to integrate it right in the middle of it ? fe to give a short storyvid.