Portal Done Pro

Other Source Games and Mods
61

I don’t know what Portal XQ video you are referring to. Anyway, how do I add different encoders to the list that I have available when I’m using startmovie? Doing it uncompressed only works if the file does not need to exceed 4 gigs. This won’t work if I want my videos at 60 fps, because I will always exceed 4 gigs using uncompressed (no encoding). I want to add the encoding option I use in VirtualDub (i use ffdshow to encode currently). How do I do that?

62

I just use the raw TGA stream, then jump into adobe premiere and merge the image stream and sound and then export as h.264 encoded AVI (Best quality:file size ratio), although at 720p each FRAME is ~3-4mb).

Use host_framerate to force the frame rate.

EDIT: After re-reading that, it sounds all complicated technological blab :expressionless:

EDIT EDIT: You’ll probably end up using the direct to avi output, if so, use this codec:
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/x264_video_codec.htm

63
I don't know what Portal XQ video you are referring to.

He’s probably talking about your first Portal speed run.

64

I’m still not understanding how the drop down list that appears when you do the “startmovie NAME avi” is populated. Where does it get the codecs that are available?

Edit: This one…

65

Ummmmmmm… No idea :confused:

It only shows like 5 codecs for me, and I have heaps more than that installed.

66

(http://speeddemosarchive.com/demo.pl?Portal_PC_1427)
You really (really) do not want to use a codec a this step. If you want a clean video, you have to use proper tools for each task.
You can either use startmovie with TGA, which is long but will be the best quality, or consider Fraps, which will be faster, easier, and with the same quality at the end.
Next, append the files with a little editing or something in Vegas for example and render it uncompressed.
Then, when you will have the final video, you could use an encoding tool to make something awesome.

Hmm in fact there is another solution for step one, use HuffYUV (http://www.free-codecs.com/download/HuffYUV.htm) which is a lossless codec. x264 does it too but it’s a bit more complicated.
To add it to your system’s codec list, once you have downloaded the file, right-click on huffyuv.ini, then “install”.
It has a few options but there aren’t that important if I reckon correcly.

67

Hey! Maybe the I was making HL2EP1DQ vid way will help you.

  1. demos -> TGA frames, with in-game startmovie command
  2. TGA freames -> AVI vids, one for each segment, 60fps vids encoded with Huffyuf lossless codec in VirtualDub
  3. Huffyuv AVI vids -> one big Huffyuv AVI vid (final), joined with VirtualDub, it was about 140GBs
  4. one big Huffyuv AVI -> one big x264 lossless AVI vid, it’s 40GBs and for some reason I’m still keeping it =)
  5. one big x264 lossless AVI -> x264 vids in several qualities - IQ, HQ, etc

I’m pretty sure that all pre-final encodes should be done with lossless codecs to keep the best quality until final vid is done. I prefer Huffyuv codec since it very fast and compress well, and x264 lossless for keeping final vid, because it copresses VERY well, but slow as shit.
Also sound should be in uncompressed WAV, making MP3 or AAC at very final stage.

GL ! =)

68

I just ordered my new computer…

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=13345905

I had to get the video card from SuperBiiz because it’s out of stock almost everywhere else. I will probably do the encode on that computer. For now, I’ll experiment on this one. I should have a quality test video up within a few days.

69

One of the best things about this run is that the actual content of the speedrun will fit onto youtube in one video. :stuck_out_tongue:

70

Did you want someone elso to export it? I could do it in 1080p if you wanted.

71

You don’t have the game… I’m assuming. Its Portal Build 3740. I’m going to upload it at some point, but I’d rather learn how to encode this stuff myself… for the future (hint hint).

72

My external hdd has a fairly old build on it, but fair enough - learning is good :wink:

73

Speaking of this, is there any way to “cheat” the computer into thinking you have a bigger screen than you actually have?

74

You could try fooling around with ManyCam

75

You could start the game in windowed mode with the -w and -h parameters to force a certain screen reso, but the parts that are off the edge of the screen may not render (they might just be black)

76

Tried it, didn’t work. :I

But seriously, this feels like something that shouldn’t be hard to do at all.

77

Portal Done Pro is coming…

Here is a quality test I am uploading just to see how it looks on YouTube:

Here is a link to the direct AVI. It is Xvid encoded and 170 megs:
http://www.filefront.com/17191040/Portal-Done-Pro---Quality-Test---Chamber-8.avi/

78

I’m so looking forward to this. I’m also looking forward to the audio commentary.

79

OMG HURRY UP.

80

170mb for a 20 second video? The 5 min video I uploaded to Youtube was onlt 250mb :expressionless: (at 1080p too).

What video editing program do you have? With Premiere its easy to convert from the stream of individual frames, don’t know about other programs though. You could probably achieve better qualiy:filesize ratio that way, as opposed to directly exporting from the engine as avi.