It’s wonderful, but it’s nothing new. There is no level we couldn’t do that’s in his little list. Sure, he found a way to do mp_coop_paint_speed_catch, but the way he did it doesn’t work for us (as he uses death, which we can’t). So although he made some great videos, it’s nothing ground breaking.
Airdecade USED DEATH
Airdecade DIED
Hey guys, just wanted to hop in here and say that I have a large amount of co-op soloing content on the way some time today. Once my incredibly slow upload finally manages to get the 1.2GB of videos up on megaupload, I’ll make another post here with links to the two parts.
I think that some of my routes may be slightly better than what is know of right now. If that is the case, or if you would like to use any of my videos for the routes over in the original post, feel completely free to do so. I have no idea if they are what you are looking for or not, but if so, by all means.
Look out for my post later today with information and links :).
As far as using your videos for the first post is concerned: unfortunately most videos of co-op chambers done solo runs only do part of a map (as doing the whole map often requires glitching, which most people seem to frown upon). Or they only demonstrate the trick that makes it possible, rather than the entire route. So as far as that’s concerned: I hope your runs actually do the entire map.
Apart from that, 1.2 GB of videos is an huge crap load, did you encode the videos properly? Cause if so, that’s well over an hour of video footage you have.
And if you only upload the movies to Megaupload and not to YouTube, do you mind if someone else uploads them? As I intend to link only to YouTube videos (for ease of watching).
With the exception of a few videos of single sections (impossible chambers), the videos are all entire start-to-finish runs. I noclip through doors that will not open without two people in the camera.
As for the size of the videos, well, they were all recorded with fraps in full HD 60fps, so the original files were immense. All I did was use a little utility that I found to compress them and switch them to the xvid codec. There is only 13 minutes of footage, and it adds up to about 1.2GB, so if you know of a better way that you could quickly describe that would be great, as I could then get them uploaded a lot more quickly. I haven’t started the uploads yet because I’m actually at work at the moment.
We will eventually be uploading them all to our youtube channel once I complete the few chambers that I’m missing and maybe improve on a couple. That could be anywhere from within the next few days to a couple of weeks - I can’t be entirely sure. If you still need youtube videos to link to at that point, and if they happen to be what you’re looking for, I’ll be sure to let you know and if you want to use any you can feel free.
Compress as AVI
@BananasaurusRex: As far as compressing is concerned, there’s a whole variety of ways to do it. Over at the SDA website, you can find some links explaining stuff on the front page of the knowledge base, under “Compressing”. And great work on making full level videos. Take your time uploading them though, I may watch this thread like a hawk but that’s mostly so I can respond to people’s questions quickly, it doesn’t mean I can’t wait.
If there are any chambers (as in: parts of a map) you’d like to do but seem to be impossible, you can check the first post of this thread. If it says that map can be done that means all of it can be done. And it means I know the route, so feel free to ask me about it. I have no idea why, but I’m quite passionate about this tiny special bit of Portal 2 running, so I’d love to help whenever I can.
Thanks, I’ll take a look at SDA’s method and compress them their way, and hopefully I’ll get some smaller files out of it.
As for the “impossible” chambers I was referring to, I was speaking of exactly the levels that you have listed as impossible in the first post. I already knew of most of the information contained in that post as I have managed to keep up with most of the portal 2 speed running content on youtube. I just took a quick look at all the maps, and it seems that I actually have only left out one map which requires some annoyingly precise bunny hops- course 1, chamber 2 (mp_coop_race_2). That is if you don’t count the dying method on 5-7 (I didn’t feel like that was a valid route so I did not tackle that one). So aside from 1-2, the only other map is 5-8 which I will have to re-do once I manage to get inexistence’s circlejump/reportal/bunny hop method for the first room. For now I used the method where you jump up on top of the glass frame and hop into a portal where the goo comes out.
Coincidentally, my computer has decided to cause problems for me after installing a windows update today, so I’m going to go take a look at that now and I’ll make a post with the videos using the SDA encoding/compression method as soon as possible :).
Edit: I also did not do any button save glitch maps or mp_coop_fan (extremely difficult to pull off unsegmented).
Edit 2: Turns out that they have two encoding methods over at SDA: “Anri-Chan” which apparently automatically does most of the work for you as per their game-specific pre-defined specifications, or a combination of AviSynth and MeGui. Anri-Chan doesn’t seem to support portal 2 yet, and as far as AviSynth and MeGui go, that’s basically what I’ve already been doing. I use an automated tool called autoGK which uses a combination of AviSynth and some other utility to do all the audio and video encoding automatically. I’m pretty sure that it accomplishes the exact same thing as MeGui, but is a little bit simpler. All I have to do is point to all my files, choose a target quality and path, and let it run. Then it automatically encodes all the audio with AviSynth and encodes the video with XviD, compresses is and gives you an output file.
I think the large size of my files simply has a lot to do with the fact that the source videos are very high quality. Fraps makes some massive files when recording in 1080p at 60FPS. Anyway, I think 1.2GB is at least reasonable. Put it this way - the total size of the original videos is a whopping 34GB.
I have two RARs containing the videos uploading right now, and they should be done some time this evening. If you happen to see this post before then and you believe I may be just missing some sort of point, or that I should cancel the upload and do it another way for some reason, feel free to let me know. I should see your post shortly afterwards.
Otherwise, I’ll be back this evening with the download links. Thanks for the help.
One more edit: I had a bit more trouble with my computer and the uploads got interrupted. I’m uploading them from my other computer now and I’ll post the links in the morning :).
At long last, here are the links.
1/2: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=TOQ79RB0
2/2: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=OMCECC7P
I’m really looking forward to a few people checking them out and letting me know what they think.
If my content proves to be useful to you, I’d love to re-do any chambers or take on any remaining chambers that you still need links for.
Enjoy 
Dude, WTF. 13000+ kbps is just WAY too high a bitrate. So about your videos: not a clue. My computer can’t handle them.
Your computer can’t handle them just because of the high bitrate or is there another problem?
As for the bitrate I’ll do some research and see if I can lower it.
I just recorded at my HDTV’s native HD resolution and 60fps with vsync, so I dunno. Maybe I should record at a lower resolution or FPS?
Anyway, I appreciate the help - I’m relatively new to recording video.
Alright, I’ve compressed my videos down to a lower resolution and less than half the bit rate. They still look fairly good - comparable to 480p quality on youtube.
The size of this download is around 420MB.
I hope you’re able to watch them now - please let me know if there are any other problems.
And if anybody is able to watch them, I’d love to hear what you think. Thanks again :).
Alright, downloading them once more. Let’s see what happens.
Thanks for taking the time to watch my videos :).
If you’re able to get them working this time just let me know what you think after you get a chance to check them out - I’d love to hear what you think, and I sincerely hope to contribute to this community as much as I can.
These work just dandy, thank you.
I see that you also have made movies of the second part of mp_coop_laser_2 (although the non-obsolete video seems to be lacking in the sound department) and the first part of mp_coop_multifling_1. As far as skipping bits that are possible goes, you skipped the first half of mp_coop_race_2.
Although you said you did all maps that were possible you didn’t do mp_coop_polarity3 (not a complaint, just making an observation here, might be fun to try if you decide to do any more).
Enough being annoying, on to the praise. These are really, really great movies and I’d love it if you decided to upload them to youtube (links will be made then). I haven’t watched them all yet, but I will do soon with a notepad by my side to give you some more in-depth critique. tl;dr: Awesome work, keep it up.
The sound quality of a couple of the videos was a result of 2 or 3 videos not compressing properly due to some sort of error in the software I used. So I had to compress them with something else, and the audio turned out kind of bad. For the youtube videos though, we’ll be using the original HD versions so we won’t have that problem.
It’s funny that you mention race_2.. that was one of the few that I hadn’t attempted fully, and I was working on the first part of it when I saw your post (that bunny hop is a bitch).
Regarding polarity3.. I took a look at that map after I saw your post, and doesn’t the currently known method require the button save glitch? I don’t know if you saw it, but I edited one of my earlier posts mentioning some other chambers that I realized I hadn’t done, and I also pointed out the fact that I did not attempt any button save glitch maps.
However, I managed to find another extremely difficult method for polarity3 that does not require the button save glitch, and I believe may actually be faster. I recorded a segmented video of it at half speed to show you what I mean, and I’ll be uploading it later. I’ll probably just edit it into this post unless you’ve already posted again between now and then.
As for youtube, we do plan to upload them definitely (and soon), but there may be one problem. We typically upload videos by course on our channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/Portal2Cooperation
Will that work for what you want to do? I guess you could just link to the particular time in the video when a specific chamber was done, but I’m not sure if that would work for you, so let me know.
Anyway, thanks for the compliment :). If you see any chambers that you would like to have a video of but you would like me to improve upon, let me know and I’d be glad to re-do them as well.
Edit:
Here’s the link: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=G4CYT9RD
It’s just a 10MB WMV I threw together quickly in windows movie maker. The second half of the video is done in hostscale 0.5. Don’t mind the random talking, I was in a skype call :P. The first part of the route involves bunny hopping over the gap and then placing the blue and orange portals.. the video starts from there since that much is pretty self explanatory.
Is this a known route? The only one I’ve seen involves the button save glitch. The hardest part about this is not the fact that you have to hit three re-portals in a row, and it’s not the air strafe around the emancipation grid. It’s the size of the darn portal surface on the floor. 90% of the time or more your portal will not place correctly - you’ll just get sparks. You have to be looking at exactly the right few pixels in order to re-portal, so it’s terribly inconsistent, but completely do-able if you sink enough time into it. Do you think it’s faster than the button save method?
You did indeed say you skipped the levels that used the button save glitch and the route for polarity3 that I was thinking of does indeed require it. So yeah, you’re right. But the new route doesn’t and it seems to be faster, so nice work there. But is there any reason you decided not to use the save glitch? As it would mean you can also do come_along, doors and fling_3.
And I don’t really mind if you upload the routes as one video per course. Linking to specific times in the video isn’t a big deal, really.
As I’ve seen all the videos now, on to map specific comments (note that any map not mentioned is also awesome).
catapult_1: In the third part of this map you first jump onto the cube then jump from there onto the platform. Is there any reason you chose this over airstrafing directly onto the platform? I was thinking that this might be more reliable but considering the other videos you made I doubt that that strafejump would be such a problem for you.
catapult_2: Every solo video I’ve seen of this map so far uses portal standing to get back from the bridge (in the second part) to the platform. You just jumped all the way. Nice work, didn’t think it was possible.
paint_longjump_intro: I hadn’t seen the blue gel skip before, but I’m not sure if that means it hasn’t been done before or whether I’m starting to get behind on these videos.
tbeam_laser_1: This was the first video where I noticed you don’t seem to be a fan of the floating glitch. This level can be done a lot faster using it.
wall_2: I’m very pretty sure this route is new. Well, the swimming part is, anyway. It adds that lovely taste of “fuck you developers, I’ll do this my way!”. Awesome work on finding it.
wall_5: In the last part you create a slanted bridge then jump from there onto the window frame. I’ve tried a lot using that slanted bridge, but not that. Good work.
Anyway, I hope I can find your videos on YouTube sometime soon. The list in the first post could use some videos.
It’s great that you’ll be able to use my videos - and thanks a lot for the compliments.
As far as button saving goes, I just didn’t feel like I was doing a legitimate unsegmented run when I used that glitch. However, since I’m running out of things to do, I think I might record all the button save maps as well, just so the videos will be complete. I even want to somehow get an unsegmented run of coop_fan, and that’s going to be a HUGE pain, so I’d might as well include the button save maps as well.
Now I’ll address the maps you referred to.
catapult_1: You’re right - it was somewhat more reliable, but there’s also the fact that by going to the left a little bit, I’m able to redirect my momentum and take a much sharper angle toward the platform by jumping off the cube. If you don’t do that, you have to slowly air strafe your way around the corner. I haven’t timed it to the millisecond, so I can’t honestly say which way is slightly faster than the other.
catapult_2: I’m pretty sure it’s been done, but I managed to get it in just two bunny hops which I was very happy with.
paint_longjump_intro: I first found that blue gel skip in one of inexistence’s videos (he credits the original discoverer of the method in the description of that video). Another thing about that map is the method I used for the first part. Inexistence managed to do some sort of circle jump/reportal/bunny hop method in that first part which I haven’t quite gotten yet, and the method I used is a couple seconds slower. So I’d like to re-do that map before I upload that course to youtube.
tbeam_laser_1: Yeah, I’m not really a fan of the floating glitch. Not sure if I want to do that method or not. It feels too easy. But do you have a link to exactly the route you’re referring to? Or can you describe it? I have one in mind but I just want to be sure mine is the fastest way.
wall_2: Yup, I came up with this route out of nowhere as a result of a “what if” kind of thought. I was really glad that it worked out, and it’s a lot faster than the other way.
wall_5: I can’t take credit for that method, although I’m not sure who exactly I saw do it.
As for the youtube videos, I’ll probably be working on the remainder of the chambers (button save chambers, longjump, fan, polarity3, race2, possibly laser_1) for up to the next week or more, because some of those are going to be incredibly difficult. I’ll probably tackle the button save chambers first, and then I’ll see exactly where I am as far as having entire courses ready to upload goes.
My speed running partner actually does all the editing, so if I do the button save maps today and it turns out I have one or more courses ready to be uploaded, I’ll pass it over to him for editing and we may even get some videos uploaded in the next couple of days.
Anyway, thanks again, and I’ll post in here if I get some more chambers done, and I’ll let you know when we get some videos uploaded.
Hey again, just stopped by to let you know that my course 3 solo video is now up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H417VNBPb0A&feature=feedu
Enjoy!
Wow. Amazing! 8)