Best codec to use to export replay?

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Trackmaniack
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Re: Best codec to use to export replay?

Post by Trackmaniack »

IMHO, Lossy vs. Lossless is unimportant unless you're recording in a crappy rez to begin with. When you're dealing with Trackmania, just set it to a high res, 60fps, standard DivX codec and you're good to go.
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Heku
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Re: Best codec to use to export replay?

Post by Heku »

Testing DivX codec, seems to be better..
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Re: Best codec to use to export replay?

Post by eyebo »

Resolution of course matters... but what matters just as much is bitrate. With a very high bitrate... even a lossy codec like MPEG4 (DivX and XviD are both MPEG4) can look really good and be decent to edit with. The main problem editing with MPEG4 is that there is a further distance between certain types of frames which allows for easier editing. This is where you'd have to do some research about I, P, and B frames. Some formats are more conducive to the editing process and scrubbing through video than others.

I usually render out of TM with XviD using a very high bitrate, on the order of 100 Mbps. That's overkill, but it yields very good quality. I use Vegas to convert the video using the "HD 1080-60i YUV" preset in the AVI container format (I only modify the profile slightly to do 30fps instead of 29.970, since that's consistent with the framerate I used to render out of TM2). This format is better for editing and allows for more accurate editing of the frames of the video without introducing any artifacts in the final video.

So after I get all my source videos converted, I open a new project, import all the newly converted media... and set to work on editing.

When I render the final version with titles, effects, music, etc... out of Vegas.. I render out using the "8 Mbps HD 1080-30p Video" preset under the WMV container format. I do modify the defaults and change the bitrate to "10 M" and I make sure the frame size is the same as the source (which is 1920x1080). Sometimes I increase the audio bitrate if I'm looking to have really good quality audio.

It's possible to use h264 mp4 as the final video as well, but I encounter problems in Vegas when trying to make it render to 30fps instead of 29.970fps. So that's why I've been using WMV instead.

It's really best to try and keep things as high quality as possible all along the production process (within reason), because when you go to release the video on YouTube or TM-Tube, those sites are going to take your video and convert it to a lower bitrate video, for streaming. The better quality that goes in... the better that comes out.
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Re: Best codec to use to export replay?

Post by Florenzius »

SiH13 wrote:lagarith lossless codec
The problem at this it, it don't exports depht of field
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Re: Best codec to use to export replay?

Post by kripkee »

ManiaDesign wrote:
SiH13 wrote:lagarith lossless codec
The problem at this it, it don't exports depht of field
?
e: It should export everything, like other codecs. Maybe it's just a small bug from maniaplanet?^^
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Re: Best codec to use to export replay?

Post by Florenzius »

Hm... If i export a video with this codec and depth of field, it don't adds it...

Is there an option by maniaplanet?
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TMarc
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Re: Best codec to use to export replay?

Post by TMarc »

:shock: you should learn a bit more about the video rendering process.
Also you should learn one for good that it is not really nice to dig out old threads.
You might refer to one in a new thread, and then the moderators can still decide if they merge it or not.
Thanks :)

Now back to your question:

the game displays all 3D items and objects, and applies different optical features using the shaders.
Then the final image is given to the video rendering process, which is only there to create series of images for the video encoder (similar for the sound).

Now, if some option is not working as expected, it is certainly not the codec, but the game engine.

Furthermore you should really learn to use the search function, because this question has been asked a lot of times already.

In case of rendering still images to be used as wallpaper or just as enhanced screenshots,
the depth of field needs an additional parameter, the time, which is used to blur the image accordingly,
because there video card shaders cannot be used (nothing is moving) on steady shots.

In case of video rendering, the time parameter is taken as video duration.
Then the depth of field is done by shaders, and the result is taken from the 3D engine directly.

Additionally, you should check in your video configuration of the game, if you have enabled post-processing FX or not.

And finally, you should try not to forget all of the above ;)
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Re: Best codec to use to export replay?

Post by Rots »

check if postprocessfx is enabled.
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Re: Best codec to use to export replay?

Post by The_Big_Boo »

TMarc wrote:In case of rendering still images to be used as wallpaper or just as enhanced screenshots,
the depth of field needs an additional parameter, the time, which is used to blur the image accordingly,
because there video card shaders cannot be used (nothing is moving) on steady shots.
Sorry for bumping up this topic but you're mixing up with motion blur there because depth of field isn't time related, it's a matter of aperture and focal point. And it's actually a pixel shader (so it's done on the GPU) using the z-buffer.
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Re: Best codec to use to export replay?

Post by TMarc »

The_Big_Boo wrote:Sorry for bumping up this topic but you're mixing up with motion blur there because depth of field isn't time related, it's a matter of aperture and focal point. And it's actually a pixel shader (so it's done on the GPU) using the z-buffer.
no problem, my post wasn't that old, and you're right, I mixed up. :oops:
But this doesn't matter much for the main question of this topic. ;)
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