Recording Battles |
Wed, 27 July 2011 10:23 |
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BeeKeeper | | Officer Cadet 1st Year | Messages: 214
Registered: December 2007 Location: Devon, UK, GMT | |
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From time to time I have seen people ask how battles can be recorded. I recently tried VLC Media Player which can record the desktop (Win7) but I found it kept crashing on me. A post from 2003 suggested Bulent's Screen Recorder - which is still available in a freeware version if you search a bit and avoid the usual registry editors and other rubbish. It took a little while to get it to work but I was able to record a battle in good definition by setting the application to capture an area of the screen which covered the Stars window. It is also possible to select a window as the source but I found this unreliable. The short video was 200Mb so the problem then was how to share it. YouTube was no good as it converted the video into a tiny flash movie from which any sort of detail was impossible to see.
I then uploaded the video to Flickr, which allows you to upload 2 videos for free. This also converts the video to flash but the quality seems better. There is an option to watch the video in HD by clicking on the button on the bottom right before starting the video - but the improvement is hard to see.
My system is Windows 64 with Stars running in the Virtual Machine. The video capture software runs outside the virtual machine but can capture the images on the virtual machine window.
The results are still not good enough as you can see from the link below but at least Bulent's Recorder does capture the battle - and the full .avi video is of almost the same quality as the original - the problem now seems to be how to distribute the video at a reasonably small size but acceptable quality. Unless anyone knows how to share a 200Mb video without loss of quality?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/16794733@N08/5981326280/
[Updated on: Wed, 27 July 2011 10:37] Report message to a moderator
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Re: Recording Battles |
Wed, 27 July 2011 12:49 |
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BeeKeeper | | Officer Cadet 1st Year | Messages: 214
Registered: December 2007 Location: Devon, UK, GMT | |
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Eagle of Fire wrote on Wed, 27 July 2011 17:07 | I don't know what Flikr is but even when I authorise the main site it won't let me see the video... :/
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Flickr.com is site where you can upload photos and amongst other things paste a link to it on sites like this, as I did recently for a Stars manual cover. The video is supposed to be public so I am not sure why you cannot see but perhaps you need a Flickr account?
When I look at the video there is a button above it called "Actions" which I have just noticed offers the choice near the bottom of the menu to download the original video. I am not sure if anyone else can see this but if they can this might be the answer - except it is 200Mb...
[Updated on: Wed, 27 July 2011 12:51] Report message to a moderator
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Re: Recording Battles |
Wed, 27 July 2011 13:10 |
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BlueTurbit | | Lt. Commander
RIP BlueTurbit died Oct. 20, 2011 | Messages: 835
Registered: October 2002 Location: Heart of Texas | |
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I don't use a free program, but I could. I just use one that I got cheap, and is easier and more flexible. It retails for $19.95 or so, but I got it for a third the price during a special promotion, which they offer to registered demo users periodically.
It's Snap4, by Ashampoo. I can record screens, windows, or portions, audio, add mouse effects, etc. Not to mention all kinds of screen snaphshots and web page recordings.
I record video using the default WMV mode, which makes for small file size. In this example the file is about 1.3 Meg.
If I want to post it on one of my websites I usually convert it to FLV format, and use the free Flowplayer program to show it. The FLV is about 2.2 Meg size.
And both are good enough quality IMO. And I recorded only the battle screen window in the examples:
First video: Use right click and save as, if you prefer to download.
Resize video or double click for full window view (best):
WMV battle - play in your windows player
Second video: After starting video, click on full screen button at bottom right of controls to get best full screen mode:
FLV battle-play on my web page
BlueTurbit Country/RockReport message to a moderator
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Re: Recording Battles |
Wed, 27 July 2011 14:06 |
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BlueTurbit | | Lt. Commander
RIP BlueTurbit died Oct. 20, 2011 | Messages: 835
Registered: October 2002 Location: Heart of Texas | |
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get free accounts on mediafire.com, or rapidshare.com
upload videos, post links, WMV videos will give users the option to download or view in windows media player?
BlueTurbit Country/RockReport message to a moderator
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Re: Recording Battles |
Sun, 31 July 2011 13:47 |
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BlueTurbit | | Lt. Commander
RIP BlueTurbit died Oct. 20, 2011 | Messages: 835
Registered: October 2002 Location: Heart of Texas | |
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If anyone is interested in reviewing, here are the game files for the "There Can Be Only One" game from 2002. The game leaders files are viewable, no password. Players 5 thru 8 are not, they didn't remove passwords at the time. Some of those were already deceased in game.
Not many big battles the last turn, but you can view race designs and scores and ship designs, etc. Also hst file is included, so you can play with generating new turns for testing purpose.
Only One-game files zip-475Kb
BlueTurbit Country/RockReport message to a moderator
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Re: Recording Battles |
Sun, 31 July 2011 16:25 |
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BlueTurbit | | Lt. Commander
RIP BlueTurbit died Oct. 20, 2011 | Messages: 835
Registered: October 2002 Location: Heart of Texas | |
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Quote: | It's looking for a XY file?
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Oops, I missed that. It was already zipped in game folder and I didn't notice xy missing in the original zip.
So I added xy file from folder to zip file and uploaded new zip file.
Try again.
[Updated on: Sun, 31 July 2011 16:26]
BlueTurbit Country/RockReport message to a moderator
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