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Miscellaneous Forums => Archive => Topic started by: DLPB_ on 2009-06-19 20:31:50

Title: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: DLPB_ on 2009-06-19 20:31:50
This is to branch off from Aali's thread which has the tool (palmer) we use to extract the images and place them back into the game.

On images:

Fractals seems to be the best for resizing them with minimal loss of quality and when used with a basic sharpen filter makes for impressive results when compared with usual resizing method.  

------

Fractals:  http://www.ononesoftware.com/detail.php?prodLine_id=2

Fractals with sharpen:
http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg129/SeiferAlmasy2008/new-fractals-smartsharpenonly.png

*note I went a bit overboard with sharpen here, would need to be a bit less

Fractals without sharpen
http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg129/SeiferAlmasy2008/new.png

Old Method:
http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg129/SeiferAlmasy2008/new-oldmethodenlargement.png

------

Movies:

For optimal quality, movies should be extracted from the PSX game (since FF7 PC simply reencoded the MOV and STR)

The PSX resolution is 320*224 which is pretty crap.  Finding the optimal method to resize to 4X and get best quality will be a harder task.  At the moment a program was submitted to me called "Video Enhancer"  I am now running tests and will have upload file shortly.

There is an example below.  Unfortunately I have run into a problem.  Some of the video's have a heavy amount of pixellation that stays there in the resize
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: DLPB_ on 2009-06-19 21:11:57
here is a test.

It is Video Enhancer to 4X size

then placed into Sony Vegas

Sharpen tool, saturation tool and saved as 4000 Kbit/s Sony H264

ftp://apps:[email protected]:2121/H264FF7FMVSatEnSizeSharp.mp4  < my server and now running at a lovely 100-250 Kbytes/s upload
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: Terid__K on 2009-06-19 21:30:38
Whoa, looks really good. Much better than I expected, and definitely better than the original movie files.

Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: Hellbringer616 on 2009-06-19 21:36:42
Hmm i'm gonna add this to my replacement FMV's, There was no sound though. Might be an issue with WMP though.
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: DLPB_ on 2009-06-19 21:38:58
Hmm i'm gonna add this to my replacement FMV's, There was no sound though. Might be an issue with WMP though.

I didn't add sound to it....and it is onlya  section of the full FMV ;)  just for testing purpose.  Sound is peanuts anyway, 224 Kbit will be more than enough at AAC compared to 3000-4000 for video
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: Terid__K on 2009-06-19 21:41:12
Too bad that we don't know how to replace the backgrounds yet. Your method for them looks very promising too.

Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: DLPB_ on 2009-06-19 21:42:03
Too bad that we don't know how to replace the backgrounds yet. Your method for them looks very promising too.



Aali is working on that program "palmer" and I have every confidence he will make it work with uploading images too :)
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: Hellbringer616 on 2009-06-19 21:50:18
Hmm i'm gonna add this to my replacement FMV's, There was no sound though. Might be an issue with WMP though.

I didn't add sound to it....and it is onlya  section of the full FMV ;)  just for testing purpose.  Sound is peanuts anyway, 224 Kbit will be more than enough at AAC compared to 3000-4000 for video

Well i'll add it once we get sound on there haha, I'd love to help, But if any programs you guys are using costs money, We're outta luck, I'm poor haha

Noob Alert: How do you extract the videos from the PSX? tried just moving it from disc to folder, But it's giving me errors
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: DLPB_ on 2009-06-19 21:54:38
A tool called PSXMC, freeware edition.

Converts to any codec.  Lagarith is the best option here as it is lossless encoding and much better than Huffyuv.  If my reencodings get approval I will do the lot.  But need aalis advice and peoples input.


I am using heavy duty stuff here also....like Sony vegas / fractals.
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: Hellbringer616 on 2009-06-19 21:58:35
A tool called PSXMC, freeware edition.

Converts to any codec.  Lagarith is the best option here as it is lossless encoding and much better than Huffyuv.  If my reencodings get approval I will do the lot.  But need aalis advice and peoples input.


I am using heavy duty stuff here also....like Sony vegas / fractals.

understandable. Soon i'll be adding you to my list of people who have changed the face of FF7 :-)

Dumb question i'm sure, But is Sony Vegas freeware/opensourced?
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: DLPB_ on 2009-06-19 22:02:03
No vegas is an expensive program by Sony :)  Like all things there are ways around paying but I am not short of money and so I pretty much always pay for software
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: Hellbringer616 on 2009-06-19 22:04:56
No vegas is an expensive program by Sony :)  Like all things there are ways around paying but I am not short of money and so I pretty much always pay for software

Guess i am limited in my ability to help outside of testing. Damn you job market! :cry:

Well, either something is wrong with my disc, Or this program hates 64 bit because i can't get it to even read the CD :x
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: DLPB_ on 2009-06-19 23:45:14
I use vista 64 bit....  the settings in PSXMC have to be set properly or it won't see the drive
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: Hellbringer616 on 2009-06-19 23:47:58
Oh, well i feel stupid haha.. How do i configure it?

Still don't see the setting you told me to use with the codec though, i only have AVI and CSTR
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: DLPB_ on 2009-06-19 23:53:28
psx MC options > DRIVE tab > uncheck use ASPI.  Make sure you are using SPTI and select your drive.

restart program.

Select media with open option or scan drive
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: Hellbringer616 on 2009-06-20 00:04:32
psx MC options > DRIVE tab > uncheck use ASPI.  Make sure you are using SPTI and select your drive.

restart program.

Select media with open option or scan drive

Alright got that, But i still don't see the lossless codec you're talking about, unless it's the uncompressed.

Also, There are some files (STR0001-STR008 for example) that won't play. I'm sure i did something wrong.
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: DLPB_ on 2009-06-20 00:13:19
you have to install lagarith yourself ;) 

http://lags.leetcode.net/codec.html


Download the installer
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: Hellbringer616 on 2009-06-20 00:23:08
you have to install lagarith yourself ;) 

http://lags.leetcode.net/codec.html


Download the installer

Getting an error when trying to install the 64 bit version, and the only instructions is how to install the 32 on 64. How did you get it working?
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: DLPB_ on 2009-06-20 00:27:26
The installer did it all for me....  there is a main installer there
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: Hellbringer616 on 2009-06-20 00:27:58
Didn't know that was 64 bit haha Whoops

Any idea why STR0001-0008 don't load up? Or is it always like that?
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: DLPB_ on 2009-06-20 00:31:13
STR files will only load in that program when they have been found by analyzing the disc rather than open media. 
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: Hellbringer616 on 2009-06-20 00:32:21
STR files will only load in that program when they have been found by analyzing the disc rather than open media. 

Not sure i follow, i can't preview them, and when i convert them it won't play.
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: DLPB_ on 2009-06-20 00:34:33
the file you have made from the disc shoudl work perfectly.  Load up in Virtualdub.  If not , no idea.  If logarith is installed should work...
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: Hellbringer616 on 2009-06-20 00:37:57
i am converting them all.

But everyso often i get a file thats 0kb and it won't play.. (like hte first 8) Ugh... Seems no matter what i do the modding god just tells to go get screw myself..

Also, are these not suppose to have audio?
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: Hellbringer616 on 2009-06-20 00:39:49
i am converting them all.

But everyso often i get a file thats 0kb and it won't play.. (like the first eight) Ugh... Seems no matter what i do the modding god just tells to go get screw myself..

Also, are these not suppose to have audio?
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: DLPB_ on 2009-06-20 00:40:39
i am converting them all.

But everyso often i get a file thats 0kb and it won't play.. (like hte first 8) Ugh... Seems no matter what i do the modding god just tells to go get screw myself..

Also, are these not suppose to have audio?


some of them do, some of them don't.
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: DLPB_ on 2009-06-20 02:08:30
there is a major problem with these movies in that they are pixellated even at 320*224

so the only way to make tjhem look decent that I can find is

enhancer > vegas gaussian blur > vegas sharpen

Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: Hellbringer616 on 2009-06-20 02:13:31
Enhancer screws my video driver all to hell for some reason.. So i can't use it :-(
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: DLPB_ on 2009-06-20 02:31:00
Well here is what I mean:

basic resize (didnt use video enhancer)
http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg129/SeiferAlmasy2008/firebasicresizepng.png


Resize with enhancer
http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg129/SeiferAlmasy2008/fire-enhancerresize.png

resize with gaussian and sharpen
http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg129/SeiferAlmasy2008/firewithenhancements.png

As you can see none of them really do what we need.  I have no idea how we will make certain vids like that one work decent.  They will always look crap.
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: Hellbringer616 on 2009-06-20 02:34:03
Gaussian and sharpen one looks the best, Though not by a lot. In the case of that video you can use a sample from ACC.

I'm trying to upload what i've done (which looks like straight up crap...) But FileFront is down it seems (well for uploading)

EDIT: With the one you used blur and sharpen on, Did you use the resized image from enhancer? Or not?

EDIT2: Ah ha! Got them up! You can laugh when you see them haha

http://files.filefront.com/13915681

Have one in 7000k bitrate and another in 4000k bitrate, the original is like 6100 and something.

EDIT3: Bad news man, FF7 doesn't play MP4's, loaded up the bombing mission, got to the part where mkup plays, And it just skipped over it because i deleted the .avi file.

EDIT4(it's becoming a trend..): More bad news, FF7 doesn't support that lossless codec either :x Oh well.. Guess it's for the better, 127mb for a 9 second video haha thats outragous. Guess i try Divx Won't acknowledge DivX exists as a codec on my PC. So i guess i'll put one of the default .avi ones on

EDIT5 (FINALLY GOOD NEWS!): got it to work! used Microsoft video 1 codec, set quality to best. FPS at 15.0000 on progressive (since monitors are all progressive) Here is the file, if you want to take a look: http://files.filefront.com/mkupzip/;13915986;/fileinfo.html

Gaussian Blur at default (0.003 for both i believe) and Sharpen at 0.850
Doesn't seem to be doing much for the sake of detail though.. Might be cause i can't use Video Enhancer to resize it though.
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: DLPB_ on 2009-06-20 12:21:41
Microsoft Video 1 is a poor codec.  Your MP4 is probably not been encoded to the proper h264 specification, I will test.  The ones you uploaded in mp4 are pretty good FMV :) 

I will now do a few more tests
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: Hellbringer616 on 2009-06-20 16:34:03
Thanks, I'm not sure how it was not h.264 complaint though. explains why my video 1 video looks like crap haha.
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: DLPB_ on 2009-06-20 16:37:09
im not sure about h264 either in ff7...doesnt seem to work.  Obviously there is more to it than replacing
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: Hellbringer616 on 2009-06-20 16:40:31
Any other codecs i could use? Lossless doesn't work, makes FF7 crash

I have Intel IYUV, Logitech Video (I420), Sony 10-bit YUV, Sony YUV, and Uncompressed scratch that one. Makes files over 500MB in size.

I also have NTSC DV normal and widescreen, Same with PAL
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: DLPB_ on 2009-06-20 16:42:34
There isnt  a choice really.  For editing it has to be logarith or Huffyuv and for encoding, we are pretty much stuck with h.264 
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: Hellbringer616 on 2009-06-20 16:44:26
but didn't you say h.264 isn't working?
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: DLPB_ on 2009-06-20 16:45:10
That will be up to someone to fix :)  There is no point proceeding otherwise....
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: Hellbringer616 on 2009-06-20 16:45:56
Guess Aali would have to add support for it in his driver?

Guess we wait on him.
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: Aali on 2009-06-20 16:50:37
It is supported in my driver.

If you can play your movies in FFMpeg and you're not getting any fixable errors in APP.LOG, provide the movie files in question so I can test it.
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: DLPB_ on 2009-06-20 16:51:05
also, here is the very best I can make it (less pixellation, compare to original).  I have found that enhancer doesnt work very well on pixellated vids and sony vegas can do the lot.  rezize>gaussian blur>sharpen>slight increase saturation.

ftp://apps:[email protected]:2121/fire.avi
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: Hellbringer616 on 2009-06-20 16:51:40
It is supported in my driver.

If you can play your movies in FFMpeg and you're not getting any fixable errors in APP.LOG, provide the movie files in question so I can test it.

Here you go http://files.filefront.com/13915681
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: DLPB_ on 2009-06-20 16:52:29
It is supported in my driver.

If you can play your movies in FFMpeg and you're not getting any fixable errors in APP.LOG, provide the movie files in question so I can test it.

does it have to be the exact movie being changed?  So for example, if I changed opening.avi, it would have to replace that same avi to work?  The problem is, H264 is an mpeg.... si I need to change extension too?  (I am unsure how to go about the replace)
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: Hellbringer616 on 2009-06-20 16:56:24
It is supported in my driver.

If you can play your movies in FFMpeg and you're not getting any fixable errors in APP.LOG, provide the movie files in question so I can test it.

does it have to be the exact movie being changed?  So for example, if I changed opening.avi, it would have to replace that same avi to work?  The problem is, H264 is an mpeg.... si I need to change extension too?  (I am unsure how to go about the replace)

Show extensions for known file types needs to be checked (or hide extensions for known file types needs to be unchecked) then rename from .mp4 to .avi, still worked in media player. might work in game?
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: Aali on 2009-06-20 16:59:57
Of course you have to replace the exact same file. The file extension is just another part of the file name, it doesn't matter. The file contents won't magically change just because you renamed the file. The entire notion that file extensions are somehow important is just an illusion created by Windows, most applications simply don't care.
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: DLPB_ on 2009-06-20 17:01:20
I know how to change extensions, I meant how does the game handle it with aalis driver :)

Also, differences:

PC
http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg129/SeiferAlmasy2008/PC-fire.png

PSX + vegas
http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg129/SeiferAlmasy2008/PSX-fire.png
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: DLPB_ on 2009-06-20 17:02:53
Of course you have to replace the exact same file. The file extension is just another part of the file name, it doesn't matter. The file contents won't magically change just because you renamed the file. The entire notion that file extensions are somehow important is just an illusion created by Windows, most applications simply don't care.

Yeah I know, I meant for testing purposes....whether I could just replace any file.  I will replace opening .avi since it is at start of game.  As for extension, I know it has no bearing on the information but sometimes programs don't take into account the difference in extension or wrongly decide it isn't a valid format :)
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: Hellbringer616 on 2009-06-20 17:03:46
Well change the extension doesn't help. Still same issue, skips the mp4 entirely

Seifer that is worlds better then the original
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: DLPB_ on 2009-06-20 17:04:37
Well change the extension doesn't help. Still same issue, skips the mp4 entirely

Seifer that is worlds better then the original

I will test it with my MP4, since it is the proper standard.  And if it doesn't work I will look at the log :)
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: Hellbringer616 on 2009-06-20 17:08:44
here is what it says about my video in the log file

ERROR: no video codec found
ERROR: unhandled exception
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: Aali on 2009-06-20 17:09:43
Obviously, the crash is not supposed to happen but the codec not found message indicates that FFMpeg does not support that format.
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: Hellbringer616 on 2009-06-20 17:11:05
Well, guess it's back to the drawing board.

Hmm well this explains the lack of support

I'm getting conflicting information. the main site says it only supports MP4 with something like divX or Fddshow. But it works But on Wiki it says it supports H.264/MPEG-4 AVC
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: DLPB_ on 2009-06-20 18:43:11
INFO: J:\PFilesX\FF7\Movies\opening.avi; h264/aac 1280x896, 15.000000 FPS, duration: 127.666667, frames: 1915
ERROR: couldn't create sound buffer: The parameter is incorrect.

WM_CLOSE
Field Quit
MIDI stop - OK

I am guessing this is an issue with AAC audio?
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: Aali on 2009-06-20 18:53:54
Setting up the audio buffer is mostly guesswork since I haven't figured out how to get the relevant information from FFMpeg.
Using a simpler audio format will work for now (MP3 should work, any raw PCM format will work if all else fails), but that's not a very good solution and the fault lies with the driver on this one.
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: DLPB_ on 2009-06-20 18:58:42
aali you are a genius.  The mp4 works now :)  It is just an audio issue with AAC.  MP3 CBR 224 would work but isn't ideal..

I will wait until there is support for it. I will now make sure I have the frame total exact with this opening.avi and allow people to download and test it :)
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: Hellbringer616 on 2009-06-20 19:00:36
So it's the audio causing our crashes? Not sure how since i don't have audio on my video. But oh well :-D
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: Aali on 2009-06-20 19:05:18
Nah, the crashing probably happens because it doesn't handle unsupported video codecs properly.

Also, I should probably add proper support for >15 FPS movies... It's not very difficult after all.
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: DLPB_ on 2009-06-20 19:07:08
well from an update pov of psx, the increase in frame rate isn't needed but obviously if people are using other movie files :)  and hellbringer, your h264 encoder is obviously not to the proper spec.  That is why the likes of vegas are a better option.
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: Hellbringer616 on 2009-06-20 19:10:08
well from an update pov of psx, the increase in frame rate isn't needed but obviously if people are using other movie files :)  and hellbringer, your h264 encoder is obviously not to the proper spec.  That is why the likes of vegas are a better option.

Hmm, how would i do it in Vegas? And how much does it cost? Because there are a few things i could do with that program
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: DLPB_ on 2009-06-20 19:14:33
On their website :)  And in vegas all you do is set the project to 1280*896 and add a few effects, then exporting is as simple as render as> sony mp4/aac > settings.

And that is it.
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: Hellbringer616 on 2009-06-20 19:16:29
Yeah don't think it's worth the $600 haha.... But they have a trial, I'll use that give it a wirl :-D

Yeah, it didn't work =\

Same error no codec.

Saved as a Sony AVC (.mp4; .m2ts; .avc)
Settings i used at

Video Format: AVC (only other option is Memorystick that doesn't let me resize..)
Profile: Main
Entropy Coding: CABAC
Frame Rate: 15.000 (multimedia)
Field Order: None (progressive Scan)
Pixal Aspect Ratio: 1.0000
Bit Rate: 4,000,000

Audio (which since i don't have shouldn't be an issue..) Default AAC settings.
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: DLPB_ on 2009-06-20 21:24:06
ok here is one you can use to replace the original opening.avi using aalis driver.

Bare in mind there are a few problems.

1.  The audio AAC doesnt work with driver so I have removed sound

2.  There is, for some reason, a very long time between the FMV ending and the main scene beginning.

ftp://apps:[email protected]:2121/opening.avi
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: Hellbringer616 on 2009-06-20 22:38:01
Is that just resized and to be modded? Or not? If it's a release then it's in .avi, thought we were using .mp4
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: DLPB_ on 2009-06-20 22:38:56
an mp4 is just an extension.  That avi file on my serveer is an mp4 wrapped H.264 file.
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: Hellbringer616 on 2009-06-20 22:42:20
Ahh, Might be why my files don't play then. right? I just leave them as .mp4
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: DLPB_ on 2009-06-20 22:45:32
that is definately why they aren't working....without renaming them, the application won't see them.
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: Hellbringer616 on 2009-06-20 22:47:17
I didn't know it had to be .avi though haha

Works like a charm  :-D
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: DLPB_ on 2009-06-20 23:55:25
I am afraid no matter how much you use video enhancer or any other method, the result will be less than perfect.

However, the psx vids are far superior to PC and that was the objective here :)  When/if aali can get AAC to work with the driver and iron out the slow down at the end of the FMV I will begin work on reencoding the lot.
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: Kranmer on 2009-06-21 09:08:56
hey seifer i aint sure but i dont think the slowdown at the end of the video's is aali's problem but i think its yours. Try this video. Its a remake of yours (yes i kept it in Mp4 format renamed to AVI) and see if the slowdown still happens for you.
http://www.mediafire.com/?nzydhn4mkxh

EDIT:-
Now i have also managed to add sound by changing the headers of the Mp4 file to H264 then dubbing sound over in virtualdub using the IMA ADPCM codec (tried mp3 codec but it didnt work right in ff7 but this could be my problem) and it seems to come out alright so you can try that here if you want to take a look
http://www.mediafire.com/?wgz55rmz1ej
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: DLPB_ on 2009-06-21 14:47:48
ADPCM is a poor codec if I remember correctly.  What we need is AAC support and I am sure it will come in time.  I will test your video now and see if the slow down still occurs.  I have used 2 encoders now mainconcept and sony and both slowed down....I can try other settings to like baseline as opposed to main but we will see how your video file goes
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: Kranmer on 2009-06-21 15:42:36
hi seifer. I know its a poor codec but since the original audio aint that great i really dont think it makes worlds of difference. I have only currently tried using AAC, DIVX and Mp3 audio but none of them have worked so far, It only seems to work correctly with PCM audio codecs so far (although i cant say none others work since i only have a few audio codecs installed). Also let me know if my video makes any difference for you.
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: DLPB_ on 2009-06-21 16:19:38
ahh yes, but the PSX version audio is better ;)  much better.

Any case....  I tested your FMV and noted that it has shaved some hundred + frames which is why it appears to work. (It has nothing to do with codec, it is the frame total it would appear)

The full frame of opening.avi is 1914, yours is in the 1700 region.  why this is , I do not know.  I can't see PSXMC adding 200 frames....but I will definately see what the frame rate was before converting using PSXMC.
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: Kranmer on 2009-06-21 16:52:57
yes i shaved the file down to the same amount of frame as the original PC video's. all your video's so far (the fire and the opening) have both had long spots at the end of the file. i am not sure what added them but one of your encoders or converters may have done this or maybe the PSX videos are just longer (i have the PSX orignal PAL version of FF7 but i remember converting the videos used to be a real pain with "PSXvideo" so now i stick to PC formats)
i made the video match the PC frames exactly (i opened virtual dub and check the frames then deleted the extra frames which seemed to be added to your video. Your fire video was the same and the black screen at the end of the video went on way to long. And i wasnt sure if it was your encoder adding the frames or if it was your original conversion or if the PSX videos actually did run longer (but i doubt this last one)

Also on a side note, since PSX PAL and NTSC are supposed to have different video resoultions would that make any difference ? i wonder if it would be better to convert from PAL or NTSC ? (i cant remember exactly but i seem to remember somthing about PSX videos being different frame rates and different resolutions depending on region)
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: DLPB_ on 2009-06-21 16:58:16
Whilst NTSC and PAL do use different colour, frame rate and resolution, this does not seem to be true of FF7.

15 fps is more cartoon frame rate.  Movie original is  24 fps, PAL 25 fps, NTSC 29.97 fps  

Resolution of PAL is 720 (or 768) X 576  and NTSC is 720 X 480

[the only advantage of NTSC over PAL is frame rate.  The colour and resolution of PAL is better]

It appears as if FF7 video does not use any defined spec at all ( 15fps @ 320 X 224), it certainly isn't PAL or NTSC.  And I think you have worked out the problem.  The psx videos are longer.  I will watch out for that, well spotted

I am baffled by the resolution of the FF7 video's....half of 640*480 is 320 * 240  yet it uses 320*224.....
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: Kranmer on 2009-06-21 17:03:44
ah ok i havent really looked into ff7 videos that much fior PSX. but i have just put my FF7 CD into my PC and used "PSXVIDEO" and the videos to me seem to be the same length as the PC ones. it could be the converter your using or somthing like that.
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: DLPB_ on 2009-06-21 17:05:00
ah ok i havent really looked into ff7 videos that much fior PSX. but i have just put my FF7 CD into my PC and used "PSXVIDEO" and the videos to me seem to be the same length as the PC ones. it could be the converter your using or somthing like that.

In that case it must be PSXMC adding frames to the original....I will test that right away
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: DLPB_ on 2009-06-21 17:47:15

FF7 PSX is 2 min 07 and 1914 frames

FF7 PC is 1 min 59 sec and 1791 frames.



Ok I have figured it out.... it is a bug with PSXMC....

It stops at 1791/1792 but is reporting a 1914 frame video....which it isn't :) When it encodes it is filling in the "missing" frames with the last frame.
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: Kranmer on 2009-06-21 17:51:37
hey siefer i just tested PSXMC freeware edition and when converting the movie to AVI it does add frames. So i think we have located the problem. either try using PSXVIDEO from
http://www.feldoncentral.com/psxvideo/
or use PSXMC and just cut the end few frames off.
I used PSXVIDEO and the video was 1min 57secs
when i used PSXMC 2min 7secs

I own the PAL game (original not a copy or a image) since i live in the UK (and it also says PAL on the front of the box)

It may just be a problem with PSXMC alltogether.

EDIT:- ah i see you have found the problem. You replied while i was writing this.
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: DLPB_ on 2009-06-21 17:55:23
PSXMC is much better app aside from the bug.  I will just chop it to correct frame rate using sony vegas.
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: Kranmer on 2009-06-21 18:23:51
ok now i am looking into the audio. And you were right that the PSX audio was way higher in quality. But there is 1 small problem. Listen to the opening on the PSX AVI then the PC AVI, notice the difference. Thats right the PSX version doesnt have the music. it must store the music somewhere else (coz i am sure i remember the music when i played FF7 on the PSX originally). So we might have to use the PC audio or extract the PSX msuic then dub it over for the sound.

Also i am now looking into what codecs i can make work with ff7 but mostly its only PCM uncompressed or either of the ADPCM codecs i have. I tried Mp3 and that crashed giving me the usual windows error report but the mod name for the crash was "msvcr90.dll" where as with the AAC i get the same type of crash but the report shows that its "ff7_opengl.fgd" mod that crashed. its weird that different codecs cause different crashes. so i am looking further into this. And with the PSX audio i can try more codecs since its higher quality it will most likey have more support but i cant be sure of that.
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: DLPB_ on 2009-06-21 18:30:29
Aali will have to sort AAC out I feel.

As for music, yup I am aware and I own the full OST.  It is very very simple to add it to the video again in sync :) :P

PSX uses a proprietary sequential music like a midi and overlays it.  

I made my own opening recently with black mages music, I accidentally deleted from youtube and will add it again.  if anything the lack of music in the psx version is a great thing because now I can add the high quality CD version.
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: Aali on 2009-06-21 18:42:46
ok now i am looking into the audio. And you were right that the PSX audio was way higher in quality. But there is 1 small problem. Listen to the opening on the PSX AVI then the PC AVI, notice the difference. Thats right the PSX version doesnt have the music. it must store the music somewhere else (coz i am sure i remember the music when i played FF7 on the PSX originally). So we might have to use the PC audio or extract the PSX msuic then dub it over for the sound.

Also i am now looking into what codecs i can make work with ff7 but mostly its only PCM uncompressed or either of the ADPCM codecs i have. I tried Mp3 and that crashed giving me the usual windows error report but the mod name for the crash was "msvcr90.dll" where as with the AAC i get the same type of crash but the report shows that its "ff7_opengl.fgd" mod that crashed. its weird that different codecs cause different crashes. so i am looking further into this. And with the PSX audio i can try more codecs since its higher quality it will most likey have more support but i cant be sure of that.

Please report any crashes you get along with a copy of crash.dmp and APP.LOG.
You should also make a copy of the movie file you were trying to play, in case I need it to reproduce the crash.
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: Kranmer on 2009-06-21 19:40:04
Ah well it sounds like you have most things sorted out then seifer. but can i ask why your so obsessed with AAC ? wouldnt Mp3 or AC3 do just as good ? (i know they dont work yet but i was just wondering out of curiosity) i mean i know AAC is a high quality codec but will it improve the sound that much on a old audio file or is it because you plan to add higher audio into it that you need AAC ?

ok Aali just uploaded the crash data here. It has the APP log and the crash.dmp and i also included the video. It just appears to be whenever i use any audio apart from PCM uncompressed or PCM ADPCM i get this crash.
http://www.mediafire.com/?tvb5yzt53tg


Also Aali if you dont mind me asking do you have plans to add AAC support in the future or not ? (please feel free not to answer or to tell me to stop asking stupid questions because most people tend to)
Or is Mp3 or AAC already supported but just not working for me ?
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: Aali on 2009-06-21 20:26:20
FFMpeg has AAC and MP3 codecs already, which means the driver does too.
Some codecs may not play nice with my (somewhat naive) player implementation, this I may be able to fix.
However, I won't be spending a lot of time fixing something that is only useful to modders.

:EDIT:
The crash you're getting is an alignment issue, FFMpeg needs to be compiled with a newer version of gcc. Probably won't be fixed anytime soon.
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: Kranmer on 2009-06-21 22:04:26
ok thanks for that Aali. Its good to know atleast it wasnt my fault (i wasnt sure if it was or wasnt but now i know for sure). And its not really a problem that nothing can be done about. All i have to do is use a PCM codec that doesnt crash which isnt a problem for me. i Also understand that other features proberly come first and somthing like this might not even get done at all since there are more important things (like the program palmer your working on is proberly way more important then somthing small like this)
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: DLPB_ on 2009-06-22 00:25:45
because to make it H264 with AAC is to make it a fully complient MP4.  To use any other codec is to make a hybrid which is not what the spec was designed for and Sony vegas will not even allow you to do it.  PCM is too large and ADPCM too crap....
Title: Re: Resizing ingame screens (image and movie)
Post by: Kranmer on 2009-06-22 15:54:03
i have just been reading up on the ADPCM codec and your right the quality drop rate is quite high so i guess that one is out,
I have been working on different codecs all day and i have found the the AAC codec can be used just not with H264 video (which is kinda the whole point),
It works fine if you use it with Xvid or Divx (and proberly others to but i am not gonna waste my time trying 100's of different video codecs as well).
So if you really need AAC audio you could try using a different video codec but it would become a question of which one ?