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demolist capturing (in-game and off-screen) and capture resolution


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Posted

Hello,

After a lot of testing with demolist there are some things I'm still unsure about. I'll divide my post into 3 questions:

1. /demolist in-game

How does /demolist decide to capture either in avi, or in pipe? I'm asking because at some point it was capturing in avi, and then later, I can't remember what I've changed, it captured in pipe and stayed that way. Let me explain furthermore what I've tried. When I run a fresh jampconfig and first change the few cvars that I want, and then run a /demolist, the video capture doesn't work, instead it captures dozens of png files. But if I go back to jamme (same jampconfig), go into a demo and manually capture with /capture pipe 60 projectname, the capture works that time, and THEN, if I go back to jamme again (same jampconfig) and run the same demolist, from this point on the demolist will work, capturing in pipe unless I delete my jampconfig again. 

What changed in the permanent settings of jamme for this to happen?

2. demolist off-screen

Here is my batch file for off-screen demolist capturing:

  Reveal hidden contents

I based it on the one in the demolist tutorial. All these settings are usually set at "0" in my jampconfig. But as @ent mentions in the tutorial, either renderwidth, renderheight or r_multisample has to be above "0" for the demolist to work. Although, if I run this batch file, let the demolist finish, and then try to run jamme myself (with start_jamme), that won't work because the window will be still be a miniature black window just like the demolist capture. I have to go into jampconfig and set back the settings to 0. 

I previously had a batch file that had values for r_multisample, r_multisamplenvidia and r_anisotropy, and I also had to set those back to 0 in jampconfig for jamme to run after running the demolist. 

Is there a way that demolist won't screw with my jampconfig? And also, are my captures gonna result in a lower-quality image because I have these other graphical settings set to 0? Finally, what is r_picmip?

3. Capture resolution?

What jamme setting actually sets the CAPTURE resolution, as in the resolution of the video file it will result in? Is that r_customwidth and r_customheight in the jampconfig (of mme folder)? If that is so, what is mme_renderwidth and mme_renderheight? If I have a 1080p resolution in r_customwidth and r_customheight and a 720p resolution in mme_renderwidth and mme_renderheight, what resolution will it capture in? 

As a side-question, would you recommend capturing 4k in jamme? I'm going for a film look in the video I'm making by the way.

 

Thanks a ton for reading/replying to this, and sorry for the long post, I'm a bit confused by some of the settings I suppose!

Posted

Hello.

Good questions.

1. Every demo that gets loaded from demolist also loads its respectful project file as you may know. And every project file contains a bunch of cvars that was saved together. Those cvars then get loaded with their project file.

Here is a list of cvars that are saved into a project file by default: https://github.com/entdark/jaMME/blob/master/codemp/cgame/cg_demos_capture.c#L184

What you can do to with all that.

  • Remove all cvars from every project so the whole thing will only use cvars from your game config. Project files are simple XML files and could be edited in any text processor.
  • Modify every project and set or replace data with needed cvars and needed values.
  • Add mov_captureCvars into your game config with only needed cvars for saving into project files for future demos.
  • Open every demo and load and save project in every and update them with current cvars.

The cvar that messes up pipe and avi is mme_screenShotFormat.

2. There is no way to autoreset demolist values. But it sounds like a good addition to have. I will probably add that.

3. jaMME captures with r_customwidth and r_customheight values when it is loaded normally. It captures with mme_renderwidth and mme_renderheight when they are set to more than 0. That is the point of off-screen capturing to capturing in higher resulution.

Demolist itself could be run on-screen if your desired resolution is less or equal your game resolution.

As a side-answer modern kids don't accept anything below 4k60fps so go for it. But to be serious it does not matter much if the content delivers. For working with high bitrate videos your machine also has to be pretty high end - keep that in mind.

If you are looking for a film look as you say then check out DOF feature and low FOV (cg_fov) when using DOF and slow camera movement. Pretty cinematic. But I am not an expert.

Also as a side-information 1080p, 720p etc are video formats. Resolution formats are FullHD, HD etc.

Good luck.

Posted

Thanks, that clears all that up!

As for 4k, I've just tested capturing with it and watched it on both a 1080p screen and a 4k screen (my tv) and I have to say the difference is noticeable. I particularly like the smoothness of the edges (players or objects). But capturing a 4k clip at 60fps with blurframes 32 did take several minutes, a pretty long time. I wonder if I can really take all that rendering time for the whole video.

I've tried cpuSSE2 but the capturing actually took longer. Is there any other cvar that I can change to help speed up the process? Is workmegs related to that? (I'm of course capturing in pipe)

Edit: I've just timed capturing a 4k 60fps 1 second clip with blurframes 32, it took 2 minutes 10 seconds.

Posted

There is not other way, it merges all the captured blur frames - it takes time. If you want to make things go faster, higher frequency of your CPU.

I'd suggest before capturing final footages that take time, capture everything in lower resolution, adjust settings if necessarily and when you are ready just leave everything for a night to capture with demolist.

Posted

Thank for the advice, I might do that. 

I have an 8 years old CPU, but I'm upgrading at the end of this month. 

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

Hi again, I'm encountering a new problem with off-screen demolist capturing. 

The demolist that I set, no matter what project files it runs and what demos, will not capture more than 2 projects at a time. After the second, it crashes and the jamp window appears telling me about the error, which I can't decipher. I've copied the text of the jamp window:

  Reveal hidden contents

The problem is recurring and also a note that might be of interest: this error will appear even if my demolist ONLY has 2 projects to run. It will capture both, then this window will pop up. 

I've tried changing workmegs from 128 to 512 but that didn't work (I don't even know what that does though). Could it be something in my jampconfig?

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

Something wrong with your log as well. Some words miss letters.

Does it fail with any length projects and does it work fine on default maps?

Posted (edited)

It will capture fine all project files that I've set. I've captured from 5 to 30 seconds clips (haven't tried longer clips) and it does work fine on default maps. 

But still, it will ONLY and ALWAYS capture 2 projects from the demolist at a time, then have the same error. 

I don't know if that's any use, but here's my current jampconfig:

  Reveal hidden contents

And here is my ffmpeg log:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Edited by Cor
  • 3 weeks later...
Posted

Hey,

If you had any insight on that last problem I've described, I'd really appreciate it.

I've changed motherboard/processor/ram/ssd in my computer since then, and it's still occurring every time I run a demolist. I've changed the installation path of jedi academy from the program files to Documents, I tried pretty much all variations of settings in the demolist batch file, but no change. 

If you don't have that problem, I MUST be doing something wrong, but I can't find what it is.

Thanks again.

  • 9 months later...
Posted

I'd like to give an update on this.

Even though I don't see any logical reason for it, setting r_dynamicglow 1 (instead of 0) allows demolist to capture more projects, around 6 or 7 before the error pops up (instead of 2).

I've captured around 800 projects in jamme now, and this is the only setting that made a difference for this issue. My last 70 projects were now captured with r_dynamicglow 1 and it has captured 6 or 7 every time before the error pops up.

I'm conscious I seem to be alone with this problem but perhaps this will shed some light on it for you ent, or anyone else.

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