'Making Of WC3' Brought Into The Future (February 1, 2017)

[ChrisReid]

Jim Leonard has done a bit of digital alchemy and produced an upgraded version of the Making Of documentary included with the Premiere Edition of Wing Commander 3. He's used special filter and conversion techniques to remove a lot of the grainy noise and choppiness associated with the VHS format. So if you haven't seen this in a while, or especially if you've never watched it through at all, this looks like the best way to experience the footage. A before and after screenshot is also provided below. Happy viewing!

This is the documentary by Adam Foshko that came on a VHS tape with special editions of Wing Commander 3 (the "filmcan" release). While this video is already on YouTube in various forms, this particular version was run through my videotape restoration process, which performs the following:

- Removes most helical-scan tape head noise while retaining detail (without ringing)
- Converts the original 30i interlaced material to 60p progressive material, enhanced using motion-directed analysis of each field

This process is very CPU-intensive and converts footage at roughly 3 frames per second on a 3GHz 8-core system.

While no conversion process can add detail where none exists, I am very confident in saying that my process is excellent at retaining the detail present in the original, and that this version is (as of 2015) the very best version available on YouTube. A good place to compare quality is during interview footage sections, such as at the 10-minute mark.

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Original update published on February 1, 2017

 

[Pedro]

Wow, that quality is excellent.
Didn't the CIC dig up some old VHS tapes? Would be wonderful to see the available ingame movies put through the same process.

 

[LeHah]

Doing God's own work there Jim. Thank you, wherever you are.