The WCProphecy Movie Project

maniac89

maniac89

I love Wing Commander: Prophecy
Well, I am making a Prophecy movie with HCL's movie player. And I have a problem: How do I include the missions and the breifings (not the movie part, the part where you review your mission objectives). Any help would be greatly appreicated.

Thanks,
The Maniac
 
maniac89 said:
Well, I am making a Prophecy movie with HCL's movie player. And I have a problem: How do I include the missions and the breifings (not the movie part, the part where you review your mission objectives). Any help would be greatly appreicated.

Thanks,
The Maniac
Click to expand...

I hope this helps...

Theres a few easy ways and an odd way that I know. As mentioned before, use a decent graphics card that has an S-Video output and send it to a VCR or DVR to record video of the mission briefing and ingame flight. Then it can be transported back through a TV card (VCR) or on a dvd (DVR).

My strange method (if you believe it) is to run a virtual pc with windows 98se on it, use the VCR method except instead of recording to tape, use a video capturing program and have the VCR send the signal back to the computer for recording. haha the first method is more realistic.

Then a third method is to try and use a capturing program like camtasia studio or something to record whats on screen. This is probably the best method if you don't have the equipment required for methods 1 and 2.
 
Queeg! what software tool did you use to record your in-gameplay sequences, and how did you compile the finished product. (Feel like doing a bit of WC film feature business myself really) :D

Thanks for the advice!

The Maniac
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Maniac...you're everywhere!!!:D Good luck on the project...looking forward to seeing it.
 
Ughhhhhh. Please don't.

Edit: I wasn't going to elaborate but I feel I have to. I think it's irrisponsible to announce this sort of thing if you havent even worked out how to do it. Queeg on the other hand is most of the way there. There is plenty of info in the other threads about the various movie projects about how-to. (in the fan project forum and even one or two threads in the news forum. Do a search) Read through them and get some Ideas. Watch the various samples and get some ideas in mind about how you are going to do it. Do so practicing on a project of smaller scope. See if you can maintain your focus. (As much as I hate to say it, try a music video even. Having a 3 minute time limit is almost harder than a movie project). Once you're comfortable with the process, then come back to the movie project. On the other hand, I feel Prophecy doesnt lend itself easily to a movie project.

That aside, I think queegs method is overcomplicated and unnecessary and borders on stupid. As soon as you go to tape you compromise the quality of your end product. A program like Fraps is all you need. YOu can buy the full version. or creatively edit around the 30 second time limit of the trial version. Honestly, you should almost *never * have a shot last longer than 30 seconds. IIRC camtasia studios program doesnt actually record WC stuff properly.
 
Yeah, I know AD was trying really hard not to be overly harsh, but this is like the guy who announced the WC2 remake, but had no way to really play through the original WC2 for reference. There's just some basic foundational stuff you've got to get done before you move from point A to B. AD is a video editing expert, and he's been working on the WC4 version of what you're describing for more than a year now.
 
Don said:
Queeg! what software tool did you use to record your in-gameplay sequences, and how did you compile the finished product. (Feel like doing a bit of WC film feature business myself really) :D
Click to expand...

Videostudio
AD said:
That aside, I think queegs method is overcomplicated and unnecessary and borders on stupid.
Click to expand...

Excuse me?

Maniac said:
Yeah, I really should have planned it out first . . .
Click to expand...

It's the thought that counts, a little practice in video editing should get you on the right track.
 
Queeg said:
Excuse me?
Click to expand...


Sorry if I was in a pissy mood yeasterday, but it's a simple truth really. Your method workd fine, but is probably a very-last-resort method of capturing video. Even if you do output the video into your tv card. Why would you use a VCR.

And you're going from an digital source to an analog one. I did misread you about using tape but to suggest using tape for this would be a last ditch effort in my opinion. Not only that, a lot of people don't have video input on their PCs. So for them to spend money on a capture card or a new video card is a waste of money if all they are ever going to do with it is record gamplay footage from prophecy. The easiest, most uncomplicated, and cheapest method is to use Fraps or something like it. ANd in my opinion the end results are superior to capturing the analog output of your video card. Even if you want the longer record time of the pro version it's probably still cheaper than buying an capture card if you dont have one already.

I meant no offense Queeg. Whatever method you are most comfortable with is best for you. But in the context of suggesting things to Maniac89 the simpler the better.
 
Of course you can get cheap USB2 video capture devices for less then the price of a game. But as was said, there is still the problem of quality loss due to the analogue conversion.
 
Oh ooh:( Speaking of Fraps....i tried it the first time but it didnt work. I read the instructions, selected the framerate and selected the default folder to save my movies (C: Fraps). Pressing the hotkey (F9) to record a mini in-game sequence of WC4 and then pressing it to stop, i exited and didnt find my saved movie sequence at all in the selected directory. Im sure i havent done anything wrong. Perhaps my computer is not hardware oriented for this software.
 
Don said:
Oh ooh:( Speaking of Fraps....i tried it the first time but it didnt work. I read the instructions, selected the framerate and selected the default folder to save my movies (C: Fraps). Pressing the hotkey (F9) to record a mini in-game sequence of WC4 and then pressing it to stop, i exited and didnt find my saved movie sequence at all in the selected directory. Im sure i havent done anything wrong. Perhaps my computer is not hardware oriented for this software.
Click to expand...

If you are runnig the DVD, sometimes it doesnt like it when it switches mid mission to a Mpeg2 video. ALternately if you have a logitech keyboard like mine, you have to make sure that the f-lock button is on, otherwise it thinks the f-9 key ar whatever else you set it to is actually whatever multimedia function or email funtion the keyboard defaults to.
 
Dang, pressing the hotkey every 30 seconds during missions is annoying, but I guess it's better than nothing . . .
 
maniac89 said:
Dang, pressing the hotkey every 30 seconds during missions is annoying, but I guess it's better than nothing . . .
Click to expand...


Well, it is the free version after all:) . The good thing is that you wont need every second of the footage anyway. If the 30 seconds is an issue, you do have the option of buying the full version and/or a video capture card. Either way, you will want to edit it down and having those 30 second clips down gives you a mission template to work off of. I usually start of with a straight run through in the forward view. then after editing out the boring bits I decide what needs added in to make it more dramatic and cinematice. So with specific shots in mind u go back in with different cameras set up *before* I press the record button. I can then pretty much get all the shots I need.

So far 30 seconds has been more than adequate.
 
Well it's not that annoying because I just made it a button on the keyboard that I press alot.
And I have problem:
After I record the video and play it on Windows Movie Maker,(but I record the missions perfectly) the color is all messed up into some weird shade of red. Any resoulutions to this?

The Maniac

P.S.>AD, tomorrow is your 5 year anniversary with the CIC forums! :)
 
maniac89 said:
Well it's not that annoying because I just made it a button on the keyboard that I press alot.
And I have problem:
After I record the video and play it on Windows Movie Maker,(but I record the missions perfectly) the color is all messed up into some weird shade of red. Any resoulutions to this?
Click to expand...
This is prophecy? Are you using the glide wrapper? If so what happens if you switch back to D3D? Is it just in movie maker? Does it do it when you play the clips by themselves in media player?

P.S.>AD, tomorrow is your 5 year anniversary with the CIC forums! :)
Click to expand...

Thanks. But actually I've been a member longer. But I didn't post that often back then. I was posting in wc forums before the CIC started even, but one day the CIC's old hacked version of the vboard died and (i'm not sure it was everyone) I needed to reregister for the new one and that didn't happen untill march of 2001 (I didn't have internet at home at the time).
 
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