Playstation Video Extraction Tests Successful (December 15, 2007)

ChrisReid

Super Soaker Collector / Administrator
HCl reports that he's making great progress on video extraction methods for the Playstation version of WC3/4. This is neat, because the PSX Wing Commander games included higher quality video than the DOS originals. This is particularly exciting with Wing Commander 3, which did not receive a special upgraded version on DVD. WC3 PSX also has full-color comm VDU videos, and HCl has already successfully extracted and viewed these clips.

hclextraction1.jpg

The comm transmissions were lower resolution on the Playstation, but are colorized instead of green-tinted. Here's a size (and color) comparison with the PC version. Playstation is on the left, PC on the right.

hclextraction2.jpg

Support for Playstation WC movies should be added to HCl's amazing movie player soon. The player and other exciting tools are available at HCl's Wing Commander Editing Site.

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Original update published on December 15, 2007
 
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Very cool, will some WC3 PSX clips be going up in the holovids section?

I imagine once HCl finishes the player that's a possibility. I've been (somewhat) working with HCl on this and at the moment I have *ALL* of the WC3 comm video audio converted and on my harddrive. (the comm video and audio are stored as separate files in WC3 psx). So I technically could release a set of all the converted audio but I kind of wanted to wait till HCl had finished the video converter. I can convert the cinematics audio too but I don't see the point yet. Part of the trick is that a lot of PSX video decoding is built into the PS1 hardware, and therefore are not standard forms and stuff.

I actually extracted all the audio files and video files ages ago but I didn't have any way to play them (as they aren't typical PSX formats). So HCl is instrumental in this. I emailed him for an update a day or so ago but haven't heard back yet. The player should work for WC4 psx files too (which also has color comms) but there was something that we hadn't worked out with the audio for the comms yet. The video codec (not as interesting as for WC3 since we have the DVD) for wc4 movies should be pretty much the same as Wc3 psx.

Depending on if the quality gains are worth it, I suppose someday the videos might be able to be incorporated into WC3 PC. We'll see I guess.
 
... Depending on if the quality gains are worth it, I suppose someday the videos might be able to be incorporated into WC3 PC. We'll see I guess.
That would be definitely worth it, IMO. The Dos version's video FMV's were intended for a 14" monitor & don't look very good on my 19". I find the videos of the PS version a lot better, especially were there is a lot of movement, u can see the PS clips are coded better. But the space combat quality of the PS version is A LOT worse than the PC version. I think it's actually comparable to the lower setting on the PC (VGA instead of SVGA).
So having the best of both worlds would be great, if possible.
In any case, many thanks already to HCI for his latest breakthrough. At least I'll be able to watch the videos without finishing the game with those awful PS controls :D
 
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