The "the price of freedom" Movie Project

[AD]

Hey all!

I've been spending a lot of time, first converting, and then editing the DVD video from WC4. I'm a little limited in software, but I've managed to convert the Vob's to MPG and downmix the AC3 to a reasonable sounding stereo mix. (Someday I may get ambitous and try editing in 5.1 channels but right now am limited by software)

My goal it to produce a unique WC4 experience. I know I have a lot of friends who would never sit down to watch the game much less play it. However they may like to see a movie... So I've been editing the clips into a logical path (omiting alternate choices etc.) As well, although not Including gameplay all clips in any given path add up to around 2h50min, My goal is to also include necessary info from gameplay and yet keep the running time to around 2h 30min...

I have almost finished cutting together all the video I havent dropped either for time or pacing... I may still drop more scenes in the future. Curently I just have the end sequence (the 3 or 4 part battle with the vesuvius) that I need to work out. I've been trying to minimize the number of gameplay scenes, partly because of the effort needed, but also so that it's not too repetitive.

So now, with that exception I'm ready to move on to phase two, where I would appreciate any suggestions or help I can get. I would prefer to have video of the gameplay to cut and edit, but I havent found an option that displays properly. I'm currently working on recording the sound (i have audigy 2 zs) in windows while I play mission... This actually has good quality sound results yet you cant edit the dialogue or sfx indipendently of each other. Then i am combining it with screen shots... It works (but some of the screen shots end up wierd looking), the idea is conveyed but the end result are poor.

So here are some of the area's I need help in:
1/ Feedback/ Ideas
2/ Suggestions on, or ability in, video/screen capture (Hypersnap dx sort of works for stills, but end up with wierd coruption, other programs only give black image with bursts of color.
3/ Help in extracting gameplay dialogue and or sound fx's from tre files (So far havent been able to get this to work )

I will probably release it with the needed "gameplay" roughed-in. And Re-release as It is possible to improve the quality.

Ultimately the best would be if someone ambitious animated new scenes but for now that's just a wish

A bit of a disclaimer now: This project is in no way intended to exactly mirror the experience of actually playing the game... Most people would rather play, than watch someone else play. Therefore in the necessity to create an entity that is interesting and flows naturally, some edits intentionaly, and sometimes inadvertently, change the context and certain details surounding events that appear in the game. You have been duly warned...

I have made a sample that I hope will soon be available for viewing soon. It no longer reflects accurately the finished product, but will give you an Idea of the kinds of edits I've been doing and it also it starts with a bit of the "gameplay" stuff so you'll get an Idea of some of the Challenges ahead.

Thanks in advance!

AD

[luminon]

Hi there AD. I actually attempted to do this about a year ago. I completed wc3 wc4 and wcp but the in-game video came out really bad for the first two games. My computer might be to blame. Maybe your computer will make it better.

I never figured out how to get the audio from the gameplay dialogue in tre files so I just recorded it while playing the game using snagit. But as soon as any combat started the frame rate dropped to someting like 1 or 2 fps for wc3 or wc4. However it came out fine in wcp.

Unforunatley I could only get video capture to work for kilrathi saga wc3 (my dos version came out all black) and windows 95 wc4. Maybe that's why you are getting black images. Patching my wc4 dos to the win95 version from the patch in the CIC files section solved this.

My suggestion regarding the FMV is to try and keep the storyline flowing as much as possible. When I showed my original version to some friends they said that it got boring in the scenes where blair is constantly talking to people which has little or no impact on the story at all (except some of the funny Maniac scenes of course). I then cut out many scenes which I "considered" unnecessary and got better feedback.

Hope that helps and good luck with your project.

[Wedge009]

For extracting in-game dialogue, you can use HCl's TRE Manager. A while back I compiled a list as best as I could of the various bits and pieces I found in the TRE files. Rename the files extensions from IFF to RAW and use any sound editor to open them as raw sound data. There will be a little static at the start because of the meta data, but that can be removed easily in the editing process.

[AD]

So far I used your suggestion and extracted a bunch of IFFs from gameflow and missions. I don't know If I missed a step but IHowever I couldn't do so with specials or language.

Of the extracted files, I tried renaming, but the end result was static all the way through... not just at the begining...

Originally Posted by luminon

Unforunatley I could only get video capture to work for kilrathi saga wc3 (my dos version came out all black) and windows 95 wc4. Maybe that's why you are getting black images. Patching my wc4 dos to the win95 version from the patch in the CIC files section solved this.

My suggestion regarding the FMV is to try and keep the storyline flowing as much as possible. When I showed my original version to some friends they said that it got boring in the scenes where blair is constantly talking to people which has little or no impact on the story at all (except some of the funny Maniac scenes of course). I then cut out many scenes which I "considered" unnecessary and got better feedback.

Hope that helps and good luck with your project.

Thanks. I'm using the DVD though so it is the win95 version. I don't have any problems with the movies, only when trying to get screenshots or video of the gameplay.

I agree that some scenes need to be dropped for pacing... While they provide interesting details and insights into certain characters, they simply slow down the experience too much.

Oh and video capture program made by the people who made snagit gives me the same results as all the others... Is it maybe an overlay problem? Theres no probles capturing stills on board a carrier (flight deck etc) just in-flight.

[Wedge009]

I forgot to mention: they're mono, 8-bit, 11025 Hz sound files. You could also try using the Game Audio Player.

[luminon]

Originally Posted by AD

Oh and video capture program made by the people who made snagit gives me the same results as all the others... Is it maybe an overlay problem? Theres no probles capturing stills on board a carrier (flight deck etc) just in-flight.

What exactly is your problem with video capture in-flight? Do you actually see something every few seconds or is it just completely black throughout?

If it is completely black throughout I'm not sure what it could be. Maybe trying a different video capture program like hypercam might be worth a try.

If you do see something this is probably just your computer only capturing 1 frame per second or maybe even less. This happened to me at first but I found making my pc run with 256 colours helped (the game didn't lose any colour quality) and I set snagit to capture uncommpressed frames and compressed them later with virtualdub. Finally, I set it to capture 25fps. It was obviously capturing less than this but this setting gave me the best results.

[AD]

When I try to capture video in-flight, I get a black screen with a crosshair in the middle... Any gunfire shows up too. But, there are no huds or ships. This has happened with more than one program, so it may be a directx or overlay problem... I'm still trying. If I can't get that working soon I will keep working with stills and sound. I'll try and get more variety of stills in the finished version, compared to the samples... if a solution comes in the future I would re-release it with updated scenes.

(Just a note: The low res sample is actually a different couple of scenes than the Higher res Sample)

Edit: I managed to solve the pink problem with screenshots by tweaking settings in hypersnap... Now I only have 5 days to get all the shots I need! Still trying to work on a video capture solution.

[Ruadrim]

Hey man, a wonderful initiative! I hope you can find the courage to complete this movie.

I'm looking forward to it.

[Conrad]

looking good,

Try to have some movement during the in game scenes, as in your preview it was very static.

keep up the good work.

[luminon]

Originally Posted by AD

Now I only have 5 days to get all the shots I need! Still trying to work on a video capture solution.

Does this mean you are in a hurry to complete this. If there is no solution to your video capture problem and you are in a hurry, then I might be able to record the in-flight videos for you and send them to you to release in a later version, as I've done video capture of wc4 and it works on my PC. Although the flight does not come out smoothly it is probably more followable than various still shots.

I saw your sample and the DVD version looks great. I only have the CD version so the quality of my movies are very poor when converted them to Xvid. I would look forward to see a good quality wc4 movie.

[Tolwyn]

Have you tried FRAPs? It is an excellent capture program, although I am not sure if it will work with WC IV. It requires 16 bit color depth, CD version of WC4 uses only 8-bit. I do not know about the DVD version though.

[BrynS]

Looks good so far!

Originally Posted by AD

Hey all!

I've been spending a lot of time, first converting, and then editing the DVD video from WC4. I'm a little limited in software, but I've managed to convert the Vob's to MPG and downmix the AC3 to a reasonable sounding stereo mix. (Someday I may get ambitous and try editing in 5.1 channels but right now am limited by software)

AD

Which programmes are you using for the extraction and editing process?

Although it's not a non-linear editor, VirtualDub is a great piece of open source software that would be useful for trimming individual segments and for the final encode. VirtualDubMod is a slight modification that accepts MPEG2 streams and VOB's IIRC, as well as AC3 (I'd also recommend AC3Filter as your AC3 directshow filter). AviSynth is another very powerful, open source video utility, but it uses a basic scripting language, so I'd start with VirtualDub(Mod) first. For links to all of these utilities and some comprehensive guides, visit Doom9.net.

Originally Posted by Tolwyn

Have you tried FRAPs? It is an excellent capture program, although I am not sure if it will work with WC IV. It requires 16 bit color depth, CD version of WC4 uses only 8-bit. I do not know about the DVD version though.

I'll try using FRAP's with my WC4 DVD version later tonight and see if it's possble to capture the gameplay sequences.


Cheers,


BrynS

[TonyCliftonNAH]

A long time ago I used a video capture program called hypercam. It sounds like your video capture is set too high or the screen too big. Have you tried capturing the game play in a window?

[AD]

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

Originally Posted by luminon

Does this mean you are in a hurry to complete this. If there is no solution to your video capture problem and you are in a hurry, then I might be able to record the in-flight videos for you and send them to you to release in a later version, as I've done video capture of wc4 and it works on my PC. Although the flight does not come out smoothly it is probably more followable than various still shots.

No, I'm not really in a hurry. Mostly I've been trying various programs to get video and screen capture, so I am only running trial versions so far..

With the regards to the comment about the gameplay being static lookin... that's exactly why I need to work out a capture solution.

I have tried running the game in a window, but i cant remember why that didn't work so I am going to look into it.

To begin with, I extracted all the ac3 tacks from the vobs and then used a program to convert them all to wav format. I've been using PowerDirector to edit and that program reads the mpeg2 video from Vobs but not the 5.1 audio. So I produced mpg-extension mpeg2 videos by combining the Vobs with the wav audio. That Allowed me to edit the sound + video together, and makes cutting scenes easier. For the Samples I compressed to Divx 5.1.1 (highres) and mpeg1(low res).

I really need to rough in the gameplay first though before I get anyone to record anything for me so that I can communicate exactly which pieces I need.

Thanks again

Edit: Just tried trial of fraps and it worked beautifully... if it werent for a 30sec time limit.. Is this program worth the 30 dollar cost?

[DK2IT]

Greetings,
I've see your demo, it's very good, I like it; well, maybe the in-game part is too static
I've the same idea to make a movie from the great WC3 and WC4 games, but unfortunately, I have no time to dedicate on those projects.

Here's my sparse ideas, if they could be useful:

- use high quality audio encoding for the movie (AC3 if have WC4DVD); later can be converted to a stereo to create a small version
- re-editing in-game movie with an AC3 processor software to recreate a 5.1 effects

- grab game session with FRAPS or similar software (better using DosBOX emulator ???)
(or use TV-OUT mode to record on VHS then regrab on PC with a TV-GRABBER?)

or

- recreate from scratch battle cutscenes with a customizable simulator (Prophecy, Freespace or others engine), using models from WC3/4 (or similar) and grabbing (with HCI movie player) pilots communications mini-movies; audio for communication and music are extracted from .TRE files with some tool I do not remember (music are normal .WAV files, so a file ripper like MRIP do the job).

- for the in-game battle, capture from different view (external view, cockpit, etc.), to recreate a cinematic like experience
- subtitles option for other languages
- could be useful use some footage from "WC The Movie"

Of course they are just my old ideas, that require lot of time (especially recreating battle cutscenes), but I think, in this way, we could create a really interesting movie!

DK

P.S. Sorry for my not so good english

[Wedge009]

I actually didn't mind the static screenshots, although I was a little confused at first when the Hellcats weren't moving - thought something was wrong with my download. Still, even with those static scenes, some more descriptive shots would have been nicer. Although I guess they're just place-holders for now.

The transitions between scenes are really nicely done. Good job.

[AD]

Originally Posted by DK2IT

use high quality audio encoding for the movie (AC3 if have WC4DVD); later can be converted to a stereo to create a small version
- re-editing in-game movie with an AC3 processor software to recreate a 5.1 effects

I would like to do this... I really would but at the moment it is too cumbersome to attempt since I dont have a way to edit the ac3 at the same time as the video. I will be looking into the possibility though. Keep in mind that I'm not willing to download cracks. As yet I dont have the funds to purchase a pro suite. (I blew my extra cash on an x800xt 256mb)

Originally Posted by DK2IT

- recreate from scratch battle cutscenes with a customizable simulator (Prophecy, Freespace or others engine), using models from WC3/4 (or similar) and grabbing (with HCI movie player) pilots communications mini-movies; audio for communication and music are extracted from .TRE files with some tool I do not remember (music are normal .WAV files, so a file ripper like MRIP do the job).

I actually thought of this Idea too. I don't have a friggin clue about editing prophecy though. The mentioned game audio player worked for me to extract a few of the inflight coms but mostly the responses to taunts and damage reports, rather than stuff that's plot essential. However, I realized the solution to that was simpler than I thought. Alt-o in flight and you can turn off everything but speech or sound effects or whatever or turn off just music (which may be best option) and record using wavestudio... basically a digital audio capture. I don't know why I didn't think of it before. Or with video capture, you can cut without chopping up the music and then use the wc4 extracted music while editing to put music back in.

Originally Posted by DK2IT

- for the in-game battle, capture from different view (external view, cockpit, etc.), to recreate a cinematic like experience
- subtitles option for other languages
- could be useful use some footage from "WC The Movie"

I agree, and intended to do this If I'm happy with the video capture results. I don't see how the WCM would be useful though since the style, ships, actors are completely different.

[luminon]

Originally Posted by DK2IT

- for the in-game battle, capture from different view (external view, cockpit, etc.), to recreate a cinematic like experience

I agree that it would be really good if this could be done but when I tried to do this once I found it near impossible to fly acceptably from an external view so had to record the whole thing from the cockpit. Shame wc4 doesn't have a replay function (unless I missed it) like wc2 did as this could have been useful for recording different views. Its probably just me and maybe others are better than me in using the chase camera.

Originally Posted by AD

Just tried trial of fraps and it worked beautifully

When you say beautifully do you mean that the video runs as smoothly as the game does in-flight. If yes, then I can't wait to see it as I have never succeeded in capturing anything better than 1 or 2 fps from wc4.

[AD]

Originally Posted by luminon

When you say beautifully do you mean that the video runs as smoothly as the game does in-flight.

Yes.



Oh... when I get around to compiling a playable dvd, those behind the scenes videos (although fairly low res) would make great special features.

[AD]

I guess it's too late to edit...


Anyway, I think I'm on the right track... Thanks again for all the suggestions.

I don't think a 30 second time limit is going to inhibit me. I a practical sense the more angles and cuts (as long as they're not too short) make for a better, more kinetic feeling action sequence. And by recording the video with music turned off The cutting process is simple.

Look for a sample soon

[AD]

Originally Posted by BrynS

VirtualDubMod is a slight modification that accepts MPEG2 streams and VOB's IIRC, as well as AC3 (I'd also recommend AC3Filter as your AC3 directshow filter).

Tried VirtualDubMod... Yes it does allow you to edit the file withought needing to first extract the audio. I was impressed with the quality of the uncompressed capture, but it seems that ac3filter automaticaly downmixes the 5.1 to two channels in the process. Maybe I missed a step.

[BrynS]

Originally Posted by AD

Tried VirtualDubMod... Yes it does allow you to edit the file withought needing to first extract the audio. I was impressed with the quality of the uncompressed capture, but it seems that ac3filter automaticaly downmixes the 5.1 to two channels in the process. Maybe I missed a step.

Have you set the audio stream to "Direct Stream Copy"? Select the "Stream" drop down menu and then click on "Stream List." Right click on the desired stream and set it to "Direct Stream Copy."

AC3Filter can downmix any AC3 stream to 2.0 or 2.1, as well as a number of other permutations (mono, 4.0, 4.1, etc) but those settings are selectable in the filter itself (to change settings click on the AC3Filter icon in your Control Panel). Try setting your output in the "Main" tab to "3/2+SW 5.1 Channels" if you have a 5.1 speaker setup and see if that makes a difference.

You can also check the number of audio/AC3 channels in a video file with VirtualDub(Mod) by opening a file and then selecting "File Information" from the File Menu. You will see a dialog box like this:



On a different note, I tried using FRAP's to capture some gameplay sequences on my WC4 DVD (Double-sided version), but was unsuccessful, though it should work if it (WC4) could be run in a window, which I can't seem to do in Windows XP. IIRC, WC4 (CD Version) can be run in a window, so I'll give that a bash later, although I see that you have managed to get FRAP's working with your copy.

Cheers,


BrynS

[DK2IT]

I would like to do this... I really would but at the moment it is too cumbersome to attempt since I dont have a way to edit the ac3 at the same time as the video. I will be looking into the possibility though. Keep in mind that I'm not willing to download cracks. As yet I dont have the funds to purchase a pro suite. (I blew my extra cash on an x800xt 256mb)

Yes, you can use freeware tools (or some LE version of software, bundled with audio card or TV-TUNER-ENCODER).

For ex. you can use the freeware Audacity
with some Dolby VST plugin, like the Sourround encode vst effect from obertone
(but I haven't tried it)

If you make some search on google, maybe there is more.
Just some links:
http://www.kvraudio.com/
http://dmoz.org/Computers/Multimedia...ware/Plug-ins/

and there is some info on Doom9 forum

I agree that it would be really good if this could be done but when I tried to do this once I found it near impossible to fly acceptably from an external view so had to record the whole thing from the cockpit. Shame wc4 doesn't have a replay function (unless I missed it) like wc2 did as this could have been useful for recording different views. Its probably just me and maybe others are better than me in using the chase camera.

Yes, it's not simple; but you can record some scene when there are no enemies, and then integrate at editing time; and you still can record a battle from another view...well, you loose, but you have some good footage

though it should work if it (WC4) could be run in a window, which I can't seem to do in Windows XP

and what about under DosBOX?

[AD]

Originally Posted by DK2IT

and what about under DosBOX?

The WC4 DVD is windows only.

I'll have to give some of the suggestions a shot.

[Darklightr]

Awesome!! I can't wait to see the finished project.

This is something I've always wanted to see done.

[AD]

Once again, now that the gameplay sample is up, I'd like to thank you guys for all the suggestion, and help.

I would like to know, aside from the technical issues, What do you think of the actual edits? For example the two briefings (one in high res sample and another in low res sample) actually represent at least 4 different scenes.

[luminon]

Wow, the gameplay sample was much more impressive than I expected. Well done. Where did you get that music from? It's not wing commander music is it? Whataver it is sounds very nice.

The edits are probably as good as you can get them. You can hardly tell that the joined scenes were originally separate (except from the fact that we already know that they were separate from the game). Nice work.

[BrynS]

Originally Posted by luminon

Wow, the gameplay sample was much more impressive than I expected. Well done...

Just downloaded the new gameplay sample and must say that it comes out very well and quite seamlessly -- great job, AD! I'm really looking forward to seeing this project progress

Originally Posted by luminon

Where did you get that music from? It's not wing commander music is it? Whataver it is sounds very nice.

It's from the Wing Commander Movie sountrack -- Track 6, Into The Quasar, I believe.

Cheers,


BrynS

[BrynS]

Originally Posted by AD

What do you think of the actual edits? For example the two briefings (one in high res sample and another in low res sample) actually represent at least 4 different scenes.

I think that the edits done in the high and low res samples are effective and fairly inconspicuous; which is good! The transitions were low-key and appropriate, although I would try and use them as liberally as possible, especially between a sucession of brief scenes. I would think though that you would need to use a fair number of transitions, other than basic cuts for the project, especially when it becomes necessary to convey a brief passage of time between scenes.

IMO, keep it simple and stick to basic fades and cuts, with the odd wipe if necessary. Obviously, given the fairly skewed range (mostly towards mission briefings and outcomes) of video content in the game , much of which is fairly static (e.g. mission briefings) it will be quite a challenge to keep the affect of multple transitions subtle. Also, keeping the pace flowing, as well as a balance between story, action and character development, while going from a static or gameplay sequence, to the big set-piece sequences, like Telamon and Axius, will be tricky, but I am really looking forward to seeing the final result!

As far as the gameplay sequences go, I think keep them tight, vary the angles/views occassionly and keep the chatter going if possible.

Anyway, best of luck and keep us up-to-date.

Cheers,


BrynS

[Tolwyn]

@Bryns: it is important, that you run WC4 in 16 or 32bit mode. Old WC4 version supports only 8-bit though

[BrynS]

Originally Posted by Tolwyn

@Bryns: it is important, that you run WC4 in 16 or 32bit mode. Old WC4 version supports only 8-bit though

Thanks Tolwyn. Are you referring to desktop resolution here, i.e. 16-bit, 24-bit, 32-bit? I'll try running it with desktop set to 16-bit colour -- it was set to 32-bit.

Cheers,


BrynS

[Tolwyn]

no, you have to run the game itself in 16 or 32-bit resolution. Fraps does not support 8-bit color depth

[AD]

Well, I'm continuing work on the gameplay vids. Getting enough shots to make a coherent video is challenging but I'm enjoying the task!

Yes, BrynS is absolutely right about the music from the sample. What do you think? Do you like it's inclusion? I still will have to see how it will sound amongst the context of the rest of the project. For the most part I am going to try and use wc4 music.

It is going to be a while before I'm at that point, but what do you think about download / distribution options? Episodes (Thee or four parts)? Whole? Or dvd's? Bitrates / Compression? FIle size (compared to image quality)?

Let me know what you think? (about anything related to the project!)

[luminon]

Originally Posted by AD

Yes, BrynS is absolutely right about the music from the sample. What do you think? Do you like it's inclusion? I still will have to see how it will sound amongst the context of the rest of the project. For the most part I am going to try and use wc4 music.

I definitely like the inclusion of this music. When I first heard it I was pleasantly surprised. Maybe including music like this in the duel with Seether might be good.

Originally Posted by AD

what do you think about download / distribution options? Episodes (Thee or four parts)? Whole? Or dvd's? Bitrates / Compression? FIle size (compared to image quality)?

If this is going to be available by download then I would suggest episodes, since my CD video quality version came out at around 1 GB when compressed quite a bit. With DVD quality video, yours will probably be even bigger, which would be a painful download for people with slower connections.

[BrynS]

Originally Posted by AD

...What do you think? Do you like it's inclusion? I still will have to see how it will sound amongst the context of the rest of the project. For the most part I am going to try and use wc4 music.

I really enjoyed the inclusion of WCM music, but agree that it would probably appear more consistent to retain the original WC4 music. Perhaps just use portions of music from the movie for key scenes/moments, as long as the contrast between the WC4 music and the WCM music is not too jarring. I thought that George Oldziey's inclusion of specific WC3 samples in the WC4 music at significant cinematic/story moments, such as when Blair first talks to Melek in the Intrepid's rec room, were very effective at evoking previous experiences and added to the player's immersion.

Originally Posted by AD

...It is going to be a while before I'm at that point, but what do you think about download / distribution options? Episodes (Thee or four parts)? Whole? Or dvd's? Bitrates / Compression? FIle size (compared to image quality)?

Roughly what size do you envision the final movie comprising? 2GB? 4.5GB? Would the final movie comprise a single, large file or multiple, segmented files? Which containers and codecs do you plan to use? .avi, Matroska, .mp4, .vob? MPEG2 (DVD compatible), MPEG4 (XviD, DivX, etc) or others and for the audio -- .ac3, .mp3, .ogg or something else? Either format or both (MPEG2/MPEG4) would be fine, but please don't use a proprietory codec/container such as Windows Media .wmv or Real's video codec.

You mentioned earlier in the thread that were planning on a final movie length of circa 2 hours and 30 minutes. Given that a typical 2-hour film can be encoded with decent quality at ~1400MB (2x700MB CD's) and almost transparently at 3 CD's (~2100MB) with an MPEG4 ASP codec, such as XviD or DivX and will even be watchable on 1CD (~700MB), one has a fair amount of scope for the final size.

Assuming you're maintaining the original source resolution and aspect ratio, I would personally try to maintain as much transparency with the source material as possible, i.e. keep the quality as high as possible. The original aspect ratio for WC4 DVD was not very wide IIRC, i.e. it was not 2.35:1, more like 16:9/1.77:1 so you would need to throw more bits at the video than if were 2.35:1 due to their being more pixels/data per frame.

If you are getting a fairly transparent final encode with say, 3GB final size, you may as well use the full 4.5GB on a DVD5, as I'm sure demand for a DVD distro would be there, especially for any dial-up users who would be excluded from multple 300-500MB online segments. Have you discussed potential online distribution with CIC member's such as Loaf, ChrisReid, etc? Depending on final size and if the CIC was willing and could handle the bandwidth issues, it could be a very effective method.

The only drawback for a segmented/episodic distribution of the final movie, especially if the focus of the project was recreating a seamless, cinematic Wing Commander film experience is the segmentation and break from immersion if the episode cuts are at arbitrary points to coincide with a specific distribution target (i.e. 250MB per episode). Once the user had downloaded each segment, they would not be able to watch a seamless "movie", unless they edited the sequences together. However, if the final product is planned/edited around an episodic release, it should be possible to make each episode fairly self-contained, yet maintain continuity with previous and succeeding episodes, e.g. one episode could cover the Circe campaign, while another could detail the battle against the Versuvius. The episodes could perhaps be released weekly with a preview at the end of each one for the next installment, although this would add a lot of extra work.

Anyway, keep up the great work -- I'm really looking forward to the final result! If you want any help with encoding/codec settings (I mostly use XviD and VirtualDub or VDubMod) or want somene to test the compressability of different codecs on some of your edited material, let me know! I've got a streamload account to which you could upload some material and I can run a suite of codecs and settings on it to ascertain the best codec settings and bitrate, etc for a given target size.

Cheers,


BrynS

[AD]

Originally Posted by BrynS

The only drawback for a segmented/episodic distribution of the final movie, especially if the focus of the project was recreating a seamless, cinematic Wing Commander film experience is the segmentation and break from immersion if the episode cuts are at arbitrary points to coincide with a specific distribution target (i.e. 250MB per episode). Once the user had downloaded each segment, they would not be able to watch a seamless "movie", unless they edited the sequences together. However, if the final product is planned/edited around an episodic release, it should be possible to make each episode fairly self-contained, yet maintain continuity with previous and succeeding episodes, e.g. one episode could cover the Circe campaign, while another could detail the battle against the Versuvius. The episodes could perhaps be released weekly with a preview at the end of each one for the next installment, although this would add a lot of extra work.
Anyway, keep up the great work -- I'm really looking forward to the final result! If you want any help with encoding/codec settings (I mostly use XviD and VirtualDub or VDubMod) or want somene to test the compressability of different codecs on some of your edited material, let me know! I've got a streamload account to which you could upload some material and I can run a suite of codecs and settings on it to ascertain the best codec settings and bitrate, etc for a given target size.

I have been trying to keep the video quality as high as possible through the editing process. I do intend to make a DVD that is playable in set top machines, at least for my self... But For internet download I would most likely use Divx or similar encoding. One number Chris gave me was around 500 - 1000 MB per hour. High Quality divx runs the top end of that target.

As far as episodes go, I need to make sure there's a good hook in each segment so an ideal spot to end an episode would be right after Eisen defects. In this version I have blair acompany him so the next episode would start with the scene on the intrepid flight deck when they just arive and the crew is doing damage control. Another good spot to end an episode would be Eisens Leaving the Intrepid.
Ideally I see this a one complete project Yet I am considering this as a way to make it Accessible. Even with high speed internet, a two or three gig download will take a long time... Besides the fact that it will take me atleast twice as long to upload it to start with.

[BrynS]

Originally Posted by AD

I have been trying to keep the video quality as high as possible through the editing process. I do intend to make a DVD that is playable in set top machines, at least for my self... But For internet download I would most likely use Divx or similar encoding...

Yeah, I think that's the best way to go about it, it should minimise audio and visual quality loss incurred during each encoding, i.e.

Source (.VOB/MPEG2+AC3) ---> EDITING (MPEG2/AC3/PCM) ---> FINAL (MPEG2/AC3/PCM) ---> Internet Distro (MPEG4/MP3)

Originally Posted by AD

Ideally I see this a one complete project Yet I am considering this as a way to make it Accessible.

One possibility if you want to keep whole structure of the film intact, would be to create a segmented RAR archive or similar, e.g.

WC4Film_part1.rar (500MB)
WC4Film_part2.rar (500MB)
WC4Film_part3.rar (500MB)
WC4Film_part4.rar (500MB)
WC4Film_part5.rar (500MB)

Each part could be distributed/uploaded over a number of days to conserve bandwidth. Thus, once the user has downloaded all parts, he will be able extract the full movie -- the only downside being that whilst the distribution is episodic, the user will not be able to view anything until they have all the parts.

Originally Posted by AD

...Besides the fact that it will take me atleast twice as long to upload it to start with.

Yeah, that's going to take quite a while depending on your upstream connection! A few weeks back I was uploading about 300MB of zip files to my Streamload account and it took about 6 hours! I'm on a 750kbps down/128kbps up (about 15KB max) cable connection.

Otherwise, how's the project coming along?

Cheers,


BrynS

[ChrisReid]

If you made a source DVD, people would undoubtedly want it. Demand would probably outstrip your ability to make them, but we could probably reproduce copies for birthday presents and such.

[AD]

Hey BrynS, You were right about checking the settings in AC3filter itself. What I'm wondering though is if there is a way to get sound while editing in virtualdub.

As well, Is there a way to encode the video back into a VOB after? Haven't figured that out yet.

For anyone who knows, I would also like information on adding multiple audio tracks. For example, if I get it to work, I could include both 5.1 and the stereo mix I'm currently working with... That way people can chose according to their sound system. Is there a demand for subtitles? I could only do them in english and french, but I imagine that it would take a long time to work out (unless someone already has a text document of the dialogue) If there's demand I suppose eventualy I could forward an english transcript to someone to translate.

Plus , if anyone is interested I may look into recording my thoughts on the story, character, wc in general, and of course the whole process of editing it all into this project and some of the decisions I made in the process and having it as an optional commentary or some such, as a bonus.

Man I have so much work to do, and my project just keeps getting bigger.

Just for an update I have finishes a total of 2 gameplay videos and am part way through the third. I have a feeling this part may take a while as I have to actualy play the mission once to get a sense of what I need, then play it again to get basic structure shots (necessary for plot) plus most of the hud stuff. Then I have to go through it again to get anything I missed the first time. Then I get to play the mission again this time trying to get exterior ship shots using chase and object cameras. And also maybe some victim and missile camera stuff. Then I have to edit it together into a coherent sequence of clips (by dividing the clips into specific shot and rearanging them) and see that it not only makes sense but that the pace is correct. That's when it becomes apparent whether there may be a few shots left to make it complete, so I have to play the mission again, and maybe again and again because damn that was hard to get and it takes a while to get used to flying in chase camera mode, atleast to make it look like you kinda know what your doing. I you hadn't guessed I started having separate saves before each different mission. ( I always used to just save over if I was confident I had been successful). Once I'm comfortable with my cut of the gameplay stuff I then have to figure out which music will go best where. (I am recording sans music. It simplifies the editing )

[BrynS]

Hey AD!

Apologies for the delay in responding to your questions -- I hope the following responses are of help!

Originally Posted by AD

...What I'm wondering though is if there is a way to get sound while editing in virtualdub.

Yes there is a way.

Once you've opened a video file, you will usually see a video pane/window containing the input or source file on the left and the output or filtered video on the right (these settings can be changed if desired though, i.e. output file on the left, input on the right, or they can be aligned vertically, i.e. input on the top, output below or vice versa, etc.)

To play either the input/source or output/filtered, click the appropriate "play" (play arrow) button in the bottom left-hand corner of the work area, i.e. "play I" to play the input file and "play O" to play the output. Alternatively, you can go to the "File" drop-down menu and select "Preview input..." ; "Preview filtered..." or "Preview output from start..." The latter two may not playback in real-time if you have a computation-intensive filter (or number of filters) affecting the input video.

If you apply any filters (such as a resize, de-interlace, noise-reduction, de-logo, etc) then they will be realised in the output/filtered video pane. If you are only implementing a "Direct Stream Copy" for the video, then your input and output panes will be identical.

Originally Posted by AD

...As well, Is there a way to encode the video back into a VOB after? Haven't figured that out yet...

Well technically, yes, but there would be quality degradation and the process would be quite convoluted, as VirtualDub(Mod) does not allow for direct stream copying of MPEG1/2 streams -- the final container must be either AVI or Matroska, both of which cannot comprise MPEG1/2 streams.

The way to go about "saving" an MPEG2/VOB source back into a MPEG2/VOB after cutting/filtering it in VirtualDub(Mod), would be to encode the output with a lossless codec, such as HuffyUV, and then re-encode that lossless segment into a compatible MPEG2 stream with a utility such as Tsunami MPEG Encoder. As you can imagine, this would be fairly inefficient and is not recommended due to the monotony, as well as the increased probability of introducing quality loss and syncing errors into the production.

With hindsight, I have now realised that recommending VirtualDub/VirtualDubMod at the beginning of this thread was not very well considered/thought through on my part, given the scope of your project and the processes it requires. I hope I haven't led you up the garden path, AD, regarding VirtualDub(Mod) usage and can only apologise for any setbacks/problems incurred from its use on my recommendation. VirtualDub and VirtualDub(Mod) are very useful pieces of open source software and I can envisage a good place to use them in the project, but I should have been clearer on their effectiveness and limitations from the beginning.

To clarify, while you can use VirtualDubMod to open and then cut/trim/filter specific VOB files (MPEG2 & AC3 streams) and therefore preserve the original Dolby Digital 5.1 audio, VirtualDubMod is not a non-linear editor and also requires the inputted VOB stream to be further filtered/compressed with an appropriate codec suitable for the AVI or Matroska containers, i.e. with VirtualDubMod you cannot open a particular WC4 VOB file, edit and then save the edited portion as a VOB directly.

Considering that you want to compile an MPEG2 DVD version first, it would be better and much more straightforward to import all the VOB's into a suitable editor (as you mentioned doing so far) and maintain the source format (MPEG2) all the way through production and then only convert to MPEG4 once the final MPEG2 DVD version is complete. The only downside being (again as you mentioned in your first post) that you would need to discard the AC3 option, unless you can find a way (perhaps a 3rd party plugin?) to integrate this capability into the editor you are using or upgrade to a more professional (expensive) package or suitable open source programme.

Where I can see VirtualDub(Mod) being useful is for the encoding of the MPEG2 final cut into a suitable MPEG4 package, as well as for adding multiple audio streams and sub-titles, as detailed below the next quote.

You mentioned in one of your first posts that you were using Cyberlink's PowerDirector to edit the scenes -- I've downloaded a trial version of the programme and will give it a go to try and get a better feel of the processes you are using and to try and see if it's possible to somehow import AC3 directly or through a workaround involving other programmes.

Two other programmes that you could experiment with are firstly Chopper XP 2.7 which opens VOB files and allows you to trim/edit and then save to VOB, but you can only cut/edit to within 1 second, instead of 1 frame, which may hamper creative choice. The other programme is Cuttermaran 1.6.3 which is a frame accurate MPEG2 cutting tool. I believe that is quite widely used amongst enthusiast's, but was very unstable on my system when I tried it.

Originally Posted by AD

...I would also like information on adding multiple audio tracks. For example, if I get it to work, I could include both 5.1 and the stereo mix I'm currently working with... That way people can chose according to their sound system...

Yes, this can be done.

For less complications and ease of use, I would recommend sticking with one audio format throughout the editing process and then only convert to another once the final edit has been encoded, e.g. if you're editing the main film with an audio track comprising portions of WC4 gameplay (say Stereo WAV or PCM) and video portions downconverted from 5.1 AC3 to stereo WAV or PCM, then maintain that until the final edit. You can then de-mux (separate) the audio from the video and encode it separately into say, Stereo MP3 or Ogg Vorbis or upconvert it to AC3 5.1 or 2.0 (there will be some minor quality loss and redundancy in the upconversion process, especially to 5.1, as the source would be stereo, albeit originally a 5.1 AC3 source).

Once you have the final MPEG2 movie compiled, say with Stereo MPEG Layer II audio or Stereo MPEG Layer III, it will be possible to de-mux/demultiplex the audio and then upconvert it to AC3 or vice versa and then multiplex the two audio streams back into the video stream and then author the MPEG2 version to DVD.

For the MPEG4 version, you can use either VirtualDubMod or another modified VirtualDub utility called NanDub (available at Doom9). NanDub only allows for the muxing of a primary and secondary stream (i.e. 2 audio streams) and AFAIK, the AVI container cannot contain more than 2 audio streams, whereas VirtualDubMod can AFAIK mux more than 2 audio streams, provided that the Matroska container is used.

Putting more than one audio stream in an AVI file is essentially a hack, as it was never designed to handle more than one audio stream. As such, either a specific audio stream switcher is required to playback an AVI file with two audio streams or a suitably configured media player is needed. If viewed via Windows Media Player, you need to install the Morgan Stream Switcher -- you should then be able to toggle between the two streams, however I recently downloaded the latest version of this and tried it with Windows Media Player 10 and was getting conflicts and syncing problems. I can recall it working with Windows Media Player 6.4 and according to the switcher's documentation, the latest version should work with Windows Media Player 9.

The other option and the one I would recommend, would be to use and suggest a media player like Media Player Classic (available at Doom9) or VLC Media Player -- the DivX Player also allows you to toggle between streams.

To test compatibility with different media players, I encoded a short WC4 DVD sample with 2 audio streams [384kbps CBR 5.1 AC3 & 192kbps CBR Stereo LAME (MP3)]. To download it, right-click the link below:



WC4 DVD - Excalibur Encounter in Peleus (15.3MB)

Originally Posted by AD

Is there a demand for subtitles? I could only do them in english and french, but I imagine that it would take a long time to work out (unless someone already has a text document of the dialogue) If there's demand I suppose eventualy I could forward an english transcript to someone to translate.

Well, I'm not sure about the demand -- perhaps someone at the CIC has some stats on the number of registered users from French/German/Spanish/etc regions and a better feel on the language demand/demographics (I have always been under the impression that WC has a large German following, amongst many other demographics for example). While the language of conversation on the CIC Forums is English, I know that there are quite a few member's that regularly post whose first language is not English and I would think that they and other foreign language fans would appreciate sub-titles in their own first language.

My WC4 DVD does not contain sub-titles, although there may be other localised versions that do, so you would probably need to generate your own once the final cut is complete. I would think that the programme that you eventually use to author the MPEG2 DVD version should allow you to add sub-titles (although they in turn may need to be compiled with a different utility). When encoding the MPEG4 version, you could use VirtualDubMod to add a number of sub-title languages if necessary, (a number of sub-title compilers are available on the Doom9 download section) although I have never tried this myself.

Originally Posted by AD

Plus, if anyone is interested I may look into recording my thoughts on the story, character, wc in general, and of course the whole process of editing it all into this project and some of the decisions I made in the process and having it as an optional commentary or some such, as a bonus.

That would be great and widely appreciated I'm sure, but like the sub-titles, it's one of those tasks that doesn't really need to be done until the rest of the project is finished, but if you can fit them in at the end, it's a bonus.

Originally Posted by AD

Man I have so much work to do, and my project just keeps getting bigger.

Yeah, I know how that feels! All I can say is don't let it take priority over other work/committments/real life and don't let it become all-consuming. Just take it as it comes and try not to let the whole thing become a chore.

Thanks for the update on the gameplay extraction process -- you should be an expert on the in's and out's of each WC4 mission after having to replay each one so many times Lastly, I've hosted a 9.18MB video file called wc4test.avi which I seem to recall getting from the CIC 6-12 months back, although I've tried to search through the CIC's archive and file sections and can't seem to find any references or credits. It's a short compilation of scenes, quite nicely edited together from the WC4 DVD and you may find it useful, that is if you are not the mystery author of the video

Anyway, keep up the great work!

Cheers,


BrynS

P.S. Link to Doom9.net - The Definitive DVD Backup Resource

[Ghibli]

Originally Posted by BrynS

The other option and the one I would recommend, would be to use and suggest a media player like Media Player Classic (available at Doom9) or VLC Media Player -- the DivX Player also allows you to toggle between streams.

To test compatibility with different media players, I encoded a short WC4 DVD sample with 2 audio streams [384kbps CBR 5.1 AC3 & 192kbps CBR Stereo LAME (MP3)].

The sample works fine with xine 1.0.

[AD]

four down... more than four to go.

[TomGaines]

A while back I personally had a small movie project myself, but without flight scenes. But at that time, I had no means to burn a DVD, so I made a VCD. Now, driven by reading about AD's project, the last few days I did go back and made a DVD version of my project (thank god I kept my documentation of my ordering of the movie clips). I even tried to include a second audio track (extracted from the German CD version). It looks promising. I learned a lot about authoring a DVD the last week

After so much work I had the last week with this project, it would be silly not to fix a small error in the movie files.
The DVD version is missing sound in a short clip (SC_2470C.vob) and I want to reintegrate the sound in my Movie-DVD.

As I only have the DVD version and the German CD Version, I have no source for the English soundtrack of this short clip. So if somebody has the English CD Version and would be so kind to help me out, I would appreciate it.
You would only have to extract the first movie clip of the fifth disc with HCl's Movie Player, extract from it the audio (e.g. with VirtualDub) and send it to me. I then extract the missing few seconds and will convert it to DVD compliant audio data. Just send me a PM, if someday is willing to help me out. Thanks.

[AD]

Originally Posted by TomGaines

(thank god I kept my documentation of my ordering of the movie clips). I even tried to include a second audio track (extracted from the German CD version). It looks promising.

So your basicaly sticking all the video clips in a specified path onto a DVD? or are you attempting anything beyond that? I think I made it clear earlier in the thread why I was going for something different. Granted there are those who may be unble to play the game (I wouldn't know why, unless they dont have 1/ a computer/ 2 a copy of the game). Otherwise while watching the vids in order may be a good personal project which will teach you alot about the game, everyone elses time would be better spent just playing the game .


Let me know how it goes using two audio tracks on a DVD. I wouldn't mind your help if you get it to work... Speaking of which , even though I don't understand german, do you have all the audio in german extracted scene specific? While I'm only working in english for the downloadeable version, i might be able to use something like that for a dvd version of my project. (you would be credited for any work you did of course)

[TomGaines]

My goal is to make a watchable movie for a normal DVD Player. Something like you do, but without the extra work you do. I played the game to death ten years ago. Now I only want to watch the movie on TV with DD 5.1 sound. It would have been nice to integrate some of the inflight communication, but I don't have the time and patience for it.

I'm making four different movies, so every video clip is used.
(1) Defect at earlier point, Circe War, and always positive answers
(2) Defect at earlier point, Circe War, and always negative answers
(3) Defect later, Weapon's raid, and always positive answers
(4) Defect later, Weapon's raid, and always positive answers

The few scenes (mainly the ejection pod pickups and such) that are left will be on the DVD as deleted scenes.

I first tried it a nice, but complicated way. I put all the videos in one file and made a chapter point for every scene and created a menu to select a version. Then the movie would play after a certain tracklist (created by DVD-lab PRO). The problem was, the scene changes were to hard to pin-point and the beginning of a scene would always contain a few frames of a different scene.

Now I'm putting the four versions on four discs with chapter selection.

As for the German soundtrack:
I extracted every audio bite scene specific, converted it to a 48kHz 192kbit mpa-file and named it similar to the DVD files (e.g. 0010A.mpa, 0010AB). It took me two whole days.
I'm using DVD-lab Pro for authoring the DVD. It's really easy to use and you can create multiple audio and subtitle tracks.
I'm happy to answer all questions you might have. I can the save the audio files for a while if you decide to work with them in the future.


Thanks again to BrynS for providing me with the missing sound bite!

[TomGaines]

I finished my small Wing Commander IV project. I had unreconstructable problems regarding the German audio track. At my first try it worked quite well but there were about 20 seconds where the sound was missing. So I redid it, but every time I tried anew, the german audio track was a few seconds short and so the audio became asynchronous. After countless tries with different tools, I got a working multi-audio movie of my first version of WC4. But as I tried the same method on my other versions, the German audio came again short. So I scrapped the German audio for the other three versions and did them without German soundtrack.

My next little project: Wing Commander 3
Of course the problem is the crappy video source material of the CD version. But after a first test, I was positively surprised. Of course the result is still far from DVD quality but it is surprisingly watchable. I would even go so far to say, it even looks slightly better than in-game.

The process is quite cumbersome:
1) extract all movies from CD with trax.exe
2) scenes with multiple versions need to be split with splitmve.exe and merged again into different files with mergemve.exe
3) resulting mve files ripped to avi with HCl's movie viewer
4) direct stream copy with virtualdub to correct running time
5) encode avi to DVD compliant MPEG2 with added black bars to keep aspect ratio (e.g. with TMPGEnc)
6) edit files together in correct order with VideoReDo
7) compile DVD with DVDlab Pro

[trax.exe, splitmve.exe and mergemve.exe are from wc3movie.zip taken from this website]
At this point I would like to thank Lars Hederer for his utilities from wc3movie.zip and Mario "HCl" Brito for his movie viewer. Without their wonderful utilities this all wouldn't be possible.

[BrynS]

Thanks for the update TomGaines!

If it's not too much trouble, would it be possible for you to provide a 30-60 second XviD or DivX sample from your WC4 project that includes at least one transition between two different scenes -- I'm interested to see the final product! If you need somewhere to host the sample, let me know.

Regarding the WC3 project, I would also echo your praise for Lars Hederer's (is this the same person known as Gevatter Lars on these forums?) utilities -- a good couple of years back, when I was still using the DOS command prompt more often than Windows Explorer, I can recall using Lars' utilities to create segments of merged WC3 movies according to the order I had specified in a text file. At the time, I was hoping to compile one large mve containing all the relevant video sequences, but was limited by only having an 850MB hard drive -- how times have changed! On my main pc, I now have ~280GB's and plan to expand to ~500GB in the next few months. When I first played WC3, I only had a 120MB hard drive!

I assume that your are using Lars' utilities to essentially "edit" the wc3 files into the correct order so that no editing will be required after ripping to avi via HCL's movie viewer, although as you say, it will be rather cumbersome. Perhaps you could just use HCL's viewer, rip all relevant files to avi, then edit/cut in VirtualDub, compressing the video only using a lossless codec like Huffyuv and then encode/compile to MPEG2?

Cheers,


BrynS

[AD]

I guess I should chime in for a bit of an update of my own. I'm still making progress although it looks like I'm in for a very hectic april. So, while I intend to keep at it, progress might be a bit slower (although I didn't work on it much last week (needed a short break).

So far I have completed gameplay videos up to the point of the Kilrathi encounter (meleks ships) In the final product I will not be representing every mission in the game as that would be too repetitive for a movie. However I hope you will all be pleased with the final outcome. I am trying to make sure that any bit of gameplay neccessary to make the story flow coherently is included. The sample clip is still typical of thses segments (although I am mostly using wc4 music with a bit of 3 and prophecy mixed in where it doesnt sound obtrusive. This is actually not to bad considering its all Oldziey) I think that I have improved my technique and have been able to put in a few more interesting shots and perspectives.

I keep strugling with my self to find the balance between pickyness and getting it done. I don't want to rush, but it can be a tedious process having to sort through all the shots and clips and trying to fit the gamplay into a coherent segment that is neither too brief nor too long. I might be able to work something out if you guys would rather have the first portion completed (relatively soon) as opposed to waiting for the whole thing. Personally I think it improves the process if I dont do much actual production (except to see if theres something missing) untill I have all the pieces I need.

Note to myself: Make clip using Blairs summons to the briefing room. Overlay audio on top of hallway stroll and put final vid before eisens defection mission.

[BrynS]

Thanks for your update, AD!

The music element of your project should be interesting -- I've always enjoyed Oldziey's orchestrations -- hopefully future Wing Commander games will be able to hire him, although he seems to be moving on up to movie orchestration.

As far as releasing the first portion in the near future and then the remainder in portions as you complete it or waiting until the entire project is completed, I for one am easy either way, although if the latter is better suited to your work regime then I would recommend forging ahead with that option, as I don't mind waiting as long as it takes if you are satisfied with the end result. I can appreciate the ongoing dilemma you describe regarding keeping a balance. Waiting until you have all the relevant scenes should also give you more flexibility in trying to see which scenes work better/flow or need to be cut/trimmed, etc.

Cheers,


BrynS

[TomGaines]

Originally Posted by BrynS

If it's not too much trouble, would it be possible for you to provide a 30-60 second XviD or DivX sample from your WC4 project that includes at least one transition between two different scenes -- I'm interested to see the final product!

I didn't put any special transitions between scenes, because I didn't want to reencode the existing mpeg2 files. I thought it looked just fine without them.
But I found a new tool today (MPEG Video Wizard), which can edit mpeg2 files with ac3 sound and only needs to reencode the frames with the transitions. I think I will redo at least one version of my WC4 project with transitions.
Here is a small clip (divx-encoded) with a transition I tried today.

Originally Posted by BrynS

Regarding the WC3 project, [...]
I assume that your are using Lars' utilities to essentially "edit" the wc3 files into the correct order so that no editing will be required after ripping to avi via HCL's movie viewer, although as you say, it will be rather cumbersome.

I used Lars' utilities to split every mve file. The result are many single mve files (every change in camera angle is a new mve file). Then I merged them again so that every segment is one file (very much like the vob-files on the WC4 DVD).
For example:
140_1 Vagabond, if released early
140_2 Vagabond, if released later by Eisen
140_3 Vagabond cont.
140_4 Vagabond +
140_5 Vagabond -

Then I encoded these files with HCl's viewer to avi, which I then encoded in mpeg2. Now these videofiles can get the same treatment as the wc4 files regarding editing.


One fun thing I did with the WC4 DVD is to put an easteregg on it. At the time that WC4 was released, a german PC game magazin dubbed a short clip from wc4 in a funny way. I took the audio from this almost ten year old avi-file and put it together with the videostream of the scene from the DVD version.
If anyone is interested in this small clip, I put it up as divx here. I created englisch subtitles for the non-german speaking community.