Sleep is for wimps!!
The broadcast isnt BBCs, though i noticed in first practice they kinda sounded like they were taking credit for it, but they were talking about the finished product rather than the track pictures, those will be an aussie outfit incl director, which is why the Aus GP always finds Webber, and likewise every other venue that has a homer racing.
You can share mine, now i just need someone to do the same for me with yankiedoodle tv shows, cos i watch more dl'd shows then broadcast.
Heres my moan about everything...
Still dispise the new cars, to look at them it looks like the engineers are incompetent, theres nothing aesthetically pleasing about them, and the front/rear wing ratio makes things look even worse.
Im not a fan of change for changes sake, fortunately a lot f the changes do seem to make sense, but i dont like the sudden nature of how its been done, especially with the strict lack of testing to go with it. Its basically Scrapheap Challenge on an international level. They've had a couple of months to make something, they've no idea how it'll perform, and basically since Feb all they've been able to do is make some minor changes and slap some paint on there.
Everything they've ever achieved in the past is pretty much worthless today. In 2-3 seasons time, everything will be back to normal, if not midway through this season, it just seems to be a lucky dip, see who guessed the best design. Without proper testing, whether its track or wind tunnel, luck is a factor, maybe only small, but more than it should be IMO.
There seems to be little merit, previous seasons have seen teams make improvements and minor changes, sometimes with success, sometimes not, but the whole wipe the slate clean... to me it says everything you've worked hard to acheive in the past is now worth nothing.
I just hope its all worth it when the lights go out and the racing starts.
oh, and surely im not the only one who (yet again!) thinks the tyre markings are near enough useless? The TV doesnt pick it up unless its a close side-shot, the fact that its a skinny line doesnt help. It needs to be a solid band of colour, and possibly a more vibrant green.
Sometimes you can see it clear as day, but if you watch a few cars and just try to look for who's on what tyre (without looking on the F1 timing app
, took me a while to figure out what the red/white numbers meant). Was the same in Fuji when they had the green stripe, the glossy surface and lighting just made it hard to tell if it was there or not.
Last edited by PaulC2K, .
Uploaded a couple of the videos yesterday, i've had some fairly serious health issues crop up which turned out to be misleading test results to my relief a few hours ago, so havent been on top of a few things as much as i'd hoped to.
http://www.lfsproseries.net/downloads/video.php
For the file formats, i went with...
Streamed media: FLV, 700k/s, 64k/s audio, 15fps (640x426, due to layout width limitations)
Downloadable media: H264/MP4, Target 1Mb, Max 2Mb, 96/32khz audio, 24fps at 740x480.
Hope that helps someone in the future.
I've seen VLC will play the mp4, and then oddly crash the app, not sure if thats my VLC playing up, my vid file, or what.
The FLV's im wondering if to go with lower resolution, purely because its 1/4 smaller than the download and doesnt come close to the quality, the web version is better though because i know people will at least hit play and give it a try, whether they'd download a 50mb vid without knowing what to expect... dunno.
Anyway, those are my 3 videos, my first steps into video editing since first giving it a whirl less than 2 months ago.
http://www.lfsproseries.net/downloads/video.php
For the file formats, i went with...
Streamed media: FLV, 700k/s, 64k/s audio, 15fps (640x426, due to layout width limitations)
Downloadable media: H264/MP4, Target 1Mb, Max 2Mb, 96/32khz audio, 24fps at 740x480.
Hope that helps someone in the future.
I've seen VLC will play the mp4, and then oddly crash the app, not sure if thats my VLC playing up, my vid file, or what.
The FLV's im wondering if to go with lower resolution, purely because its 1/4 smaller than the download and doesnt come close to the quality, the web version is better though because i know people will at least hit play and give it a try, whether they'd download a 50mb vid without knowing what to expect... dunno.
Anyway, those are my 3 videos, my first steps into video editing since first giving it a whirl less than 2 months ago.
surely the 'days left to next patch' wouldnt be a textbox, it'd be hard coded in as ∞³, right?
cos all those could be done tomorrow, but couldnt be released until ∞³ due to the laws of scavier, which state while something will be done for date x, you'll really only get it on date ∞³.
sounds like rubbish someones just made up to attempt to be funny, but tis true, and a Thursday iirc.
oh, and as not to look like its going OT...
Im hoping to post a couple of vids tomorrow, after being ill over Fri-Mon/Tues and not getting much done
cos all those could be done tomorrow, but couldnt be released until ∞³ due to the laws of scavier, which state while something will be done for date x, you'll really only get it on date ∞³.
sounds like rubbish someones just made up to attempt to be funny, but tis true, and a Thursday iirc.
oh, and as not to look like its going OT...
Im hoping to post a couple of vids tomorrow, after being ill over Fri-Mon/Tues and not getting much done
So... after 48 posts, and being asked a dozen times within that, and being given the answer to many a question but the one being asked, we have an answer folks!
This is the list of things that R2P offers, which most dont, but a fair few have for a few years now.
1) Being able to watch yourself racing while your racing.
2) Possibly being able to read your name in a web mag.
Thats what all the fuss was about in you already play LFS and are wondering if theres anything new and intresting, which warrants the fuss and BS being poured in this thread.
But as PMD said, make sure you pay the $170USD, cos otherwise you wont get a place anyway and all your practicing will be worthless.
Now, who do i pay???
hmmm,
1) I used the term 'Fanboy' to describe someone who's only interest is in LFS, not a multitude of games with favouritism being based on which is the most recent.
2) I used the term to describe myself, so i wasnt really using it to offend myself or imply something unkind, as i'd be insulting myself (im happy to do that but wasnt in this case :razz.
If R2P, in terms of what it offers the existing LFS playing community, offers nothing but what we have already, then thats fine. But it does kinda make all the R2P love-in between the R2P trolls who've come here simply to spam us with their self importance, rather needless.
I cant speak for others, but im not particularly impressed by things that make no difference to me, short or long term, and taking part in a series which seems to have its main selling points as being that they run leagues for a dozen other sims, it just doesnt really impress me. It doesnt make it bad, but it doesnt warrent a song and a dance about it.
Im also just sitting down and going through that old thread, its just been recommended to me, a back-history of R2P and its organiser, apparently it makes interesting reading.
1) I used the term 'Fanboy' to describe someone who's only interest is in LFS, not a multitude of games with favouritism being based on which is the most recent.
2) I used the term to describe myself, so i wasnt really using it to offend myself or imply something unkind, as i'd be insulting myself (im happy to do that but wasnt in this case :razz
.If R2P, in terms of what it offers the existing LFS playing community, offers nothing but what we have already, then thats fine. But it does kinda make all the R2P love-in between the R2P trolls who've come here simply to spam us with their self importance, rather needless.
I cant speak for others, but im not particularly impressed by things that make no difference to me, short or long term, and taking part in a series which seems to have its main selling points as being that they run leagues for a dozen other sims, it just doesnt really impress me. It doesnt make it bad, but it doesnt warrent a song and a dance about it.
Im also just sitting down and going through that old thread, its just been recommended to me, a back-history of R2P and its organiser, apparently it makes interesting reading.
My problem is, people so arrogant that they assume people know the answers already, and rather than answer the fecking questions instead decide to repeat crap and resort to answers that make sod all difference to anyone already here.
I mean, I asked for a straight up, no BS reason why this news was supposedly good. All we'd got was talk of stuff that LFS has done for years without any song n dance, then a speach of how LFS will be better now they're here.
No bloody explanation as to how thats actually the case.
Im not saying LFS cant be better by having more of the same either, but if whats being offered is no different, then thats the answer. If LFS is better because of something they bring which adds to some aspect then they've yet to say what it is. They've *possibly* hinted at it, but they sure as hell havent said something that makes me understand why it deserves any fuss so far.
From what i can gather, the loyal 'LFS Fanboy' folks dont gain anything really, its the people who'll float from one game to another week to week who now can include LFS in their long list of games they barely play. As a 'LFS Fanboy' why should i be excited other sims gamers might play LFS a couple of hours a week, before going back to 3-4 other games, hardly going to change LFS is it.
Maybe some licenses will be sold, thats great for the Devs. Though if these people are really sim racers, is someone going to tell me they've never heard of LFS and only through R2P will they then try the demo and buy it? Im saying the chances are slim, at best.
What i want to know is, what EXACTLY does R2P offer someone like me and a lot of the LFS community, who couldnt give a damn about other sims, how other non-LFSers might buy LFS, or anything that doesnt really impact upon them... what it offers us thats makes it worth taking any notice in this R2P's existance as it stands.
I understand, maybe asking twice wasnt enough? Maybe others not seeing what was so special before me wasnt a clue either?
But that still doesnt say why it actually matters.
I officially sanction LFS... so? What is this NASA going to do that makes it a better sim, makes the community better, makes events better, anything? Thats what im asking ffs.
I've asked twice already, what R2P are going to bring to LFS thats such good news, and all you've done is defend them and answered with nothing that doesnt exist in the community already.
If the FIA came into LFS, and all they were going to do was offer paying member preferencial treatment, and the assurance of someone watching the races they've organised, then they'd get the same response from me. So fecking what!?
Now, if the FIA said they'd get LFS on tv, magazines, and there was money to be won (for free entry) all paid for by their sponsors and stuff, then thats great, its bringing something new to LFS which gives its community something, as well as expanding the audience to new markets.
Some group called R2P who say they'll do what everyone else do, and have someone backing them who so far we havent been told why that makes a jot of difference to anyone who'd be involved in an R2P event, then i fail to see why we need a 'LFS has arrived now we are here' post which makes no attempt to say how they're going to make things better for people already in this community, and why we should be excited.
Now, ive never heard of R2P, and having looked at their site for a few minutes, its shockingly average and doesnt give the impression of any importance, they've had 1 person come on here telling us its a great day now they're here, then it turns out they want money to show you favouritism, what you've said about them says they offer nothing to the LFS community that isnt already done in other leagues, and then low and behold some official R2P bod comes on with an oscar acceptance speach basking in the limelight that all is not lost now R2P is here, welcome to the future of sim racing.... type post.
WTF else am i supposed to expect? Then, rather than explain why this is a good thing for the LFS community thats already here, im just given reasons why its good for LFS because some people who play other sims might like LFS now. Well thats great for them, but asside from getting more flakey racers which we have plenty of, who play a different game each day of the week, that doesnt offer anything to someone who's already aware of LFS.
Its also worth pointing out, simply through posts on this thread, you've had FIVE people say it looks interesting.
TWO of those are R2P trolls, ONE was an R2P official telling us that we're better off for them being here, but oddly not a reason why.
Im not even sure where to place 'Jay' cos he's sounding either he's another troll or he knows more about R2P than anyone has bothered to say in this 'R2P are here, yey' thread, which shows only people who know WTF any of this means can see maybe its a good idea, the rest DONT HAVE A CLUE COS YOUR NOT SAYING ANYTHING HELPFUL!
Shall we count the number of people who've said something negative or questioning exactly whats the fuss?? Its significantly higher, because nobody know wtf'ing fuss is about cos your too busy telling us how its great for non-LFS's and now how a real racing assoc is big news, but not what impact that has for anyone.
If R2P is the best org the racing sim world has to offer, then the racing sim world is dead! The people trying to impose its self importance are too busy trying to sound important than bother to explain what makes them special, or theres nothing special to explain, and nobody is any the wiser for this fantastic news.
So far, we've been told nothing about how its better for people already in LFS, what any of it matters. Maybe having NASA means lfs drivers could get a RL drive, but your not saying anything about why we should give a hoot that they have some probably worthless seal of approval (in terms of what it brings). Unless you tell us why, were not going to come to the conclusion you guys seem to expect us to.
If you want people to understand why R2P is good, make a bloody effort to say why, dont make a stupid 'great news' OP, and whine when people are critical about what they see, then have some R2P suit waltz in spout more unhelpful nonsense about how wonderful they are, and make sod all effort to say why! And dont bloody moan when >1/3 of the people who've commented come to the same conclusion i have, while you make no effort to answer the real questions and explain why your so wonderful and why we should care less about this.
If you dont care if we've no idea, why post this at all
If you do care, STFU with the BS and this impression that R2P is so wonderful everyone should already know, and start fcking telling people so maybe they'll understand. Is it really that hard to understand??
Well done for conveniently skipping past the things i highlighted a second time, and instead repeating what makes R2P ok for other sims, but doesnt give the LFS community nothing new at all.
Its almost like you cant think of a reason (an unbias one!) why people would consider R2P events over any of the many leagues/events currently running who dont want to profit from it.
When R2P offer something this community hasnt been offering for a good 5 years, let me know, until then save the 'have no fear, R2P is here' type posts cos otherwise its pretty pathetic unless theres something that is actually special about you.
So congrats, now we can pay for the same services we've had for free for years, its just what the community needed, thank you R2P thats great news!
Its almost like you cant think of a reason (an unbias one!) why people would consider R2P events over any of the many leagues/events currently running who dont want to profit from it.
When R2P offer something this community hasnt been offering for a good 5 years, let me know, until then save the 'have no fear, R2P is here' type posts cos otherwise its pretty pathetic unless theres something that is actually special about you.
So congrats, now we can pay for the same services we've had for free for years, its just what the community needed, thank you R2P thats great news!
1) I never said it was a bad thing, you presumed that wrongly. We want to know whats special about this that deserves all the BS that its taken THREE people to come here and spread the wonderment that is R2P... but have conveniently skipped out whats so special about it that we should have reason to get excited.... still have really, odd
2) I asked you to highlight what was so special about it, because you'd said nowt worthwhile, the R2P troll gave an oscar acceptance speech which conveniently mentions nothing we gain as a community for it being there, and this 2nd troll Phillips who does 1-2 line posts about R2P isnt here for any other reason than to spread more R2P crap, he's not here to add to the community, just to spam in it.
Hardly fills you with confidence when 2 of the 3 people who seems to be harping on about it only seem to be here to spam the community, while the 3rd seems happy to defend and try and push something that offers this community nothing (the subscription) all the while trying to suggest he's not involved, but quite clearly 'not on the payroll' was as close to 'no association' you could get without lying.
4) Admined servers isnt anything special, its kinda expected in general.
5) Being associated with other sims is nice enough, but i doubt many of them will suddenly decide to start playing LFS simply because R2P has started organising a couple of races there. I mean, LFS isnt some oscure little game nobody has heard of in the sim racing genre, and as thats the area R2P targets its hardly giving LFS a new audience.
6) People coming along saying 'we want your money to do something you can already get done for free, just as well, by people just as experienced, but have a history you know of and it means something' doesnt go down well in the LFS community, and R2P wanting money for something the LFS community has managed to do for over 5 years out of community generosity, rather than profit they can make off the back of people, is why you'd get a "hostile" reception.... That and the person protesting their impartiality while deepthroating R2P come up with pathetic 'which is better' scenarios where iR actually looks the better option to waste money on.
It makes little difference if theres a free option, R2P is there for its own profit, not for the good of the sim racing world, and in LFS thats something which is frowned upon unless theres a bloody good reason for it... and R2P doesnt have anything like a half-decent reason to warrant $5 a year from the LFS community.
So basically, to sumerise why we should get excited:
R2P is going to spread the word to the sim racing to the people so interested in sim racing but oddly enough who havent heard of LFS in the last 6 years its been around. Its going to have adminned events, and its going to have drivers in cars, on tracks. If you pay them a stupid amount of money, they'll show you some favoritism!! YEY.
I think a few people are kinda oversighting on the subscription side of things, it not a fixed requirement, and the fact that it doesnt offer the LFS community anything new doesnt mean its evil or such, it just means theres zero point to any member of the LFS community buying a license if thats all they play.
No, there isnt anything special the subscription offers, which is why nobody in their right mind will buy one, but maybe for the other sims its value for money, so thats why its there.
Whether 'R2P' offers ANYTHING which should make anyone in the community take notice, like its a wonder we ever lasted this long without them... I think we can all figure out for ourselves. Im sure its not a load of crap, but i fail to see something that makes it stand out from the vast number of existing FREE community projects.
X-Ter:
Considering you started this thread, and have lept to the defence of R2P from everyones comments, claim its fantastic news for LFS, all the while protesting not to be 'on the payroll' (extremely bias obviously, just not paid to be is my guess) perhaps you can cut through the BS that yourself and your other 2 newly registered R2P off-springs have come up with, and actually tell us why this is "Great news".
i dont see why people should be BS'd like they're morons by trolls who've come here to give some sort of welcome to the R2P era type spiel and hide the fact that they've got nothing new to offer with this manner of self-importance within the sim world.
If there's something special/worthwhile about R2P in this community that means we should take notice then say it, but if you come here making posts with some illusions of grandeur to announce nothing special, your going to get people asking questions and highlighting how it does look like your money grabbing trollops hoping to cash in on another community (only a few years late mind you).
As for arguing an R2P subscription makes more sense for us than buying into iRacing for a year, are we supposed to just ignore the obvious fact that your comparing a subscription that offers this community nothing against something that gives us a years free racing and allows the purchase of optional content.
iRacing :: years access to new sim & some content
R2P :: nothing unless you play other sims you've already paid for once.
say what you like about iRacings history, but they'd offer most of the LFS community something they'd be interested in. R2P offers us first dibs on R2P events... yay?.
No, there isnt anything special the subscription offers, which is why nobody in their right mind will buy one, but maybe for the other sims its value for money, so thats why its there.
Whether 'R2P' offers ANYTHING which should make anyone in the community take notice, like its a wonder we ever lasted this long without them... I think we can all figure out for ourselves. Im sure its not a load of crap, but i fail to see something that makes it stand out from the vast number of existing FREE community projects.
X-Ter:
Considering you started this thread, and have lept to the defence of R2P from everyones comments, claim its fantastic news for LFS, all the while protesting not to be 'on the payroll' (extremely bias obviously, just not paid to be is my guess) perhaps you can cut through the BS that yourself and your other 2 newly registered R2P off-springs have come up with, and actually tell us why this is "Great news".
i dont see why people should be BS'd like they're morons by trolls who've come here to give some sort of welcome to the R2P era type spiel and hide the fact that they've got nothing new to offer with this manner of self-importance within the sim world.
If there's something special/worthwhile about R2P in this community that means we should take notice then say it, but if you come here making posts with some illusions of grandeur to announce nothing special, your going to get people asking questions and highlighting how it does look like your money grabbing trollops hoping to cash in on another community (only a few years late mind you).
As for arguing an R2P subscription makes more sense for us than buying into iRacing for a year, are we supposed to just ignore the obvious fact that your comparing a subscription that offers this community nothing against something that gives us a years free racing and allows the purchase of optional content.
iRacing :: years access to new sim & some content
R2P :: nothing unless you play other sims you've already paid for once.
say what you like about iRacings history, but they'd offer most of the LFS community something they'd be interested in. R2P offers us first dibs on R2P events... yay?.
No, *everything* isnt wrong, lfs has good points and bad points, and the speed in which we see progress is definately planted firmly in the bad column.
If you'd been part of this community for more than a couple of months you'd know its not a doomlord view, its the reality.
The people who've been here since before say 2005, those who've not just recently appeared and everything is still rosey and new, plenty of them rarely play the game and are disappointed at the lack of progress. They're still here because they love the game and the community established around it, and like me they're desperate to find a reason to get back into playing it, because unfortunately we've had the pleasure/misfortune of playing the majority of the game for 5 years now, the Demo got old and S1 saved the day, S1 got old and eventually S2 alpha came along, but with each version, the same boredom exists of the old content, you've kinda grown sick of the sight of driving round the same combos and need a fresh challenge.
The progress, or lack of it, is slowly killing the community, or at least the parts of it which matter (ie those who are loyal to LFS, rather than flakey folk), it can be replaced by people who are here for a few months until Codemasters/EA release another bland & canned effect riddled game, but the people who've been here for a decent number of years are getting smaller by the day, and its not because LFS is cr*p but because nothing really changes.
I doubt something better than LFS will come along anytime soon, but in the last couple of years i've barely raced in LFS, yet theres barely a day that goes by where i dont spend 4-12hrs working on something LFS related. Thats the sad part, ive not lost interest in LFS, ive just lost interest in driving in it, the community is all that keeps it going between these *meaningful* updates which happen once a year.
So if your going to mock people for being disappointed at the slow progress, at least have the decency to have some experience of it first.
I've given up caring, was looking forward to it because the slower cars are more forgiving and kinder to my lack of ability
[edit]I dont care largely due to the fact that it wont make LFS any better, sadly it needs more than a car, however good it may be[/edit]
LFS first got its reputation as being one of those rare games, done the way all games should be done, from the heart, done right, and not rushed out to meet a deadline some unskilled publisher suit forces upon you.
People saw it as being refreshing, the developers almost working with the community, updates of what's been going on lately and talk of things to look forward to.
Today it feels more like a deadend game going nowhere fast, and we're always left looking forward to things, rather than actually getting anything.
LFS just isnt what it used to be, and thats the truely disappointing thing. The community used to be full of optimism and anticipation for the direction it was heading, now its full of moaning, doom & pessemism... like this post.
Its a sad thing really, LFS had so much promise and yet its failing to keep up the momentum it had in the early years. Maybe in the early says it was easier to seem like things were moving faster because in a harsh & blunt way, they were 'half-arsed' in comparison to the lengths they go to today. Something they did well could take 2 weeks, but done accurately takes 2 months, and thats why everything feels like its happening at a snails pace compared to a few (5!) years ago.
Few people know what the hold-up is with the VWS, but i can only imagine it was a very important & significant oversight, or something of that matter. Its not going to be something meaningless because i cant imagine the dev's want a whiney community.
As for 'they said Dec, its now March'... if you asked the devs what the weather will be like in the Sahara tomorrow, they'll say hot, and it'll undoubtably start snowing... anyone who's been here long enough knows thats how things roll in LFS. If something can go wrong - it will, and If something cant go wrong - it still will.
After redoing all the footage for the first race, and then putting half of it into the scene and checking, its just as jaggy as before.
Even uncompressed AVI (at 1gb/min) it was the same.
Turns out, after all that faffing, theres an option hiding away in Premiere, each sequence/scene file has its own bunch of settings, including 'maximum render quality' and 'maximum bit depth'.
Max bit depth is an option that sometimes is available when going to the final encode area (not there for a few though, incl h264) but the option of doing a half-decent version, or a proper version isnt there. It makes no sense having it that way around, cos i can understand if you wanna quick look to size it up, rather than waiting a little longer for a perfect version, but its hardly in the ideal place to tinker with.
So theres a few more hours wasted
:banghead:
:banghead:
Also, appologies for turning this thread into a 'lets hear paul vent about video editing' thread
well, the vid is an early start on a season review of LFSPS, figured seeing as its all new to me i'd start playing before the first race began, get a feel for it etc.
Now i have 2 rounds of action to pick the meat off the bones, and its quite tricky finding a nice balance, but i do feel that what i have so far is a good account of 2hrs racing (in 4m20sec) without it having flat spots in there.
Im very happy with what I have, but im just concerned that after an intro, so far theres 4min of footage from 4 races (2 races per round, so roughly 1min per race) and theres 14 races to the season, so it suggests im going to be hitting 15min.
It leaves me 3 choices:
- leave it at 15min, ~1min per race.
- make each race shorter, 45sec per race is still 11min total, 30sec is 8min and your seeing nothing really.
- cut it into smaller chunks, either per round, or have a Rnd 1-4 & 5-7 in 2 vids.
The 3rd option seems to be the most likely though. My reservations on doing it round by round originally was that i feel obligated to give an actual account of the race. With a short (it was the plan!) video you can get away with half action, half arty-farty shots.
Its damn hard work trying to record racing without it being boring or really long, because so many of the best bits arent 5-10sec clips, they're side-by-side stuff lasting half a lap, and if you just show a fraction of it you feel like your short-changing the events, if you sit there and let it record you'd have a 10min video of each race and it be boring as hell.
At the moment, the only thing which i think is 'flat' in the video is the opening, which is obviously not ideal when you need to captivate the audience in 15sec else they're searching for happy-slapping vids or whatever the latest craze is. It feels more like the ending tbh, always has done, its too slow and lacking impact so maybe i'll swap that out and place it at the end.
oh, and dont get me started on how hard it'll be to find more music... never realised just how big a challenge that is
Now i have 2 rounds of action to pick the meat off the bones, and its quite tricky finding a nice balance, but i do feel that what i have so far is a good account of 2hrs racing (in 4m20sec) without it having flat spots in there.
Im very happy with what I have, but im just concerned that after an intro, so far theres 4min of footage from 4 races (2 races per round, so roughly 1min per race) and theres 14 races to the season, so it suggests im going to be hitting 15min.
It leaves me 3 choices:
- leave it at 15min, ~1min per race.
- make each race shorter, 45sec per race is still 11min total, 30sec is 8min and your seeing nothing really.
- cut it into smaller chunks, either per round, or have a Rnd 1-4 & 5-7 in 2 vids.
The 3rd option seems to be the most likely though. My reservations on doing it round by round originally was that i feel obligated to give an actual account of the race. With a short (it was the plan!) video you can get away with half action, half arty-farty shots.
Its damn hard work trying to record racing without it being boring or really long, because so many of the best bits arent 5-10sec clips, they're side-by-side stuff lasting half a lap, and if you just show a fraction of it you feel like your short-changing the events, if you sit there and let it record you'd have a 10min video of each race and it be boring as hell.
At the moment, the only thing which i think is 'flat' in the video is the opening, which is obviously not ideal when you need to captivate the audience in 15sec else they're searching for happy-slapping vids or whatever the latest craze is. It feels more like the ending tbh, always has done, its too slow and lacking impact so maybe i'll swap that out and place it at the end.
oh, and dont get me started on how hard it'll be to find more music... never realised just how big a challenge that is
Ive shied away from the .mpg formats purely because i dont have anything with which to compress it down after encoding, but i guess theres plenty of settings in there to tweak the quality/filesize, its just that something like VirtDub can hammer down an avi in about 0.5x vid length whereas Adobe Media Encoder takes about 3x vid length. The fact that it plays on a PS3 & 360 too i guess, is nice
Running mine through atm see how it looks at 3Mbps/4Mbps max.
[update]
bu**er
told it to re-do an old variation which is about 24hrs old.
106mb for 4:49 and i cant really nit-pick at the quality either.
[/update]
Are you planning to distribute the video, cos currently im struggling to keep within 10min (im about 1/3 in, and at 5:10 :razz and i know at this rate it'll be a 15min vid and yet larger than your average acquired film 
What i dont really want to do is make the downloadable version too large, i have no problem making it available and coping with the bw demands for it, i just dont know if people would bother downloading a 200mb vid.
Maybe im being pessimistic, but i get the feeling im about the only person who'd be bothered about it to the extent that they'd want a near flawless version, if you know what i mean.
Also, having just viewed the vid, im now wondering whether the decision to record at 960x600, resize it by 80% to fit into 720x480 (gives full height, and about 60px excess width). Main reason being there seems to be jaggies everywhere, where recording at the resolution i plan to display it at, would retain its silky smooth AA/AF goodness, while Premiere seems to just remove pixel rows which i guess on reflection is bl**dy obvious it'd do that
:dunce:
Giving it a whirl using 'Antialias' effect, but when i've used it before, it appears to have been the '1-touch uglify' setting mis-labeled, but it might save me a couple of hours if it looks okay in video, rather than still frames.... nope, if thats antialias, then someone needs their eyes testing!
Guess im going back to recapture, cut, replace, re-faff with everything, oh yey :banghead:
See, this is why you make a decision not to touch video editing, and STICK to it.
Running mine through atm see how it looks at 3Mbps/4Mbps max.
[update]
bu**er
told it to re-do an old variation which is about 24hrs old.106mb for 4:49 and i cant really nit-pick at the quality either.
[/update]
Are you planning to distribute the video, cos currently im struggling to keep within 10min (im about 1/3 in, and at 5:10 :razz
and i know at this rate it'll be a 15min vid and yet larger than your average acquired film What i dont really want to do is make the downloadable version too large, i have no problem making it available and coping with the bw demands for it, i just dont know if people would bother downloading a 200mb vid.
Maybe im being pessimistic, but i get the feeling im about the only person who'd be bothered about it to the extent that they'd want a near flawless version, if you know what i mean.
Also, having just viewed the vid, im now wondering whether the decision to record at 960x600, resize it by 80% to fit into 720x480 (gives full height, and about 60px excess width). Main reason being there seems to be jaggies everywhere, where recording at the resolution i plan to display it at, would retain its silky smooth AA/AF goodness, while Premiere seems to just remove pixel rows which i guess on reflection is bl**dy obvious it'd do that
:dunce:
Giving it a whirl using 'Antialias' effect, but when i've used it before, it appears to have been the '1-touch uglify' setting mis-labeled, but it might save me a couple of hours if it looks okay in video, rather than still frames.... nope, if thats antialias, then someone needs their eyes testing!
Guess im going back to recapture, cut, replace, re-faff with everything, oh yey :banghead:
See, this is why you make a decision not to touch video editing, and STICK to it.
Maybe you've already tried it, but have you considered resizing the lfs window to a resolution slightly larger than you plan to distribute the finished product?
ie 720x480 resize lfs to 960x600, that allows you to scale the captured footage down to 80% or leave it 100% which is pretty handy to have that option.
I'd imagine the difference between recording at 960x600 over something like 1280x960 could be quite a lot, and if the AA related improvements youve uncovered make a decent impact, you could get a steady 24fps at x1.0 speed.
I only started looking at video editing about 6wks ago, i've always avoided the temptation because as far as i was concerned i had more than enough things on my 'job' description at Mercury and wasnt lumping video maker onto that list
I've only just thought to look here for suggestions, and while i dont think there was anything there i hadnt come to the same conclusion on on my own, its certainly a good thread and a lot of does need saying (ie go easy on the effects etc).
My tip for the thread, based on my own experience though its possibly just something within Premiere being the snobbish application that it is...
Pixel Aspect Ratio
Its a little f**ker, and it can end up distorting the finished product so it looks a little odd.
On your monitor, you're seeing & recording things at a ratio of 1.0, so you have a 100x100px square, it appears 100x100. If your videos PAR ratio is 0.909 (NTSC) or 1.09 (PAL) then you'll get a 100x91px rectangle or 100x109px rectangle, its 10% narrower or taller than how it should be.
Always check for it in the settings when it asks you about the movie you want to make, likewise check when your outputting it to avi/flv.
Might not be a problem on many video editting packages, but it really frustraited me for the first couple of weeks, why something captured at 4:3 wasnt fitting perfectly into a 4:3 scene... for a while i would stretch the video out of proportion, ie 70% wide, 80% height, to get the image back into proportion.
i'll post my finished video in a couple of months once its completed
Out of interest, does anyone fancy divulging their findings in terms of video compression for the various formats? I've found that finding something your happy with is almost as time consuming as making the video in the first place. Its constant back n forth with tweaking the compression, encoding it, playing the file & checking the filesize, then back to tweaking the compression again...
It'd be handy if someone with a little more knowledge and experience behind them would be willing to give some good ballpark figures for what to aim for.
Whether thats by saying aim for 500/kbps or say 640x480 ~5mb/min of footage, 720x480 ~7mb/min etc
From my own findings, im finding compressing to flv far more rewarding compared to avi (divx/xvid @780/kbps).
Im getting 16mb/min @ 720x480 using default divx 'home theatre' setting
compared to 9mb/min @ 640x426 for flv which looks much cleaner (if i could use 720x480 i would, but it wouldnt fit its intended location).
I've no idea whats considered reasonable, so i think it'd be handy if some kind of ballpark figures were included in the OP to give makers a rough idea what to be aiming for, esp if they can be given the details of how to acheive the best compression while retaining a high quality.
Was that called Armed Assault S2 Alpha by any chance?
maybe we have a link, its all happening for a reason, it doesnt make sense in the slightest but in a couple of years time we'll get some half-arsed nonsense that explains wtf has been going on, where the updated in-car textures have gone, why the GTR balancing balances things even further in the FZRs favour, why the tracks have screwed up curbs which launch you 1% of the time, where the polar bears came from, how the island disappears and... hmm, maybe im getting wires crossed :rolleyes:
oh, and lol @ TVE
maybe we have a link, its all happening for a reason, it doesnt make sense in the slightest but in a couple of years time we'll get some half-arsed nonsense that explains wtf has been going on, where the updated in-car textures have gone, why the GTR balancing balances things even further in the FZRs favour, why the tracks have screwed up curbs which launch you 1% of the time, where the polar bears came from, how the island disappears and... hmm, maybe im getting wires crossed :rolleyes:
oh, and lol @ TVE
Was just going to ask, seeing as theres no pics with water in there, figured i'd go back and look and see and... oh noes its Feser One and its rather Pink looking UV red
The pic of the bottle doesnt look too bad, but it doesnt look clear (the plastic) so could easily be hiding the pinkness thats inside if they havent changed the formula to a red red, rather than hot pink.
At least the tygon hose doesnt stain, the cheaper stuff does, clouds up and looks really horrible after a while.
If you've swapped the water out yet, which im guessing you probably have because it took me a few weeks to do just that, let me know what you've tried to get a proper red water cos there doesnt appear to be anything out there
Theres a £30/ltr 'Blood Red' which apparently is quite thick like gravy sorta consisancy rather than water, and performance wise wasnt great either. I've gone to Feser orange though atm, looks like my rig is watercooled with irn bru 
Havent decided on the case though, easily the nicest on the market IMO, but pimped it looks horrible.... but together with the black im torn, the bits peeking through do look quite nice.
Did you not consider Danger Den for the block? Very nice peices, not the easiest to get hold of in the UK but well worth shopping with 2-3 stores to get what you want and buy items from whichever is cheapest.
Anyway... get some finished pics of it up for hecks sake, inc the monitors, got my dual arm wall mounted and tempted to go with 3 for racing and more desktop space to work on, but at the same time dont want to be stuck with 3x 19" old monitors (and i'd want to get a matching one, not something that doesnt fit) and 2x 22" 19x10 would be cheaper overall and far more pixels to look at.
Makes little difference if your lapping the CPU, dunno if thats the case here but once you've stress-tested it to make sure its a good un, you can kiss goodbye to the warranty if you lap it. I cant say ive ever had a CPU problem though, in ~16 years. HDD's on the other hand
me & Joe were talking about this yesterday, and ideally we were hoping that someone who'd previously released a couple of real world advert packs or whatnot would consider making a layer based template, an overlay which when used with a fairly sterile looking logo on a plain background, would give the require realism and aged look that would be the finishing touch.
Without those touches it looks plain and fake, but with some grime & wear on them people would be able to make their own adverts that look actually realistic compared to what they'd make on their own.
I dunno if the guys who've done a few of these make each pack from scratch, or if they have transparent layers which save them time. If they'd be willing to release these, that'd be fantastic, im sure there are a few people who make these ad packs upon request, and just wondered if anyone would consider sharing their tools with the community.
Without those touches it looks plain and fake, but with some grime & wear on them people would be able to make their own adverts that look actually realistic compared to what they'd make on their own.
I dunno if the guys who've done a few of these make each pack from scratch, or if they have transparent layers which save them time. If they'd be willing to release these, that'd be fantastic, im sure there are a few people who make these ad packs upon request, and just wondered if anyone would consider sharing their tools with the community.
Whats always bugged me is that while there are ultimately 54 track variations (incl rev, car park & variations of drag strips etc) what mostly bores me about them is that its only realisticly 6 venues and then a dozen variations of it. I like tracks having multiple routes, but Aston having 7/14 layouts... they're too similar IMO. Whereas Kyoto each is different, both feel like they could be real tracks, and because KY2 & KY3 only has about 5% overlap on track used it may as well be an entirely different location, because its not the same track with a couple less corners or some near identical variation of what you've done before.
I think if there were say 10 venues, half of those having a GP and a smaller 'club' layout (so ~15 layouts, even if reversing them wasnt possible!), it'd feel like there was more, even if theres actually less choice. Too many of LFS's corners are repeated in multiple combo's, if you think about Aston, theres corner sections which get used on 1/2 of its combos, and corners are where your challenge is (from a track perspective). You could never attempt a lap around say AS7, and yet if you've driven round the others, you already know AS7 because its just the rest the exact same corners in a slightly different order, so it feels just like every other AS layout.
As nice as a new car is, its never quite the same when your driving it on tracks you find stale. I think (someone with a better memory can correct me) we've had 3 new cars since S2 alpha (RAC, BF1, FBM) and a 4th on its way. In that 2 and a half years (since summer '05!), there has been no new tracks (unless you count removing a couple of Aston barriers and calling them tracks, even that was almost 20-22 months ago for AS6/7 & 13 months ago for SO6). Its a shame, i understand the cars have been free bonuses because they've been 1-off opportunities to include real cars in the game, but I really feel there needs to be somewhere new to learn, to enjoy.
Its funny really, just checked, and all the people saying this, joined by summer 2003, we've been here for the long haul, from the early demo days. It might be fine for those who've joined the party in the last 2 years, but when BL1 kinda exhausted itself early on (still XFG@BL1 will always be my fav combo) and then you kinda grow sick of the S1 tracks, when S2 comes along you avoid those old tracks, do the new ones until your tired of those again, and you create a vicious circle.
The same would apply if tomorrow a new track came along, we'd over play it, and quickly get bored. Sad but true.
I hate myself for stating the obvious, but god i wish we could at least pay for new content, i'd happily pay 1-3x license price for 6 month content updates. Its not the structure, i know and not being critical of the current and what its acheived, just wish it wasnt.
Its odd, we've paid £24/36, and probably got more like £240 worth of gaming from it, though the content sadly doesnt match that value.
meh, TVE, you had to spoil it by being a johnny come lately didnt you!
hmm, Fantasy/arty-farty FTW here!
Oh well, for arty-farty-ness, i guess spdo cos its got to be the most complex of them all. Dread to think how much time was spent lining up every bloody panel-overlapping line in there, its a nightmare at the best of times!
Oh well, for arty-farty-ness, i guess spdo cos its got to be the most complex of them all. Dread to think how much time was spent lining up every bloody panel-overlapping line in there, its a nightmare at the best of times!
Ive gone with MB's, not the most technical by a long shot, and even though the skin ive done for Merc falls into the catagory (I prefer the normal design), im not a huge fan of novelty skins. I've always prefered the look of something that i think would fit in perfectly on the race track in any RL series.
MB's is the only one IMO which i can say looks like something i'd see at the race track, no OTT arty-farty stuff on there, just a nice clean RACING design.
Plenty of really nice skins in there though, just too far into a 'fantasy' catagory for my liking, like Honda and their Earth Dream design, its nice, but not a racing design IMO (and i include my own in that, its a novelty design for a 1-off race).
Have to say though, I wouldnt have thought the spdo skins would have been accepted into the series as they are, seeing as they're at least 80% identical, and even the 20% difference is farly marginal (Deep red vs Deep Orange, thats what, 8-10% less red?) unless your looking at it side on from the right. I guess it has the GT2 plate on the GT2 car, but i guess i wouldnt have thought to submitted something i thought was that similar. Not suggesting it shouldnt be allowed, just wouldnt have thought to do so myself as i'd expect it to be considered too similar.
MB's is the only one IMO which i can say looks like something i'd see at the race track, no OTT arty-farty stuff on there, just a nice clean RACING design.
Plenty of really nice skins in there though, just too far into a 'fantasy' catagory for my liking, like Honda and their Earth Dream design, its nice, but not a racing design IMO (and i include my own in that, its a novelty design for a 1-off race).
Have to say though, I wouldnt have thought the spdo skins would have been accepted into the series as they are, seeing as they're at least 80% identical, and even the 20% difference is farly marginal (Deep red vs Deep Orange, thats what, 8-10% less red?) unless your looking at it side on from the right. I guess it has the GT2 plate on the GT2 car, but i guess i wouldnt have thought to submitted something i thought was that similar. Not suggesting it shouldnt be allowed, just wouldnt have thought to do so myself as i'd expect it to be considered too similar.
didnt see this.The only way it could be scheduled better for outside typical EU timezones is if it was switched to a weekend, and IMO people wont give up their limited weekend time doing tasks they cant do midweek, and instead justify spending it on playing 'computer games'. Series like MoE & possibly IGTC can get away with it better, there justification for taking place on weekends is valid, it cant be done midweek because there isnt the time. Likewise for series such as LFSWS, which requires a worldwide userbase, rather than having that as an added luxury.
After that, i feel if theres no real reason why it needs to be a weekend, when it could be done midweek when people are more willing to give up a couple of hours, then thats best for everyone - racers because its usually more convenient, and organisers because your not asking for time which is more precious (i'd say most people spend their weekend doing things they cant do midweek, so its a limited timeframe they have for those tasks).
Maybe if the demand gets to a point where it can realisticly justify taking place on a weekend, where people are willing to spend that time racing in our series, and allowing a wider audience to compete too... maybe then we'd make a switch.
I had wondered about running multiple EU tiers and even seperate divisions (EU & 'The Americas' etc) but certainly not to begin with. Im more in line with a US timezone than any EU one, and when SimDTM was around i did both EU league and a couple of US races a few hours later that night because it was still at a convenient time for me (but sadly vastly under-populated). Its not something we've discussed, but maybe if there was interest it could run parallel to the EU side, i'd have no quarms about being there to oversee it and the beauty of the website is that it kinda runs itself so its not twice the workload to do it. All that would be required is the ability for the site to switch between the seasons running (so the active data your seeing is based on the season the user wants to see, so EU or US in this case) and thats something i'll be starting once the season is underway anyway so people can look back at past seasons.
As much as i like the orange as a colour, i dont think the theme is really as visable in this case. Maybe, in all 3 cases, it could have been better to do the theme from nose to tail, rather than side to roof, although it might seem a little lost when looking at it from a typical view (side on, rather than from above).
The blue is clearer what the theme is supposed to be i guess, though they're all probably a little too vivid in their colour.
The blue is clearer what the theme is supposed to be i guess, though they're all probably a little too vivid in their colour.
fixed, put a _ in there when it didnt need it hehe
I *LOVE* orange, and i actually tried to do this exact theme last year, but it was pretty poor. Last year our GT1 & GT2 colours were Blue & Orange, so it would have worked perfectly, i just couldnt pull it off for some reason. I think I just felt it was too hard to get a nice gradient without faults where 'corners' met, maybe the FZR is easier than the XRR
Thanks for the comments from everyone too
& traxxion, no sneekin :P Ima gonna send out my skin ninjas, and they'll infiltrate F1RST HQ!!
Theres no ninja smilie, so have a bunny rabbit instead :bunny3: Ninja Bunnies!!
FGED GREDG RDFGDR GSFDG