Messages

Ok, so to summarize so far
1) Starting a new project didn't make any difference
2) The Video play fine in VLC and Miro. I do realize that they are dedicated media players.. But still.
3) It does, however, play perfect when disable/mute video audio in AGS (using flag 10 in PlayVideo). Playing the audio separately in the room instead doesn't affect the video, it still plays perfect.. So I would assume it has something to do with how AGS play the Video audio?
4) Someone mentioned to me that another game had the same problem, The Journey Down, with a scrolling background - there was stuttering.
5) We have tried several different ffmpeg2theora versions, with different settings (like low quality, low bitrate - both on video and sound. Scaling down the video etc).
6) We have tried on different computers, and testers have reported the same problem.

EDIT:
7) I did a new encoding with the audio disabled. It played perfect in AGS.

The video play fine in VLC (for all 3 of us who have tested it), so it shouldn't be the video itself.
It's just more noticeable when there is a screen scrolling/panning in the video as it's suppose to move smoothly. It's not noticeable on static scenes with just a few animation.

@Selmiak: Haven't tried the online converter. The raw AVI is 15gb, so it's way above their limit.

Yea I know, just trying to rule out different factors.

I'm not sure if it can be audio codec.. Doesn't Theora encode with it's own codec, so the source of the audio shouldn't matter?

The only reason I think it's a AGS problem is that it plays perfect in VLC.
Maybe it's the source file itself somehow, but it's just RAW AVI. And it does this on two different videos and has been exported from two different programs.

@Khris, just to make sure, you did have audio in the video, right?
Stupid question maybe, but it worked fine in a 1024 project too?

@selmiak: What kind of problem did you have with the video before?
The encoding itself should be fine I think, it plays great in a ordinary media player, and we tested a lot of different encoding settings and different versions of ffmpeg2theora. All result with playing fine in VLC, but in AGS there is a bit video stuttering.

@Ben, Maybe you can start a empty project and just try and lead the video, atleast then you can see if it's related to the "background" processes of the room.

I obviously don't know anything about the AGS code, but is AGS using a very old version of the OGG codec?
Does it matter? Is there any newer?

[So my questions]

So we have been trying to get our intro movie to play smooth in AGS.
We can't use WMV since it doesn't work in D3D fullscreen, OGV seems to play so it leaves us with that.

But we're experience a lot of different problems. The main problem is that it doesn't play smooth when there is, for an example, screen scrolling.
We had some other odd behavior like sound getting out of sync.

So the first thing that comes to mind is, of course, it has to be performance related. We tried on 3 computers that was fairly powerfull, but it's still stuttering.
BUT it does play perfect in a media player, so we must assume there is something with how AGS plays the video.
We tried all kind of encoding options, very low quality, high quality, changing resolution etc. Nothing of those helped.

The only thing that helped was if we did NOT play the audio in the video, then the video played great and without problems. So we had to assume the Audio was the problem. We made sure to try and encode the audio with lowest quality etc, but same problem. The thing is, just playing the video but disabling sound (so the sound is still encoded in the video) helped.


So right now we only have 3 bad options.
1) One would be to play the video and audio separately (Video from OGV and audio from a sound clip), problem is it WILL get out of sync as soon as the computer can't render/play everything at perfect performance.
2) Play the video as it is, with the imperfections of AGS resulting in a stuttering video. It doesn't feel good and is kind of taking out the experience - I think you all know how it is to play a video and you get slow buffering.
3) Use WMV, but restrict the game to not be played in Fullscreen. This is a bad solution as I think a game should be experienced in fullscreen to get the best immersion.

So my questions, do any of you had similar problems? Found any solutions? Know any in depth knowledge about the AGS code that can be causing this?
Any tips is appreciated!

Does anyone know how does CG mastery happen?

Here is my point of view on this:

Might look like a joke, but it's more then less true


No, I don't think you need any formal education.. But you can't expect to draw/paint/design something you don't understand, so you do need to study and understand. Attending to classes/courses/activities helps a lot since you can have a more experienced artists(teachers) point out what you need to work on, and of course they share their knowledge and have a plan for you(the class) how to achieve and understand what ever it is you're trying to learn.

The master artist who create those breath taking pieces has it all, knowledge, skill, devotion. It's not really about be able to handle a pen, even those 3D Sculpts the artist has a excellent understanding of anatomy and aesthetics, it's not about the tools but the knowledge and experience he puts in to his art piece.

Thanks for suggesting me, but how it looks now there is no chance I would have the time to dedicate running/moderate this.
I might participate though, depending on my time available.

That school was $400 dollars, lol.

If you are really serious about art that's the best/valuable course I have taken so far. Mostly because it really teach and give practical applications to rendering of light and everything that comes with it.

I could recommend, if you just want to read up some, this one:
http://androidarts.com/art_tut.htm
It's an oldie but a goodie.

None of these two are photoshop tutorials though.

I was about to write a long post, but I'll settle with:
Amen!

Looks great, love the background design!

Looks and sounds great.
And such a small team, impressive!

Looking good! Fun to see so many from the community in the team.

Out of curiosity, any updates on this?
Sslaxx suggestion sound great(if I even understood it correctly), and if it would use the color of the character text color setting it would be the icing on the cake IMO.

When trying with DD5 the first text-message is a Display(), based on what text message say.

When trying the SpriteFontTest.exe with D3D I get this right before the text should appear:

in "room1.asc",line 5
from "room1.asc",line 28
Error: This plugin is not compatible with the Direct3D driver

Does this work with D3D? I know the obvious answer would be 'no' since I get the error message saying it doesn't, but I don't see it mentioned in the post - so hoping that I might have overlooked something?

We're in the PCgamer The best games of 2013!
http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/01/01/2013-preview/3/
You who saw the last years edition can see that they have made a funny note about the publisher. But yes, everything is TBC.

As for production, we have started testing and everything is going well and the testers seem to enjoy the game so far.

Looks fun dkh!
out of curiosity, did you use any libraries/framework - if so, how easy was it to work with?