1080P Platform Videos w/Shaders Project

[kmoney]

Thanks for the compliments! Yes some of the systems are going to have longer videos than others only because they are so many great games for one certain platform I just cannot leave out some of the games. Even for the SNES I left out so many good games and I try to have at least 6 to 7 seconds of a clip from each game it is hard sometimes.Also sometimes I also just like to watch videos and not even play the games. Thats one of the reasons I am looking forward to @Jason Carr implementing attract mode so I can just watch the platform wheel spin and stop on a platform and just watch videos.

[spektor56]

You should remove the black bars from the sides of the video, it is just making the file size needlessly larger.  It should be up to the media player to maintain the aspect ratio.  Also, there isn't really a need for scan-lines, VLC can do this on the fly.

Edited August 25, 2016 by spektor56

[kmoney]

26 minutes ago, spektor56 said:

You should remove the black bars from the sides of the video, it is just making the file size needlessly larger.  It should be up to the media player to maintain the aspect ratio.  Also, there isn't really a need for scan-lines, VLC can do this on the fly.

The reason the black bars are there is because these games are originally a 4:3 ratio and not supposed to be stretched out to widescreen. Also I have never heard of VLC doing scanlines on the "fly" and these are not just simple scanlines added to the game as these are shaders from retroarch being used.

[Riffman81]

I've contacted nosh about using his RetroArch bezels/overlays I found on Git for some new platform videos I'm working on. If I like the way they turn out, I'll see if Circo will make them official on EmuMovies. Nosh has made some awesome overlays and I'm not sure if he's a member here but as I said, I have contacted him over on EmuMovies about using them. I've been using his overlays for a few years now and still haven't found a better set! I could always post the videos here as well if @kmoney would be cool with that. I don't want to go stepping on anyone's toes, but having variety is a good thing!

[Jason Carr]

Guess what I just implemented this morning, guys? I'll have a new beta out before the end of the day.

@Riffman81 definitely agree. Looking forward to it!

@kmoney Really appreciate the work you're putting in here. The SNES video looks awesome. The black bars can be easily fixed with a bit of theming, so pay no mind to that.

[Lordmonkus]

1 minute ago, Jason Carr said:

Guess what I just implemented this morning, guys? I'll have a new beta out before the end of the day.

Please be dancing monkeys, please please please let it be dancing monkeys.

[spektor56]

2 hours ago, kmoney said:

The reason the black bars are there is because these games are originally a 4:3 ratio and not supposed to be stretched out to widescreen. Also I have never heard of VLC doing scanlines on the "fly" and these are not just simple scanlines added to the game as these are shaders from retroarch being used.

Yes, but its up to the media player to deal with the aspect ratio and not stretching the video (Most media players have the option to: Zoom, stretch, fill (maintain aspect ratio)).  Since the bezels are not animated it's better to just include them in a theme beside the videos.

VLC does filters too (same as retroarch)

It's probably best to keep the videos in their unmodified state so people can apply whatever filter they want to the video.

Edited August 25, 2016 by spektor56

[DOS76]

Hey @kmoneycan I tell you how to make your videos how I like them instead of how you want to make them.

Keep doing it how you want to do it and if people want it different they can download someone elses theme.

Edited August 25, 2016 by DOS76

[kmoney]

@spektor56 I am currently trying to figure out how to record them without the black bars and still be in 1080P and maintain ratio and the quality. I know you can crop out the black bars with handbrake but I have not experimented yet to see if it lowers the quality. If you know of a way that you can apply scanlines within VLC, and if it is some kind of plugin or such, you should let @Jason Carr know so maybe he can implement into the VLC engine in BigBox.

[kmoney]

@Riffman81 That sounds awesome, I would be totally cool with that as the more options the better!

[Jason Carr]

Yes, we could add scanlines over top of the existing EmuMovies videos, but I'm doubtful that the quality would be anywhere near what @kmoney is producing. I'm also not sure how to add filters to VLC in Big Box at this point, but it might be worth some experimentation. That said, all of that increases the CPU time it takes to render, so I'm still thinking @kmoney's solution is the best.

[DOS76]

Yeah it makes sense that a video of the filter being applied would be more performant than actually trying to apply the filter all the time

[Riffman81]

9 minutes ago, Jason Carr said:

Yes, we could add scanlines over top of the existing EmuMovies videos, but I'm doubtful that the quality would be anywhere near what @kmoney is producing. I'm also not sure how to add filters to VLC in Big Box at this point, but it might be worth some experimentation. That said, all of that increases the CPU time it takes to render, so I'm still thinking @kmoney's solution is the best.

Agreed! The videos need to be recorded in HD or else the quality will suffer greatly. I think the RetroArch filters look great and capture how the games looked on our old CRT televisions back in the day. Here is a sample video snap I made using one of nosh's overlays. I'm probably going to start making platform videos first, and maybe do game snaps once I see how these turn out. @Jason Carr how would you feel about the idea of using a custom bezel with these videos using system logo, and a Launchbox logo as well... To kind of brand them to this frontend? I could get to work on designing the bezels for each platform if you'd be interested. Here's the sample snap I made earlier for NES:

 

[DOS76]

@Riffman81that sounds like an awesome idea

 

[kmoney]

@Jason Carr I have figured out how to remove the black bars from the videos and they work correctly in the smaller video box views and do not show the black bars. My question is which property do I need to change in xaml with a custom theme so it does not stretch the video in BB using the fullscreen video view so I can get it to center in the screen correctly without it being stretched? I have tried to change a few thing in xaml but I feel like I am changing the wrong code because it is still stretching the video.

[Jason Carr]

@Riffman81 That is killer, looks great. All sounds awesome. The only thing we should probably think about is how best to handle the bezel situation. Since these will all be best used as background videos in Big Box, it might not look the best with the bezel on the left underneath the wheel, at least for the wheel views.

If we record the videos without a bezel, it's easy enough to add bezels with the theming engine later, so I'm almost thinking it would be best to record them in the original aspect ratio of the game (though 1080p vertical resolution of course), without the bezel. Then with a theme we could either put a bezel on both sides, or just play the video to the right of the wheel. It would give us a lot more flexibility. Thoughts?

[Jason Carr]

@kmoney Most likely I will need to come up with something new in order to do it properly. You could always place the video to the right of the wheel, but unfortunately I don't know if it's possible to do only in XAML. I will make it a priority to get a good solution going though, because this stuff is extremely exciting, of course.

[Riffman81]

43 minutes ago, Jason Carr said:

@Riffman81 That is killer, looks great. All sounds awesome. The only thing we should probably think about is how best to handle the bezel situation. Since these will all be best used as background videos in Big Box, it might not look the best with the bezel on the left underneath the wheel, at least for the wheel views.

If we record the videos without a bezel, it's easy enough to add bezels with the theming engine later, so I'm almost thinking it would be best to record them in the original aspect ratio of the game (though 1080p vertical resolution of course), without the bezel. Then with a theme we could either put a bezel on both sides, or just play the video to the right of the wheel. It would give us a lot more flexibility. Thoughts?

We do have some options @Jason Carr:

1.) If bezels are used in the videos, I could do them all in black/grey, like with the Sega Genesis bezel in @kmoney 's video in the first post. That way, it wouldn't clash to much with the wheel art. 

2.) As you said, record without using a bezel and come up with a theme to accommodate overlay/bezel.

3.) I could simply leave the left side of the bezel black, or be creative and come up with a design that wouldn't clash with the wheel. Then use the other side of the bezel for some artwork pertaining to that respected system. You could even throw in some details on that side such as a description of the system, notable games, or other info. Or simply just use some artwork with a system logo in the top right corner, and a LB logo in the bottom right corner. What do you think? I kind of like this idea, and still allows us to have true 1080p videos without any fancy cropping, etc. What are your thoughts? I'm going to work on a design tonight illustrating what I said above and post a video. This will give you an idea of what I'm going for.

 

Edited August 25, 2016 by Riffman81

[kmoney]

I think with all my future platform videos I am going to create them without the bezels and I will redo the Sega Genesis one without the bezel also. I have found a solution to removing the black bars also. Basically what I do is record them at 1920 x 1080P at there correct 4:3 ratio in retroarch with the shaders applied and then once I am done splicing all the videos together and happy with that I run the file through Hankbrake which is an awesome free open source tool and very easy to use.

What I do in Handbrake is crop the black bars off and then it recodes the video so basically what you end up with is a 1440 x 1080P video because it has the black bars removed. It now has a perfect 4:3 ratio and no loss of quality at all from what I can tell. Another nice thing about this by removing the black bars is it cuts the file size down almost in half and also if someone wants to use these videos with the smaller video boxes in BB they are in a 4:3 ratio and the video box is sized correctly without the black bars or a bezel on both sides. 

If you are like me sometimes I like to change views to sometimes fullscreen videos and sometimes other views that has the smaller video boxes and it will be nice to be able to use the same videos in all views and the aspect be correct.

I think that it is the best option especially since @Jason Carr said he can add bezels in a theming engine later. The only issue right now is when using the fullscreen video view within BB, it is force stretching the video to fill the whole screen since I removed the black bars but he said he can come up with a solution for that.

 

[Riffman81]

31 minutes ago, kmoney said:

I think with all my future platform videos I am going to create them without the bezels and I will redo the Sega Genesis one without the bezel also. I have found a solution to removing the black bars also. Basically what I do is record them at 1920 x 1080P at there correct 4:3 ratio in retroarch with the shaders applied and then once I am done splicing all the videos together and happy with that I run the file through Hankbrake which is an awesome free open source tool and very easy to use.

What I do in Handbrake is crop the black bars off and then it recodes the video so basically what you end up with is a 1440 x 1080P video because it has the black bars removed. It now has a perfect 4:3 ratio and no loss of quality at all from what I can tell. Another nice thing about this by removing the black bars is it cuts the file size down almost in half and also if someone wants to use these videos with the smaller video boxes in BB they are in a 4:3 ratio and the video box is sized correctly without the black bars or a bezel on both sides. 

If you are like me sometimes I like to change views to sometimes fullscreen videos and sometimes other views that has the smaller video boxes and it will be nice to be able to use the same videos in all views and the aspect be correct.

I think that it is the best option especially since @Jason Carr said he can add bezels in a theming engine later. The only issue right now is when using the fullscreen video view within BB, it is force stretching the video to fill the whole screen since I removed the black bars but he said he can come up with a solution for that.

 

I agree @kmoney it would be better doing them this way... that way they would be universal for different views in BB. @Jason Carr scratch what I said above in my previous post. I'll do them without bezels. Now if I can just get Circo on board with doing the game video snaps in HD Let me ask you guys something; the file size on a complete set of, let's say SNES video snaps in HD are going to be HUGE! Well up into the 10+GB range (that's a rough estimate of course) is there enough of a demand? Is that something most of you would want to see? I guess what I'm wondering is if the average user is interested in dedicating that much HDD space to just the video snaps. What do you guys think? Do you think these classic 4:3 consoles deserve the HD treatment?

Edited August 26, 2016 by Riffman81