MAME Movie Maker released

[donnyj]

It turned out that my desktop was configured to not create 8.3 filenames at all - dues to some system-tweak program I ran a while ago. Scratched my head for ages over that one!

I'm surprised you haven't ran into other problems with that setting (probably have and didn't know it)  I would LOVE to be done with 8.3, but too many old compilers, etc. in use.....

Donny

[Buddabing]

could you kindly try movieloops 3 mode and see if you get the detected loop inserted into the VDB file?

I really want to test out the new detection.

Also, I don't understand how changing the MMM portion would change the actual loops?  I am saying that the physical frame numbers have changed with hand-optimized values 

Keep up the awesome work!

I am sorry Buddabing, I am not communicating well here.  Could you please show me how to run zookeep with both loop detection and running until maxframe is met?

P.S.  In my own defence I just had nose surgery yesterday, so I am even less coherent than normal (scarey eh?)

Modify your batch.bat like Silver recommended:

@if not exist "D:\Documents and Settings\David Pritchett\Desktop\movies" mkdir "D:\Documents and Settings\David Pritchett\Desktop\movies\movies"
@if exist "D:\Documents and Settings\David Pritchett\Desktop\movies\movies\%1.avi" goto end
time /T
@mame %1 -window -makemovie -resolution %2 -wavwrite %1.wav
@if not exist %1.vdb goto end
@\virtualdub\virtualdub /s"%1.vdb" /x
@del %1.wav
@del %1.vdb
@del /Q moviesnp\*.png
@move /Y %1.avi "D:\Documents and Settings\David Pritchett\Desktop\movies\movies"
time /T
:end

I strongly recommend you use a simpler file name, such as given in the sample batch.bat on the first page, because I'm not sure if the directory creation part will work.

Listgen is designed to generate the movieloops parameter. So, if you use the default batch.bat, manually edit the makemovies.bat so that each call to batch.bat uses movieloops 3 instead of 1 or 2.

So, each line of makemovies.bat should say something like:
batch zookeep 320x240 3 0 0
for -movieloops 3

Then, in your mame.ini, set -maxmovielength to whatever you want.

Please post back with any more problems. Hope you recover quickly.

[donnyj]

thanks for the recovery comment!!!  me too!!!  lots of pain and bleeding

the screen output looks like everything went ok:

<snip>
10-frame match detected between frame 3912 and 9364
movie will run between frames 3903 and 9355
max movie length reached, generating movie between frames 996 and 3729
Average FPS: 29.054363 (9501 frames)

but the vdb isn't....

<snip>
VirtualDub.video.SetRange(0,0);
<snip>
VirtualDub.subset.Clear();
VirtualDub.subset.AddRange(0,0);
<snip>

[Buddabing]

thanks for the recovery comment!!!  me too!!!  lots of pain and bleeding

the screen output looks like everything went ok:

<snip>
10-frame match detected between frame 3912 and 9364
movie will run between frames 3903 and 9355
max movie length reached, generating movie between frames 996 and 3729
Average FPS: 29.054363 (9501 frames)

but the vdb isn't....

<snip>
VirtualDub.video.SetRange(0,0);
<snip>
VirtualDub.subset.Clear();
VirtualDub.subset.AddRange(0,0);
<snip>

Do you have the most recent binary? It's dated 2/22/05. Also, you can look at the log file (run mame with -log) and see what some of the movie options are set to.  Look for "Movie options set:"

[donnyj]

I built it from the source 2-22, is the binary different than what is created by compiling the source?

Movie options set:
   movieloops=3, moviesquare=0, moviethreshold=2
   minmoviestart=0, minmovielength=800, maxmovielength=10000
   movieaudio=1, movievideo=3, moviesnap_directory=E:\mamesnaps\4dwarrio
   moviestartframe=0, movieendframe=0, moviematchlength=10
   movieskipblack=1

[Silver]

I'm surprised you haven't ran into other problems with that setting (probably have and didn't know it)  I would LOVE to be done with 8.3, but too many old compilers, etc. in use.....

I have - although only one issue -  16bit msi installers won't run correctly. Apart from that its nice not to see ~1 everywhere....

[DreamWeb]

Hey guys.

Definitely making some progress now.

I moved all the files into my mame directory and this is what I get now when I run makemovies.bat

--------------


D:\mame>time /T
01:00 AM
Could Not Find D:\mame\moviesnp\005*.png
1-frame match detected between frame 268 and 1365
movie will run between frames 268 and 1365
Average FPS: 58.653034 (1305 frames)
The system cannot find the path specified.
The system cannot find the file specified.

D:\mame>time /T
01:00 AM

D:\mame>time /T
01:00 AM
------

And it just sits there.

The mame window came up and displayed the game going through the attract.. and as it was, it sent the screen captures to moviesnp..  So, I know that's at least working.

Then they get deleted... Virtualdub pops up, and performs a dub.  005.avi gets added to my movies directory..  (95 megs)  and then it just sits there.  I'm assuming that it's getting lost at the compression stage or something?   I have Divx installed.

Any suggestions now?

Thanks!

d.

[Silver]

When you say its sits there, does it sit at the:

D:\mame>

prompt?  If the avi is made and moved to the movies directory then you know Vdub has worked and finished. (95 meg sounds very big - it is probably uncompressed? If you want divx you need to set this in the batch file...

I recommend you edit your batch.bat and remove all the @ symbols at the beginning of any lines. This will show you what command is running each time, so you can see where it is hanging. Do that, run it and post here where it is stopping.....

[DreamWeb]

Actually!  I just figured out the problem I described in the previous post.

I installed Xvid and it did the job just fine.  There's no sound yet (for whatever reason)... but I've got a movie that is now 496K as opposed to 95 megs.

After it does the virtualdub job on the first movie.. it just kinda hangs there and does not go on to the next one.  It does not go back to the c: prompt... it just sits there after it shows me the time.

Hmmm

d.

[DreamWeb]

It appears to be having problems with the rom 11beat.zip

If I delete that one from the makemovies.bat... it seems to continue on.

I feel like such a novice here..  but, I'm guessing I need to edit something in filter.sql to make sure than listgen doesn't generate a makemovies.bat with any of the clones?  How would I do this?

You guys are a terrific help.

d.

[Silver]

can you run 11beat.zip with mame normally? check that first.

To only use clones, edit the listgen.ini file so that you have:

audit_roms 1
use_clones 0
unique 1

in there. This should only make a list of parent roms....

Although I've been meaning to ask Buddabing what the unique function does - as all mame roms have a unique name, and there is a use_clones option...

[Buddabing]

can you run 11beat.zip with mame normally? check that first.

To only use clones, edit the listgen.ini file so that you have:

audit_roms 1
use_clones 0
unique 1

in there. This should only make a list of parent roms....

Although I've been meaning to ask Buddabing what the unique function does - as all mame roms have a unique name, and there is a use_clones option...

When you have the unique flag set, it includes only games that have a unique game name. All games will have a unique game name unless the -strip_descriptions flag is set. The strip description removes all text from the game name in parentheses or after a forward slash. That way you don't have set 1, set 2, bootlegs, etc. I like to include clones so that I will have Pac-Man.

I use:
audit_roms 1
use_clones 1
strip_description 1
unique 1

[vibez]

mamewah has an option when generating lists that will only include a clone if it is considered better than the parent. Is there such an option in MMM. I'd like to use clones, but feel its a waste of time if only a few are better than the original

[donnyj]

11beat is busted, no go whatsoever, mame problem NOT mmm one

[DreamWeb]

Thanks guys.  It's all working now.  And it's terrific.  Thank you for your patience!!

d.

[soroth]

Isn't there a new mame32-version out with the avi-capture thingie from older mame32 versions built-in ?? This seems a lot easier? 

[Buddabing]

Isn't there a new mame32-version out with the avi-capture thingie from older mame32 versions built-in ?? This seems a lot easier? 

It's not easier if you want to generate 2000 videos.

[donnyj]

Definatly appears as if 93 is a lemon

[2600]

A little FYI:

Recently, I was a victim of the squashed aspect ratio problem that was mentioned in a previous post.  Did a little testing and turns out it was the XVID binary I had downloaded (Nic's Binary) instead of the one I believe Buddabing originally suggested www.koepi.org

I'm sure it was just a setting somewhere, but by default Nic's resulted in huge files and the aspect ratio was screwed up on playback.  I played the video back on a different player that used a different codec and it displayed correctly.  Don't know if this needs to be added to the first post or if you want to look at it Silver since xvid doesn't have a binary and another user may do what I did and google for an xvid binary.

[donnyj]

THANK YOU VERY MUCH[/u] (yes I was yelling) for updating past 0.92 !!!!!

[donnyj]

...the XVID binary I had downloaded (Nic's Binary) instead of the one I believe Buddabing originally suggested www.koepi.org

I'm sure it was just a setting somewhere, but by default Nic's resulted in huge files and the aspect ratio was screwed up on playback. I played the video back on a different player that used a different codec and it displayed correctly. Don't know if this needs to be added to the first post

The link to the working xvid codec that creates MUCH smaller (2 megs instead of Nic's 50 megs on 005) is Latest stable binaryXviD-1.0.3-20122004.exe (621kb)

[Silver]

RE: Xvid. If people stick to the latest Stable binary it should be fine. I have not messed with the others....

Regarding the '11beat' hanging problem, it is a VERY good idea to get the latest catver.ini file in your Buddamame dir and in the filter.sql file include the sql filter to EXCLUDE unplayable games from your batch. If you want to run a lot, this will avoid lots of problems.
The correct syntax is:

select * from gamedata where catver_category <> 'Unplayable';

I'm going to do a run on parents-only of a complete .92 romset (.93 mame is buggy), so long as the game is not listed as unplayable.

[brianoneill]

Hi. I've started creating movies to use in gameex fe.
The problem I have currently is that the completed videos are running at what seems double speed !
Anyone run into this in there work creating videos ?

Cheers,
Brian.

[Silver]

I've just made some videos now and they are fine - are you checking them in a standard media player or in a FE?

All the video's are created at 1/2 the original games frame rate. So for a 60fps game we only make a video of 30fps. If played back at 60fps, obviously this would double the speed.... However, all the videos are matched to the length of the audio by Virtualdub, so come out looking fine.

[Silver]

The AddRange line tells Vdub where to end the movie. So AddRange(0,3291) tells Vdub to end the movie at frame 3291.

The SetRange lines tells Vdub where to start the movie. This value is in milliseconds. To get this value, MMM takes the starting frame number, divides by 29.97 frames per second and multiplies by 1000 milliseconds per second.

It does appear that the movie runs slightly offset from where it should be. I'll experiment with it to see if anything should be changed.

I was thinking about this "slightly offset" problem. It could be due to how you are calculating the start point in milliseconds (which even the Vdub author agrees "is stupid").  To calculate the start point accurately you will ideally need to use the frame rate of the game (and halve it), as some games run at slightly different speeds (57/60/63fps?) - is this info availble in mame?

Also, if most games are 60Hz, you would want to divide by 30 not 29.97.

For example, looking at zookeep: with a start frame of 2774 and it is a 60fps game, the difference is around 100ms, or 6 frames... so currently the video is starting 100ms after the beginning of the detected loop....

On a seperate note, I have been playing with matchlength feature. Are you still planning to add a filter based on year?

[brianoneill]

I've just made some videos now and they are fine - are you checking them in a standard media player or in a FE?

All the video's are created at 1/2 the original games frame rate. So for a 60fps game we only make a video of 30fps. If played back at 60fps, obviously this would double the speed.... However, all the videos are matched to the length of the audio by Virtualdub, so come out looking fine.

Thanks for the reply.
WHen I play the vid in divx, media player or gameex it runs 2xnormal speed.
When I open it in VirtualDub and select video->frame rate, it states 59.728 as the current frame rate !?
If I change it to 30 and re-save the avi it runs at normal speed but a bit choppy.

It must be how I'm creating the avi in the first place.
Heres some of my mame.ini...

### Windows video options ###
autoframeskip           0
frameskip               0
waitvsync               1
triplebuffer            0
window                  1
ddraw                   1
direct3d                0
hwstretch               1
# screen                <NULL> (not set)
cleanstretch            auto
resolution              auto
refresh                 0
scanlines               0
switchres               0
switchbpp               1
maximize                1
keepaspect              1
matchrefresh            1
syncrefresh             0
throttle                1

### Options added by Buddabing ###
skip_warnings           1
intmakectrl             0
extmakectrl             1
noshowctrl              0
makemovie               0
minmoviestart           200
minmovielength          800
maxmovielength          10000
moviethreshold          2
movieaudio              1
movievideo              3
movieloops              2
moviesquare             0
moviecompression        -1
moviestartframe         0
movieendframe           0
moviematchlength        1
movieskipblack          1

[Buddabing]

The AddRange line tells Vdub where to end the movie. So AddRange(0,3291) tells Vdub to end the movie at frame 3291.

The SetRange lines tells Vdub where to start the movie. This value is in milliseconds. To get this value, MMM takes the starting frame number, divides by 29.97 frames per second and multiplies by 1000 milliseconds per second.

It does appear that the movie runs slightly offset from where it should be. I'll experiment with it to see if anything should be changed.

I was thinking about this "slightly offset" problem. It could be due to how you are calculating the start point in milliseconds (which even the Vdub author agrees "is stupid").

[Silver]

Thanks for the reply.
WHen I play the vid in divx, media player or gameex it runs 2xnormal speed.
When I open it in VirtualDub and select video->frame rate, it states 59.728 as the current frame rate !?
If I change it to 30 and re-save the avi it runs at normal speed but a bit choppy.

It must be how I'm creating the avi in the first place.

Hmmm. could you edit your batch.bat file to comment out the line that deletes the vdb file. (try: "rem @del %1.vdb" instead of "@del %1.vdb"). Then create a video - there will be a file called romname.vdb left in the mame directory. Could you open it in a txt editor and paste it here? You can omit the "Setcompression" lines (really long unreadable stuff).

I assume this happens with the binary from Buddabings zip and you have not modified the source etc, and I assume you have installed Xvid binary 1.03...

[Silver]

I ran zookeep with -movieloops 1 and it detects a loop between frames 558 and 3291. MMM frame numbers start at zero, not one. That might cause a very small discrepancy, depending on how Vdub treats it.

MMM currently takes the start frame, divides by 29.97 and multiplies by 1000. 558*1000/29.97=18618.

I changed it to take the start frame, multiply by 2000 and divide by the frame rate. This gives 558*2000/60=18600.

That's 18 ms difference. Would that be noticible?

I thought the consensus was that the loop detection was good enough so that we didn't need it. But I'll be glad to add the matchlength by year stuff, if yousomeone works out the particulars.

I wonder if Avery is going to eliminate the milliseconds issue.

That would not be noticeable I do not think. I just looked at the tweaked figures you posted for zookeep - as this starts at a much later frame, the error is around 100ms - 6 frames. Even thats not massive.

I was only looking because of this error offset mentioned. Could you give me an example of where it occurs?

Matchlength - well only if its needed! I'm away for a few days and going to create a video set, then take a look to see how it does. If its mostly working with the movie match length, then we should leave it.

I have emailed Avery about this, although he mentions in the script docs he knows its really poor.....

[Buddabing]

I ran zookeep with -movieloops 1 and it detects a loop between frames 558 and 3291. MMM frame numbers start at zero, not one. That might cause a very small discrepancy, depending on how Vdub treats it.

MMM currently takes the start frame, divides by 29.97 and multiplies by 1000. 558*1000/29.97=18618.

I changed it to take the start frame, multiply by 2000 and divide by the frame rate. This gives 558*2000/60=18600.

That's 18 ms difference. Would that be noticible?

I thought the consensus was that the loop detection was good enough so that we didn't need it. But I'll be glad to add the matchlength by year stuff, if yousomeone works out the particulars.

I wonder if Avery is going to eliminate the milliseconds issue.

That would not be noticeable I do not think. I just looked at the tweaked figures you posted for zookeep - as this starts at a much later frame, the error is around 100ms - 6 frames. Even thats not massive.

I was only looking because of this error offset mentioned. Could you give me an example of where it occurs?

Matchlength - well only if its needed! I'm away for a few days and going to create a video set, then take a look to see how it does. If its mostly working with the movie match length, then we should leave it.

I have emailed Avery about this, although he mentions in the script docs he knows its really poor.....

I was looking at the end of the Zookeeper video rather than the beginning.

I was playing with Ultrastyle last night and I was able to quickly run through my big batch of videos. They mostly look great. Some of the exceptions are games that need to be run once before creating videos, zookeeper is one. And this was with the old loop detection. I'm going to cull out the ones that don't look good and rerun the batch. Then we'll see if we need any of the matchlength stuff.

I like Ultrastyle. If I can get ListGen to create Ultrastyle game lists, I may end up abandoning my plans to go back to DOS on my cabinet.

[brianoneill]

thanks.
I'm using buddabings mame & teh 1.03 xvid codec.
heres my mslug4.vdb

VirtualDub.Open("moviesnp\\msl00000.png","",0);
VirtualDub.audio.SetSource("mslug4.wav");
VirtualDub.audio.SetMode(1);
VirtualDub.audio.SetInterleave(1,500,1,0,0);
VirtualDub.audio.SetClipMode(1,1);
VirtualDub.audio.SetVolume();
VirtualDub.audio.SetConversion(0,0,0,0,0);
VirtualDub.audio.SetCompression(85,22050,1,0,3000,1,12,"AQACAAAATgABAHEF");
VirtualDub.audio.EnableFilterGraph(0);
VirtualDub.video.SetInputFormat(0);
VirtualDub.video.SetOutputFormat(0);
VirtualDub.video.SetMode(3);
VirtualDub.video.SetFrameRate(-1,2);
VirtualDub.video.SetIVTC(0,0,-1,0);
VirtualDub.video.SetRange(0,0);
VirtualDub.video.SetCompression(0x64697678,0,10000,0);
..setcomp stuff removed...
VirtualDub.video.filters.Clear();
VirtualDub.audio.filters.Clear();
VirtualDub.subset.Clear();
VirtualDub.subset.AddRange(0,3038);
VirtualDub.project.ClearTextInfo();
VirtualDub.SaveAVI("mslug4.avi");
VirtualDub.audio.SetSource(1);
VirtualDub.Close();

and my batch.bat
@if not exist C:\Emulation\Emus\MameMovie\movies mkdir C:\Emulation\Emus\MameMovie\movies
@if exist C:\Emulation\Emus\MameMovie\movies\%1.avi goto end
time /T
@mame %1 -window -makemovie -resolution %2 -wavwrite %1.wav -movieloops %3 -moviestartframe %4 -movieendframe %5
@if not exist %1.vdb goto end
@\virtualdub\virtualdub /s"%1.vdb" /x
@del %1.wav
rem @del %1.vdb
@del /Q moviesnp\*.png
@move /Y %1.avi C:\Emulation\Emus\MameMovie\movies
time /T
:end

and my makemovies.bat
@call batch mslug4 255x255 2 250 8000

[Silver]

Hmmm The importnat line in the vdb file is:

VirtualDub.video.SetFrameRate(-1,2);

Which you have and is correct. I just ran your batch and your commandline, and it created a perfect movie for me, which plays at 29.593. Virtualdub reports it as a 29.593fps XviD file too...

What version of Vdub are you using? If its 1.6.3 try 1.6.4. If that solves it let me know as I may have overlooked something when 1.6.4 came out... If its 1.6.4, try uninstalling and reinstalled to set defaults. Again, if this works please say (as it should not make any difference).

If that doesn't work... which Xvid binary did you install? (keoki or Nik.. or something else...)

[brianoneill]

Hmmm The importnat line in the vdb file is:

VirtualDub.video.SetFrameRate(-1,2);

Which you have and is correct. I just ran your batch and your commandline, and it created a perfect movie for me, which plays at 29.593. Virtualdub reports it as a 29.593fps XviD file too...

What version of Vdub are you using? If its 1.6.3 try 1.6.4. If that solves it let me know as I may have overlooked something when 1.6.4 came out... If its 1.6.4, try uninstalling and reinstalled to set defaults. Again, if this works please say (as it should not make any difference).

If that doesn't work... which Xvid binary did you install? (keoki or Nik.. or something else...)

VDub 1.6.4
Xvid 1.0.3 Koiki

When you say re-install virtual dub.
what virtual dub install is there ?
Its just a zip file to be unzipped.

I've tried on two pcs now and both give the same result !?

[Silver]

Bingo - found the problem.

I had not realised there was a 0.93 build of MMM was out (sorry). It looks like all the mass changes in the soundsystem in this version may have broken the -wavwrite command. It creates a wav that runs at twice the speed.

Virtualdub uses the duration of the wav to set the length of the video made from all the pngs - this keeps the audio and video in sync. (The beginning of both is then trimmed off as per loop detected.)

In short, use the 0.92 build for now.

@Buddabing

as mentioned above, theres a problem with wavwrite in 0.93. This looks to be system wide (neogeo affected, and zookeep - so I guess its all games).

I will confirm its in the standard 0.93 mame build, then I'll submit a bug report. You may want to pull 0.93 for now....?

[Buddabing]

Bingo - found the problem.

I had not realised there was a 0.93 build of MMM was out (sorry). It looks like all the mass changes in the soundsystem in this version may have broken the -wavwrite command. It creates a wav that runs at twice the speed.

Virtualdub uses the duration of the wav to set the length of the video made from all the pngs - this keeps the audio and video in sync. (The beginning of both is then trimmed off as per loop detected.)

In short, use the 0.92 build for now.

@Buddabing

as mentioned above, theres a problem with wavwrite in 0.93. This looks to be system wide (neogeo affected, and zookeep - so I guess its all games).

I will confirm its in the standard 0.93 mame build, then I'll submit a bug report. You may want to pull 0.93 for now....?

I've removed the links. Did you try updating to .93u1? The patch to update .93 to .93u1 will work on my source.

[donnyj]

&*^*^(*)(*&%^&(&(*), the problem still exists in 93u1!!!!, I just created 48 bad avi files =[... oh well, hopefully the timing won't be broken after the sound is fixed (wah....)

[Silver]

Hmmm, I can't patch -p1 to 93u1 if your files were written in beforehand....

It gives  hunk warning on file usrintrf.c

Anyway, I've had a reply on the Mametesters board saying that this error has already been fixed, so I assume it will be correct in the next update.

There seem to be lots of problems with 0.93, not just audio - several games just crash out. I'd wait for 0.94.....

[brianoneill]

Bingo - found the problem.

I had not realised there was a 0.93 build of MMM was out (sorry). It looks like all the mass changes in the soundsystem in this version may have broken the -wavwrite command. It creates a wav that runs at twice the speed.

Virtualdub uses the duration of the wav to set the length of the video made from all the pngs - this keeps the audio and video in sync. (The beginning of both is then trimmed off as per loop detected.)

In short, use the 0.92 build for now.

@Buddabing

as mentioned above, theres a problem with wavwrite in 0.93. This looks to be system wide (neogeo affected, and zookeep - so I guess its all games).

I will confirm its in the standard 0.93 mame build, then I'll submit a bug report. You may want to pull 0.93 for now....?

thanks.
I went back to 0.92 and all is ok

[zander]

I've been following this thread for some time. Great job with this budda and crew.

I was wondering if it is possible to abtract the movie maker program instead of integrating it into a mame build. That way it would be version independent of mame. Sort of like how camtasia studio is independent of mame.

Also I was thinking of building something like maws to host videos for viewing and download. I know the story of roms but what about vids. I'd think there are ok cause no one seems to have problems with the screens shots and flyers all over the place?

[Buddabing]

I've been following this thread for some time. Great job with this budda and crew.

I was wondering if it is possible to abtract the movie maker program instead of integrating it into a mame build. That way it would be version independent of mame. Sort of like how camtasia studio is independent of mame.

A "wrapper" application is possible, I suppose. But the batch file usage is much more convenient.

Also I was thinking of building something like maws to host videos for viewing and download. I know the story of roms but what about vids. I'd think there are ok cause no one seems to have problems with the screens shots and flyers all over the place?

AFAIK it is okay. However, it is tens of gigabytes of storage we're talking about. MMM was created for the user to create his or her own movies so that he or she could avoid the hassle of so much downloading.

You should host the flyers, cabinets, and panel artwork, too.

Thank you for your interest.