MAME Video Snaps #-S / v0.120 / 020708 (EmuMovies)

[Circo]

EmuMovies
Your #1 Resource for Video Game Artwork
Videos-Snaps-Titles-Boxes-Carts-Manuals






2/07/08
Release Type Video Snaps (WIP)
System M.A.M.E.
Naming Convention M.A.M.E. .120
Country All English Playable
Format AVI
File Count 6309
Total Size 27.2 GB

Release Info

02/07/08

Sorry the the delay between releases, things have been very busy for me besides the project.  This is the last torrent update before the full set is released.  I have added P,Q,R & S to the set. 

10/03/07

There was a mistake in the directory structure which was forcing everyone to basically start over on the entire torrent.  This has now been corrected, so it should resume with no problem. 

Sorry for the inconvienience.

10/02/07

Updated to version .119
Added M,N,O
Added or replaced about 10 videos due to feedback (Thanks!)

08/28/07

Updated to version .118
Added J,K & L
Added SQ Set
New Directory Structure:

-M.A.M.E. Video Snaps (EmuMovies)
  -HiQ
     -Artwork
        -Cropped
        -Full
     -Horizontal
     -Vertical
  -SQ
     -Artwork
        -Cropped
        -Full
     -Horizontal
     -Vertical

When opening torrent in uTorrent all you need to do is download the version that you need. 

HiQ files are encoded at 640x480 Horizontal and ###x480 Vertical.  SQ sets are encoded at 320x240res Horizontal and ###x240 Vertical.  If all you intend to use them for is in a preview window the SQ set is perfectly fine, and there is a huge space savings. 

HiQ set is currently 1,886 files and 11.3GB in size
SQ set is currently 1,886 files and 4.11GB in size


07/02/07

Added 520 new previews E-I

06/22/07

No long introductions here as this is an incomplete work in progress release.  This is a completely new set and does not include any previously released game previews.

What's New??

- No more mame watermark!
- Includes a complete set of previews with MAME artwork (cropped and non-cropped)
- Horizontal Previews (includes vertical games @ 640x480 w/black bars on sides)
- Vertical Previews (vertical games in their native aspect)

The reason for horizontal and vertical previews is that if you have a horizontal monitor in your cab, video stretching will not affect the vertical games.  If you have a vertical monitor set-up the vertical set will work perfectly for you.

Feedback is always welcome!

[NIVO]

just curious, but why an arcade classics watermark?  I commend you for your efforts Circo, always good to see updates. I have tested one of your samples and it is done well. But I personally will have to pass due to the watermark.

[Havok]

Nice, but I'll pass too with a watermark. It's not like you own the rights to these images? I understand this is a lot of work, and you are to be commended, but that kind of ruins it for me. This is just like back when they started doing watermarks on tv shows. Now everyone is doing it. Pretty annoying, it totally detracts from the image - I personally find myself staring at those darn things!   

[jcrouse]

I have to second the first two posts (is that possible?). The quality, however, is outstanding. Great work as always.

John

[Circo]

The reson for the watermarks is because in my cab the FE randomly plays through the videos for all systems in screensaver mode.  If you have checked any of the other HiQ sets you will see a system logo watermark as well.  Since the screensaver is playing videos from all of the different systems the watermark shows you what emulator the preview is for.  For the same reason I capture the title sequence, it helps me to better utilize the screen saver.

The reason for the watermarks has nothing to do with rights or anything like that, It just makes these videos better for what I use them for.  It is not very noticable or detracting (for me at least) when playing in a preview window.

Shame it's not just a simple thing to make two sets, I would keep the watermarks for me and the have a non-wm version.  But it's a huge pain to make two so I doubt I will ever get around to that.

[youki]

In that case you should talk with FE authors .

In AtomicFe i could easily put the watermarks from the FE on above your video where you want and as you want.  I can even superpose Video on video with some transparence effect.

As the FE knows where the video comes from and to what emulator there are linked , it should be very easy.

I can work with you for that feature for AtomicFE , if you are interrested in.

The advantage is that you will have a video set without water mark and you can put the watermark you want afterwards.  And if in the time you want change watermark , you will be able very easly without re-encoding your video.

#edit: the watermark would be of course an option of the FE , and coud be removed if you don't want them.

[squirrellydw]

I really wanted to use these but I guess I won't now because of the watermark.  Nice job though

[Silver]

Hmmm, looking at these I find the system identifier watermarks quite useful for the consoles, but I have to say I'm not a fan of the arcade classics WM either.

I think I would vote for no WM at all (seeing as it would not be hard for the modern FE's to add in to identify systems), but I especially find the AC one quite "busy" with all the little logos. Looks especially bad on vertical games where is just  over laps the game image.

Apologies if any of this sounds critical - I'm very aware of the huge time taken to generate all these. But if you are interested in changing tack - now is the time while you are only at letter A or B.....

[Aurich]

Vertical games were full screen captures so that when used in a preview window they will keep their aspect even when stratch mode is on.

I'm so glad you didn't do this with the first smaller set. Those of us who actually run real vertical cabinets aren't going to find that useful.

[loadman]

This conformation may help with your watermark decision,  .....

As you requested, the next version of MaLa allows me to change my 'Serial Display' plug-in so it can display details of the currently displayed screensaver Vid on a LCD or BetaBrite.

[FrizzleFried]

Hmmm...I too was a bit disappointed with the watermark...enough that I will only be updating my set with the new games animations...I won't be replacing any of the old lower quality set.

Bummer...

...but life goes on!   Thanks for your efforts though!

[Circo]

OK OK you guys win 

I will kill the water marks, the idea of making them an option in a FE is not bad either. 

For those of you with vertical cabs, would you like a vertical only set as well with a more suitable aspect ratio.  The way I am doing it now is great if you have a standard cab, but if there is enough interest I am not against doing a special set.  It is just a crop issue, so no big deal just big space.

I thought the watermark was a spiffy idea but it DOUBLED the time it took to make each preview.

[Silver]

OK OK you guys win 

I will kill the water marks, the idea of making them an option in a FE is not bad either. 

Excellent, sounds good. And I do vote for FE support for this for highlighting systems being shown....

For those of you with vertical cabs, would you like a vertical only set as well with a more suitable aspect ratio.  The way I am doing it now is great if you have a standard cab, but if there is enough interest I am not against doing a special set.  It is just a crop issue, so no big deal just big space.

I've not used a vertical monitor, but thinking about this having the video at the correct verical size (3:4) should not be a problem. Any FE displaying videos in a preview area should - IMHO - have an option to 1) scale them to fit the area 2) Maintain aspect. I can only assume there is a problem if they stretch without maintaining aspect, which is never a good idea in scaling video.... just my thoughts.

I thought the watermark was a spiffy idea but it DOUBLED the time it took to make each preview.

Ouch. Least the rest will be quicker...


Also once again want to say huge kudos for doing these sets. Absolutely awesome.

[squirrellydw]

are the original ones still only updated to 106?

[Silver]

are the original ones still only updated to 106?

I believe there are updates within the torrent linked at the top. They are in a seperate directory.

[youki]

Circo (or somebody else) could you put a snap shot of a video with a WaterMark you did here?

I can not access Torrent , and i want just see how looks your watermark to see how i can reproduce that from the FE dynamically.

Thanks

[jcrouse]

Youki,
    Try this.

Good Luck,
John

[Havok]

OK OK you guys win 

I will kill the water marks, the idea of making them an option in a FE is not bad either. 

For those of you with vertical cabs, would you like a vertical only set as well with a more suitable aspect ratio.  The way I am doing it now is great if you have a standard cab, but if there is enough interest I am not against doing a special set.  It is just a crop issue, so no big deal just big space.

I thought the watermark was a spiffy idea but it DOUBLED the time it took to make each preview.

Awesome! Besides, we're just thinking of you - doing all that work will now only take half the time!

Thanks for these previews, they really add polish to any front end!

 

[youki]

Youki,
    Try this.

Good Luck,
John

Thanks

I can do this kind of thing very easily.  I would just need the images used for the Watermarks. 

[jcrouse]

Or, better yet, allow the user to specify their own. Preferably transparent GIF's.

Just a thought,
John

[squirrellydw]

are the original ones still only updated to 106?

I believe there are updates within the torrent linked at the top. They are in a seperate directory.

I don't use torrents, would rather just pay for the whole set.

[Circo]

Or, better yet, allow the user to specify their own. Preferably transparent GIF's.

Just a thought,
John

Yes, this would be the preferred method for myself as well.

[FrizzleFried]

For those of you with vertical cabs, would you like a vertical only set as well with a more suitable aspect ratio.

I would LOVE to get a vertical set...ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT.   

...and thanks for reconsidering the watermark!   You are "THE SHIZ"...

 

[loadman]

I would LOVE to get a vertical set...ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT.   

Me too please 

[youki]

Or, better yet, allow the user to specify their own. Preferably transparent GIF's.

Just a thought,
John

Yes, this would be the preferred method for myself as well.

Of course, it will be like that. You will precise a path to the watermark image you want use for each config/emulator ,  where you want place the watermark on the video  , and if you want display the watermark only in screensaver mode or only on snapvideo display or both.
and you will choose the level of transparency of the watermark on the video.

Do you see other thing that could be interresting?

[Circo]

Of course, it will be like that. You will precise a path to the watermark image you want use for each config/emulator ,  where you want place the watermark on the video  , and if you want display the watermark only in screensaver mode or only on snapvideo display or both.
and you will choose the level of transparency of the watermark on the video.

Do you see other thing that could be interresting?

All I can think of is effects  maybe fade in fade out, or only show for the first 5 seconds of the clip.  But your current plans are more than enough!

For those of you with vertical cabs, would you like a vertical only set as well with a more suitable aspect ratio.

I would LOVE to get a vertical set...ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT.   

...and thanks for reconsidering the watermark!   You are "THE SHIZ"...

 

This is not turning out to be as easy as I thought, I know that it is possible to encode the video in a 3:4 aspect ratio, but I cant get it to encode in xvid.   Does anyone know the best trick to do this?

[youki]

All I can think of is effects   maybe fade in fade out, or only show for the first 5 seconds of the clip.  But your current plans are more than enough!

Good idea, i will do that too.   

[Silver]

[This is not turning out to be as easy as I thought, I know that it is possible to encode the video in a 3:4 aspect ratio, but I cant get it to encode in xvid.   Does anyone know the best trick to do this?

What kind of problem are you having? Is it erroring out when you try and start the encode?

I just did a quick test by cropping 1942.avi (cropped 138 pixels off the left and the right) and it seemed to create a perfect (vertical, 3:4) video. Disadvantage of this is that its been encoded twice so will be slightly lower quality.

Note, make sure you have an even number of pixels after a crop - cropping 137 pixels off caused an error as the remaining video to be encoded was an odd number of pixels. This varies from encoder to encoder - some will only do multiples of 8, 4 or 2. I think Xvid will do multiples of 2.

[Circo]

What program are you using to crop the video?  This is something that I have not tried before, and I spent 4 hours last night trying to figure it out.

[Silver]

I was using VirtualDub.

You need to add a Video Filter, called "null transform", which basically allows cropping. You can then set the cropping by pixel from each side.

To use filters you have to be in "Full Re-processing" mode, so the the video must be re-encoded. However, you might find quality not an issue using this approach. I

Note that I don't believe it is physically possible to crop videos like these without re-encoding. So you can either re-encode after the case (you could probably set up a batch run) or you need to create them from scratch as 3:4.

I cropped and re-encoded your HiQ 1943.avi as an example. I encoded it to be around the same size as the original (4 meg or so) so you can take a look. I can't spot much of a quality loss myself. Take a look:



I just re-encoded with Xvid, not sure what settings you use.

VirtualDub Instructions:
1) Open avi in Vdub
2) Select Full Processing mode from Video menu
3) Select Filters from Video Menu
4) Add "null transform" filter, hit OK
5) Hit cropping button, select pixel offsets to crop (I used 138 on the left and 138 on the right)
6) Select Compression options from Video menu and set your encoder
7) Make sure "Direct Stream Copy" is selected in Audio menu.
Save as AVI....

[Circo]

You should be making these, not me 


That is just what I needed silver, thanks!  Believe it or not I just loaded up virtual dub last night, and it is VERY different from the commercial programs that I am used to like premiere.  So I will give this a go and should knock this right out!!!

[Silver]

Believe it or not I just loaded up virtual dub last night, and it is VERY different from the commercial programs that I am used to like premiere.  So I will give this a go and should knock this right out!!!

Yep, sure is different. But is single-handedly the most useful video capture/processing program I have ever used...

Also, When you select "Save as AVI", there is a tick box at the bottom saying "run this job later". This lets you setup everything you want it to run, and then process them all in one batch.

It also has a scripting language which could be used to do all this automatically - its how Buddabings version of mame converts mames MNG output to AVI's.

[Circo]

Ok here is how I am going to do it:

File structure will be like this:

- Mame AVI Game Previews HiQ
   - Horizontal
   - Vertical

Horizontal will include all games including vertical ones captured full screen with the bars on the side to keep the correct aspect on a horizontal cab.  Also many of the vertical games that have artwork are captured with cropped artwork to fill in the sides.

Vertical will be all vertical games cropped with a height of 480.  This should be perfect for those with a vertical monitor.

At this time I am skipping over non-english playable games (quiz and majong types) I may revisit these later but I have absolutly no use for them and I would rather not see them in a screensaver mode.  I may return to this and add them in another folder if there is enough demand.

Using virtualdub things are going VERY quickly, I expect to catch up to the old set by next week and as soon as I get through "B" I will rerelease.

In the updates I will continue to capture every new game since they can be used with cdbrown's set.

On another note:

Before I called it quits last night I tried a couple of N64 captures.  With this new 8800 GTS video card I maxxed out all of the video options and the HiQ captures are perfect.  This is a small set so I may rerelease in the next few weeks.

[jcrouse]

My 2 cents ...... turn off artwork. I certainly don't want to see cropped artwork filling in the edges.

Just my opinion,
John

[Circo]

My 2 cents ...... turn off artwork. I certainly don't want to see cropped artwork filling in the edges.

Just my opinion,
John

Am I the only one who likes the new cropped artwork on the vertical games?  I am definately open to sugesstion on this, now remember the vertical set will have NO ARTWORK, but I was going to include it in the horizontal set. 

How do the rest of you feel about this?

SAMPLE W/ARTWORK


BTW ignore the watermark, it's gone on the new ones.

[jcrouse]

Well, if it's a democracy, I vote for no artwork, just the video.

John

[loadman]

Well, if it's a democracy, I vote for no artwork, just the video.

John

Me 2   

[squirrellydw]

me 2  but I really don't care.  They both look nice

[um3k]

Another vote for no artwork,  I just don't like seeing the artwork appearing to be cut off like that.

[KDOG]

I like the artwork so I say keep it. I will also say that this is for you more than it is for us so do what you like.