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

[csa3d]

I vote no artwork, as it could interfere with a custom FE layout in regaurds to design.  You're a man with a mission, keep going!

-csa

[Circo]

OK, this is what I will do.  Check out the new file structure.

-Horizontal
-Vertical
-Artwork
  -Cropped
  -Non Cropped
(Non cropped will include Horizontal games with artwork as well)

Should work for everyone.

Thanks for all the good feedback!

[Silver]

Wow! A monster collection.... hope you have a good system for doing this efficiently! (How are you doing it by the way?)

[Circo]

I have gone through 4 computers since I started this project, trying to get enough horsepower to do this right.  Here is what I am currently running:

Intel Core 2 Duo 6400 OC to 2.9Ghz per core
2GB DDR2 800
BFG nforce 680i Mobo
BFG geforce 8800 GTS 640MB Video
Sound Blaster X-Fi
WD Raptor 10000RPM 74GB
Seagate 750GB HD
500GB External HD
Some other HD's I have almost 2TB of workspace.
Logitech G15 Keyboard with LCD display (for fraps)
Samsung 20" LCD
Sony 19" LCD
Xbox 360 Controller
Dual Boot with vista and xp pro.  XP is only for EmuMovies, nothing else is installed but what I use for this project.  I use Vista for everything else.

I set the sony monitor to 640x480 res then run the emulator fullscreen.  Using FRAPS for capturing, I then start the emulator, check through the intro sequence to see if it is good enough.  Usually I actually play the game for a minute or so while capturing then reset the emulator to capture the intro sequence.  I then exit the emulator then drop the capture into virtualdub.  I do sone quick editing, my target size per fille is about 30 seconds (usually about 20-25 seconds of gameplay then the title screen).  If it has a really good intro it may be longer.

In virtualdub I export into Xvid using quant level 4 and MP3 audio at 56kbps.  I used to use 128 but I can not tell the differance in quality and it help keep the file size down a bit. 

Last night using this process I was able to get through about 75 games.

[KillerArcades]

wow! I commend  you for your persistence and I envy you for the time you're able to make for this.

[Circo]

I just wanted to clarify that when saying artwork I was referring to bezels.  Actual ARTWORK ie: backgrounds and overlays WILL be in the captures.  Tron, Armor Attack, Asteroids Deluxe etc.  That was how the games were meant to look so those will always be in the video.

[Dariusz]

Hi Cisco,

Just wondering if you have yet released the movie pack for mame but without the watermark. I have attempted to visit your website for any news but the web site indicated you have exceeded you bandwidth. Is there a torrent (one torrent) available for just the mame movies for  .1 to 0.13? Thanks,

Dariusz

[jcrouse]

Not yet. He just started last week and is looking at a huge undertaking, MANY hours. I would imagine it will be two months or so. He may even release them in smaller sets as he goes.

Be patient,
John

[jimjim]

Went to Circo's house yesterday and got to check out how the set is coming.  He is doing a great job.  One of the things that always amazes me about his set is how he captures scenes from the games, and not just the attract mode. 

Considering all the sets that he has done, I kid him that he should be in the world record books for playing the most games.  If you count Mame, NES, SNES, SEGA Systems, Wonderswan, etc... he has played thousands of games and has the documentation to prove it.

Back to the topic, I think people will definitely be impressed. 

[Dariusz]

Thanks for the news, I'm impressed, and appreciate all the work that circo is doing.   Dariusz

[Circo]

Quick update:

- Had an 8lb 4oz Baby girl last week so that has been taking up lots of time.

- The NEW mame set is completed up through C so even with distractions is is going much faster.  I will probably post a new WIP torrent once I am through D.  Here is a complete status:

Horizontal #-C Complete - Includes all games including verticals with black bars on the sides.

Vertical #-C Complete - Includes all vertical games at a * X 480 resolution

Bezel Artwork Cropped #-Z Complete

Bezel Artwork Full #-Z Complete

- Emumovies.com is down as well as my email (circo@emumovies.com) I lost my old server but not to worry I am working on a new server to host the site and will be up hopefully next week.  My apologies but it was unavoidable, so if anyone has tried to contact me in the last two weeks and I have not responded that is why.

[squirrellydw]

congratulations

[edge]

Quick update:

- Had an 8lb 4oz Baby girl last week so that has been taking up lots of time.

Congrats, Circo!  Maybe she can help with the movie captures?

I love how you mixed in a birth announcement with your movie to-dos. hehe.  Your wife would love it.

[Circo]

At least it was tops on the list 

[ShAddiX]

Can't wait for the new release
Keep it up 

[Circo]

Figured I would drop in and give an update, I am currently waiting for the nameserver to catch up so I can upload what is left of my website and get it going again.  So hopefully it will be up tonight.  I never fully realized what time was going to be like after the arrival of my daughter.  Needless to say it shook everything up A LOT. 

To be perfectly honest it has been about a month since I have fired up the cab.  Also I was a little disheartened when the new Mala came out and it seems all of the video stuff is broken, and I have no idea how to quantify the problems I am having to Swindus and Loadman but I am hopeful that it will eventually get sorted out.  Not to take anything away from the frontend, for everything it does: Speech, Beta Brite, LCD, LED WIZ (all features that I have a use for) these work fantasticly.  For some reason I can't get my new game previews to work, and I have never been able to get the screensaver mode to function in the least.  Anyway with everything added together (including the loss of my server), it has been a good time to take a semi break. 

Anyway I ramble......

In the new world this project has surely slowed.. but there is still life in the project.  I have not stopped making the previews, and lately I have done quite a few.  So while my timelines to have things back to normal keep passing, it really does seem like I am finally making progress.  Stay tuned!!

[Hoopz]

Thanks for the update and good luck with the family.   

We'll be here when its ready. 

[loadman]

To be perfectly honest it has been about a month since I have fired up the cab.  Also I was a little disheartened when the new Mala came out and it seems all of the video stuff is broken, and I have no idea how to quantify the problems I am having to Swindus and Loadman but I am hopeful that it will eventually get sorted out.  Not to take anything away from the frontend, for everything it does: Speech, Beta Brite, LCD, LED WIZ (all features that I have a use for) these work fantastically.  For some reason I can't get my new game previews to work, and I have never been able to get the screensaver mode to function in the least.  Anyway with everything added together (including the loss of my server), it has been a good time to take a semi break. 

I feel partially responsible for that as I did not have any issues and gave the 'thumbs up' to Swindus to release RC9. It seems that did not test thoughrally enough. After release I found issues with the screensaver (if enabled) and video previews on other PC'S.   

Anyway..... as you know Swindus works 'sporadically' on MaLa, he fits in between his 'Real life' and work. But when he does work on it he goes 110% for quite some time.

Anyway my point is I have no doubt these two issues will be solved its just a matter of when.  I am standing by to beta test your videos on beta versions of MaLa when you are both ready.

My best guess the cause is a combination of a MaLa bug (not looking in the right directory for vids in some scenarios) and the current video playback driver MaLa is using...

Anyway Good Luck with Family life and let us know what name you pick out for your next Mini-Cab for your daughter to play when she is old enough 

Cheers   

[Trebeck]

Can't wait til they are ready to download again.  What a sweet idea!

Beck

[Circo]

Well I can say that I have never had so many problems getting on a new server.  Website is up and limping, I will be working on it all night to get fully back up and running.  Email finally back up and boy do I have a lot of work going through all that.  Soon as I get the site done the new mame torrent is ready to put up.  Will post here when done.

[ShAddiX]

Is there any wip news?
I check this board, [romsite name redacted] and emumovies.com every day for this release. ^^"

Or would it be possible to release a part which is already finished? (like the #-A release)

Ansyways, keep this great work up!   

[mrclean]

ok? MAME HiQ Work in Progress   ?? i see that torrent is 9 gigs! whats missing? and is it close to being complete ?

[Silver]

Those are just letters A-I, (and numbers). J-Z still to go, so its going to be a lot bigger than 9 gig...

[mrclean]

Those are just letters A-I, (and numbers). J-Z still to go, so its going to be a lot bigger than 9 gig...

ok? but the only thing im slightly confused about is the way that the folders are within this current torrent? some w./ artwork from mr. do's site with the bezels and some without and some in native 16:9 and others in 4:3 etc etc.. is it just to suit everyone because some people want it with the bezels etc and some don't? or is this strickly for orginizational purposes, so this means 20gigs!? round and abouts for the whole collection?

[Silver]

Yes, basically Circo is doing a highly impressive "keep everyone happy" effort.

For example, there are 4 versions of 1943.avi

1 in the Horizontal folder   --- 4:3, so as a vertical game, 1943 has black borders at the side.
1 in the Vertical folder        --- 3:4, so no black borders video
1 in the Artwork/Cropped folder --- like horizontal, but black borders filled with game artwork
1 in the Artwork/Full folder --- full artwork on all sides, so game video is smaller inside artwork

[Zero_Hour]

Just finished pulling down the W.I.P HiQ movies.
They are Sweet.
Can't wait for the next batch.


Thanks for putting theses together Circo. 

[Circo]

I am on vacation all of next week, with nothing but this to do.  BTW, anyone who has known me for awhile on these boards knows that I have had pretty regular website issues since it's inception.  I have now officially moved everything over to my own server and I am no longer dependant on others for bandwidth, hosting, etc.  So if you havent yet please check out the new site, I would say that it is about 85% complete (I have a guy who is doing some work on it for me that should be done by this weekend).  Also everything has been placed on the ftp so if you have ever ordered a dvd set from me drop me a line and I will hook you up with ftp access for updates and such. 

[Circo]

Yes, basically Circo is doing a highly impressive "keep everyone happy" effort.

For example, there are 4 versions of 1943.avi

1 in the Horizontal folder   --- 4:3, so as a vertical game, 1943 has black borders at the side.
1 in the Vertical folder        --- 3:4, so no black borders video
1 in the Artwork/Cropped folder --- like horizontal, but black borders filled with game artwork
1 in the Artwork/Full folder --- full artwork on all sides, so game video is smaller inside artwork

Thanks for the breakdown Silver, I hope that this clarifies it for everyone.

[ARTIFACT]

what's the link for the lower resolution versions?

(my cab is not displaying these high res ones well... it's slow ... and I resize it to 320x240 in my MALA layout anyway...

THANKS IN ADVANCE!!  good job!

[loadman]

what's the link for the lower resolution versions?

(my cab is not displaying these high res ones well... it's slow ... and I resize it to 320x240 in my MALA layout anyway...

THANKS IN ADVANCE!!  good job!

How fast is your PC?  It needs to be Decent to play Hih Rez Vids

Are you using the latest beta version ?: 
http://mala.arcadezentrum.com/MaLa_v1.0RC9a_beta2.7z

And the latest XVID Driver (with Divx uninstalled first) ? : http://download.divxmovies.com/XviD-1.1.3-28062007.exe

[Circo]

what's the link for the lower resolution versions?

(my cab is not displaying these high res ones well... it's slow ... and I resize it to 320x240 in my MALA layout anyway...

THANKS IN ADVANCE!!  good job!

When I finish I will probably do a batch recode at 320x240 for Mala compatabilitly.  The other mame videos were not mine but if you follow the info link tab next to them on my site, it will tell you where to download.

[ARTIFACT]

OK

I am good now...

What I did is use iRiverter (a small, free video re-encoder for small media devices) and batch encoded my videos folder to 320x240, 300 Kbps bitrate, 32 Kbps audio...

Then I batch-renamed the files (iriverter added a ".zvm" to all the files) using another free utility

IT WORKS GREAT NOW! SUPER FAST SWITCHING

Pic of my custom layout in my project thread (sig link)

[Circo]

Virtual Dub also has a job setting that is very efficient for re encoding the files, I just set the video filter to make the videos 50%. 

[ARTIFACT]

Circo, do you have a (simple) tutorial on how to create these?

thanks

[Circo]

I have updated the torrent link and information on the first post.

[Cananas]

Thank you for your hard work. Great stuff, including all possible options to keep all the people happy (HiQ, SQ, Artwork, Horizontal, vertical,...).

[mrclean]

Not a member of [romsite name redacted].. so i cant download this anychance to make this a "free torrent"? or seed it on another tracker ?

edit : works now! no torrent issues / restrictions...thanks!.. will continue to seed
its going slow..then fast..then slow again.. maybe its my client not sure but can't complain because I know how much work was put into this thanks circo!

[FrizzleFried]

Not hard to apply bro...


...or have you already been shitlisted?

[Circo]

You should not need to be a member of the tracker, these are linked to a special acct they made for me so that anyone can use the torrent for my releases.  What is happening when you open the torrent?

In fact you should never have to visit the tracker at all to download.  But you still need to stay and seed it no grab and runs as that is just rude.

[Circo]

Thank you for your hard work. Great stuff, including all possible options to keep all the people happy (HiQ, SQ, Artwork, Horizontal, vertical,...).

Thank you Cananas, yeah when looking at the size keep in mind that there are quite a few versions you will not have to use all of the files at the same time.  Most folks will do a mix and match of them to get the right config on their cabinet.