Rendering Replays to Video - yes it is a headache and a big deal
- Thread starter RC45
- 45 comments
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- Mount Pleasant, SC, USA
- Fnord
This is sort of how I assumed they would solve the issue, anyway. Just dump the contents of the framebuffer to a file on disc as the replay plays. It would be significantly easier, faster, and less system intensive than rendering each frame out in 3D into an image and then creating a video file from that. In essence, it would be real-time, but also less flexible. I think users would be fine with the less flexible part. Someone would complain. But that will always be the case.
- 8,725
Clever selection of the encoding algorithm and base resolution can mitigate the processing overhead somewhat. Clearly it's been done already in other games, and the PS3's SPUs (and the vector units on the 360) are ideal for the task; the techniques used in parallel / multi-threaded compression on PCs would be needed, with the obvious shortcomings in terms of the marginal loss in compression "quality".
The main issue is that off-the-shelf encoding is not straightforwardly possible, so a bespoke implementation for GT5's rendering engine is required - Kaz said memory requirements prevented the YouTube export from appearing, which may mean they did indeed try a parallel / partitioned method perhaps similar to the method in Just Cause 2...
Uncompressed video is huge. Really, really huge. Uncompressed 720p / 30 Hz is about 100 Megabytes per second. HDTV is only 3 Megabytes per second. Sure, it won't take so long to save it to disk (realtime at 720p / 30 Hz, assuming you can wrangle the memory bandwidth to pull the data from the frame-buffer), but that disk will be full very quickly indeed!
- 2,414
Been there done that with Forza so it's no big deal. My only gripe would have been if it was necessary to upload it to youtube or could we just get it off the PS3 once it's been rendered. But I still don't get the rationale, people might complain if they have to wait a long time to render so let's not give them the option at all?
- 1,495
It should be fairly easy for them to add this "FRAPS" type of capability of screen capture to the game. The export of the replay would then, of course, take as long as the replay itself. But it shouldn't take any longer than that, provided PD doesn't decide to increase the resolution/quality in the way they do for photo travel. If they do then I can see how exporting the replay could take many hours even for a 7 minute clip.
But at least a simple screen capturing tool would end the need for filming your replays from screen and we wouldn't see these wobbly you tube videos any more
Using FRAPS while playing the game has a high chance of causing problems with the gameplay. FRAPS can be used to capture vid during replay. This is what I do when I have mucked around with GTR2 vids. I let GTR2 capture the race and then I replay the race in GTR2 and turn on FRAPS. a PITA, but it is possible.
- 415
- GTP_infamousDee
tdk
(Banned)
- 453
- AjKnight666
Forget about rendering it directly, doing that in HD quality would take forever and the PS3 would probably die in the process, so to speak.
Just add director mode like in GT4, where you pick the angle of every frame and control the time (FF, Rewind, Slow-mo, etc).
If you want the replay on your computer just buy an HD capture card. It costs about $300 but it should be worth it.
Just add director mode like in GT4, where you pick the angle of every frame and control the time (FF, Rewind, Slow-mo, etc).
If you want the replay on your computer just buy an HD capture card. It costs about $300 but it should be worth it.
- 2,414
If a capture card came with the game then fine, no problem. When I bought the game the feature to upload videos had no been dispelled. Of course it would have done me no good since my main racing is done in a completely different room than my computer. Even if they were right next to each other I use an iMac so I wouldn't be able to install a card any way. I don't think any solution should require me to buy outside products to simulate a feature that was supposed to be built into the game.
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