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Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.
VisualBoyAdvance's built-in AVI Recorder sucks compared to other emulators', unfortunately. You may want to try some of the branches of the emulator, like VBA-Rerecording or VBA-M and see if the AVI recording is better on them. I thought I've heard that one of these emulator branches fixes AVI Recording to not suck, but I can't find anything to confirm that.

e: beaten

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Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.
Download and install Lagarith (mentioned in the OP of this thread) and use that as your codec. It'll give you lossless recording while keeping your file size much smaller than the default setting. From there, you can do whatever edits you need and then encode your final video using the stuff in the OP.

Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.
PSP emulation's improved drastically, so that's a viable option as well depending on which game you're doing (since a lot of them are still pretty glitchy).

Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.
If you have a Nvidia card, apparently they just recently updated Shadowplay to include streaming to Twitch.tv.

Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.
I like this little AviSynth macro that uses ImageMagick to automatically create a GIF. Just Trim to the frames you're capturing, then do the Macro (Speed: 1, Optimize Checked) and it'll spit out an optimized GIF. Handy if you're already taking screenshots in AvsPmod already.

Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.
Yeah, I still use GIF Movie Gear since it gives me a good idea how big the GIF will be and also gives me more flexibility to do stupid goofy poo poo while still taking less than two minutes a GIF. But if all you're doing are quick and dirty GIFs, it's simple and fast if you're already taking screenshots in AvsPmod.

And also it doesn't cost thirty loving dollars like GIF Movie Gear.

Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.
I'm sure most of you knows this already, but here's a quick AviSynth tip for those loading multiple AVI videos. You can use SegmentedAviSource("C:\LPDirectory\Update.avi") and it'll load all AVI files in the format Update.01, Update.02, Update.03, and so on all at once. Beats doing AviSource(VideoA) + AviSource(VideoB) + ..., plus now you don't have to change your script each time to comment out extra videos or whatever.

Found this digging around in the AviSynth wiki after getting tired of dealing with 10+ videos an update thanks to SNES9X only recording in 2GB chunks while dealing with a crazy slog of a game.

Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.
As a rough guideline for emulators, anything recommended on TASVideos is probably a good way to go.

Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.

Choco1980 posted:

So, I've been recently recording a NES game using nestopia's built-in record function, and it's convert to avi feature. All of a sudden with the most recent recording, the conversion will stop dead in its tracks after the avi hits 1 gig in size which is 2:23 of the video, which is about twice that long, when it didn't before. I've been using the conversion option of "full frames (uncompressed)". Any clue what's going on?

Edit: Playing with the codec options I was able to output something acceptable, but I'd still like to use the other method. Any clues?

I'd check out Lagarith, since it'll do the same thing as Full Frames (Uncompressed) but give you a significantly smaller file (probably not technically correct, but close enough I imagine). It's linked in the OP.

Have any other videos you recorded ever been above 1GB? I know from my experience some emulators are weird about file sizes (snes9x splits movies at 2 or 4GB, I used an ePSXe plugin that would choke and do the same thing you described at 2 or 4GB or whatever), so if it's a repeatable problem I'd recommend another emulator or recording in chunks if a better solution doesn't pop up here.

Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.

Schir posted:

I could absolutely do this, since I've already ripped the game's script. My only concern then would be if there's a long wall of text between the pieces of artwork, as it's a visual novel and those have a lot of text.

You could always do screenshots whenever the topic of conversation changes or when something important is said. That's how I generally balance between screenshots and dialogue for talky scenes.

Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.
Many games have character portraits of at least the important people, or official artwork you can use, or failing that (or in games where the character artwork sucks for portrait purposes, like Final Fantasy V) you may have luck finding in-game images at a place like The Spriter's Resource. 50x50's a good baseline for portrait size, with 75x75 working if the game you're using has finer details. The important thing is to be consistent with these sizes, particularly width-wise, since it'll keep the text nice and aligned.

Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.

Mico posted:

Also w/r/t the cables thing, I was asking for websites not to be directed on a 5 hour car journey. So, yeah, any websites would be helpful.

YamiNoSenshi posted:

There's always eBay. I'm sure you can find a video game cables vendor that has everything.

A quick search for "SNES power cord" on eBay shows some decent cheap "Buy-It-Now" results with free shipping. eBay's probably going to be your best bet.

Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.

Earnestly posted:

Doing a cool let's play thread for cool posters because Mega64 said "gently caress you, I'm doing Mother 3."

More like "gently caress you, all my free time is now dedicated to Final Fantasy 14."

Screenshot looks good to me, though maybe a couple with some text and other things would be nice to double-check.

Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.
Are there any "advanced" GIF articles anyone would recommend? My general method so far is in AvsPmod I use a Trim function to get the frames I want for the animation, export the images into a folder, and load these images in GIF Movie Gear. Then I adjust timing and Optimize from there, or if I'm feeling goofy, I do easy stuff like reverse or ping-pong frames. I want to go beyond that though, especially since I like to make avatars of various GIFs I make in my Let's Plays, and knowing better ways to optimize them manually than clicking Optimize would help get those trickier GIFs down to avatar-size.

Here's an example of something I'd want to do. Is there a good way to make the GIF background stay static after the initial ball drop so that the NPC flies off the screen rather than him being followed like in-game? I'm sure it's possible editing each individual frame if I get a process down, but I'm wondering if there's an easier way to do or learn it. Or really just any tips that would help me make goofier GIFs, or at least time-saving tips if I do have to edit a bunch of frames manually.

Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.
What's the best option/emulator for recording PS1 footage using in-emulator AVI recording? Last time I fiddled with PS1 video recording a couple years ago it was kind of a pain (video had to be re-encoded through VirtualDub if over 2GB just to work fine in AvsPmod) so I'm hoping some better options exist now or I just missed something convenient the first time.

Alternatively, would it actually be easier to do it with a PSP emulator instead?

Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.

Niggurath posted:

Is there any reason you want to use in-emulator recording? I've found it's easy enough to use Dxtory to record footage from a PS1 emulator.

Mainly to avoid hiccups and the like messing up video, and also so I can abuse fast-forward and have the video come out normal speed (though since the idea's a SSLP it'd be not as big an issue). My computer's beefy enough now that I can handle direct screen recording, but I had bad experiences using FRAPS to record a PS1 LP several years ago that led me to do a lot of editing for some of the videos I posted on it. Using in-emulator recording is generally the best way to get the most accurate video. That said, if screen recording's the best option I'll go that route.

Edward_Tohr posted:

Oh jeez.

I'm using psxjin for mine right now, but I wouldn't wish that emulator on my worst enemy.

I think that's what I used for FF5, and I wasn't a fan of it. And sadly that's also what TASVideos recommends.

Mega64 fucked around with this message at 00:19 on Jul 2, 2015

Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.
I'd love to do videos of FMVs and possibly other stuff too, so audio desync would rule it out.

Does PPSSPP support PS1-to-PSP games and AVI Recording? Because that honestly sounds like a better option than once again diving into the clusterfuck that is PS1 emulation.

e: Looks like it doesn't have AVI recording, so looking like screen capture on whatever PS1 emulator I choose it is.

Mega64 fucked around with this message at 00:30 on Jul 2, 2015

Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.

Heavy Sigh posted:

So now trying to process any video in megui gives me this result:



No settings were changed between videos, so I am lost as to what is causing this.

I usually have luck bypassing that by adding ConvertToYV12 to my avs script.

Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.

Sundowner posted:

I guess this falls kinda within side-wide SA technical things but seeing as it directly pertains to a thread in LP... is it possible to edit my posts in an archived thread? I finally want to get around to tidying up the posts in my BioShock Infinite LP so I can get it archived (just a year late, ya know) or will I have to provide details of what I want cut out of the inevitable LPA post?

You can't edit posts in archived threads. One workaround you could do is post your adjusted posts in the test poster and tell baldurk to use those in the LP Archive over the originals.

Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.

Star Man posted:

I just lost a 70-minute input recording to a loving sprite flicker.

gently caress you, openmsx.

Not really an expert on this kind of tech question but sounds like all you need to do is find a porn game where you can name a fuckable character "openmsx" and that should get you set.

Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.
AviSynth w/ AvsPmod is pretty handy for the screenshot side since you only need basic stuff like Resize to skip Batch Resize when taking screenshots, or Trim for GIFs/basic videos. Don't think I'd bother with it though if I was doing a 20 minute video with a lot of different effects, but that's probably pretty rare anyway since most videos I've seen around here only do a few transitions per video with no other major effects.

Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.
Your best bet is probably either Youtube or self-hosting.

Really hope Tindeck doesn't go under if only because it'd be a pain in the rear end replacing all my links just in my current LP, let alone the eight or so other lengthy RPG LPs where I have five-ten Tindeck links an update.

e: I also just noticed the "For Sale" banner they've had on the front page for months is mysteriously gone. Guess someone might have actually bought them, but it's probably more likely they're dead pretty drat soon.

Mega64 fucked around with this message at 00:25 on Aug 17, 2016

Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.

Suspicious Dish posted:

i contacted them once saying "your code is bad" and the dude gave me premium for free so if you want my account you're welcome to have it

I managed to randomly have Premium benefits for years despite never paying for it, until one day I stopped having them. Also they still use Flash to stream music which makes listening to music on iOS a bit more of a pain since you have to get to the download page instead. Also they haven't updated their blog or Twitter since 2013 and I'm pretty sure their traffic is 90% LPs and Homestuck at this point.

I still like it though but it's not really too surprising it's gonna die.

Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.

Sternieliscious posted:

I'm starting to try out animated gifs and I'd like to know if it's better to tinker with the quality of the animation until it's small enough for the LPix file limit or host it at Gfycat.

It depends on context. For doing a one-off GIF to show off something goofy from a recent video, it's not a big deal to go big. If you're showing a dozen GIFs for a SSLP, you'll want to keep file-size down if you can. It depends greatly on the graphical detail of the game and how much movement there is and how many GIFs you plan to do and so on.

For what it's worth, I usually try to go under 2MB, even if I have to butcher the frame rate for more complex GIFs. It's a good guideline to avoid file-size bloat and to avoid slowing down people on bad connections or on mobile or whatever, but I also mostly LP older 2D games so my GIFs generally aren't that big. But depending on what you're doing, going bigger may work for what you want to do.

Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.
If it's available on Wii VC then it's better to play on Dolphin than the fiddly-rear end N64 emulators.

Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.

Doc Morbid posted:

I'm not saying you should get one of these because I'm sure there are better options, but you certainly can't get much cheaper or simpler than this:

Someone in the general retro gaming thread bought a $5 USB capture device (yes, 5 dollars, although it seems to be out of stock at this very moment) from a Chinese ebay seller.

Obviously, the quality isn't exactly equivalent to a $500 setup that involves plugging your retro consoles into an XRGB-mini Framemeister HD upscaler that is hooked up to an Elgato Game Capture HD60, but again it's 5 bucks.

I got away with using one of those for a LP way back. Can't really hurt to try it out and see how it looks.

Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.

MythosDragon posted:

So I know this is probably embarrassingly stupid, but I'm pretty new to forums in general, much less using them to write giant updates about playing a game while linking like a hundred images. I understand how BBcode and smilies work, but are there any quality of life tricks I should know, like a way to write :Character Name: to have a sprite for transcribing text?

First off, use Notepad++ or something else to write updates and then copy/paste them into the post field so you don't lose everything when something bad happens (even though the forums will auto-save partial posts now, it's kinda risky).

As for processes, here's an updated version of something I'd paste a lot when this question came up. Needs a bit cleaning up, but overall it should be a good starting process.

quote:

My Full Process:

1. Record footage using the emulator's AVI recording function, or OBS/Shadowplay/FRAPS/Hypercam 2 if it has none/a crappy one.

2. Use AvsPmod to take screenshots, using AviSynth to resize/crop where appropriate. Trim functions are useful for making GIFs (I use "Save Image Sequence" in a separate folder and drop all the images in GIF Movie Gear, though GifCam and GoonCam are much better alternatives these days since they're actually free) and for making supplemental videos (after I resize to over 720p because Youtube is finicky as hell) to stick into MeGUI.

3. Use Irfanview to rename all my images to 001, 002, 003, etc. Also to convert PNGs to JPGs if the files are large (which they usually are for 3D games). If you're gonna have a mix of animated GIFs and JPGs, I recommend renaming everything to a separate folder, sorting that folder by file type, then selecting all PNGs only and convert them to JPG in your output folder, then move the GIFs manually.

4. Write my update in Notepad ++ with images open in Windows Photo Viewer or Irfanview (which will play animated GIFs), using placeholders for images and characters. [001] for image one, [char1] for Character 1, and so on. If you have characters with multiple faces, FaceCopy may be more convenient and less of a headache to use for characters instead. I also throw in music and video links where appropriate. Notepad's also fine, but Notepad ++ lets me create and use macros to save a bit of time (I set Ctrl/Shift + I to add italic tags, for instance).

5. Upload everything to LPix using Rightload.

6. Save the Rightload links in a different text file, then use Admiral H. Curtiss's wonderful RightloadUrlAutoReplace to do the tedious work of copying and pasting images for me. It's a great idea to keep your character portrait links in this same text file so they get automatically replaced every time you do an update

7. Preview in my topic (Right click - Paste as Plain Text will avoid stuff like auto-adding image and url tags, which can be handy as hell) to make sure everything looks good. When I'm happy, I post.

8. Bask in the glory of my life's greatest works.

Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.
FaceCopy's great if you're going to use multiple portraits for one character or have a bunch of nameless NPCs or whatever, but if you're doing one portrait per character I find it easier to keep all the portrait URLs in the same text files you'll put your image links and use tags like [character1] and [character2] so RightloadURLAutoReplace can take care of it all for me.

But then what's easier for me is not easier for everyone, so if FaceCopy works better for you definitely use it.

Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.
Just tried Rightload and doesn't work for me either. Must be an LPix issue.

Sent baldurk a PM, if anyone has a faster way to contact him go for it.

Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.
At least this got me to try out ShareX, and once I played around enough I think I got it figured out.

Really should have a guide on how to use it though. If no one else does one maybe I'll do it, though of course I'm not yet familiar with the program or how useful it can be with LP's besides Batch Uploading.

Mysticblade posted:

So, is there any way to get ShareX to dump the entire set of URL's for a batch upload into .txt or onto the clipboard? And if there is, is there any way to do the automatic img tags like in Rightload?

E - I just figured it out. In the uploaded list, just select everything and then right click. Menu's are easy from there.

In case it isn't obvious, it's Copy -> Forum (BBCode) Image. It'll copy all the URLs you uploaded with IMG tags. Handy if you use RightloadURLAutoReplace (though that automatically adds image tags if there aren't any anyway).

Mega64 fucked around with this message at 15:44 on Feb 12, 2017

Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.

Blarghalt posted:

Rightload borked for me too and I can't get the new .dll files for it to work, so I guess I'm using ShareX.


I get that this is the code that goes into ShareX's config file, but it doesn't seem to say where it goes in the config file. What should it look like?

Destinations -> Destinations Settings, go to the bottom to Custom uploaders. On the middle of the left column, click Import. I just copied the text and clicked "Import From Clipboard" and it did its thing.

When you change your username and password, be sure to click Update right above each time. Then click update on the upper-left column just to make sure.

Still new at this so let me know if I got something wrong/am inefficient in a step or whatever.

Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.
I think that's Task Settings -> General. Uncheck "Play sound after task is completed", and put "After task is completed: Show nothing" so you don't get overwhelmed with numerous notifications or whatever.

ShareX seems ridiculously fast in uploading images compared to Rightload, too.

Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.
Select All Uploaded Images, Right Click, Copy -> Forum (BBCode) Image

Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.

LordHippoman posted:

Are LPix or Rightload having some issues right now? I can't seem to upload any screenshots, because I get:

"Upload failed - Error: Transfer Failed"

For each image. I seem to be logged in fine, so I'm not sure what it could be.

Have you tried all the stuff listed on this page? Not being sarcastic, just want to see if this is a new problem or if you just overlooked the earlier conversation we've had about it in here.

Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.
Couldn't find anything on Google Search, could be a bug and something worth reporting.

This is a completely random guess, but maybe limiting uploads to 1 at a time might help? (Application Settings -> Upload)

Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.
Just checked a batch I did last night.

code:
[img]https://lpix.org/2704801/001.gif[/img]
[img]https://lpix.org/2704784/002.jpg[/img]
[img]https://lpix.org/2704784/002.jpg[/img]
[img]https://lpix.org/2704784/002.jpg[/img]
[img]https://lpix.org/2704784/002.jpg[/img]
[img]https://lpix.org/2704786/006.jpg[/img]
[img]https://lpix.org/2704788/007.jpg[/img]
[img]https://lpix.org/2704787/008.jpg[/img]
[img]https://lpix.org/2704789/009.jpg[/img]
[img]https://lpix.org/2704791/010.jpg[/img]
At first glance, it looks like it flat-out skipped some images at the start. Images 3-5 do not show up in the uploaded gallery, though everything else uploaded fine. However, if you check image 2704785 (not listed in my URL list or gallery),it does exist and is indeed what should've been image 3. Working backwards from the first listed number, 2704783 ends up being my image 4, 2704782 my image 5. So all the images did indeed upload, several just didn't make my gallery somehow.

Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.
Probably this:

baldurk posted:

Yeh I updated to HSTS on lpix last night, I forgot about the uploaders that might barf instead of picking that up.

For sharex I think it's a simple fix, just update the config to point to https. When it POSTs to http://lpix.org/api it redirects and only does a GET to https://lpix.org/api which is why it fails. I updated the config if you want to copy paste.

For rightload it's more of a ball-ache. It ships a version of curl, but rightload is so old that the curl dll is from 2008 (!) and can't handshake, and the cert bundle it includes isn't up to date. I've updated the plugin but the install is more involved now since I have to include an updated curl + openssl + cert bundle. So when you get the zip, there are two dlls to put in the root of rightload's folder alongside the exe, and then a plugins folder where you copy the stuff in from there.

Also I make no guarantees that the rightload poo poo is safe/secure, only that it seems to work for me when I tested it. Fun fact: if I return https as the URLs on lpix from the plugin, the bbcode stuff completely breaks and just prints "{Unknown URL}" because it doesn't understand what to do with https. So I had to return http anyway and rely on your browser to do the right thing. The fix for that is to stop using an old abandoned program, I guess.

There's discussion on the last page about it, has some basic advice for ShareX too if you want to switch.

I'll add a note or something to the OP tomorrow.

Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.
Do you know what speeds you're supposed to get? If it's an option, restarting the modem and/or router might boost the speeds to where they're supposed to be.

Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.

baldurk posted:

I might have found the problem, but it'd be good to confirm by seeing if anyone runs into it now that I've made a fix. If it's broken then this time I'll have better logging to debug with.

Try running with multiple file uploads allowed now, and let me know if you see the problem show up again.

Still getting issues, though the duplicates only happen at the beginning and end.

code:
[img]https://lpix.org/2711199/001.jpg[/img]
[img]https://lpix.org/2711199/001.jpg[/img]
[img]https://lpix.org/2711199/001.jpg[/img]
[img]https://lpix.org/2711195/004.jpg[/img]
[img]https://lpix.org/2711199/001.jpg[/img]
[img]https://lpix.org/2711200/006.jpg[/img]
...
code:
...
[img]https://lpix.org/2711397/200.jpg[/img]
[img]https://lpix.org/2711395/201.jpg[/img]
[img]https://lpix.org/2711399/205.jpg[/img]
[img]https://lpix.org/2711394/203.jpg[/img]
[img]https://lpix.org/2711396/204.jpg[/img]
[img]https://lpix.org/2711399/205.jpg[/img]
[img]https://lpix.org/2711400/206.jpg[/img]
[img]https://lpix.org/2711401/207.jpg[/img]
[img]https://lpix.org/2711404/208.jpg[/img]
[img]https://lpix.org/2711405/209.jpg[/img]
[img]https://lpix.org/2711402/210.jpg[/img]
[img]https://lpix.org/2704825/211.jpg[/img]
[img]https://lpix.org/2711404/208.jpg[/img]
Oddly enough, every image I uploaded (including the final image 212) shows up in my gallery except 211, though that one's a duplicate of another uploaded image which explains why it's not in the gallery (it's a blank white screen so it makes sense).

So it looks like things are working on the LPix end but are still kinda glitchy on the ShareX end.

Mega64 fucked around with this message at 14:38 on Feb 19, 2017

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Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.
Glad to see things are working as intended on the LPix side, at least.

Otherwise, looks like limiting to one upload at a time is the safest option. It's still significantly faster than Rightload and doesn't take much longer than multiple uploads.

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