Public Commander Keen Forum

Really impressive!

OK, I said there'd be no more updates. Spoiler alert: I lied

It's Sunday and I have a cold. Might as well do something useful since classes haven't started yet and I'm just sitting here in my room.

This is basically a bugfix update. List of changes:

- Animation routines are now timed independently of the framerate. In theory you can now ramp up the framerate past 24 fps, but it doesn't always work right. Things get jerky and the scrolling gets weird. Still have some work to do on that...
- Various bugfixes on clipping routines and other stuff.
- One new booooring demo level by yours truly which I whipped up in about 3 minutes.

And I got some better screen capture software, so goodbye compression artifacts! DOSBox stuttered a little though

Demo video: https://youtu.be/BT2TOsgANZ8

Download link: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bwrva ... XRTanNzOG8

Is it even possible to make a level in 3 minutes or less?

keenmaster486 wrote:And I got some better screen capture software, so goodbye compression artifacts! DOSBox stuttered a little though

Do you know that DOSBox has an internal video capture feature?
I've used it for all my DOSBox captures - for me it was almost transparent, performance-wise.

Also, cool tune at 1:26, what is it?

wiivn wrote:Is it even possible to make a level in 3 minutes or less? Crazy

Well, when you're the one who wrote the level editor (so you've got the key combinations burned into your brain as low-level functions) and you make heavy use of the copy function, then yeah, theoretically, it's possible . What took the longest was that big slope in the upper left corner since I had to set the tile properties manually, it being the first time I had used them.

kvee wrote:Do you know that DOSBox has an internal video capture feature?
I've used it for all my DOSBox captures - for me it was almost transparent, performance-wise.

Yeah, that's what I was using before, and it works very well - except it outputs at actual resolution, which in my case is 320x200. It doesn't scale very well on YouTube; you end up with a lot of compression artifacts. So I looked into using programs like VirtualDub to scale it up, but right now I'm running Ubuntu and I'm too lazy to make it work with Wine or reboot my computer

kvee wrote:Also, cool tune at 1:26, what is it? Happy

Cargo Transfer, or something like that, from Atroxian Realm. One of my favorites!

keenmaster486 wrote:Yeah, that's what I was using before, and it works very well - except it outputs at actual resolution, which in my case is 320x200. It doesn't scale very well on YouTube; you end up with a lot of compression artifacts. So I looked into using programs like VirtualDub to scale it up, but right now I'm running Ubuntu and I'm too lazy to make it work with Wine or reboot my computer

Yeah, I use VirtualDub for processing too, upscaling for YouTube is a must.

keenmaster486 wrote: Cargo Transfer, or something like that, from Atroxian Realm. One of my favorites!

Thanks!
Oooh, by our very own gridlock! Great job, if you're reading this

keenmaster486 wrote:Cargo Transfer, or something like that, from Atroxian Realm. One of my favorites!

kvee wrote:Oooh, by our very own gridlock! Great job, if you're reading this

it is Cargo Transit and it is composed by Gamebird. You can get the Soundrack here: Atroxian Realm OST

keenmaster486 wrote:Yeah, that's what I was using before, and it works very well - except it outputs at actual resolution, which in my case is 320x200. It doesn't scale very well on YouTube; you end up with a lot of compression artifacts. So I looked into using programs like VirtualDub to scale it up, but right now I'm running Ubuntu and I'm too lazy to make it work with Wine or reboot my computer.

another way to upscale your videos is using FFmpeg. I favour this over VirtualDub & Co cause you can choose and customize the parameters more precise for your own needs. besides that it is the best way of keeping it pixel perfect without any artifacts.
also this method is cross platform but therefor without a GUI (you have to use the CMD if you are on Windows, for Mac and Linux it is the Terminal).


For Windows users:

• 1. Download the FFmpeg here.
• 2. run the included Batch-file
• 3. implement and add the following parameters.

  Code: Select all

  ffmpeg -i in.avi -sws_flags neighbor+full_chroma_inp -s 1280x800 -r 30 -vcodec libx264 -crf 20 -acodec libmp3lame -aq 2 -f mp4 out.mp4

• 4.a) Change the parameter in.avi to the path where DosBox saves its video recodings. by default this is C:\Users\YOUR-USERNAME\AppData\Local\DOSBox\capture\keen4e_001.avi
• 4.b) Change the parameter out.mp4 the a path of your choice.
• 5. Press Enter and wait until the upscaling is done (speed depends on you hardware equipment though)
  Of course you can just save all those within an own Batch-routine if you wish.

For Linux users (Debian/Ubuntu):

• 1. Get FFmpeg from the official packages or type:

  Code: Select all

  sudo apt-get install ffmpeg && sudo apt-get install libavcodec-extra

• 2. Next type into your terminal the following command:

  Code: Select all

  ffmpeg -i in.avi -sws_flags neighbor+full_chroma_inp -s 1280x800 -r 30 -vcodec libx264 -crf 20 -acodec libmp3lame -aq 2 -f mp4 out.mp4

• 3.a) Change the parameter in.avi to the path where DosBox saves its video recodings. by default this is ~/.dosbox/capture/keen4e_001.avi
• 3.b) Change the parameter out.mp4 the a path of your choice.
• 4. Run it and wait until everything is done.
  
  Attention: by default, DOSBox’ video capturing feature is triggered by pressing Ctrl-Alt-F5 simultaneously. Unfortunately this key combination will never reach DOSBox, as it will typically get intercepted by the X server and drop you to the 5th text console instead. So you first wanna change the combination for the video capturing. Therefor open DosBox, press Ctrl+F1 (or run it via Terminal: dosbox -startmapper). Then map the keys to your liking.

Some general Parameter explanation:

• in.avi - - > name and path of the source video you recorded with DosBox
• out.mp4 - - > is the name of your upscaled and muxed output container.
• 1280x800 - - > the output solution in pixel. I recommend to use multiples of 320x200 (for eg. 640x400, 960x600, 1280x800...)
• sws_flags - - > controls the software scale
• neighbor+full_chroma_inp - - > lets the scaler perform nearest neighbor interpolation and forces it to take the full input chroma resolution into account
• -r 30 - - > the output frame rate
• -vcodec libx264 - - > determines the video encoder
• -acodec libmp3lame -aq 2 - - > codec for a variable bitrate mp3 stream

super easy, super effective as long as you are not afraid of using some command-lines.
and if this isn't already enough for your the ffmpeg homepage features a beautiful documentation with tones of parameters and further information: Link
also please visit Ingomar Wesps page where most of those information came from.

Whoa, that's a great tutorial. You should publish it somewhere!

Definitely something to try out.

keenmaster486 wrote:Whoa, that's a great tutorial. You should publish it somewhere!

Definitely something to try out.

thanx, think I'm gonna create a Keen-Wiki page on how to handle DosBox and stuff.

Sounds like a plan, it can give tips on taking screenshots and demo videos, as well as setting the whole thing up.

I recently had to send a Keen game to a modern gamer guy. They wondered where the mouse support was and I felt so old.

Levellass wrote:They wondered where the mouse support was

Indeed. It was very interesting telling them that the arrow keys were actually important in this game. They sat at the main menu for five minutes being unable to comprehend what to do.

Nisaba wrote:...it is composed by Gamebird.

Oh, my bad. I've just looked at who uploaded the video over at YouTube.

kvee wrote:

Nisaba wrote:...it is composed by Gamebird.

Oh, my bad. I've just looked at who uploaded the video over at YouTube.

No worries. Gamebird composed the track. I just did some of the music editing. You're free to use the OST however you like.


Anyway, I'm intrigued by this engine so far. A lot of people have tried to recreate the Galaxy engine, but I've seen very few attempts that have gotten close. Though this still has a ways to go, I'm hoping you'll succeed. Good luck!