Quality Test - Cat Planet (PC)

2014-03-18 03:45:24 am

Type of quality test: Final encode
Operating system: Windows 7
Capture hardware: Not applicable
Capture software: FRAPS 3.5.99
Capture video resolution: 480 x 360
Name of the game: Cat Planet for PC (downloadable here: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-16/?action=preview&uid=1081)

I made this final encoding by just putting the source video in Windows Movie Maker 2.6 and saving it as a movie. I can provide the source video if necessary, but I'd rather avoid that if possible because I'm currently on internet with roughly 30 KB/s upload speed (and that's when I'm the only one using it).

I'm not sure what's happening with the resolution; the game's resolution is 960 x 720, but FRAPS produced a 480 x 360 movie, even though I had it set to record movies at "Full-size" rather than "Half-size". Movie Maker then turned the 480 x 360 source file into a 640 x 480 movie, and I don't know how to make it not do that.

Thread title:

Attachment:

CatPlanet429_AllCats.wmv

Warepire

2014-03-18 03:58:08 am

Heavy Metal Powered

Movie Maker encoded movies are not good enough in quality.
You should really use Yua to do your encodes instead as it is specially developed to produce SDA accepted encodes: https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/yua3.html

spidey-widey

2014-03-18 04:58:03 am

Noted; thanks for the info. Attached is the HQ version made by Yua.

Attachment:

CatPlanet429_AllCats_HQ.mp4

nate

2014-03-18 11:22:42 am

looks like you are doing ok but you should set fraps to capture 60 fps for this game since it is probably 60 fps. if not then you can ignore me.

spidey-widey

2014-03-18 04:31:44 pm

Hmm, I tried recording at 60 fps yesterday and the game started running slowly, but my laptop seems to handle it just fine now. Cat Planet does indeed run at 60 fps.

Is the capture resolution something I should be worried about? In terms of video quality, the difference between 960 x 720 and 480 x 360 seems pretty negligible because the game's graphics are pretty simple, but I want to make sure before recording any better runs. (I tried capturing at Half-size rather than Full-size, just to make sure the two weren't switched on my version of FRAPS; Half-size does, indeed, halve the dimensions to 240 x 180.)

nate

2014-03-19 08:28:02 am

yeah it may be that the game is actually upscaling using opengl or whatever. so i wouldn't worry about it.

spidey-widey

2014-03-19 02:11:41 pm

Neat, thanks. Time to record some serious runs...