SGDQ 2015 Feedback Thread

2015-08-20 05:43:24 pm

I can't remember when it was exactly, but there was an advertisement for the Megaman Legacy Collection between some games. I'd really prefer not being advertised specific products during the marathon. I can tolerate sponsor shoutouts, this just felt different to me as it was trying to pitch me a specific product.

Nitpicky, but I don't like going down the road of between-game product ads for whatever gaming company under the sun bids top dollar.

On the positive side, I really enjoyed the Metal Gear run, what a great game.

DarkTerrex

2015-08-20 06:00:31 pm

Quote from Vulajin:

Is this referring to the Metroid Prime: Hunters run, or something else?

Yes. I didn't get a chance to see the others to know if they went smoothly, I admit. I don't think what happened in MPH was terrible, but it switching your controller can be bad for some people. I personally can't play MM6 well without a specific controller for the way it is broken in specifically for that game. Some others might find an issue like this with a larger or smaller DS/3DS. I was again just bringing it up for the sake of bringing it up to keep it in our minds for next time.

Quote from redpracticeninja:

Thanks to folks on Saturday pre-marathon who helped test TVs. Took better part of the day but managed to check 50 of them and ended up with 4 pretty great ones for the stream room.

Quote from Vulajin:

I wanted to particularly call out the five people who helped here: DarkTerrex, Chelney, MrCab55, YunaKitten, and ChrisLBC. Thanks for taking the time out of your day to help us with this - I'm not aware of any complaints about the four main marathon TVs from runners during the event.

You're quite welcome, I was actually really nervous about it, especially for the Zelda 1 runs because I was the one who tested that specific TV and if they couldn't screen scroll or do anything else it was entirely my fault. I was very glad to help though, would gladly do it again! I'm glad I was able to contribute time to volunteer work in some way still since I was too vague with what I was volunteering for otherwise.

[quote="Vulajin"]

Is this referring to the Metroid Prime: Hunters run, or something else?[/quote]

Yes. I didn't get a chance to see the others to know if they went smoothly, I admit. I don't think what happened in MPH was terrible, but it switching your controller can be bad for some people. I personally can't play MM6 well without a specific controller for the way it is broken in specifically for that game. Some others might find an issue like this with a larger or smaller DS/3DS. I was again just bringing it up for the sake of bringing it up to keep it in our minds for next time.

[quote="redpracticeninja"]Thanks to folks on Saturday pre-marathon who helped test TVs. Took better part of the day but managed to check 50 of them and ended up with 4 pretty great ones for the stream room.[/quote]

[quote="Vulajin"]I wanted to particularly call out the five people who helped here: DarkTerrex, Chelney, MrCab55, YunaKitten, and ChrisLBC. Thanks for taking the time out of your day to help us with this - I'm not aware of any complaints about the four main marathon TVs from runners during the event.[/quote]

You're quite welcome, I was actually really nervous about it, especially for the Zelda 1 runs because I was the one who tested that specific TV and if they couldn't screen scroll or do anything else it was entirely my fault. I was very glad to help though, would gladly do it again! I'm glad I was able to contribute time to volunteer work in some way still since I was too vague with what I was volunteering for otherwise.

UraniumAnchor

2015-08-20 06:58:06 pm

Not a walrus

Quote from LotBlind:

I think this is obvious from Youtube feedback, but why couldn't the run start each video and the in-between be left after each run? People generally don't start talking about the game (other than mentioning incentives) until after "3-2-1-go" so there shouldn't be anything missing, or ofc you can leave the relevant part in. I think I think the encoders (who I'm giving all respect to) are now including starting times. Otherwise I'm just really surprised how quickly they're popping up on the channel. It's far from obvious. ESA '13 and '14 never got uploaded at all.

The short answer is that that's how the videos were trimmed locally, for the most part (part of the between run checklist was to restart the recording and that was frequently done right as the previous run had ended). The only real exceptions being interviews, other than the first couple of videos I've been trying to put the interviews with a particular set of runners in one of the videos for that run, since they weren't always back to back.

[quote="LotBlind"]I think this is obvious from Youtube feedback, but why couldn't the run start each video and the in-between be left after each run? People generally don't start talking about the game (other than mentioning incentives) until after "3-2-1-go" so there shouldn't be anything missing, or ofc you can leave the relevant part in. I think I think the encoders (who I'm giving all respect to) are now including starting times. Otherwise I'm just really surprised how quickly they're popping up on the channel. It's far from obvious. ESA '13 and '14 never got uploaded at all.[/quote]

The short answer is that that's how the videos were trimmed locally, for the most part (part of the between run checklist was to restart the recording and that was frequently done right as the previous run had ended). The only real exceptions being interviews, other than the first couple of videos I've been trying to put the interviews with a particular set of runners in one of the videos for that run, since they weren't always back to back.

dangodofthunder

2015-08-21 01:38:28 pm

I figured from the get go those videos that were initially uploaded as being akin to emergency triage, to get SOMETHING out there in nearly real-time to get everyone to shut up while y'all edited and worked on the final videos that would look and feel way better. Trying to make that a point of complaint or contention seems frivolous at best to me, since they were just meant as placeholders.

aperturegrillz

Edit history:

aperturegrillz: 2015-08-21 01:58:38 pm

2015-08-21 01:57:55 pm

I did commentary and a run as part of the Tetris the Grand Master block. This was my first GDQ.
Overall my experience was quite positive, but I think other people have posted all the complimentary feedback I would have said.

I have a few points of criticism:
- One of our two video captures was much darker than the other. This may have been due to our unusual hardware setup but it would've been nice to be able to figure that out beforehand.

- The video capture for TGM2 was jittery, probably because the capture setup was attempting to deinterlace 240P. This could be due to the game's unusual refresh rate, but again it would've been nice if we could have tested it beforehand.

- Our block consisted of many short runs done by different sets of people so we inevitably spent a lot of time switching, however this time was made longer by having to deal with the mess of headset cables and chair legs. I'm not sure if this could really be improved, just a thought.

- The TV's in the marathon room were a random assortment of flat and curved tubes of different sizes and picture qualities. This was bewildering to me considering there were several better-looking TV's in the practice and casual rooms - why not use four matching 27" flat tube TV's (or, heck, PVM's, they aren't *that* hard to find) for the place where it matters the most? Everything else about the setup looked so professional, I felt like having that mishmash front and center really detracted from it.

- Related to the last point, the casual room had all large, matching TV's whereas a lot of the TV's in the practice room were very small and low-quality. I can sort of understand why you might do this since the practice room will be more individuals and the casual room will be more groups (such as the crowds of people grinding one that Mario Party minigame) but it still seems like the practice room should've taken priority for having the better equipment.

- I know this is probably beating a dead horse but a lot of the consoles used at the marathon support component video which would look noticeably better than S-Video for both the runner and the stream. I understand that simplicity of the setup is key but it seems like it wouldn't add that much overhead to use component for all the systems that support it.

- The projector screens were situated directly under the overhead lights which made the projector images quite washed out, making it difficult to see the game capture for darker games. I feel like this could have been alleviated pretty easily by moving them slightly forward so they were ahead of that set of lights, or even better if those lights could've been dimmed/turned off independently of the other lights in the room (of course I have no idea if this was possible).

- As Qlex mentioned, there was some miscommunication about the hotel swap - we applied for it but never heard back, so we assumed we weren't selected for it until Tuesday morning when we were woken up by housekeeping asking why we hadn't checked out yet.

As I said above, overall the event was a great experience and I was really happy to be able to come and participate! Huge props to the staff and the sound crew, they were all very friendly and helpful.

I did commentary and a run as part of the Tetris the Grand Master block. This was my first GDQ.
Overall my experience was quite positive, but I think other people have posted all the complimentary feedback I would have said.

I have a few points of criticism:
- One of our two video captures was much darker than the other. This may have been due to our unusual hardware setup but it would've been nice to be able to figure that out beforehand.

- The video capture for TGM2 was jittery, probably because the capture setup was attempting to deinterlace 240P. This could be due to the game's unusual refresh rate, but again it would've been nice if we could have tested it beforehand.

- Our block consisted of many short runs done by different sets of people so we inevitably spent a lot of time switching, however this time was made longer by having to deal with the mess of headset cables and chair legs. I'm not sure if this could really be improved, just a thought.

- The TV's in the marathon room were a random assortment of flat and curved tubes of different sizes and picture qualities. This was bewildering to me considering there were several better-looking TV's in the practice and casual rooms - why not use four matching 27" flat tube TV's (or, heck, PVM's, they aren't *that* hard to find) for the place where it matters the most? Everything else about the setup looked so professional, I felt like having that mishmash front and center really detracted from it.

- Related to the last point, the casual room had all large, matching TV's whereas a lot of the TV's in the practice room were very small and low-quality. I can sort of understand why you might do this since the practice room will be more individuals and the casual room will be more groups (such as the crowds of people grinding one that Mario Party minigame) but it still seems like the practice room should've taken priority for having the better equipment.

- I know this is probably beating a dead horse but a lot of the consoles used at the marathon support component video which would look noticeably better than S-Video for both the runner and the stream. I understand that simplicity of the setup is key but it seems like it wouldn't add that much overhead to use component for all the systems that support it.

- The projector screens were situated directly under the overhead lights which made the projector images quite washed out, making it difficult to see the game capture for darker games. I feel like this could have been alleviated pretty easily by moving them slightly forward so they were ahead of that set of lights, or even better if those lights could've been dimmed/turned off independently of the other lights in the room (of course I have no idea if this was possible).

- As Qlex mentioned, there was some miscommunication about the hotel swap - we applied for it but never heard back, so we assumed we weren't selected for it until Tuesday morning when we were woken up by housekeeping asking why we hadn't checked out yet.

As I said above, overall the event was a great experience and I was really happy to be able to come and participate! Huge props to the staff and the sound crew, they were all very friendly and helpful.

Vulajin

2015-08-21 03:38:16 pm

Quote from DarkTerrex:

I didn't get a chance to see the others to know if they went smoothly, I admit. I don't think what happened in MPH was terrible, but it switching your controller can be bad for some people. I personally can't play MM6 well without a specific controller for the way it is broken in specifically for that game. Some others might find an issue like this with a larger or smaller DS/3DS. I was again just bringing it up for the sake of bringing it up to keep it in our minds for next time.

Unfortunately, your guess is as good as mine as to what went wrong here. We are fine with runners bringing their own 3DS capture devices, as long as they set them up in advance of their run(s). Shasta did bring his Katsukity device to the marathon area before the marathon began, installed his software, and verified that the device captured correctly. Other tech staff were present and verified that everything was okay.

On the day of his run, Shasta plugged his device in and it simply would not capture. He and I tried several different things, including both marathon PCs, multiple USB slots, and restarting at least one machine. No dice. Using my device was a last resort, and only upon specifically asking the runner if he was okay with the switch. To be honest, I don't have a lot of experience with Katsukity devices, so I'm not sure what else we could have tried.

[quote="DarkTerrex"]I didn't get a chance to see the others to know if they went smoothly, I admit. I don't think what happened in MPH was terrible, but it switching your controller can be bad for some people. I personally can't play MM6 well without a specific controller for the way it is broken in specifically for that game. Some others might find an issue like this with a larger or smaller DS/3DS. I was again just bringing it up for the sake of bringing it up to keep it in our minds for next time.[/quote]

Unfortunately, your guess is as good as mine as to what went wrong here. We are fine with runners bringing their own 3DS capture devices, as long as they set them up in advance of their run(s). Shasta [i]did[/i] bring his Katsukity device to the marathon area before the marathon began, installed his software, and verified that the device captured correctly. Other tech staff were present and verified that everything was okay.

On the day of his run, Shasta plugged his device in and it simply would not capture. He and I tried several different things, including both marathon PCs, multiple USB slots, and restarting at least one machine. No dice. Using my device was a last resort, and only upon specifically asking the runner if he was okay with the switch. To be honest, I don't have a lot of experience with Katsukity devices, so I'm not sure what else we could have tried.

Cool Matty

2015-08-21 04:15:21 pm

Crawlathon WR, get down on my level.

Quote from aperturegrillz:

I did commentary and a run as part of the Tetris the Grand Master block. This was my first GDQ.
Overall my experience was quite positive, but I think other people have posted all the complimentary feedback I would have said.

I have a few points of criticism:
- One of our two video captures was much darker than the other. This may have been due to our unusual hardware setup but it would've been nice to be able to figure that out beforehand.

- The video capture for TGM2 was jittery, probably because the capture setup was attempting to deinterlace 240P. This could be due to the game's unusual refresh rate, but again it would've been nice if we could have tested it beforehand.

Dark capture was because of the supergun splitter TGM crew was using, not our capture setup, from what I understand.

Jitter was from the odd refresh rate, not much to be done about that. We knew that going in.

Quote:

- The TV's in the marathon room were a random assortment of flat and curved tubes of different sizes and picture qualities. This was bewildering to me considering there were several better-looking TV's in the practice and casual rooms - why not use four matching 27" flat tube TV's (or, heck, PVM's, they aren't *that* hard to find) for the place where it matters the most? Everything else about the setup looked so professional, I felt like having that mishmash front and center really detracted from it.

Actually, those TVs were selected because they were the best out of all TVs available at the event. Note that flat tube TVs are not actually necessarily good quality (some are actually pretty awful). In addition, our TVs are donated, and locating 4 identical TVs of equally functional proportions would be... supreme luck. Also, keep in mind that these TVs also were confirmed to have edge-to-edge display, which is extremely rare. Even TVs within the same exact model aren't guaranteed for this.

Finally, I am looking into PVMs, but actually they are fairly hard to find, IF you want larger sizes. Most PVMs on ebay max out at 20". In addition, buying online is a crap shoot. PVM TVs are broadcast equipment, and were often used for a great deal of time. Many suffer from burn in or severe beam misalignment. eBay doesn't make it easy to find a quality one. It's also really hard to justify hundreds of dollars on TVs that are complete gambles on quality. I would rather have 4 mismatched freebie high-quality TVs than 4 garbage PVMs.

Quote:

- Related to the last point, the casual room had all large, matching TV's whereas a lot of the TV's in the practice room were very small and low-quality. I can sort of understand why you might do this since the practice room will be more individuals and the casual room will be more groups (such as the crowds of people grinding one that Mario Party minigame) but it still seems like the practice room should've taken priority for having the better equipment.

Just referring to above, that size and model don't often mean anything. Some casual TVs were actually pretty garbage (including one that literally went up in smoke). Yay for donated TVs! World9 provided most of the TVs in the practice area though, and they're all vetted to be working, so although they're not fantastic, at least they work. Tongue

Quote:

- I know this is probably beating a dead horse but a lot of the consoles used at the marathon support component video which would look noticeably better than S-Video for both the runner and the stream. I understand that simplicity of the setup is key but it seems like it wouldn't add that much overhead to use component for all the systems that support it.

This is basically the same argument as RGB, and the answers are the same. It's not enough value for the overhead, which is actually quite a bit more involved. Just go look at ESA's setup for an idea of how messy RGB/component can be (and to use their method requires upscaling then downscaling, which also reduces the quality of the image). And they get to cheat by using SCART!

Quote:

- The projector screens were situated directly under the overhead lights which made the projector images quite washed out, making it difficult to see the game capture for darker games. I feel like this could have been alleviated pretty easily by moving them slightly forward so they were ahead of that set of lights, or even better if those lights could've been dimmed/turned off independently of the other lights in the room (of course I have no idea if this was possible).

The lighting in that room wasn't quite good enough to give us the control we really wanted, and we had to make the decision between sacrificing a number of rows of seating for that or not. There was actually multiple lights shining down, so it would have had to come forward quite a bit.

Quote:

- As Qlex mentioned, there was some miscommunication about the hotel swap - we applied for it but never heard back, so we assumed we weren't selected for it until Tuesday morning when we were woken up by housekeeping asking why we hadn't checked out yet.

As I said above, overall the event was a great experience and I was really happy to be able to come and participate! Huge props to the staff and the sound crew, they were all very friendly and helpful.

I was unaware this happened, and I'm really sorry about it. The hotel was supposed to call the person listed on the application. I'm really feel bad that didn't happen, and we're not really happy with the hotel with regards to that situation.

[quote="aperturegrillz"]I did commentary and a run as part of the Tetris the Grand Master block. This was my first GDQ.
Overall my experience was quite positive, but I think other people have posted all the complimentary feedback I would have said.

I have a few points of criticism:
- One of our two video captures was much darker than the other. This may have been due to our unusual hardware setup but it would've been nice to be able to figure that out beforehand.

- The video capture for TGM2 was jittery, probably because the capture setup was attempting to deinterlace 240P. This could be due to the game's unusual refresh rate, but again it would've been nice if we could have tested it beforehand.[/quote]

Dark capture was because of the supergun splitter TGM crew was using, not our capture setup, from what I understand.

Jitter was from the odd refresh rate, not much to be done about that. We knew that going in.

[quote]
- The TV's in the marathon room were a random assortment of flat and curved tubes of different sizes and picture qualities. This was bewildering to me considering there were several better-looking TV's in the practice and casual rooms - why not use four matching 27" flat tube TV's (or, heck, PVM's, they aren't *that* hard to find) for the place where it matters the most? Everything else about the setup looked so professional, I felt like having that mishmash front and center really detracted from it.[/quote]

Actually, those TVs were selected because they were the best out of all TVs available at the event. Note that flat tube TVs are not actually necessarily good quality (some are actually pretty awful). In addition, our TVs are donated, and locating 4 identical TVs of equally functional proportions would be... supreme luck. Also, keep in mind that these TVs also were confirmed to have edge-to-edge display, which is extremely rare. Even TVs within the same exact model aren't guaranteed for this.

Finally, I am looking into PVMs, but actually they are fairly hard to find, IF you want larger sizes. Most PVMs on ebay max out at 20". In addition, buying online is a crap shoot. PVM TVs are broadcast equipment, and were often used for a great deal of time. Many suffer from burn in or severe beam misalignment. eBay doesn't make it easy to find a quality one. It's also really hard to justify hundreds of dollars on TVs that are complete gambles on quality. I would rather have 4 mismatched freebie high-quality TVs than 4 garbage PVMs.

[quote]
- Related to the last point, the casual room had all large, matching TV's whereas a lot of the TV's in the practice room were very small and low-quality. I can sort of understand why you might do this since the practice room will be more individuals and the casual room will be more groups (such as the crowds of people grinding one that Mario Party minigame) but it still seems like the practice room should've taken priority for having the better equipment.[/quote]

Just referring to above, that size and model don't often mean anything. Some casual TVs were actually pretty garbage (including one that literally went up in smoke). Yay for donated TVs! World9 provided most of the TVs in the practice area though, and they're all vetted to be working, so although they're not fantastic, at least they work. :P

[quote]
- I know this is probably beating a dead horse but a lot of the consoles used at the marathon support component video which would look noticeably better than S-Video for both the runner and the stream. I understand that simplicity of the setup is key but it seems like it wouldn't add that much overhead to use component for all the systems that support it.[/quote]

This is basically the same argument as RGB, and the answers are the same. It's not enough value for the overhead, which is actually quite a bit more involved. Just go look at ESA's setup for an idea of how messy RGB/component can be (and to use their method requires upscaling then downscaling, which also reduces the quality of the image). And they get to cheat by using SCART!

[quote]
- The projector screens were situated directly under the overhead lights which made the projector images quite washed out, making it difficult to see the game capture for darker games. I feel like this could have been alleviated pretty easily by moving them slightly forward so they were ahead of that set of lights, or even better if those lights could've been dimmed/turned off independently of the other lights in the room (of course I have no idea if this was possible).
[/quote]

The lighting in that room wasn't quite good enough to give us the control we really wanted, and we had to make the decision between sacrificing a number of rows of seating for that or not. There was actually multiple lights shining down, so it would have had to come forward quite a bit.

[quote]
- As Qlex mentioned, there was some miscommunication about the hotel swap - we applied for it but never heard back, so we assumed we weren't selected for it until Tuesday morning when we were woken up by housekeeping asking why we hadn't checked out yet.

As I said above, overall the event was a great experience and I was really happy to be able to come and participate! Huge props to the staff and the sound crew, they were all very friendly and helpful.[/quote]

I was unaware this happened, and I'm really sorry about it. The hotel was supposed to call the person listed on the application. I'm really feel bad that didn't happen, and we're not really happy with the hotel with regards to that situation.

aperturegrillz

2015-08-21 04:49:32 pm

Quote from Cool Matty:

Actually, those TVs were selected because they were the best out of all TVs available at the event. Note that flat tube TVs are not actually necessarily good quality (some are actually pretty awful). In addition, our TVs are donated, and locating 4 identical TVs of equally functional proportions would be... supreme luck. Also, keep in mind that these TVs also were confirmed to have edge-to-edge display, which is extremely rare. Even TVs within the same exact model aren't guaranteed for this.

Ok, that makes more sense. However, I'm pretty sure you had 2 or 3 of the Sony KV-27xxxxx TV's in the practice room which all had good-looking picture. You can adjust the horizontal and vertical size/position of those via the service menu which would address the edge-to-edge display issue. I'm pretty sure this is true of every Sony TV of that era and probably the case for most other TV's made after 2000 - and fortunately the service manual for pretty much every model is available online. If finding TV's which don't cut off the edges is as hard as you say, then that's definitely worth knowing about.

Quote from Cool Matty:

Finally, I am looking into PVMs, but actually they are fairly hard to find, IF you want larger sizes. Most PVMs on ebay max out at 20". In addition, buying online is a crap shoot. PVM TVs are broadcast equipment, and were often used for a great deal of time. Many suffer from burn in or severe beam misalignment. eBay doesn't make it easy to find a quality one. It's also really hard to justify hundreds of dollars on TVs that are complete gambles on quality. I would rather have 4 mismatched freebie high-quality TVs than 4 garbage PVMs.

Yup, I totally understand that. They are definitely nice but not necessary. In my experience it's easier to find nice ones locally rather than on eBay but depending on your location they can be pretty rare.

Thanks for your response!

[quote="Cool Matty"]Actually, those TVs were selected because they were the best out of all TVs available at the event. Note that flat tube TVs are not actually necessarily good quality (some are actually pretty awful). In addition, our TVs are donated, and locating 4 identical TVs of equally functional proportions would be... supreme luck. Also, keep in mind that these TVs also were confirmed to have edge-to-edge display, which is extremely rare. Even TVs within the same exact model aren't guaranteed for this.[/quote]
Ok, that makes more sense. However, I'm pretty sure you had 2 or 3 of the Sony KV-27xxxxx TV's in the practice room which all had good-looking picture. You can adjust the horizontal and vertical size/position of those via the service menu which would address the edge-to-edge display issue. I'm pretty sure this is true of every Sony TV of that era and probably the case for most other TV's made after 2000 - and fortunately the service manual for pretty much every model is available online. If finding TV's which don't cut off the edges is as hard as you say, then that's definitely worth knowing about.

[quote="Cool Matty"]Finally, I am looking into PVMs, but actually they are fairly hard to find, IF you want larger sizes. Most PVMs on ebay max out at 20". In addition, buying online is a crap shoot. PVM TVs are broadcast equipment, and were often used for a great deal of time. Many suffer from burn in or severe beam misalignment. eBay doesn't make it easy to find a quality one. It's also really hard to justify hundreds of dollars on TVs that are complete gambles on quality. I would rather have 4 mismatched freebie high-quality TVs than 4 garbage PVMs.[/quote]
Yup, I totally understand that. They are definitely nice but not necessary. In my experience it's easier to find nice ones locally rather than on eBay but depending on your location they can be pretty rare.

Thanks for your response!

DarkAries

2015-08-21 05:00:25 pm

I don't want to go over most of what was already posted but I do have a few things to bring up. The place was fine and I would be down to show up there again so long the food options get fixed up a little bit.

The first thing is the cropping of the older consoles. It's perplexing since based off the few pc runs I did watch, they played in windowed mode at which point somebody took the time to crop the feed properly and plop it in the layout. Would it kill to do this to every other game as well? It's just the inconsistency that is odd.

Riding on the cropping of PC games, really really really really really minor thing but it looked like they were plopping the feed ontop of the layout instead of underneath. It might of only been for a game but if you guys are capturing the HDMI out shouldn't you already have a source setup for it under the layout?

The last one is why no component? This one doesn't really matter to much at all. I get using hdmi and splitters to strip HDCP is a lot easier then running 3 cords, but it would allow for other options as a backup. Just as a point, with the one Tetris feed being really dark, there were backup superguns that could output component and would of not looked uber messed. The point will probably be moot anyways if you guys upgrade to OBS-MP since it has colour correction and sharpening which would make things a lot easier to fix.

Besides the small things I can't think of anything else that wasn't already covered.

I don't want to go over most of what was already posted but I do have a few things to bring up. The place was fine and I would be down to show up there again so long the food options get fixed up a little bit.

The first thing is the cropping of the older consoles. It's perplexing since based off the few pc runs I did watch, they played in windowed mode at which point somebody took the time to crop the feed properly and plop it in the layout. Would it kill to do this to every other game as well? It's just the inconsistency that is odd.

Riding on the cropping of PC games, really really really really really minor thing but it looked like they were plopping the feed ontop of the layout instead of underneath.  It might of only been for a game but if you guys are capturing the HDMI out shouldn't you already have a source setup for it under the layout?

The last one is why no component? This one doesn't really matter to much at all. I get using hdmi and splitters to strip HDCP is a lot easier then running 3 cords, but it would allow for other options as a backup. Just as a point, with the one Tetris feed being really dark, there were backup superguns that could output component and would of not looked uber messed. The point will probably be moot anyways if you guys upgrade to OBS-MP since it has colour correction and sharpening which would make things a lot easier to fix.

Besides the small things I can't think of anything else that wasn't already covered.

Cool Matty

2015-08-21 05:06:08 pm

Crawlathon WR, get down on my level.

Since OBS MP was brought up: we really, really want to use it, but it actually doesn't have proper deinterlacing yet, so it's not usable for our setup right now. We're waiting anxiously for that to be resolved. Also really hoping that off-scene editing lands before AGDQ.

aperturegrillz

2015-08-21 05:12:02 pm

Yeah, KevinDDR and I have to use Amarec for deinterlacing since we switched to OBS-MP, but using Amarec introduces its own failure modes which can really suck to deal with so I understand why you wouldn't want to deal with that.

DarkTerrex

2015-08-22 05:08:59 pm

Quote from Vulajin:

Quote from DarkTerrex:

I didn't get a chance to see the others to know if they went smoothly, I admit. I don't think what happened in MPH was terrible, but it switching your controller can be bad for some people. I personally can't play MM6 well without a specific controller for the way it is broken in specifically for that game. Some others might find an issue like this with a larger or smaller DS/3DS. I was again just bringing it up for the sake of bringing it up to keep it in our minds for next time.

Unfortunately, your guess is as good as mine as to what went wrong here. We are fine with runners bringing their own 3DS capture devices, as long as they set them up in advance of their run(s). Shasta did bring his Katsukity device to the marathon area before the marathon began, installed his software, and verified that the device captured correctly. Other tech staff were present and verified that everything was okay.

On the day of his run, Shasta plugged his device in and it simply would not capture. He and I tried several different things, including both marathon PCs, multiple USB slots, and restarting at least one machine. No dice. Using my device was a last resort, and only upon specifically asking the runner if he was okay with the switch. To be honest, I don't have a lot of experience with Katsukity devices, so I'm not sure what else we could have tried.

Marathon luck. Yeah I as on the couch watching wondering why it wouldn't recognize the software. Oh well, he made do with the other 3DS and had a solid run still

[quote="Vulajin"][quote="DarkTerrex"]I didn't get a chance to see the others to know if they went smoothly, I admit. I don't think what happened in MPH was terrible, but it switching your controller can be bad for some people. I personally can't play MM6 well without a specific controller for the way it is broken in specifically for that game. Some others might find an issue like this with a larger or smaller DS/3DS. I was again just bringing it up for the sake of bringing it up to keep it in our minds for next time.[/quote]

Unfortunately, your guess is as good as mine as to what went wrong here. We are fine with runners bringing their own 3DS capture devices, as long as they set them up in advance of their run(s). Shasta [i]did[/i] bring his Katsukity device to the marathon area before the marathon began, installed his software, and verified that the device captured correctly. Other tech staff were present and verified that everything was okay.

On the day of his run, Shasta plugged his device in and it simply would not capture. He and I tried several different things, including both marathon PCs, multiple USB slots, and restarting at least one machine. No dice. Using my device was a last resort, and only upon specifically asking the runner if he was okay with the switch. To be honest, I don't have a lot of experience with Katsukity devices, so I'm not sure what else we could have tried.[/quote]

Marathon luck. Yeah I as on the couch watching wondering why it wouldn't recognize the software. Oh well, he made do with the other 3DS and had a solid run still

Prolix

2015-08-26 12:20:55 am

P.S. Earthbound

Long-time watcher, but my first time attending and volunteering. Thanks for accepting our feedback. I read through the entire thread so far, and hope that you continue to read this thread, because here are my thoughts:

- No one has mentioned Sticky Keys yet, so here you go. Don't forget to disable Sticky Keys and other accessibility option keyboard shortcuts on the practice and stream PCs at future events.

- I have a feature request for the donation tracker, since I know staff works on the code for that. On the host's page, the ability to reorder the rows on the page would be fantastic. I can only imagine how that might be a nightmare to implement though, so... don't fret about it. Anyway, at times when I had a lot of donations queued up, sometimes there would be, say, three "Greetings from Germany!" that I wanted to read together, and visually arranging them one after the other would have been ideal. Or maybe I wanted to set up a save/kill/save/kill the animals streak. Seeking through the page live to read the comments in the order that one envisions in their head isn't absolutely terrible, but it is more difficult than I would have guessed while under the pressure of a live broadcast plus possibly a runner who can only give you so much time to spit out words.

- An alternative to the above: just add one more column that displays the index/row number from the database. Then the host can make pen & paper or Notepad notes on the indices they want to read, in the order they intend to read them. That would hold up even through tracker page refreshes, etc. Then the host would just be scrolling through for their next key number, knowing that they have previewed it & it's what they want to read next. With this method, you would probably have to let the hosts know what the purpose of that strange number is though, heh.

- This is my fault for not knowing more about the international community going into the event: as a host, I didn't know that Rummel was someone on the restream until Raelcun informed me. I imagine other donation readers have a similar level of knowledge, so if staff (and SpikeVegeta) continue preparing hosts at future events, information about the foreign language restreams could be something that you include. Fortunately I discerned what Germench meant by context, but that was about it.

- I don't think any staff had noticed the discrepancies between the official website's schedule and the volunteer schedule spreadsheet in Google until it was pointed out. I presume the disconnect was only due to whatever the schedule changes were that others have mentioned in this thread, and I don't know of any negative consequences from that (it was corrected prior to the event, at least). Just a friendly reminder to keep all your various things in sync. I'm sure it's a lot of work... my apologies for asking for even more.

General thoughts that mostly reiterate the feedback of others:

- The monitors for host and donation station to watch the stream were greatly appreciated!

- I thought the foot pedal was nice, but, not being a runner, I'm not invested in the timer start/stop method at all.

- I presume someone was informed that the casual gaming room was warm, because I remember there being a large fan in there later. Thanks for that. Better than nothing.

- No comment on the hotel, since I was local to the event.

- I'd love for SGDQ to revisit the Twin Cities area... again, because I'm a local.

- Stream layouts were nice

- I support interviews and things like GDQ Monitor to fill time between runs -- great stuff! Hope you come up with further ideas like those.

- I was at least told that I'd be able to hear myself in the headset, so I was prepared for that. I do not recall being told that the monitor feature could be turned off, but maybe I'm wrong. Regardless, I'm not upset about that at all -- my heart just goes out to the runners who didn't know & were unsettled by the effect. Just one thing that can be clearly communicated at future events.

- I hope that BroBuzz, EnkayBee, VeritasDL, et al. weren't too put off or discouraged by strangers in the crowd. I definitely feel like an outsider to the speedrunning community, and wouldn't want to make people uncomfortable by barging in on your events. I hope things never get too carried away for the tastes of anyone here; I hope that GDQ events find a great balance between serving their runners and allowing fans to spectate, while of course keeping the charity at the forefront of things.

- Since you're still looking for feedback on camera angles for continual improvement in that area: I think the lighting was OK, given that you had to balance showing the crowd yet not washing out the projectors for them (I personally don't mind if I can't see them in great detail). Now, I did prefer the look of prior GDQs where the seating rows began a bit closer to the runner. But putting the runner and couch up on a dais naturally creates some spacing, I suppose. Finally, I think the runner camera was a bit high up on its tripod back on tech's portion of the stage, making for slightly more of a downward angle than prior events, and that had awkward moments (e.g. you stare at the top of romscout's head when he's playing a handheld). A more head-on/eye-level look -- such as people are used to from webcams mounted on top of monitors -- would seem more natural, but perhaps you tried that at this venue and it ruined the frame in some other way I'm not aware of.

Long-time watcher, but my first time attending and volunteering.  Thanks for accepting our feedback.  I read through the entire thread so far, and hope that you continue to read this thread, because here are my thoughts:

- No one has mentioned Sticky Keys yet, so here you go.  Don't forget to disable Sticky Keys and other accessibility option keyboard shortcuts on the practice and stream PCs at future events.

- I have a feature request for the donation tracker, since I know staff works on the code for that.  On the host's page, the ability to reorder the rows on the page would be fantastic.  I can only imagine how that might be a nightmare to implement though, so... don't fret about it.  Anyway, at times when I had a lot of donations queued up, sometimes there would be, say, three "Greetings from Germany!" that I wanted to read together, and visually arranging them one after the other would have been ideal.  Or maybe I wanted to set up a save/kill/save/kill the animals streak.  Seeking through the page live to read the comments in the order that one envisions in their head isn't absolutely terrible, but it is more difficult than I would have guessed while under the pressure of a live broadcast plus possibly a runner who can only give you so much time to spit out words.

- An alternative to the above: just add one more column that displays the index/row number from the database.  Then the host can make pen & paper or Notepad notes on the indices they want to read, in the order they intend to read them.  That would hold up even through tracker page refreshes, etc.  Then the host would just be scrolling through for their next key number, knowing that they have previewed it & it's what they want to read next.  With this method, you would probably have to let the hosts know what the purpose of that strange number is though, heh.

- This is my fault for not knowing more about the international community going into the event: as a host, I didn't know that Rummel was someone on the restream until Raelcun informed me.  I imagine other donation readers have a similar level of knowledge, so if staff (and SpikeVegeta) continue preparing hosts at future events, information about the foreign language restreams could be something that you include.  Fortunately I discerned what Germench meant by context, but that was about it.

- I don't think any staff had noticed the discrepancies between the official website's schedule and the volunteer schedule spreadsheet in Google until it was pointed out.  I presume the disconnect was only due to whatever the schedule changes were that others have mentioned in this thread, and I don't know of any negative consequences from that (it was corrected prior to the event, at least).  Just a friendly reminder to keep all your various things in sync.  I'm sure it's a lot of work... my apologies for asking for even more.

General thoughts that mostly reiterate the feedback of others:

- The monitors for host and donation station to watch the stream were greatly appreciated!

- I thought the foot pedal was nice, but, not being a runner, I'm not invested in the timer start/stop method at all.

- I presume someone was informed that the casual gaming room was warm, because I remember there being a large fan in there later.  Thanks for that.  Better than nothing.

- No comment on the hotel, since I was local to the event.

- I'd love for SGDQ to revisit the Twin Cities area... again, because I'm a local.

- Stream layouts were nice

- I support interviews and things like GDQ Monitor to fill time between runs -- great stuff!  Hope you come up with further ideas like those.

- I was at least told that I'd be able to hear myself in the headset, so I was prepared for that.  I do not recall being told that the monitor feature could be turned off, but maybe I'm wrong.  Regardless, I'm not upset about that at all -- my heart just goes out to the runners who didn't know & were unsettled by the effect.  Just one thing that can be clearly communicated at future events.

- I hope that BroBuzz, EnkayBee, VeritasDL, et al. weren't too put off or discouraged by strangers in the crowd.  I definitely feel like an outsider to the speedrunning community, and wouldn't want to make people uncomfortable by barging in on your events.  I hope things never get too carried away for the tastes of anyone here; I hope that GDQ events find a great balance between serving their runners and allowing fans to spectate, while of course keeping the charity at the forefront of things.

- Since you're still looking for feedback on camera angles for continual improvement in that area: I think the lighting was OK, given that you had to balance showing the crowd yet not washing out the projectors for them (I personally don't mind if I can't see them in great detail).  Now, I did prefer the look of prior GDQs where the seating rows began a bit closer to the runner.  But putting the runner and couch up on a dais naturally creates some spacing, I suppose.  Finally, I think the runner camera was a bit high up on its tripod back on tech's portion of the stage, making for slightly more of a downward angle than prior events, and that had awkward moments (e.g. you stare at the top of romscout's head when he's playing a handheld).  A more head-on/eye-level look -- such as people are used to from webcams mounted on top of monitors -- would seem more natural, but perhaps you tried that at this venue and it ruined the frame in some other way I'm not aware of.

Twinge

2015-08-26 02:57:27 am

Oh, Prolix mentioned the tracker reminded me - the columns for the Tracker software (for the Donation Station) should not auto-adjust when text becomes larger from you clicking on something and instead should stay consistently spaced. This can easily cause misclicks when things shift as you're clicking.

Mr_Shasta

2015-09-01 05:19:01 pm

Quote from Vulajin:

Quote from DarkTerrex:

I didn't get a chance to see the others to know if they went smoothly, I admit. I don't think what happened in MPH was terrible, but it switching your controller can be bad for some people. I personally can't play MM6 well without a specific controller for the way it is broken in specifically for that game. Some others might find an issue like this with a larger or smaller DS/3DS. I was again just bringing it up for the sake of bringing it up to keep it in our minds for next time.

Unfortunately, your guess is as good as mine as to what went wrong here. We are fine with runners bringing their own 3DS capture devices, as long as they set them up in advance of their run(s). Shasta did bring his Katsukity device to the marathon area before the marathon began, installed his software, and verified that the device captured correctly. Other tech staff were present and verified that everything was okay.

On the day of his run, Shasta plugged his device in and it simply would not capture. He and I tried several different things, including both marathon PCs, multiple USB slots, and restarting at least one machine. No dice. Using my device was a last resort, and only upon specifically asking the runner if he was okay with the switch. To be honest, I don't have a lot of experience with Katsukity devices, so I'm not sure what else we could have tried.

It turned out I couldn't get my capture card to work consistently later on in the event when I tried to do a run of Kirby Squeak Squad in the practice room, and it hasn't worked properly since, so something within my capture card probably broke in between my run in the practice room with it connected to my laptop the day before and my run in the marathon. It's not something that I or anyone could have seen coming, but I have only myself to blame. I used that 3DS XL to streetpass during the entire event and it was basically on my person in my pocket the entire time, so I could have bumped into something or whatever happened and it stopped working during that between time. Everything turned out ok with Vulajin's 3DS capture, even though it took a little getting used to, and you could see that in some of the sloppiness in my play at the beginning of the run haha. Bottom line is I was prepared for my run, but not prepared for my capture card to crap out on me. I didn't have any problems with this 3rd party device for a year and a half, so I can't complain much. I ordered a New 3DS XL capture card recently (from Katsukity because that's currently the only option) that I'll bring to the marathon should I ever get another run on DS or 3DS into another GDQ, and that should work correctly.

[quote="Vulajin"][quote="DarkTerrex"]I didn't get a chance to see the others to know if they went smoothly, I admit. I don't think what happened in MPH was terrible, but it switching your controller can be bad for some people. I personally can't play MM6 well without a specific controller for the way it is broken in specifically for that game. Some others might find an issue like this with a larger or smaller DS/3DS. I was again just bringing it up for the sake of bringing it up to keep it in our minds for next time.[/quote]

Unfortunately, your guess is as good as mine as to what went wrong here. We are fine with runners bringing their own 3DS capture devices, as long as they set them up in advance of their run(s). Shasta [i]did[/i] bring his Katsukity device to the marathon area before the marathon began, installed his software, and verified that the device captured correctly. Other tech staff were present and verified that everything was okay.

On the day of his run, Shasta plugged his device in and it simply would not capture. He and I tried several different things, including both marathon PCs, multiple USB slots, and restarting at least one machine. No dice. Using my device was a last resort, and only upon specifically asking the runner if he was okay with the switch. To be honest, I don't have a lot of experience with Katsukity devices, so I'm not sure what else we could have tried.[/quote]

It turned out I couldn't get my capture card to work consistently later on in the event when I tried to do a run of Kirby Squeak Squad in the practice room, and it hasn't worked properly since, so something within my capture card probably broke in between my run in the practice room with it connected to my laptop the day before and my run in the marathon. It's not something that I or anyone could have seen coming, but I have only myself to blame. I used that 3DS XL to streetpass during the entire event and it was basically on my person in my pocket the entire time, so I could have bumped into something or whatever happened and it stopped working during that between time. Everything turned out ok with Vulajin's 3DS capture, even though it took a little getting used to, and you could see that in some of the sloppiness in my play at the beginning of the run haha. Bottom line is I was prepared for my run, but not prepared for my capture card to crap out on me. I didn't have any problems with this 3rd party device for a year and a half, so I can't complain much. I ordered a New 3DS XL capture card recently (from Katsukity because that's currently the only option) that I'll bring to the marathon should I ever get another run on DS or 3DS into another GDQ, and that should work correctly.

VeritasDL

2015-09-05 06:24:51 pm

Fraudulent World Records

Quote from Prolix:

- I hope that BroBuzz, EnkayBee, VeritasDL, et al. weren't too put off or discouraged by strangers in the crowd.

it wasnt random people in the crowd that was a issue, it was people who followed well known streamers ie geoff, tooshi, around like a puppy dog, shit was annoying to see.

joe40001

2015-10-08 01:08:53 pm

I'm watching every run in order and I do think you improved the layout from AGDQ which was my complaint there. I like having the inbetween stuff there so make sure to not get rid of that entirely in future uploads, many of us enjoy that. (This is just a response to a couple posts I've seen saying edit that stuff out)

I just got up to "Kirby: Tilt and Tumble" and this is the first time I'm disappointed with how the layouts are handled. The controller cam was a donation incentive and yet the box for it is super tiny and probably not see-able on something like a phone or even small screen computer. Meanwhile you have this huge area for the "World 9 Gaming" etc. thing. It makes me as the viewer feel like "companies are more important than people" and IMO that's against the spirit of the GDQ.

I bring this up not because I think this type of thing is intentional, all of you guys are awesome and you generally do a great job of respecting the "human decency" side of the GDQ, but little things like this just bother me because they seem corporate and against that.

It was a 20 minute run, people payed 1.5k for the controller cam so at 1.5k for 20 minutes of screen space that would equate to 648k if that price were done for 6 days, so unless the corporate people who got like 1/5th the screen put up more than 648k, they aren't putting up enough per minute to have more of the screen size allocated to them than the controller cam. The controller cam could fit like 6 times over in the corporate ad box, and so that really bothered me to see it so neglected.

Remember human decency and people are what's truly important in a GDQ, shout-outs to companies that are decent are fine, but if a company insists they take priority over the things the viewers are paying for then they aren't somebody with the right motives in their heart.

So just keep this feedback in mind for the next GDQ, as much as you are grateful for the companies help they shouldn't take priority over the viewers and the people and the layout of the Kirby: Tilt and Tumble run seemed to communicate that the priorities were in the wrong place.

With that said, you guys are awesome amazing people, and the fact I'm going through the whole marathon and this is the first time I think something could've been done better just goes to show how amazing the work you guys do is. Keep being awesome guys, I know you have the right motives and I look forward to watching and donating to more GDQs in the future. Smiley

I'm watching every run in order and I do think you improved the layout from AGDQ which was my complaint there. I like having the inbetween stuff there so make sure to not get rid of that entirely in future uploads, many of us enjoy that. (This is just a response to a couple posts I've seen saying edit that stuff out)

I just got up to "Kirby: Tilt and Tumble" and this is the first time I'm disappointed with how the layouts are handled. The controller cam was a donation incentive and yet the box for it is super tiny and probably not see-able on something like a phone or even small screen computer. Meanwhile you have this huge area for the "World 9 Gaming" etc. thing. It makes me as the viewer feel like "companies are more important than people" and IMO that's against the spirit of the GDQ.

I bring this up not because I think this type of thing is intentional, all of you guys are awesome and you generally do a great job of respecting the "human decency" side of the GDQ, but little things like this just bother me because they seem corporate and against that.

It was a 20 minute run, people payed 1.5k for the controller cam so at 1.5k for 20 minutes of screen space that would equate to 648k if that price were done for 6 days, so unless the corporate people who got like 1/5th the screen put up more than 648k, they aren't putting up enough per minute to have more of the screen size allocated to them than the controller cam. The controller cam could fit like 6 times over in the corporate ad box, and so that really bothered me to see it so neglected.

Remember human decency and [i]people[/i] are what's truly important in a GDQ, shout-outs to companies that are decent are fine, but if a company insists they take priority over the things the viewers are paying for then they aren't somebody with the right motives in their heart.

So just keep this feedback in mind for the next GDQ, as much as you are grateful for the companies help they shouldn't take priority over the viewers and the people and the layout of the Kirby: Tilt and Tumble run seemed to communicate that the priorities were in the wrong place.

With that said, you guys are awesome amazing people, and the fact I'm going through the whole marathon and this is the first time I think something could've been done better just goes to show how amazing the work you guys do is. Keep being awesome guys, I know you have the right motives and I look forward to watching and donating to more GDQs in the future. :)

zjplayer

2015-10-12 03:08:02 am

I got about 4 pages into the thread and didn't see this mentioned, but I think my only major complaint (being a local who went to/from the event daily) was the price for parking. Each time I went I ended up spending $18, which over the week ended up being over a hundred dollars. Other than that, it was a very enjoyable experience for a first-timer and I look forward to attending/volunteering again next year.