Quote from SamH :

Okay everyone, feel free to congratulate me on the birth of a new braincell

I've changed resolution to 640x480, and changed the recording to full-size. I'm getting a constant 30fps (set), recording a full speed single-player replay. I'm still getting pretty poor performance in multiplayer, though, but I think I can compensate for it by reducing the framerate and recording at half speed, then bumping it back up in VirtualDub.

I don't know if there is difference between SP and MP replay... obviously MP replays usually have more cars so that's the difference I think.

Using 16 bit mode gives few fps more (if you use 16 bit, put on "Dither" option in LFS, otherwise some textures look bad). Also have you noticed that with the so called half-speed trick you can record at very low fps, e.g. 15 or 20, when you double it it's usually smoother than 30 fps normal speed recording.

And many people seem to record with FSAA/AF, obviously on a low end computer you can forget that.

I tried Game Cam some year ago and for me it gave worse FPS than Fraps.

Quote from Bean0 :

Are you saving the video to a different physical drive than your windows partition or LFS? I've definately read something somewhere that this is the best way forward, and that older (5400rpm ?) drives will struggle.

I've heard that too... I have two 7200 rpm drives and haven't noticed any major difference. Might depend on the game.

Small update: I haven't been able to finish a 2nd teaser yet. My 250Gb HD took a nose-dive last week, and it took all of my fraps footage with it. A friend has successfully rescued it, and I'll be picking up my HD tomorrow.

Instead, I've been working on putting together the title sequence for the Round 3 video, which this evening I've sent to Becky. It uses all the tricks everyone has suggested in this thread, so a huge thanks to you all from me! Shot at 640x480x30fps, 0.5x replay, VirtualDubbed up to 60fps, and Sony Vegas helped get the whole thing down to WMV's 25fps using multi-frame motion blur to achieve pretty well the same visual result as the full 60fps movie.

I am shooting new footage for a 2nd teaser this evening/tomorrow. I don't know, at this point, if I'm going to beat Becky to posting the teaser. I gather she's making good progress with the Round 3 video itself. I'll try, though

Put your vital data in a raid system

Would that it were that I could afford such a thing!

I've compiled, rendered and sent Becky the STCC intro and I'm giddy about it now. I've been getting new footage together this afternoon, and having a shufty through my music collection. I think STCC, and LFS in general, really suits rock more than anything, but I'm looking at some classical and thinking of doing a radically different kind of teaser.. watch this space

No.. actually.. watch this space -----> <--------

Better late than never! http://www.ukct.net/dlfiles/STCC_R3_T2.avi

The Round 3 video was looking like it might be delayed, so I thought I'd get something out there for people to watch

Please bear in mind that the principle purpose of the teasers is for me to master the software. Well, at least, get a bit used to it. I'm just trying to crank out something for people to look at, during that process. The mission this time was to get used to synching with music. Hope you enjoy

What program do you use to make all of the graphics and effects? I use Vegas to edit my videos but can't see a way of animating my graphics. After Effects is what i have to use current, however it takes an age to even render a 10 second clip...and often its jerky.

Mind you that was on my old pc, i can run over 40fps with full AA settings, 32bit resolution, on a shift+u camera with 22 cars on screen. So i am looking forward to recording the highlights of the challenge cup this weekend...i would like to do a season review at one point though, and would love to wack in a few graphics.

EDIT: sorry how rude of me, didn't even comment on the video! I think its very good, the actual graphics on there are a bit weak but the way its animated is cool.

Vegas is a bit limited in the animation department, I think, because you can only assign a beginning and an end position for text, for example. In fact the same constraint makes it a bit painful to do lots of things.

In other video programs, you can assign almost infinite keyframes to a clip, and have any level of any effect assigned at that keyframe. In Vegas, you can only specify basically how it is at the beginning of the clip, and how it is at the end, which means that each effect is assigned in uniform with another unless you get REALLY granular. Quite frustrating and very limiting.

I think i will give After effects a go again now i have a pc that can handle to work load. I have discovered a way of cheating too, i do each section of a video seperately. Rather than have a whole 3 minute or whatever video to render i will take the 10 second clip i want the graphic on then use vegas to do the final editing.

Also i find wmm useful if you want to make the videos small enough to send to people. It can cut a 400mb video down to a 30mb with hardly any loss in quality

Awesome work. the camera work is excelent, I've tried to do some and it's extremely hard lol

The only crit I have is the interlacing makes things a little hard to see at times and might need a deinterlacing filter when being encoded.

Quote from SamH :

Better late than never! http://www.ukct.net/dlfiles/STCC_R3_T2.avi

The Round 3 video was looking like it might be delayed, so I thought I'd get something out there for people to watch

Please bear in mind that the principle purpose of the teasers is for me to master the software. Well, at least, get a bit used to it. I'm just trying to crank out something for people to look at, during that process. The mission this time was to get used to synching with music. Hope you enjoy

nice work! Bit of a shame that the quality of the video was a bit wierd (blurry), but apart from that its great

(Except im only in about 5 shots )

That Sam, is one of the best LFS movies I think i've seen. Maybe it's because I really enjoy classical music, but in any case, superb !

Great clip!

Vain

Thanks guys!

The track is Palladio. I had to cut about 1.5mins out of it in the movie, through sheer exhaustion.

The interleaving is definitely my goof. When I used VirtualDub to build a collection of short clips (approx 95 clips in the movie), I set it to perform motion blur on some of them. When rendering, Vegas performs an interleave in the process of slowing the project down from 60fps to 25. Yet another lesson learned

Jak..

Really stunning, I look forward to these broadcasts so much (if you want to know why, put one of the rounds on DVD on one TV, and then have a tv for each channel there too, see which one you pay attention to most!)

If you're interested in Classical Music, I have a few albums by the portsmouth sinfonia, an orchestra, who, while very competant, decided, it would be fun to swap instruments with someone else in the orchestra, i.e, for one they couldn't play, even though they know the songs inside out! The results is easily recognisable, out of shere grinding effort from the people playing, an interesting listen!

Back on Topic, Everyone I've shown the STCC to has started watching it, even those who'd rather play NFS Carbon that LFS right now! Great teaser!

Quote from SamH :

The track is Palladio. I had to cut about 1.5mins out of it in the movie, through sheer exhaustion.

got anymore? Love it!

I've rendered and uppped a WMV version, which is a lot cleaner and less blurry. It's 24.3Mb, but hopefully better

Quality vid, the choice of music is spot on

I know some people don't like downloading files so it's been tooobed! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fKOUbyGkgQ

Any signs of a round 4 teaser Sam ?

Ohhh yes I've begun work on the first for Round 4 and should have it ready to show by the weekend, all being well!

Does it involve Sam doing a "Spin Me Right Round"?

LMAO! No! I'm avoiding using that clip! It only depresses me! <g>

For your viewing pleasure, here's a teaser for Round 4 at Fern Bay Club.

Right Click, Save As

The video is made my Smax, I'm just hosting it. Aim any praise/abuse in his direction please

OMG










I dont know what to type to make people realism just how good this vid is , just watch the damn thing !.

Calum

Absolutely brilliant teaser! Great use of music, and fabulous presentation! Nice work Mr Smax!!