Quote from bavorak :

I've just tested it a bit and tried to get used to it...very simple to learn and it has surprisingly wide range of functions...I am already looking forward to find some more time to create a video...with this software it would be piece of cake
there is just minor problem I've got so far...the recording often freezes after cca 8-10 seconds...I usually dont need so long shots but I also don't know what causes this...

and maybe stupid question...wouldn't it be somehow possible to add noise recording? I kinda miss it

If you mean recording starts to stutter after 8-10 seconds, but it continues nevertheless, then that's ok. The final recording will be smooth. Your computer can't keep up, but LFS Record will just wait upon each frame until LFS is ready before proceeding to the next frame.
If you mean the recording really stops and does not continue, then that's a problem. So please let me know which it is.

Regarding sound; yeah like Morpha said it's not possible to record both video and sound at the same time. However, I've been thinking, it should be possible to record video separately and sound separately. In two recording passes. And then you can merge the two later on. So I'll have a think about that. I can maybe add an audio layer for that purpose; I'm quite interested in that, as I've never programmed with sound before

heyhey, i got Adobe After Effects CS5 now, but the file format to import doesn't fit.. LFS Record exports a "AFX JavaScript File (.jsx)" -file and AE is able to import "Adobe After Effects Project (.aep)", "Adobe After Effects Project Template (.aet)" or "Adobe After Effects XML Project (.aepx)" how to do this?

Quote from morpha :

LFS Record will push your HDD pretty heavily, 6mb per Full-HD 32bit frame. Doesn't take many of those to exhaust the buffer, and once that happens, you'll bog down to actual disk write speeds, which is what causes the stuttering.

90 MB/s (avg HDD) = 15 full HD (1920x1080) frames per second or 34 HD-ready (1280x720) frames per second, shouldn't really be as bad as he described.

Quote from morpha :

Because LFS Record captures single frames frame by frame, recording sound simply isn't possible.

How come Source Recorder manages to do that? It outputs bunch of .tga's (like LFS outputs bunch of .bmp's) + a .wav file.

Quote from Victor :

Regarding sound; yeah like Morpha said it's not possible to record both video and sound at the same time. However, I've been thinking, it should be possible to record video separately and sound separately. In two recording passes. And then you can merge the two later on.

pardon my skepticism, but why? having to dub audio back into a video is a chore and a half...

Another bug:

while adding a "null layer from car data", I pressed the cancel button (can reproduce it) and the program inmediatly crashes.


What is the normal time to read the MCI packets?
Mine does not seem to work. If I choose 60 secons the progress bar starts at 10%, if I choose 15 seconds it starts at 40%, but in both cases it won't move at all after 15 minutes.

This happens in a mpr with 19 cars. The other day in a spr with 1 car it worked fine (v 2.0)

Quote from phoenixIlooka :

heyhey, i got Adobe After Effects CS5 now, but the file format to import doesn't fit.. LFS Record exports a "AFX JavaScript File (.jsx)" -file and AE is able to import "Adobe After Effects Project (.aep)", "Adobe After Effects Project Template (.aet)" or "Adobe After Effects XML Project (.aepx)" how to do this?

File > Scripts > Run Script File

Quote from E.Reiljans :

90 MB/s (avg HDD) = 15 full HD (1920x1080) frames per second or 34 HD-ready (1280x720) frames per second, shouldn't really be as bad as he described.

That's assuming perfectly sequential large block writes ops, doesn't apply here.

Quote from E.Reiljans :

How come Source Recorder manages to do that? It outputs bunch of .tga's (like LFS outputs bunch of .bmp's) + a .wav file.

Quote from bunder9999 :

pardon my skepticism, but why? having to dub audio back into a video is a chore and a half...

Quite simple: LFS doesn't render sound the way LFS Record plays the replay. It couldn't really, the replay is paused and simply advanced frame by frame.

ok, I am a noob in AE, I don't get it...

I've loaded the script into AE, but the "screen" is black... just the length of the video is correct..

Quote from phoenixIlooka :

ok, I am a noob in AE, I don't get it...

I've loaded the script into AE, but the "screen" is black... just the length of the video is correct..

Check filesize, it doesn't contains actual video data. You have to import batch of .bmp's into AE to have video track.

I've been doing some investigating regarding the MPR replay-data record crash that people experienced. I'm afraid this is a problem of LFS, where it for some reason fails to keep up sending replay-data and closes the insim connection unexpectedly.
This is a bit of a bummer really, because it means this problem cannot be solved very quickly and as such, replay data recording from MPR's for the moment is not possible. Though well, maybe I could make another method of recording; it would be slower, but it would work. I'll have a think about that while waiting for Scawen's reply on the matter.

I'll upload a patch soon to at least prevent LFS Record from crashing when this happens to you and make it tell you what happened.

EDIT - recording from SPR replays does work completely fine.

thanks vic, we know you're trying...

I've uploaded another patch to fix the replay recording issues.
See the first post in this thread for download links.

*Fixed replay recording crashes
*Added work around for MPR recording problem where LFS hangs up unexpectedly
*Fixed some more bugs that were reported. Those were mostly related to the above though

Quote from E.Reiljans :

Check filesize, it doesn't contains actual video data. You have to import batch of .bmp's into AE to have video track.

Hey, could you explain it more detailed, please?

Quote from phoenixIlooka :

Hey, could you explain it more detailed, please?

File -> Import -> Multiple Files -> point it to first LFSRecord's BMP in <lfs dir>\data\shots.

first thanx for amazing addon. i tried everything last night and i can suggest some settings, clues. i suggest 1280x720 full screen render 50fps (i tried 75fps but results not smooth). first go lfs set resolution 1280x720 refresh rate 75 or 100 (if possible) disable vertical synch (be sure your graphic card software not force vertical synch on).

*if u use square monitor u can still record 720hd widescreen animation just pick 1280x720
*i used mpr (multi player record) and didnt see a problem at all with that settings, except "null from car data" its not workin for me (i havent tried with spr)

-------------------
feature request
- audio layer will be useful we can import wav or mp3 files to lfs record timeline. (its for playback not render) we can adjust camera movements with music beats. i think this feature easy to make for developer.
------------------

* last thing (im not sure that it is possible) lfs engine workin normal when playback so why sound disabled ?

anyway thax again for good addon
english is not my native language btw i hope you can understand something

thanks for the tips.
Yes you're right. 75 FPS is bad too. I was too focussed on multiples of 25, where of course it must be an FPS that gives a whole number if you do 100 / FPS. So, from large to small that would be 100 - 50 - 25 - 20 - 10 - 5 - 4 - 2 - 1
I will change the documentation and project settings alert message (oof, it's wrong in a video too).

About the null from mci not working - please can you elaborate on how that goes wrong?
And yes please do test SPR as well and see if there's a difference.

Regarding the audio layer - yes, it's something on my mind and I will have a serious look at it, at a bit later time.

Finally, the sound of LFS is disabled when LFS loses window-focus. This is LFS's behaviour and is why you'd think sound is disabled (because it is, but not by me, but by LFS itself)

what about 30fps for tv users, or 60fps for lcd users?

sorry, i know i'm being a pain.

LFS' physics loop runs at 100Hz.
If you record at 30FPS, then that's 100 / 30 = 33.333333 milliseconds per frame, which means it doesn't exactly match up with LFS's timings. The result is glitchy car motion because some frames will effectively be skipped, if you will.

oh, okay... my bad. i thought you were favouring 50hz PAL, as opposed to LFS's internal mechanics.

Quote from Victor :

About the null from mci not working - please can you elaborate on how that goes wrong?
And yes please do test SPR as well and see if there's a difference.

Finally, the sound of LFS is disabled when LFS loses window-focus. This is LFS's behaviour and is why you'd think sound is disabled (because it is, but not by me, but by LFS itself)

hello again,

- i uploaded mini screen record about mpr car data error. http://www.swfupload.com/view/142906.htm i tested spr too its workin fine. (if the movie dosnt start, right click flash and choose play)

- about the sound thing actually i know lfs disable the sound when inactive but i press space in lfs record and playback start and i click lfs window everything ok, lfs active window but still no sound. i dont blame u i just wonder is it a problem only for me ?

- (bonus) feature request
if we have a 3d scene and camera, x-y-z lines (rgb arrows) on camera will be good for faster animations. we can move camera up to down, forward to back, left to right with single clicks. check this out http://img442.imageshack.us/i/cameracontrols.jpg/

Quote from A.Forelli :

- about the sound thing actually i know lfs disable the sound when inactive but i press space in lfs record and playback start and i click lfs window everything ok, lfs active window but still no sound. i dont blame u i just wonder is it a problem only for me ?

No, as I wrote before, LFS doesn't render the sound at all because the replay is paused and advanced frame by frame. The only way to circumvent that would be to let the replay run and push camera positions on the go, but that would leave easing and interpolation to LFS, it only permits a "time to get there".

Quote from morpha :

No, as I wrote before, LFS doesn't render the sound at all because the replay is paused and advanced frame by frame.

u right lfs pauses and capturing frame by frame when record mode. but i'm talkin about playback mode. i think engine not paused on playback mode, lfs record sending camera data with insim and lfs engine play normal (just my guess)

i saw a addon before and its doing realistic camera movements when playing. its shaking camera when hard turns. addon use insim for camera movements. lfs record uses insim too. i saw another addon adding to lfs extra cameras with insim. u can use that when playing. im confused a bit.

LFS Record controls LFS to the fullest. That means it freezes time for LFS and tells LFS exactly what to do, whenever LFS needs to do something, like move one 'frame' forward. It has to have that level of control because if I just let LFS run free, then you'll be looking at very glitchy animations in LFS while playing back. That's more annoying than having no sound, trust me.

ok then i choose smooth animations what about my mpr car data error

dude, it's the frikking weekend, gimme some time

ooh ok im sorry