Movie Making from recorded tracks?

[SEE]

Can someone please explain some of the functions like 'Grab' and 'frame' etc.

I tried the AVI option (as this works with windows moviemaker) but it was very poor. I may be setting it up incorrectly but not sure - is the AVI feature useable or is it best to use something like FRAPPS?

Is there a 'dummies guide' to breaking/stopping a track at defined points, setting up the viewpoint - recording the bit you need?

[Les]

I still don't know what the 'Grab' feature is either.

I wrote some stuff about recording and exporting video's in these two threads though -

http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=21404&highlight=recording+tracks

http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=21576&highlight=making+movies

You might find it relelvant. The information is still current as far as I know.

And what it adds up to is, generally speaking, due to the bugginess of the track replay system, you're better off recording 'live' with FRAPS or some other video-capture software and editing those FRAPS captures in a video-editing program, even though it does impose some pretty serious limits on the kinds of shots you can get, with no ability to replay the exact same action and capture it from a different angle for example.

If you do manage though to record some .trk files that aren't then ruined by the engine-revving bug, the custom skins vanishing bug, or the effects/objects/sounds disappearing bug, then basically you just have to keep replaying the .trk and re-recording the bits you want, with something like FRAPS (or by using the export as AVI feature, if you can get it working and have the time to sit there letting it render).

I don't know of a guide for using the replay system in IL-2, but basically what you've got is the ability to fast forward, slow down, pause, change the camera view, and replay the track over and over, and that's about it.

Note the fact that I didn't include 'rewind' in that list of functions. That's because there is no rewind function. (What you can do though is record a new .trk file while playing back your original .trk file, to save yourself repeatedly loading up and fast forwarding through your original .trk file to get to a particular bit you want to see.) Anyway...

Once you've made your FRAPS recordings using those somewhat limited features of the replay system, you still have to assemble and edit those recordings and export them as a final movie using a separate video-editing program. That's where a lot of the actual movie-making takes place. Everything before that is just basically setting up and gathering your raw footage.

Hope some of that helps and doesn't put you off altogether. If you're interested in it, I'd suggest recording some stuff and playing around with it and just seeing what happens.

Speaking more generally though, I think without a bug-free track replay system, the movie-making side of the new Il-2 series is actually being crippled at the moment. People can still make game-play video's using 'live' FRAPS captures, or jump through hoops picking bug-free bits out of the .trk recordings to assemble into a more contrived music-video or story-type movie, but, it seems to me anyway, it still means the movie-making side of the new Il-2 series won't be taking off like it could if it had a properly functioning replay system.

I don't really expect many people to care about that, not when there are still so many other unfinished aspects of the game, but I hope the issue gets looked into at some point. It's something that's going to become more obvious and noticeable, not less, as more and more peple are able to run the game properly and start wanting to make records of what they're experiencing.

[SEE]

Thanks Les, very helpful.

[ATAG_Doc]

I still don't know what the 'Grab' feature is either.

I wrote some stuff about recording and exporting video's in these two threads though -

http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=21404&highlight=recording+tracks

http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=21576&highlight=making+movies

You might find it relelvant. The information is still current as far as I know.

And what it adds up to is, generally speaking, due to the bugginess of the track replay system, you're better off recording 'live' with FRAPS or some other video-capture software and editing those FRAPS captures in a video-editing program, even though it does impose some pretty serious limits on the kinds of shots you can get, with no ability to replay the exact same action and capture it from a different angle for example.

If you do manage though to record some .trk files that aren't then ruined by the engine-revving bug, the custom skins vanishing bug, or the effects/objects/sounds disappearing bug, then basically you just have to keep replaying the .trk and re-recording the bits you want, with something like FRAPS (or by using the export as AVI feature, if you can get it working and have the time to sit there letting it render).

I don't know of a guide for using the replay system in IL-2, but basically what you've got is the ability to fast forward, slow down, pause, change the camera view, and replay the track over and over, and that's about it.

Note the fact that I didn't include 'rewind' in that list of functions. That's because there is no rewind function. (What you can do though is record a new .trk file while playing back your original .trk file, to save yourself repeatedly loading up and fast forwarding through your original .trk file to get to a particular bit you want to see.) Anyway...

Once you've made your FRAPS recordings using those somewhat limited features of the replay system, you still have to assemble and edit those recordings and export them as a final movie using a separate video-editing program. That's where a lot of the actual movie-making takes place. Everything before that is just basically setting up and gathering your raw footage.

Hope some of that helps and doesn't put you off altogether. If you're interested in it, I'd suggest recording some stuff and playing around with it and just seeing what happens.

Speaking more generally though, I think without a bug-free track replay system, the movie-making side of the new Il-2 series is actually being crippled at the moment. People can still make game-play video's using 'live' FRAPS captures, or jump through hoops picking bug-free bits out of the .trk recordings to assemble into a more contrived music-video or story-type movie, but, it seems to me anyway, it still means the movie-making side of the new Il-2 series won't be taking off like it could if it had a properly functioning replay system.

I don't really expect many people to care about that, not when there are still so many other unfinished aspects of the game, but I hope the issue gets looked into at some point. It's something that's going to become more obvious and noticeable, not less, as more and more peple are able to run the game properly and start wanting to make records of what they're experiencing.

Good info. I wish they'd fix the bugs in playback but that's probably at the bottom of their lists.