SnorreSelmer Posted November 18, 2015 Posted November 18, 2015 It's been a while since the original topic discussing the RA-tool. (Original thread.) I've done some testing and have made a few findings that I feel are worth sharing. Ultimately, I would love a separate Movie Studio tool that could be used to set up cameras and do all the recording in a more user friendly way, but that'll have to wait until DCS 2.0 is released before I post my proposition to ED. So let's get down to the nitty gritty! Test PC: - Intel Core i5 6600K (dual-core w/ HyperThreading), running at stock speed - 16GB DDR4 RAM, running at stock speed - nVidia GTX 770 Ti GPU w/ 1GB RAM, running at stock speed - DCS 1.5.1b installed on a M.2 SSD - Video files are recorded to a WD 2TB Green Drive Notes: - The test-recording I've made is an in-cockpit part of a .trk, exactly three minutes long. - The image is full HD (1920x1080) at 60fps (for a total of 10801 frames). - The goal is to make intermediate files for use in a professional editing suite (like Final Cut, Adobe Premier, Sony Vegas, Lightworks etc.) - Times are accurate to the minute, not to the second, so there is a minor degree or error because of this, but it should not make a very big difference. - Of the three output options, I have ignored the Ogg Theora choice because it's not lossless. PNG vs AVI Render size is the space occupied on the harddrive (not actual file-size, which is a tiny bit less). Render time is the time it took DCS to create (render) the test video. PNG: Render size: 19.9GB (21 389 594 624 byte) Render time: 30 minutes Uncompressed AVI: Render size: 62.6GB (67 238 879 232 byte) Render time: 9 minutes Conclusion: This one comes down to priorities. Using PNG only takes 1/3 the space of an AVI, but the AVI renders in 1/3 the time. If disk space is not an issue I'd go with uncompressed AVI, if render-time is not an issue then PNG is fine. I was worried about the possibility of the PNG output running out of frames for its filenaming scheme, but with one million frames to go on, you have enough for 2h18m53s at 120fps, and that should be plenty of room. HuffYUV vs Lagarith as intermediate compression While it's possible to work with raw AVI in video editors, harddrive bandwidth quickly becomes a bottleneck. Support for a PNG stream with a separate audio track is questionable. So it's best to further process the output from DCS, and two lossless formats that come recommended are HuffYUV and Lagarith. On the HuffYUV Wikipedia article there is a link to a blog-post talking about how bad Lagarith is and how great HuffYUV is, but this seems to be based on old versions (and with a focus towards compressing anime). I have never seen any cases of Lagarith being especially slow or buggy. The following tests were done using the uncompressed AVI output. HuffYUV v2.1.1 x64 Render size: 23.2GB (25 008 230 400 byte) Render time: 18 minutes Lagarith v1.3.27 x64 Render size: 15.0GB (16 136 196 096 byte) Render time: 17 minutes Conclusion: While different codecs will perform differently in certain situations, at least in this test-clip Lagarith was both marginally faster and, most importantly, significantly smaller (35% smaller than the HuffYUV file). Final thoughts I've been using the faster, more space-consuming AVI route, using Lagarith to create the intermediate files that I use in Lightworks. If the PNG rendering could be as fast as the AVI rendering then I would switch in a heartbeat, but I'm impatient that way. I hope people find this info useful, and keep those videos coming! Finally, here's one of my videos that I made 8 months ago: [ame] [/ame] ASUS Z170-P w/ Intel i7-7700, 32GB DDR4 RAM, SSDs out the wazoo and a GTX 1080Ti, Oculus Rift CV1, TM Warthog stick and throttle, TM Cougar MFDs, MFG Crosswind pedals and WheelStandPro Warthog (w/ the custom small Warthog plate) Former F-16 Ground Crew @ RNoAF [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]
Ripcord03 Posted November 19, 2015 Posted November 19, 2015 interesting, i still prefer using shadowplay to record my tracks and the H.264 compression is decent, and doesnt seem to miss much or drop to many frames. I have used many tools in the past including fraps, I own both Action! Pro and the X.Split Profession License, and I still find myself coming back and using Shadowplay for everything. IMO it looks better and records better, but everyone has their own preference. (also off topic side note, every time i see "RAT" i think of "Remote Access Trojan" lol...)
SnorreSelmer Posted November 19, 2015 Author Posted November 19, 2015 I use ShadowPlay myself, but it's inferior in terms of image quality (editing a lossy format and recompressing it is not ideal). With the Record AVI Tool I can create perfect source videos that are 4k @ 120fps if I want, even though my monitor maxes out at 1080p. I can fly a plane with reduced graphics settings, save a .trk, crank up the graphics quality and render stunning videos without having to take the performance hit when playing. ;) Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk ASUS Z170-P w/ Intel i7-7700, 32GB DDR4 RAM, SSDs out the wazoo and a GTX 1080Ti, Oculus Rift CV1, TM Warthog stick and throttle, TM Cougar MFDs, MFG Crosswind pedals and WheelStandPro Warthog (w/ the custom small Warthog plate) Former F-16 Ground Crew @ RNoAF [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]
Ripcord03 Posted November 19, 2015 Posted November 19, 2015 good to know, ill keep that in mind next time i work on a video
Tumbleweed Posted November 19, 2015 Posted November 19, 2015 At the minute, I've been using FRAPs but I think I might give this RAT a try over the weekend. Thanks for the info! :thumbup: (also off topic side note, every time i see "RAT" i think of "Remote Access Trojan" lol...) LOL me too. Messing around with RATs in my younger days is what got me interested in learning more about IT, programming etc. Fun days. :smilewink: My Hangar: P-51D Mustang - KA-50 Blackshark - A-10C Warthog - F-86F Sabre - FC3 - Combined Arms - UH-1H My Flying Adventures: www.dcs-pilot.com :pilotfly:
zaelu Posted November 19, 2015 Posted November 19, 2015 The main issue is that track files have a very high rate of failure (still) and a good action if not recorded live... most of the times is lost forever. Secondly... for good cards there is absolutely no stress to record high quality with Shadow Play live. Third, the loss in quality of format used by shadow play can be overcome by high bitrate and good compatibility with Youtube. A Shadow Play made movie in 1080p usually looks better on youtube than a 720p made by avi tools. Sorry to state maybe the known or obvious but I see little gain and future with avi format. Better will be if we would have solid track files and better control over them (rewind etc... like in TacView records). [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC] I5 4670k, 32GB, GTX 1070, Thrustmaster TFRP, G940 Throttle extremely modded with Bodnar 0836X and Bu0836A, Warthog Joystick with F-18 grip, Oculus Rift S - Almost all is made from gifts from friends, the most expensive parts at least
SnorreSelmer Posted November 19, 2015 Author Posted November 19, 2015 I completely agree that we need a TacView-like interface for video production, but I haven't had tracks go bad in a long time now (especially after I ditched the Steam version). I'm already working on a design document outlining what an ideal video creation tool would contain to satisfy the needs of the creative community. High bitrate ShadowPlay files are pretty good, but even with my GTX 770 Ti card I can't crank up the shiny stuff in 1.5b without the frame rate going to hell... Maybe it will improve a bit once 2.0 is finally released and all the debugging code is stripped out. As for AVI being obsolete, yes and no. While AVI is old, it is still a VERY accessible format. Until a really stellar, free, alternative comes along, there's no reason to poopoo AVI. Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk ASUS Z170-P w/ Intel i7-7700, 32GB DDR4 RAM, SSDs out the wazoo and a GTX 1080Ti, Oculus Rift CV1, TM Warthog stick and throttle, TM Cougar MFDs, MFG Crosswind pedals and WheelStandPro Warthog (w/ the custom small Warthog plate) Former F-16 Ground Crew @ RNoAF [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]
Recommended Posts