Videos of SPww2

[Zombieritual]

Hi!
It would be fun to see some more videos of SP on Youtube for example with someone playing and giving tips.

/Zombieritual

[void1984]

For that kind of game screenshots work better.
There is an example of Let's Play (http://216.86.148.111/showthread.php?threadid=3363150&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=1) thread.

[Zombieritual]

Yea you're probably right but I remember a video of SPwaw where you could see the disadvantages of overstacking while being bombed by aircraft:)

[void1984]

I also remember that one, the author had forgotten to deploy his troops, and they all started at the same hex, which was spotted by enemy planes...

But that was just a short gimmick, with full battles I prefer to take my time looking at the maneuvers at screenshots, especially if they are explained with arrows draw over them.

[KAreil]

I LOVE arrows! :D

Drawing arrows is the best thing when writing an AAR!

Small AAR from me to continue an abandoned one...with LOTS of arrows :)
Norwegian Battlefield (http://www.si-games.com/forums/showthread.php?p=729800#post729800)



But it's written in Austrian, so most of you won't be able to read it... :rolleyes:

[RightDeve]

Yea you're probably right but I remember a video of SPwaw where you could see the disadvantages of overstacking while being bombed by aircraft:)

Coincidentally I just happened to see that video a few hours ago while youtubing some World War II footage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvkBmFrUb7Q&feature=related

nice clip there, feels like an RTS game + the sound effect is awesome.

[Zombieritual]

Yes that's the video I was talking about. Just a nice mistake that one cane make while playing SPwaw.

[Zombieritual]

I too love arrows remember when playing civ3 the barbarossa campaign and saw these arrows combined with day by day action reports, fun reading. But SPWW2 is the closest game I think to Civ 3 (my two favourite games).

[Zombieritual]

And finally a video exactly what I was talking about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDBncpkTxuQ

[gila]

And finally a video exactly what I was talking about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDBncpkTxuQ



I do have some doubts on whether he medled with the preferances screen,since the poles (in trenches) were very to easy to beat.

Artillery was spot on.

But an excellant recounting of play and infrantry tactics none the less.

[Imp]

Wow I seriously forgot just how bad the free game looks the CD was worth every penny.

[Rosollia]

Thats a great video and good publicity for the game!

The poor video quality is due to a number of things. First the game and the video recorder software needs to be set to the same resolution. Secondly Youtube uses odd resolutions and further degrades video quality when it converts the user uploaded videos to its own formats.

I'd try setting the game resolution to 640x480 and then record it in a window using a recording software like camstudio set at the same 640x480 recording resolution and a high picture quality setting. However even if that video comes out good it suffers when it gets converted to youtube video. This is not helped by the fact that these are 2D games with alot of one pixel wide details.

[Imp]

Sorry got to disagree with you Rosollia while what you mention has merit causing minor video degrade it is not the main problem. Click on videos of other games the guys done they look fine so his video capture is okay,
The main problem is the free game looks terrible made slightly worse by being videoed. It reminded me just how bad it looked I bought the MBT CD first & had to stop playing WWII till I bought that to as now realised just how poor the quality was & it made it unplayable.

[Rosollia]

Well the free game looks nothing like the youtube video on my system, but I guess if you have a really bad quality monitor/video card with no support for low resolutions or you use a program like D3DWindower to artificialy stretch the screen it can look ugly and unplayable.

Click on videos of other games the guys done they look fine so his video capture is okay


That makes no difference since a setting that works on video capture for one game does not mean it works for all games.

[Rosollia]

I did a little bit of testing using Camstudio program to record the video of WinSPWW2 game. I set the game to run at windowed 640x480 resolution and used the Camstudio to record the window.

The first video is captured using the Microsoft Video 1 codec. Because of the 23 MB size limit for attachements it is a short clip. However it shows that the game can be recorded in good quality using Camstudio.

EDIT: Or I could just ZIP to a 5.26 MB size... :doh:

[Rosollia]

In this second video I have compressed the video using Microsoft Movie Maker. The format used is .WMV (Windows Media Video). This reduces the size of the video file from 21 MB to just 3.6 MB however the image quality suffers alot.

This is the problem with recording of WinSPWW2. There is alot of small fine detail in the graphics and any sort of compression really messes them up.

I have seen HD videos in Youtube that look amazing, but I have no idea how they manage to upload the videos without dramatic image quality loss.

Some links:
Camstudio is available here: http://camstudio.org/

Some useful tips on configuring camstudio on 64 bit OS and Windows Vista/7:
http://camstudio.org/forum/discussion/310/lossless-codec-not-showing-up/p1
http://camstudio.org/forum/discussion/33/waveoutgetselectcontrol-failed/p1

[Cross]

The 5MB ZIP video is perfect quality, but 5MB for 19 seconds! With no sound?


Cross

[Rosollia]

Yeah, just imagine someone recording 30 minutes of video at high quality and then uploading the several gigabyte size file into youtube. :D

The sounds do not take much space. The "raw.avi" is about 21 MB in size unzipped and with sounds it would be about 22 MB.

[Cross]

I think a better way of making a LP for this game, may be to just record the commentary in a sound file, like MP3 which produces light files.

And then have a series of decent quality screen shots on a thread.

Then you could follow the narration, with the commentator prompting you to scroll down to screen shot #2 etc...



Cross

[Double_Deuce]

There's a guy who does tutorial videos for ASL (Advanced Squad Leader) using Powerpoint in a presentation type format however there was no voice, just slides with text graphics to explain things. He is now converting them to flash to include voice narration and they are pretty sharp. You can find them here: ASL Training Sessions (http://www.russgifford.net/asl_training.htm)

Might help with some ideas.

[gila]

Sorry got to disagree with you Rosollia while what you mention has merit causing minor video degrade it is not the main problem. Click on videos of other games the guys done they look fine so his video capture is okay,
The main problem is the free game looks terrible made slightly worse by being videoed. It reminded me just how bad it looked I bought the MBT CD first & had to stop playing WWII till I bought that to as now realised just how poor the quality was & it made it unplayable.

I found the clarity in the vid post #9 very clear, myself, much like looking over his shoulder even when in expanded screen.

Someone needs to pick his brain,he may be here after all.

[Imp]

Okay I will explain most likely what he did, played in full screen (which you could do) at 640x480 which is how I used to play. So the distortion is from the picture being blown up & indeed does look nearly that bad. Was pre wide screen so not stretched just blown up with loss of quality.
You kept the quality by going windowed & settling for a tiny display area instead if I am correct, about 8 hexes across from a guess taken at maximum zoom level.
Off topic but humour me how many hexes can you see at 1 off minimum zoom, i.e. zoom right out & in one.

[Ts4EVER]

On trying out the scenario again I think he didn't fudge the settings. I won with 2 fewer casualties and I got everything on 100%.

[BadCompany]

Wow I seriously forgot just how bad the free game looks the CD was worth every penny.

I have to agree, having owned the CD version of both MBT and WW2 for 2-3 years now, watching this video made my eyes bleed. Resolution was worth the price for me alone - and it payed off. Now the game supports ANY resolution.

[Imp]

Off topic but I was intrigued so tried 640x480 windowed against what I play on as I never used it. Planning for distant LOS must be hard work the hex size remains identical but I can see over 5 times the number of hexes. That & the 5 key letting me keep track of my formations at a glance must have saved me 100s of hours especially in MBT where shots at 2000+ metres do happen.

[gila]

Okay I will explain most likely what he did, played in full screen (which you could do) at 640x480 which is how I used to play. So the distortion is from the picture being blown up & indeed does look nearly that bad. Was pre wide screen so not stretched just blown up with loss of quality.
You kept the quality by going windowed & settling for a tiny display area instead if I am correct, about 8 hexes across from a guess taken at maximum zoom level.
Off topic but humour me how many hexes can you see at 1 off minimum zoom, i.e. zoom right out & in one.

i own the CD in both games and play at 640 x 480 or whatever it is all the time.. no problem with bleeding eye balls.:re:

The only time i get eye strain is when i up the resulution and then the text gets smaller,,,,, a little over emphasis on the poor quality i'm thinking:)

[BadCompany]

Okay I will explain most likely what he did, played in full screen (which you could do) at 640x480 which is how I used to play. So the distortion is from the picture being blown up & indeed does look nearly that bad. Was pre wide screen so not stretched just blown up with loss of quality.
You kept the quality by going windowed & settling for a tiny display area instead if I am correct, about 8 hexes across from a guess taken at maximum zoom level.
Off topic but humour me how many hexes can you see at 1 off minimum zoom, i.e. zoom right out & in one.

i own the CD in both games and play at 640 x 480 or whatever it is all the time.. no problem with bleeding eye balls.:re:

The only time i get eye strain is when i up the resulution and then the text gets smaller,,,,, a little over emphasis on the poor quality i'm thinking:)

If 640 x 480 is all you play, even with the CD Version, then of course you are used to it. Before I got the CD Version, I could only go up to 800 x 600, so 640 x 480 wasn't that big of a deal. Try running on something like 1080p native res for 2 - 3 years and tell me that 640 x 480 doesn't look absolutely appalling.

[Rosollia]

Found some more gameplay videos posted at Youtube by "Pewpewchewchew".

winSPWW2 Steel Panthers WW2 Generated Campaign Battle 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvK0J2hq6sI

winSPWW2 Steel Panthers WW2 Generated Campaign Battle 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mr2ENIPrr5o

winSPWW2 Steel Panthers WW2 Generated Campaign Battle 3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq1Oka9O0ok

winSPWW2 Steel Panthers WW2 Generated Campaign Battle 4:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jam2bh9qVmw

[Ts4EVER]

IMO these battles are way too small, but you don't have much of a choice when you want to do a video I guess.