Super Metroid 100% SS

2006-10-11 11:21:17 am

even though it makes me sound retarded i use "y'all" when clarity is absolutely necessary. it may not be accepted outside of texas but i think at least native speakers of english know what i mean.

as for spewing, grenola ought to be able to whip something up in short order. he's just gotten a lot busier than he was yesterday but i think that this should be quick work for him. he may ask you to get on irc if things start to get difficult.

BlueGlass

2006-10-11 12:27:12 pm

Quote from nate:

as for spewing, grenola ought to be able to whip something up in short order. he's just gotten a lot busier than he was yesterday but i think that this should be quick work for him. he may ask you to get on irc if things start to get difficult.

Okay. I'd like to say thanks in advance for what he will soon be teaching me.

arkarian

2006-10-11 09:22:13 pm

red chamber dream

Quote from nate:

even though it makes me sound retarded i use "y'all" when clarity is absolutely necessary. it may not be accepted outside of texas but i think at least native speakers of english know what i mean.

It's used all the time around here and probably in other east-southeast areas.

DJGrenola

2006-10-12 01:25:37 pm

but will invade england only over my dead body.

I will look into this divx spewing lark presently, stand by.

BlueGlass

2006-10-12 01:36:22 pm

Quote from DJGrenola:

I will look into this divx spewing lark presently, stand by.

Thanks, DJGrenola!

DJGrenola

2006-10-12 09:42:55 pm

I anticipate something going wrong in the following procedure, because something usually does. If you get stuck, let me know and we can probably sort it out. I've tested all this on my G4 and it worked fine, so here's hoping. The main problem with the following method is that you are likely to suffer some desynchronisation between video and audio, but for reasons which aren't worth going into, there's not really much I can do about it without complicating things severalfold. What is presented here should be good enough for the job.

SETUP

You'll need some software for this gig. First the awesomely powerful mencoder/mplayer pair. The only precompiled build of this for OS X / PPC I could find online is a little old, from 2005, but the alternative would be compiling it yourself, which can be quite involved and is not guaranteed to work. I've tested these 2005 builds anyway and they should suffice for our purposes.

http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/mplayerosx/lastbinary200505ONLYFORTIGER.zip?download

Choose a mirror and download. Unpacking the file should result in a directory called "lastbinary200505" containing "mplayer" and "mencoder" binary files.

Create a directory called mplayer in your home directory and drag the two executables into it. This will be our work directory from now on. Once the files have been moved, you can safely delete the original download folder and any disc images etc that may be left behind.

If you want to be able to edit out sections of video to make small clips, you'll also need a piece of software called avidemux. Unfortunately, avidemux requires the X windows framework to be installed, which according to nate comes along with OS X 10.4 on a separate disc - it may also be available as a download from apple. You may already have it installed but this is not guaranteed. If you get stuck here then you can either ask for help or abandon the idea of being able to edit out clips and just encode / upload entire DVD titles, but it's worth getting it working if you can.

Once you have X windows installed (or if you already have it installed), you need the OS X native build of avidemux. Again you can avoid having to compile it yourself by getting hold of a precompiled binary. Unfortunately, the latest berlios build of avidemux appears to contain a slew of bugs that making working with mpeg-2 from DVD very unpleasant, so instead I did some testing with an earlier version which I happened to have kicking around. I've uploaded this earlier build to the following URL:

http://www.ali1548.ukshells.co.uk/software/avidemux.tar.bz2

Downloading and unpacking this file should give you a single file called "runAvidemux2". Drag this to your Applications folder as you would for installing anything else.

These (mplayer, mencoder, avidemux) are the three main tools you will need for the job, but to expedite the process I have also written a couple of "shell scripts" which (hopefully) will make the ripping and encoding process a piece of cake.

Download:

http://www.ali1548.ukshells.co.uk/rip.sh
http://www.ali1548.ukshells.co.uk/encode.sh

These two files will also need to be moved to the mplayer directory we created in your home directory.

To run these scripts, you will need to open a terminal window which will allow you to make use of OS X's UNIX command line interface. On my mac this is found in Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal. You'll be making fair use of this so you may wish to drag it to the Dock.

Open a Terminal window and type:

Code:

cd mplayer
ls -l *

that's a lower case L, by the way, not the number 1. cd is the UNIX change directory command, so this just makes our working directory the "mplayer" directory we created earlier.

You should see the four files rip.sh, encode.sh, mplayer and mencoder. Before you can run the shellscripts, you need to tell OS X that they should be executable, so

Code:

chmod u+x *.sh

should do the trick.

You should be ready to go now.

RIP AND ENCODE

Insert the DVD you wish to rip a title from. You'll need to know which DVD title you want beforehand. To rip the mpeg-2 from the dvd, you use the rip.sh shellscript, so from the terminal, do (for example):

Code:

./rip.sh 2 myvideo

This will read dvd title 2 and create a file called myvideo.vob containing DVD title 2 in its entirety. You can check it's worked by using VLC to check the resulting vob file, or, while you're in the terminal window, why not just use mplayer:

Code:

./mplayer myvideo.vob

you can seek with the <- and -> keys, and press escape to stop it playing.

The next step is to use avidemux to crop out the section of the file you're interested in encoding and uploading. If you want to do the entire DVD title, you can skip this step and feed the VOB file straight to the encode.sh script, but here I'm assuming you want to trim it a little - this will normally be the case for repeated attempts at a segment where you just leave the dvd recorder running.

Open up avidemux (again you might like to place it in the Dock) and open the vob file. The software will ask you if you want to index the file - say yes. Depending on whether you also have other vobs kicking around it may ask whether you want to append multiple files - say no. Finally you should get a little window entitled "mpeg indexer" ... the default settings should be fine, so hit OK and wait a few seconds. Once the index file is created, future openings of this file will just use the created .idx file, so it shouldn't bother you again. At the end of the indexing process you may get a warning window saying something like "We have a shift of 66ms between audio and video" - although we could fix this in the encoding step if the copy of mencoder we were using was a touch more recent, you'll just have to suffer it with thie version.

Use the seekbar to find the start of the video you want to encode, and hit the A button below the main video window and above the timecode field. Similarly, use the seekbar to find the end of the video you want to encode, and hit B. Pressing A and B should set the frame numbers for A and B in the bottom right hand corner of avidemux's main window. Once the piece of video you want is selected, use the "Outp. fmt" box on the left to choose "MPEG A+V (PS)". Ensure that the "A Process" and "V Process" buttons are *not* depressed (we just want to copy the mpeg, not transcode it), and hit the save button at the top. Enter a filename like myvideo.mpeg and save. You're done with avidemux now, so you can quit it with command-Q.

Go back to the terminal (if you closed it and re-opened it, make sure you cd to the mplayer directory again - also remember that you can always type ls to list the files in this directory from the terminal), and type:

Code:

./encode.sh myvideo.mpeg

The encode will proceed in two passes and produce a file called myvideo.avi, which is the final DivX product suitable for internet distribution. You can also encode the original ripped VOB in its entirety if you don't care about trimming it or couldn't get avidemux working satisfactorily:

Code:

./encode.sh myvideo.vob

That's basically it - hope it works for you - I can field any questions if anything goes wrong.

I anticipate something going wrong in the following procedure, because something usually does. If you get stuck, let me know and we can probably sort it out. I've tested all this on my G4 and it worked fine, so here's hoping. The main problem with the following method is that you are likely to suffer some desynchronisation between video and audio, but for reasons which aren't worth going into, there's not really much I can do about it without complicating things severalfold. What is presented here should be good enough for the job.

[size=18px][u]SETUP[/u][/size]

You'll need some software for this gig. First the awesomely powerful mencoder/mplayer pair. The only precompiled build of this for OS X / PPC I could find online is a little old, from 2005, but the alternative would be compiling it yourself, which can be quite involved and is not guaranteed to work. I've tested these 2005 builds anyway and they should suffice for our purposes.

http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/mplayerosx/lastbinary200505ONLYFORTIGER.zip?download

Choose a mirror and download. Unpacking the file should result in a directory called "lastbinary200505" containing "mplayer" and "mencoder" binary files.

Create a directory called mplayer in your home directory and drag the two executables into it. This will be our work directory from now on. Once the files have been moved, you can safely delete the original download folder and any disc images etc that may be left behind.

If you want to be able to edit out sections of video to make small clips, you'll also need a piece of software called avidemux. Unfortunately, avidemux requires the X windows framework to be installed, which according to nate comes along with OS X 10.4 on a separate disc - it may also be available as a download from apple. You may already have it installed but this is not guaranteed. If you get stuck here then you can either ask for help or abandon the idea of being able to edit out clips and just encode / upload entire DVD titles, but it's worth getting it working if you can.

Once you have X windows installed (or if you already have it installed), you need the OS X native build of avidemux. Again you can avoid having to compile it yourself by getting hold of a precompiled binary. Unfortunately, the latest berlios build of avidemux appears to contain a slew of bugs that making working with mpeg-2 from DVD very unpleasant, so instead I did some testing with an earlier version which I happened to have kicking around. I've uploaded this earlier build to the following URL:

http://www.ali1548.ukshells.co.uk/software/avidemux.tar.bz2

Downloading and unpacking this file should give you a single file called "runAvidemux2". Drag this to your Applications folder as you would for installing anything else.

These (mplayer, mencoder, avidemux) are the three main tools you will need for the job, but to expedite the process I have also written a couple of "shell scripts" which (hopefully) will make the ripping and encoding process a piece of cake.

Download:

http://www.ali1548.ukshells.co.uk/rip.sh
http://www.ali1548.ukshells.co.uk/encode.sh

These two files will also need to be moved to the mplayer directory we created in your home directory.

To run these scripts, you will need to open a terminal window which will allow you to make use of OS X's UNIX command line interface. On my mac this is found in Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal. You'll be making fair use of this so you may wish to drag it to the Dock.

Open a Terminal window and type:

[code]cd mplayer
ls -l *[/code]

that's a lower case L, by the way, not the number 1. cd is the UNIX change directory command, so this just makes our working directory the "mplayer" directory we created earlier.

You should see the four files rip.sh, encode.sh, mplayer and mencoder. Before you can run the shellscripts, you need to tell OS X that they should be executable, so

[code]chmod u+x *.sh[/code]

should do the trick.

You should be ready to go now.

[size=18px][u]RIP AND ENCODE[/u][/size]

Insert the DVD you wish to rip a title from. You'll need to know which DVD title you want beforehand. To rip the mpeg-2 from the dvd, you use the rip.sh shellscript, so from the terminal, do (for example):

[code]./rip.sh 2 myvideo[/code]

This will read dvd title 2 and create a file called myvideo.vob containing DVD title 2 in its entirety. You can check it's worked by using VLC to check the resulting vob file, or, while you're in the terminal window, why not just use mplayer:

[code]./mplayer myvideo.vob[/code]

you can seek with the <- and -> keys, and press escape to stop it playing.

The next step is to use avidemux to crop out the section of the file you're interested in encoding and uploading. If you want to do the entire DVD title, you can skip this step and feed the VOB file straight to the encode.sh script, but here I'm assuming you want to trim it a little - this will normally be the case for repeated attempts at a segment where you just leave the dvd recorder running.

Open up avidemux (again you might like to place it in the Dock) and open the vob file. The software will ask you if you want to index the file - say yes. Depending on whether you also have other vobs kicking around it may ask whether you want to append multiple files - say no. Finally you should get a little window entitled "mpeg indexer" ... the default settings should be fine, so hit OK and wait a few seconds. Once the index file is created, future openings of this file will just use the created .idx file, so it shouldn't bother you again. At the end of the indexing process you may get a warning window saying something like "We have a shift of 66ms between audio and video" - although we could fix this in the encoding step if the copy of mencoder we were using was a touch more recent, you'll just have to suffer it with thie version.

Use the seekbar to find the start of the video you want to encode, and hit the A button below the main video window and above the timecode field. Similarly, use the seekbar to find the end of the video you want to encode, and hit B. Pressing A and B should set the frame numbers for A and B in the bottom right hand corner of avidemux's main window. Once the piece of video you want is selected, use the "Outp. fmt" box on the left to choose "MPEG A+V (PS)". Ensure that the "A Process" and "V Process" buttons are *not* depressed (we just want to copy the mpeg, not transcode it), and hit the save button at the top. Enter a filename like myvideo.mpeg and save. You're done with avidemux now, so you can quit it with command-Q.

Go back to the terminal (if you closed it and re-opened it, make sure you cd to the mplayer directory again - also remember that you can always type ls to list the files in this directory from the terminal), and type:

[code]./encode.sh myvideo.mpeg[/code]

The encode will proceed in two passes and produce a file called myvideo.avi, which is the final DivX product suitable for internet distribution. You can also encode the original ripped VOB in its entirety if you don't care about trimming it or couldn't get avidemux working satisfactorily:

[code]./encode.sh myvideo.vob[/code]

That's basically it - hope it works for you - I can field any questions if anything goes wrong.

BlueGlass

2006-10-12 11:36:16 pm

One more time, thank you for everything DJGrenola. Unfortunately, I don't have (and cannot find), the X windows framework, so no editing for me. Oh well, at least the .vbo was only 7 minutes long. Anyway, for anyone who wants to watch what I think will be segment 1, unless people think I should try to improve it a bit more, skip to about 6 minutes into the video.

Unfortunately, I'm unable to add it as an attachment for whatever reason, so I put it up at FileFront: http://files.filefront.com/myvideoavi/;6012541;;/fileinfo.html

nate

2006-10-12 11:42:38 pm

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/x11formacosx.html

BlueGlass

2006-10-12 11:45:33 pm

Oh. Thanks! I'll go back and edit the video to just the successful attempt, then repost it.

EDIT: never mind, it won't let me install it. something about "newer software already exists on this computer,"

nate

2006-10-12 11:54:01 pm

hmmm. looks like that's actually the panther version. one moment while i upload an image of my dvd.

and i also made a cut version of the first segment with no audio (because the audio wasn't recognized) and just his one attempt:

http://nate.quandra.org/bglass1.avi

DJGrenola

2006-10-13 12:10:44 am

dunno what happened to the audio there ... would be grateful for feedback from anyone else who tries to play it. to some extent my hands are tied because given the operating systems I use all my tools are ffmpeg based, which is famous for being able to play just about anything no matter how mangled.

If it's problematic for other people I'll make another mencoder.sh that uses LAME this time instead of ffmpeg's mp3 encoder.

BlueGlass

2006-10-13 12:13:53 am

The audio plays perfectly on my computer.

nate

2006-10-13 12:32:36 am

yeah, i don't think our doze friends will have much luck though. at any rate i've uploaded x11 off of my tiger disc and pm'd you the url.

Red Scarlet

2006-10-15 01:38:21 am

I('d) like to watch (some MP3 runs)

All things must come to an end sometime. Don't obliterate my time too badly. Wink

Good luck, and don't let the game make you go crazy.

BlueGlass

2006-10-17 04:54:07 pm

Okay, I must have the worst luck in the world as far as DVD recorders are concerned. Fortunately, this one didn't break completely. It still records just fine, but after several minutes of recording it'll either stop displaying picture, or the sound will vanish to be replaced by silence or a buzzing noise. Fortunately, as it does this, it still records the audio and visual perfectly. So the run is halted until I can buy a spltter.

And to Scarlet, thanks for the good luck, and don't worry: I dobut it's possible to get much better than a 55 without resorting to TAS.

EDIT: never mind about buying the splitter. I can just do what Kridley did and play without sound.

nate

2006-10-17 06:55:55 pm

why don't you just have it exchanged for a new one?

BlueGlass

2006-10-17 07:14:23 pm

Quote from nate:

why don't you just have it exchanged for a new one?

Actually, I think I might have to, because it has been displaying the "updating disc. Please wait a moment." message for over an hour after recording for five minutes .

Red Scarlet

2006-10-18 04:13:37 am

I('d) like to watch (some MP3 runs)

Quote from BlueGlass:

And to Scarlet, thanks for the good luck, and don't worry: I dobut it's possible to get much better than a 55 without resorting to TAS.

I was hoping it wouldn't be, but I guess a bunch of stuff was found afterward/I played crappy to begin with.

Either way, have fun and take breaks! What is your control scheme? You may want to get a band-aid if it's like mine is.

Saturn

2006-10-18 11:37:20 am

Quote from Red Scarlet:

What is your control scheme? You may want to get a band-aid if it's like mine is.

Hardcore! :P

This is a example of a professional speedrunner right there.

nate

2006-10-18 11:48:31 am

did you ever get feeling back in that finger?

BlueGlass

2006-10-18 01:27:14 pm

Quote from Red Scarlet:

I played crappy to begin with.

You are probably one of the most modest people on the face of the planet.

Quote from Red Scarlet:

What is your control scheme? You may want to get a band-aid if it's like mine is.

Sorry. I'm not using your crazy control shceme. What was it? Dash on X and you pressed it with the side of your index finger? Ouch!

Anyway, I have run and jump on default, shot on Y, item select on X, and item cancel on select. That way I can hold down dash at all times and rotate my thumb to hit jump and shoot, and I move my index finger off of R when I need to change equipment.

Red Scarlet

2006-10-18 04:11:33 pm

I('d) like to watch (some MP3 runs)

Default run is A? Yeck.
Mmm I can't really tell about my finger, it's either still no feeling or it's very, very slight. Still hurts after about 4 minutes of trying to play the game or Mega Man X.

Anyway, hope your dvd thingy gets fixed. gl

BlueGlass

2006-10-18 04:28:08 pm

Default run is B, not A. And thanks again for the good luck.

moozooh

2006-10-18 08:11:36 pm

Hmm, very good first segment, I should say. You got very lucky with that falling debris room, the only possible improvement I could spot was in the Ridley fight (could have got enough damage in four takes, although this is hard). And you were only ~2-2.5 seconds behind the pre-Flatley era tool-assisted runs during the escape, which is also awesome. Keep up the good work, man!

BlueGlass

2006-10-18 08:23:52 pm

Quote from moozooh:

the only possible improvement I could spot was in the Ridley fight (could have got enough damage in four takes, although this is hard).

Ridley causes a maximum of 15 damage per hit. Energy has to be at 29 or lower to end the fight. 15*4=60 99-60=39. Five hits are required. Unless you've found some way to magically make Ridley cause more damage, it's necessary to take all five hits in any speedrun (except no-damage, but who's that crazy?). The TAS takes five hits.

Thaks for the complimens, also!