[Inquisitor]

Is the exe maker still viable? I thought that was deemed "questionable" as well.

Now that I understand it, it's not a TERRIBLY bad idea, but folks can already do that with the converted AVI's no?

As for the AVI's themselves, thye sit in a really grey area. It's less black than an MVE converter or decoder, but it's still fuzzy

[Lightspeed]

Originally posted by PhReAk
well the only thing is that the exe's of the MVE files are rather large (200mb for the fs1 intro) and the AVIs are compressed using DIVx something and its down to about 1/10 the size

DivX =
+ good quality
+ small file size
+ can easily be created
- will not run properly on < 700 MHz machines (if you have good resolution and quality)

DivX is the codec with the highest CPU load i know of

[Johnmike]

Don't make required system specifications above one gigahert.

[Lightspeed]

depends on the codec you use to compress your AVIs. If your comp is too slow for DivX you may simply use another codec

[Terorist]

400-450 MHz Pentium 2 is enough (read: minimum) for a decent quality MPEG-4 file. For those who don't know, DivX, xvid, wmv9 and sorenson-what-was-the-number-again (used in quicktime) are MPEG-4 codec variations.

Apparently you can screw them up in such a way that no machine can play it well though, but I don't know how exactly. That 400 MHz computer is around the bare minimum needed to play FS2 anyway, so there's hardly any reason to distribute MPEG-1 or 2 versions (lighter to decode but bigger in size) of the MVEs, which themselves have a low resolution anyway (thus lighter). DivX/xvid/whatever is enough.

[Lightspeed]

Originally posted by Terorist
400-450 MHz Pentium 2 is enough (read: minimum) for a decent quality MPEG-4 file. For those who don't know, DivX, xvid, wmv9 and sorenson-what-was-the-number-again (used in quicktime) are MPEG-4 codec variations.

Apparently you can screw them up in such a way that no machine can play it well though, but I don't know how exactly. That 400 MHz computer is around the bare minimum needed to play FS2 anyway, so there's hardly any reason to distribute MPEG-1 or 2 versions (lighter to decode but bigger in size) of the MVEs, which themselves have a low resolution anyway (thus lighter). DivX/xvid/whatever is enough.

afraid to say, but that isn't quite correct. It highly depends on the quality you used when compressing the DivX. Good looking DivX videos did definately NOT work on my 533 MHz machine, and i have seen them locking up on several 700 MHz machines as well. However, if you have a 1 GHz+ PC you should be able to watch most DivX without any problems. And if I mean good looking i refer as to not seeing any artifacts.

[Flaser]

Compressing videos properly is an art on its own.

Actually some two pass encodings can be very good.

The problem is that you need a very clear source for any blurryness will actually increase the file size since MPEG codecs have a hard time dealing with gradients.
Cutting of the edges helps too, since the said edge - the point where it blurs into black - is also a waste of bits and processor power.
Cutting down the resolution a bit is not as much of a loss as you would think - it actually helps in some cases.
Divx has excelent image filters, than can restore to full screen glory a file you couldn't with other codecs.
A bigger size however often wastes reasources since the picture gets cut donw to more block (that was the resaon behind the blocking of some poor MPEG-I files), whereas a smaller resolution would allow a more economic enciding, still within the limits of the retouch filters.

[Terorist]

Originally posted by Lightspeed
afraid to say, but that isn't quite correct. It highly depends on the quality you used when compressing the DivX. Good looking DivX videos did definately NOT work on my 533 MHz machine,

[/size]I used to watch DivX files with my 400 MHz K6/2 without problems when they first came around...

If you try to tell me I'd need a 1 GHz processor instead of my current Duron (somewhere near 800) to see the good looking files I currently watch (without any evidence of shortage of processing power) then I'll just have to laugh you out the window, sorry. :-)

Originally posted by Lightspeed
and i have seen them locking up on several 700 MHz machines as well. However, if you have a 1 GHz+ PC you should be able to watch most DivX without any problems. And if I mean good looking i refer as to not seeing any artifacts.

[/size]I can only speak from my experience, and based on that I'll have to assume there's something else wrong with your system and/or files; poor encodes, inefficiently configured system and so on (I guess you use XP, hah). I used to routinely fix badly put together files with Virtualdub before they played nicely... there's lots of bad work out there.

Using an actual player like Media Player Classic instead of bloated pieces of crap like the later versions of Windows Media Player (6.4 rocks, and was my choice before finding MPC) or other similar horrors helps. Also use ffdshow instead of the current dubious versions of DivX - the 5.x series even had a built-in film grain adder, how ****ed up is that? I couldn't belive my eyes when I saw that, and stopped using such a idiotic product altogether. As if the picture quality could ever be good enough to need ruining like that...

Anyway, back to topic: the MVEs are somewhat low resolution to begin with; if they're converted to some MPEG-4 format properly, no decent system that can play FS2 should have problems with them processing power-wise. (Although I suppose there are people with ~200 MHz machines out there... well, I just hope they won't mind.) There's always some even with better computers who will have problems, as always, but those won't have anything to do with needing a gazillion hertz CPU.

[Drew]

Originally posted by Lightspeed
- will not run properly on < 700 MHz machines (if you have good resolution and quality)

are you f***ing kidding me ligtspeed? i (used to, before i stole its speakers for my stereo) play high-res Divx vids on my old 400 Mhz P2

[Krom]

I've seen divx 5.1 hog up more then its fair share of CPU time on my 2.4 GHz.  However, Divx3 encodes are cake.

-Krom

[karajorma]

I'll quite happily convert the cutscenes again if someone will give me a rough idea what settings to use in VirtualDub (or TMPG for that matter). I'm pretty new to encoding movies so I just did the best I could.