| written by Neuzd on Mar 22, 2009 16:27 |
 | |  | | ![]() This is a project I begun in October, which I haven't been working on so much, because in that same period I started becoming more involved with all things related to the starmap (the first and almost secret incarnation of the GOESXNET and the inbox updates), and I decided to focus more on that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_FUVvSzBN0
Downloadable low res version:
http://www.neuzd.org/public/noctis_theme_video_small_m4v.zip (15 MB)
If you want to download a bigger (63 MB) and better version let me know and I'll make it available.
All the concept started from the wonderful theme by Ryan J. Bury you all should know, and it is a kind of homage to both this inspiring music and Noctis itself.
Now if you're curious about some "production notes" and software used:
Total time of footage explicitly shot for the video: 56 minutes
Noctis version used: NICE r11.6a.
Framed X (Mac): to convert still images into a movie, not different from ImageToAvi.
iMovie (Mac): editing.
And a windows program (which name I'll post later) to convert MIDI into mp3 (EDIT: It's "Direct MIDI to MP3 Converter", a shareware).
Enjoy. | |  | |  |
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└> last changed by Neuzd on March 23, 2009 at 19:35
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| written by Parsis on Mar 22, 2009 19:41 |
 | |  | | ![]() INCREDIBLE  ! i find it inspiring, awesome job! | |  | |  |
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| written by Ferinex on Mar 22, 2009 19:42 |
 | |  | | ![]() Really nice video! =]
I liked your time-lapse sun video too ;] | |  | |  |
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 | |  | | ![]() That was a pretty nice composition. From a technical standpoint, I might point out that it seemed to cut off sharply at the end, where having having the music and video fade into the credits screen might have been preferable. Otherwise, nice work!
It might have been nice to go without the interface border too, though that might be a limitation of the movie maker. It would also be cool to have a way to increase the draw distances for trees, both for videos and for those with higher end systems.
 | Neuzd said: | | Total time of footage explicitly shot for the video: 56 minutes |
That must have been quite a few images. I wonder if that's how Skinnymon captures his screenshot galleries. : P | |  | |  |
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| written by Neuzd on Mar 22, 2009 20:15 |
| | | | ![]() | Cryoburner said: | | From a technical standpoint, I might point out that it seemed to cut off sharply at the end, where having having the music and video fade into the credits screen might have been preferable. |
If you're referring to the black screen before the credits, I found that without some black time, the atmosphere created by the music was abruptly interrupted by the credits, while in this way, there's some time to "feel" the music ending and then, when you are one with the black void of space, the credits fade in.
By the way, I'm not a filmmaker and never think I want to be one (I don't even like movies so much) so this, even if a "major" project, is clearly full of naivety and I also can't deny I rushed on some parts to have it finished, when I had all the time to polish it in a better way.
But I'm pretty satisfied being this my very first video : )
| Cryoburner said: | | It would also be cool to have a way to increase the draw distances for trees, both for videos and for those with higher end systems. |
Done. And it works pretty well, too. : D
Have a look at these pictures from my own custom version of Noctis IV plus.
 
I still can't have a full working version of the moviemaker on NIV, and i kind of suspended the NIV modifications for now, but I'll get back on that in the future.
By the way, all that footage was taken back during fall 2008 so I couldn't do anything else than using the standard version of NICE r11.6a and the moviemaker in there.
Thanks for the suggestions anyways, and happy you're liking it. | | | | |
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  | written by Ferinex on Mar 22, 2009 20:39 |
| | | | ![]() | Cryoburner said: | ...
I might point out that it seemed to cut off sharply at the end,
...
It would also be cool to have a way to increase the draw distances for trees, both for videos and for those with higher end systems.
... |
I had those same exact thoughts while watching. I had thought that the memory limitations of DOS would be too high to increase the draw distance though; obviously I was wrong.  | | | | |
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 | | | | ![]() | Neuzd said: | | If you're referring to the black screen before the credits, I found that without some black time, the atmosphere created by the music was abruptly interrupted by the credits, while in this way, there's some time to "feel" the music ending and then, when you are one with the black void of space, the credits fade in. |
The black screen was fine. I was simply meaning that it seemed to cut to it a bit quickly. It was just a minor thing I thought I'd point out though. : )
| Neuzd said: | Done. And it works pretty well, too. : D
Have a look at these pictures from my own custom version of Noctis IV plus. |
Nice! I actually downloaded the most recent NICE source and Digital Mars to try that on my own, but didn't have a chance to really take a look at the source yet.
| Neuzd said: | | I still can't have a full working version of the moviemaker on NIV, and i kind of suspended the NIV modifications for now, but I'll get back on that in the future. |
It seems like you would just need to call the screenshot function once each frame that the movie maker is active.
| Ferinex said: | | I had those same exact thoughts while watching. I had thought that the memory limitations of DOS would be too high to increase the draw distance though; obviously I was wrong. : P |
I think that might have just been due to the performance impact that software rendering all those trees had at the time. Also, with standard Noctis IV, the trees were typically shorter and there was no jetpack, making the effect less noticeable. | | | | |
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 | written by Megagun on Mar 22, 2009 21:33 |
| | | | ![]() | Cryoburner said: | | Nice! I actually downloaded the most recent NICE source and Digital Mars to try that on my own, but didn't have a chance to really take a look at the source yet. |
It's already in R11.6a.. | | | | |
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| | | | ![]() I played around in NICE a bit, and the latest NICE release does have extended view distances for trees, which looks rather good when working correctly. However, it seems as though most of the time it doesn't work correctly. : P
Most notably, when attempting to land in most forest sectors, NICE crashes as soon as the landing pod gets down below the tree canopy level. Some forest sectors appear to work, but most cause a crash. I've found that in those sectors that do crash, staring up at the sky while landing can delay or prevent the issue.
The extended foliage distance works pretty well in forests and doesn't cause too severe of a performance hit, likely due to the basic level of detail reduction performed on the trees, though that seems to cause weird issues where the branches of some nearby trees pop in and out of existence. Overall, it doesn't work too badly in forests though, assuming you can actually manage to land.
In other terrain types it doesn't seem to work at all. None of the shrubland, desert or ocean sectors I tried showed any perceptible increase in view distances for plants. In one plains area I tested, certain parts of the sector showed increased view distance, while others did not. It looks like the feature is not entirely functional yet. : )
By the way, one odd thing I noticed about the most recent version of DWNoctis is that the game crashes if I bump into one of the stardrifter's interactive displays. This doesn't appear to be an issue in WNoctis though. | | | | |
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| written by Serpens on Mar 24, 2009 21:24 |
 | |  | | ![]() I watched this yesterday, wanted to reply, then promptly forgot. I always have too many things on my mind. I must say that the title itself elicits a smile, because I still consider the Theme to be the most atmospheric song ever made. This video does well to match its level, and a few scenes are especially notable: the felysian canyon - craterized canyon transition, the hot, thick atmosphere world - felysian world with ruins transition, the icy felysian sector with a lightning flash, and the last sunset scene. Brilliant, and this last planet is wonderful! | |  | |  |
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