The Way Cutscene Video Clips

[Kyle]

Just some information about the video clips you'll soon be able to download.

For starters, they are encoded in .wmv format, which means you don't have to download any special codecs as long as you have Windows installed. The file size is relatively small while still retaining most of the quality. The dialog boxes are sometimes blurry at the start, but they sharpen up in time for you to read them. I have also inserted transitions (fade in, fade out) between scenes for your viewing pleasure.

As Lun has pointed out, I have not been able to capture the sound output to go with the video files. I used Fraps to record the cutscenes, but its sound capturing leaves much to be desired. Using other sound capturing software alongside Fraps also resulted in extremely low quality sound files.

If any of you know of some good software (preferably freeware) that is capable of capturing sound in a clear way, feel free to mention it in this post and I'll see what I can do, because I admit that the scenes do lose a lot of their charm without the music and sound effects (drawing of the swords and ambient sounds especially). Another option would be to find software that is capable of severely reducing noise and static in sound files, but again, I have not been able to track down any good software that does this for me.

I'm already recording the cutscenes of Episode 2, but I'm going to hold on for a few days in case any of you find a way for me to record sound as well. If it works, I might do the recordings for episode 1 again as well (Yeah, I'm a fanboy ).

I hope you'll find some good use for these video files. For example, I don't want to read any more theories that contain "I believe this is how it was but I haven't replayed the game in some time"!

Enjoy!

[SpaceBoy2000]

Hmm....the program HyperCam does record sound and video, and it can capture only parts of a screen, so you can run it and debug mode and all to record video. I find the captured sound to be of quite good quality. However, it only records in AVI format, and the files are quite large. You might want to give it a try, though the shareware version produces branded logos...

[Impossible]

Hmm, sounds good, if we won't have to play through the game all over just to see the story.

Also, if anyone might be, oh, I dunno, say, writing The Way down, for some crazy reason, they'd have an easier time.

*cough cough*

Not that I know of anyone who would be doing that.

[Kyle]

Hypercam doesn't record the video in games, unfortunately. As far as I know, only Fraps can do this (several games companies use Fraps to record their promotional videos as well).

And my video files are quite large to begin with as well. Around 3.4 GB uncompressed for the 11 files. After encoding them they get to their size like you saw them.

I actually thought about writing everything down before I started recording, but I chose not too, because you'd miss some vital clues (like the Phantom Slasher standing in a corner).

[Impossible]

I'm downloading them now... I have to thank you for this, it's encouraging me to get off my ass and write more of my Way novelization (I'll submit an update soon, I've fixed up chapter 1 a bit and finished chapter 2).

Edit: Just watched the first one, I have a couple of comments. Firstly, I know you can just pause, but it'd be nice if you scrolled the text just a little bit slower in future, so I could sit back and read it without stopping.
Secondly, I'd prioritise sound effects over music, if you find a way to record it. They're only midi files, but if you really want to avoid making the file size much bigger, try just turning off the music and sticking to sounds. Even if the sound is low quality, it wouldn't matter if they were just little sounds like sword swipes and rain... right? >_<

By the way, I timed A+TheWay to run perfectly in time with the scene. Fun.

[Telephalsion]

yes, slow the text speed a little if possible. As for sound, the main thing is getting the same sound as in the game right? I guess you could do the long run and mix a soundtrack using the midi files from the game

[Glenn47]

Hey, what happened? I downloaded the files, and it says they are RAR files. Then I opened the first one and it said it is not a valid Win32 application. Help!

[LunC]

You need an unzip utility that can deal with .rar files. I'd suggest getting Winrar 3.3 from:

http://www.download.com/3120-20-0.html? ... tg=dl-2001

It can also handle zip files.

Lun

[OverlordBill]

WinRAR? Ew. Use iZarc. It can unzip ANYTHING!!! I think... I dunno. There are many more formats than I've ever seen and it has all the normal ones.

http://www.izsoft.dir.bg/

[Kyle]

I have asked Lun about this before I started, but he prefered to keep the file size as small as possible and to skip through the dialog rapidly. I'll leave the dialog up as long as I need to read it from now on (and I'm not a native English speaker so it should be enough for a lot of you).

I have also tried mixing in the midis seperately, but the problem remains the same. I have to convert the midis to wave first before I can mix them with the movie files. If I do this, the resulting wave files still contain the same noise and static. I'll put up a small sample somewhere soon so you can listen to the actual sound quality you'd be facing.

The sound effects themself need to be recorded simultaneously with the video files, I can't add them later on, because they need to go with what's happening on screen and the time I leave the dialog windows on varies.

Glenn, you need to install WinRAR, available here : http://www.rarlabs.com
EDIT: That's what you get when you hold off on the submitting, two posts already answering the question

I'll see what I can do about improving some aspects and I'll try again to work out the sound issues.

I'm glad you all like them, I had fun recording them too

By the way, while you're watching them, do Lun a favor and track down those spelling and grammar mistakes

[Impossible]

I have asked Lun about this before I started, but he prefered to keep the file size as small as possible and to skip through the dialog rapidly.

Yeah, I knew that was a problem. But there are just a few text boxes which you seem to rush a bit. If you could leave it another half second or something on the longer messages (or long parts you have to read in one shot instead of there being automatic pauses), it'd be okay.

[SpaceBoy2000]

Okay, after searching for about an hour, I have found a program that does record sound well, though it is quite quiet when I playback (note that I am using a laptop, and the sound is turned quite low when I play the game - if I turn up the sound in volume control, the sound playback is louder). Anyways, the only problem I find with it is that it costs money to get rid of a black spot on the screen. Quite nice actually.

[Telephalsion]

search the web for a crack to that program

[Kyle]

Give me the name and link to this program and I'll take care of the crack myself

[SpaceBoy2000]

Crap, forgot to post the name of that program! *feels dumb*

It's called RiverPast Sound Recorder. http://www.riverpast.com