Speeding up battles

[Arryn]

Originally posted by Pocus:
Arryn, dont forget people with a modem (not me).

I'm not forgetting at all.

I have already said, twice, that I suggest SEPARATE movie files, that are not a part of the MP turn system. I don't know how much clearer I can say it.

[Endoperez]

What do you mean by separate? Done from existing files by the game or by manually using that program Gandalf has found? Or a script/ macro/ whatever that uses Gandalf's program automatically with every battle?

Just interested.

[Arryn]

Originally posted by Endoperez:
What do you mean by separate? Done from existing files by the game or by manually using that program Gandalf has found? Or a script/ macro/ whatever that uses Gandalf's program automatically with every battle?

My original proposal, before Gandalf found a util, is for Dom 2 to create an entirely new type of file, completely unrelated to the 3 turn files, that is only created if:

1. the option for "turn movies" is enabled,
2. a particular battle report is viewed.

For a given turn, assuming you have the feature turned on, and you viewed 5 battles, you'd get 5 separate movie files put somewhere in the Dom directory structure. Players can save these files if they wish, they same way we do now with turn files (by zip, or by DomSaver). When you "host", the game would delete these "temporary" movie files, just so that they don't clutter up your drive. The movie files are strictly local, and not involved in game play (SP or MP) at all. It's just something for the player to look at.

EDIT: To clarify, the movie files are generated based on the data that is already being stored in the game's turn file. It saves viewing time by not having the computer regenerate each battle each time it's to be viewed. The game only does it the first time. After that, you can use the movie file to review the battle and do the normal things you do with movies (fast-forward, rewind, etc.)

If the devs don't want to add this feature, for whatever reason, then I hope that we fans can do something. I'm anxiously waiting to hear what Gandalf will have to say tomorrow ...

[ March 03, 2004, 20:30: Message edited by: Arryn ]

[Karacan]

There are a couple of shareware solutions to grabbing a video from the current screen (somewhat like capturing a screenshot). My personal favourite, Fraps, requires little enough overall computer power that it's running just fine alongside everything I launch at it. That's a hassle for normal battle reviews, though... start the game, open the battlereport, hit the key to start recording, hit the key to stop recording, minimize Dominions, get out your movie-viewer, launch the captured file, and then jump to the position you want to see again... hrmmm... Can we have adjustable battle-replay-speed like in DomI?

[PhilD]

Originally posted by Karacan:
There are a couple of shareware solutions to grabbing a video from the current screen (somewhat like capturing a screenshot). My personal favourite, Fraps, requires little enough overall computer power that it's running just fine alongside everything I launch at it. That's a hassle for normal battle reviews, though... start the game, open the battlereport, hit the key to start recording, hit the key to stop recording, minimize Dominions, get out your movie-viewer, launch the captured file, and then jump to the position you want to see again... hrmmm... Can we have adjustable battle-replay-speed like in DomI?

Something that isn't part of the game engine would be mostly useless, IMHO. If you decide to watch a battle replay closely, you'll want to click on units to see what their current state is; you won't be able to do this if you simply capture the movie.

[Davidious]

Originally posted by PhilD:
Something that isn't part of the game engine would be mostly useless, IMHO. If you decide to watch a battle replay closely, you'll want to click on units to see what their current state is; you won't be able to do this if you simply capture the movie.

This is correct. besides, I don't actually want to 'watch' the battle replays (although it's fun).

What I want to do is READ the battle replay. So something that generated a text file with all the 'to-hit' rolls, damge, current state of the unit, etc. Basicaly a blow-by-blow text account of the battle would be awesome.

[Gandalf Parker]

Originally posted by Karacan:
There are a couple of shareware solutions to grabbing a video from the current screen (somewhat like capturing a screenshot). My personal favourite, Fraps, requires little enough overall computer power that it's running just fine alongside everything I launch at it. That's a hassle for normal battle reviews, though... start the game, open the battlereport, hit the key to start recording, hit the key to stop recording, minimize Dominions, get out your movie-viewer, launch the captured file, and then jump to the position you want to see again... hrmmm... Can we have adjustable battle-replay-speed like in DomI?

OK I have to agree with everything here. For one thing FRAPS does seem to be the winner so far.
http://www.fraps.com/download.htm
But I will keep looking. For another thing a recording isnt going to be very good. You lose ability to zoom in, check units, all the nice in-game options. Some sort of "movie viewer" option would be needed if Dominions made us a movie. If all its going to do is record the video then FRAPS will do it fine.