Recording Quake 2 gameplay in HD (for youtube)

[spirit]

Hello everybody,


I recently bought Mirillis Action to record some instructions for a software I work on. At home I had the idea to also record short videos of some of my old FPS maps. It worked fine for Quake 3 (using the ioquake3 engine), and I got it working for Quake 1 after a while (using the DirectQ engine by MH).

Sadly, for Quake 2, all my attempts to record HD gameplay videos have failed so far. The videos only show a black screen (I have also posted this at the Mirillis forums, but nobody replied yet). I assume this is because the clients I tried so far did not use DirectX, but I'm unsure.

So does anybody know a way to record Quake2 in HD on a modern system (Win 7 64 Bit)? Which Quake 2 engine should I use?


Thanks in advance for any hints,


spirit

[Null]

For the engine I'd strongly recommend using Q2 Pro. I use it on Win 8 64bit, so for Win 7 64bit it should be no problem.

It was just recently updated with a modern video renderer that works well with any texture you throw at it, and always seems to produce crisp edges, and sharp colors which shouldn't get washed out as much in Youtube Videos. That's a big plus, since there's no need to upgrade anything to still make your work look great. Here are some previews, where we didn't even use any HD textures, just plain wal files in all cases:

leray.proboards.com/thread/3574/lollipop-isle-tropical-pirate-map
leray.proboards.com/thread/3545/quake-city-village-map-remakes
leray.proboards.com/thread/3577/pirate-fortress-new-tropical-island
leray.proboards.com/thread/3523/remixes-canyon-beach-tropical-valley
leray.proboards.com/thread/3543/quake-wolfenstein-doom-map-remakes
leray.proboards.com/thread/3547/quake-2-wilderness-maps
leray.proboards.com/thread/3544/quake-2-maps-tropical-theme
leray.proboards.com/thread/3524/remixes-bermuda-triangle-light-tower


Here's how to get Q2 Pro bundle, and there's also a link to a stand alone client there as well:
leray.proboards.com/thread/3541/play-quake-easy-steps-started

[spirit]

Thanks a lot, Null. I gave Q2Pro a try and recording videos worked fine using that client.

Solved!

[Null]

I'm curious how your YouTube videos turned out. Do you have any links?

[spirit]

I did not upload the new Q2 videos to youtube yet, but I will do it this weekend. I will link the videos from my mapping website when I find the time.

My videos are at youtube.com/user/dfspspirit, and some videos of Quake 1 and Quake 3 maps are already there. Don't expect too much though, it's just me running through the maps or flying around the map as spectator, nothing fancy at all.

If you are interested in a video of a Quake 2 map, you may like this older video of me playing against a 3zb2 bot on spirit2dm7, The Deepest Fall:

[Null]

The reason I'm interested is because quake 2 videos always looked blurry on YouTube, and we'd like to promote everyone's contest maps there.
I figured that now with Q2 Pro the results should be significantly crisper and less washed out, so let me know how it goes

[spirit]

Here are some of the videos.

The washed out look most likely has nothing to do with the Q2 client. It has to do with video encoding settings of the screen capture software. Also, if you upload to youtube in a non-streamable format, they re-encode your video, which will reduce the quality dramatically.


Client: q2pro
Resolution: 1920x1080
Recording: Mirillis Action v1.21.00. Output profile: 'Youtube HD', and video bitrate manually set to maximum of 15.0 Mbps (the profile sets it to 12.0)

spirit2m1 -- spectator mode



spirit2m1 -- gameplay (1st person)

[Null]

Actually I think the Client's Video settings play a big role:

forum.tastyspleen.net/quake/index.php?topic=21892

Youtube seems to like high edge/shape contrast with less grainy detail. And with Q2 Pro
you shouldn't even need any fancy HD Textures to get good results.
Unlike other clients Q2 Pro gives you a lot more control over various video settings.
These should let you fine tune how YouTube will encode your final result:

gl_brightness 0
gl_modulate 7
gl_modulate_world 1
gl_modulate_entities 1


I'd also play around with, texture gamma / saturation / intensity
as well as lightmap saturation / brightness settings.

[spirit]

OK, if you mean stuff like by the client I absolutely agree that it has an effect on the results. Especially the high-res textures with high contrast look good in that video (at least when the player is close to them)!

I may give it a try in the future, but atm I am not using any high-res textures for Quake 2.

[Null]

Feb 6, 2015 15:17:24 GMT -5 Null said:

And with Q2 Pro you shouldn't even need any fancy HD Textures to get good results.

[bendrajamss]

Mirillis Action, is really an amazing software which help you to record your screen.
here is the downloadguide for the Mirillis Action
www.downloadwab.com/mirillis-action