Armageddon Recorder. Help!

[Viandante]

I downloaded this thing on worms2d.info but the explanation for it is way too poor to be understood. I have it on the same directory of ffmpeg and all that, but i still don't get how to export my videos with this enhanced way. When i right-click a replay file all i see are the same, default options. Nothing related to AR; so, how do i do it? Did you ever use it?

[StepS]

You don't right-click a replay. You run the program and select a replay to export video from.
By the way, don't use AAC, because it doesn't work with the latest versions of ffmpeg (may be fixed later).

[Viandante]

Originally posted by StepS:

You don't right-click a replay. You run the program and select a replay to export video from.
By the way, don't use AAC, because it doesn't work with the latest versions of ffmpeg (may be fixed later).

That's because i'm so damn stupid... Sorry for wasting your time and thanks for the quick response anyway; i just found out i've downloaded the source code instead of the actual program, of course there isn't any executable on that one. Now i feel like a dumbass... Anyhow, i can still use this thread and ask some related questions, can't i?

When you go to Video settings > Video format, which one would you recommend? There's "Raw video", ZBMV (lossless, 256 colours), H.264 (lossless) and H.264 (Lex preset; looks perfect with small file size). Do you know if there are major differences or i can just go with trial and error?

Thanks again, kind user.

[StepS]

ZMBV gives lossless quality and very small file size, but requires a codec to be found and installed to playback the resulting file (either x86 or x64 depending on your system and playback program). It is the best format for exporting to Youtube.
Otherwise the H.264 Lex preset should do just fine.

[Viandante]

Originally posted by StepS:

ZMBV gives lossless quality and very small file size, but requires a codec to be found and installed to playback the resulting file (either x86 or x64 depending on your system and playback program). It is the best format for exporting to Youtube.
Otherwise the H.264 Lex preset should do just fine.

Thank you very much, that will be very useful and i'll surely keep it in mind. On the meantime, i tried my first recording with H.264 lex + Vorbis lex, but for some strange reason when the game finally finished, the video was nowhere to be found. I did have all the .png files from the Capture folder though... I tried again with different settings but that's just the same, i have the pictures but not the "final" video. Could the reason be that Armageddon Recorder starts with an error message? (Could not find WA CD-ROM. Some audio may be unavailable)... But aside that the thing seems to work just fine, if anything i should have the video without the audio (i actually care about the latter a lot though, i wanted to use this software especially because i could've got both the audio and a flawless quality - smoothness)...

Sorry for the storm of questions, it's just that i don't know who else to ask. If this is becoming way too specific, then just say so. I'm glad for the help i already received anyway.

[StepS]

Originally posted by I poke my head out of the gutter:

On the meantime, i tried my first recording with H.264 lex + Vorbis lex, but for some strange reason when the game finally finished, the video was nowhere to be found.

After the game ends and the audio is processed, a console window should open where ffmpeg will initiate the encoding process. If it vanishes instantly then that means ffmpeg was either not found, or it didn't recognize the command-line passed by armageddon recorder (that happens with AAC in current builds, for example).

[Viandante]

Originally posted by StepS:

Originally posted by I poke my head out of the gutter:

On the meantime, i tried my first recording with H.264 lex + Vorbis lex, but for some strange reason when the game finally finished, the video was nowhere to be found.

After the game ends and the audio is processed, a console window should open where ffmpeg will initiate the encoding process. If it vanishes instantly then that means ffmpeg was either not found, or it didn't recognize the command-line passed by armageddon recorder (that happens with AAC in current builds, for example).

The thing is, i don't see that specific window, not even instantly. The thing goes like this: after setting up AR, a window pops up (i did an example with the following):

Preparing to capture 2019-02-07 20.23.33 [Quick CPU] Player One, ROYALTY...
Starting WA...
WA exited with status 53
Creating audio file...
Starting encoder...
Cleaning up...
Complete!

Then the replay starts as usual and, after it finishes, i'm back to the desktop with AR and its initial settings. I search for the video on the output folder, but it doesn't exist even though on 'Capture' all the .png files are there right as they should.

[Viandante]

I also know that AR found ffmpeg for certain, because earlier i had an error which said "ffmpeg was not found" (or something similar), but after putting the entirety of ffmpeg files on the same directory of AR (not only the .exe, but all the files of ffmpeg static build), that error didn't pop up anymore. That means that that wasn't the problem.. Regarding the command-line on the other hand, i really don't know. I tried every audio/video codec to be certain, excluding AAC. Nothing worked, so i would discard that too

[Obn3g0n]

For your next stage of troubleshooting I suggest ruling out the lack of cd-rom as cause of your problems.

If you have the Steam version you can legally create a virtual cd (.iso file) of your Steam WA game folder. Make the iso with Imgburn (freeware) and name the drive/volume label "WA". Then mount your image in a program like DaemonTools Lite or Alcohol120.

You might not need the mounting program in windows 8 and newer.. i use windows 7. To find out if you can skip that step you can try double clicking the file you made and see if it loads the cd.

You can loosely follow this site for guidance: https://worms2d.info/Running_WA_without_the_CD

[Viandante]

Originally posted by Obn3g0n:

For your next stage of troubleshooting I suggest ruling out the lack of cd-rom as cause of your problems.

If you have the Steam version you can legally create a virtual cd (.iso file) of your Steam WA game folder. Make the iso with Imgburn (freeware) and name the drive/volume label "WA". Then mount your image in a program like DaemonTools Lite or Alcohol120.

You might not need the mounting program in windows 8 and newer.. i use windows 7. To find out if you can skip that step you can try double clicking the file you made and see if it loads the cd.

You can loosely follow this site for guidance: https://worms2d.info/Running_WA_without_the_CD

Thanks for the help, deeply appreciated it; although i think that will do in fact solve the audio issue, i would rather not waste any more time, especially because there's no way to know if that's the actual problem behind all the non-recording thing. Sure, i could just try and that's true, but everytime i manage to solve something with either Armageddon Recorder, VirtualDub, Vegas or whatever, another issue will promptly show up. I'm getting tired of this, so in the end i'm just using Dxtory and record the whole thing from there. It's way quicker than i thought and surprisingly i'm not even losing any fps. This software records the audio too, so that's a win-win... To be fair, the final video is something like 50GB (if it's a long playthrough), but whatever, i can just delete it when i finish on editing it. I would've gladly considered your way of doing it before i tried with this method, don't misunderstand, but as it is now not only it's "pointless", but even counterproductive: it would just mean that i must use yet another program just to record a damn match!

But as i said earlier, i'm still very grateful for your time and your help, both from you and StepS.

[Merzbau]

Originally posted by I poke my head out of the gutter:

...

Hey there, could you link to a rendered sample of your thing recorded in Dxtory? I'm curious as I have done WA movies before and never found any video recording software good enough in my case, so I did everything by hand separately (capture raw video frames as png images and then record audio using Audacity with some magic to capture proper sound without any noises).
You can check some of my final videos in my steam profile.

[Obn3g0n]

OBS Studio is good too.

[Viandante]

Originally posted by Merzbau:

Originally posted by I poke my head out of the gutter:

...

Hey there, could you link to a rendered sample of your thing recorded in Dxtory? I'm curious as I have done WA movies before and never found any video recording software good enough in my case, so I did everything by hand separately (capture raw video frames as png images and then record audio using Audacity with some magic to capture proper sound without any noises).
You can check some of my final videos in my steam profile.

I'm currently editing some of these in order to have a more accessible and entertaining final video, but i think that by tomorrow they'll be available and i'll surely link them to you. On the meantime i can just say that Dxtory is very good, but it must be set up first. The good thing about it is that pretty much every PC, from low to high end, can benefit from a video that won't lag in any way, and that's something consistent too. If you want i can give you the settings that worked well for me, but in the end it's something that has a lot to do with your machine. Surprisingly, even a charcoal powered PC like mine managed to give me an outstandingly good recording, very faithful if not identical to the actual replay footage.

Originally posted by Obn3g0n:

OBS Studio is good too.

True, that's what another user suggested me to use, but for now i think i'm totally satisfied with Dxtory and for how straightforward and reliable it is.

[Viandante]

Originally posted by Merzbau:

Originally posted by I poke my head out of the gutter:

...

Hey there, could you link to a rendered sample of your thing recorded in Dxtory? I'm curious as I have done WA movies before and never found any video recording software good enough in my case, so I did everything by hand separately (capture raw video frames as png images and then record audio using Audacity with some magic to capture proper sound without any noises).
You can check some of my final videos in my steam profile.

As promised, here's the very first episode of a new Worms' serie i'm working on. As i said, there isn't any noticeable frame drop; btw me too i'm posting these videos on my Steam profile, check them out if you want. Oh and also feel free to add me, this way we can play together whenever possible. (Of course, i don't mind if you don't want to. That's perfectly understandable).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogxYuS381Ts

[Merzbau]

Ahahah thanks for the laugh, i didn't expect to see Bytor there :D And then he obviously rage quits, which was expected :D:D

As for recording, well it is far from what I would call a good quality, both audio and video. But it's definitely watchable. Is this the same for raw video after capture, or quality drops notably after render in your editing software?

This is a similar clip to yours done using my method, and in 1080p:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUaIE8bvx7w&vq=hd1080

[Viandante]

Originally posted by Merzbau:

Ahahah thanks for the laugh, i didn't expect to see Bytor there :D And then he obviously rage quits, which was expected :D:D

As for recording, well it is far from what I would call a good quality, both audio and video. But it's definitely watchable. Is this the same for raw video after capture, or quality drops notably after render in your editing software?

This is a similar clip to yours done using my method, and in 1080p:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUaIE8bvx7w&vq=hd1080

Shhh! Don't say it out loud! I wanted to treat him like a star that is until the very last episode where i will only post a compilation of his ragequits

Also keep in mind that the first episode uses the method of exporting .png files and VirtualDub, the second uses Dxtory with its video codec and iirc from the third episode onwards i've used Lagarith video codec + Dxtory. Of course, quality slightly varies from episode to episode, but generally they're consistent in FPS. It's also something to notice that i have the background set at max, while on that video you posted it's off. Also, i would say my PC isn't exactly the best to record videogames, but still, it does a nice job. Ultimately, i probably still have to set Dxtory and Vegas the best way possible and, although i am satisfied so far, there's always some margin of even more quality.