Video Plugin Doesn't Sync

If there is a way for me to help (I know most programming languages), let me know. The video plugin really doesn't work right. Here's the deal:

1. I captured a NoLimits rollercoaster video (.avi). It plays back fine in Windows Media Player. The video and audio are synced. Captured it at a resonably high resolution (1280x1024) and high frame rate (24).

2. I use the same video in the video plugin, and the video plays more slowly. The audio, however, plays at original speed.

3. The simulator keyframes are synced to the audio (not the video)... When the audio finished (even though there may be a few minutes of video left), the plugin stops capturing.

4. When you play it back FROM THE START, the simulation is not synced to the video playback at all (about 10 seconds, the cues are useless). However, if you jump to any point, it appears to be synced... again only for about 10 seconds, as the audio and video immediately drift apart.

5. As a further test, I ran the video in a seperate instance of Windows Media Player at the same time, while running the left-side playback window. Both video windows slowed to a crawl (though only 2% of CPU were utilized). And the audio continued at normal speed, along with the cues.

6. If you use lower resolution video, the problem is less severe, but still reproducible. But who will go through this trouble for a low res movie?

In other words, there is no synchronization of the three critical timelines: Video, Audio, Simulator Cues. And, unfortunately, they required sub-second synchronization .

Please let me know what I can do to help.

Eric

The video and audio don't drift out of sync when played in the stand-alone WMP... only when hosted in the video plugin. I never use the right player at all, as I am encoding with a joystick.

I can check the codecs, but the AVI capture comes from a default install of NoLimits, and I believe my codecs are unmodified. Do you have NoLimits and have you tried its AVI files? If it works, let me know what codec you use. My machine is a monster - quad-core XPS - it rarely slows down for anything. Maybe its an IO issue, because the CPU is barely getting utilized.

At first, videos appear to be fine, but if you play them all the way through, they definately are not in sync by the end - especially on high res files. When I searched the forum, it seems that others have also reported sync issues with video plugin.

ok - I'll try re-encoding. Thanks!

What is the VLC plug-in?

In a future-feature comment, I think it would easier to use a mouse on a slider control than a joystick to encode live information. I was hoping I could do that by sliding the BLACK slider in realtime, but that doesn't work. Joystick resolution is too choppy in my opinion.

Major change: I think ideally, I'd prefer to see keyframes from the video, and draw splines for the basic action. Then zoom in and fine-tune the details by dragging nodes around.

I am going to try using FRAPS for capture instead. I don't like that nolimits advertisement that is put on my screen-captures anyway. You don't expect embedded advertisements on products you've paid for.

Eric

Cool! It does sync if it can handle the file. I compressed a FRAPS capture to XVID and it works fine.

Couple of questions:

Most Important: None of the normal WMP keyboard commands work within the full-screen window (of the left video, of course). Normal Keyboard Shortcuts, Multimedia Buttons, all are ignored. I am going to have a halloween ride (haunted rollercoaster) for kids on my motion sim, and I need to be able to start and stop the video without sticking my head inside the ride and mousing around. Is there any way to enable these (on the left-pane only)? Or perhaps have a dedicated video-playback plugin that doesn't have the other parts.

Shifting a track backwards: I tried messing with the joystick offset to capture ahead or capture behind, but many of my cues are consistently late. How difficult would hit be to allow shifting a whole track back in time? In my case, it will save hours of rework on just one file.

Eric

Good question: Two answers:

1: No Limits (as far as I can tell) only gives me Latitudinal Accel, Longitudinal Accel, and Vertical Accel. This isn't enough to model a number of things: pitch when you are climbing the hill, chain vibrations, track vibration, Yaw on turns (remember, I run a 6DOF sim). Please let me know if there are additional parameters I don't know about. BTW - I posted a video using the realtime output. Its not bad, just not as good as it could be.

2: When you hand-code a ride (its only 3 minutes long, after all), you can use 100% of your actuator travel, rather than 50% of your actuator travel when running a sim. As I slowly climb a hill, I can pre-load to the full extent of the actuators, then I can Heave down the full 150mm as I go down the hill. Still not enough ;-) Next year I add a scissor-lift.

Eric

P.S. Where do I get the beta? And what about media player keyboard-shortcuts?