Bungie have gave us a nice random present today by releasing their much awaited render to video beta. Render to video allows you to render your clips on your fileshare straight to a downloadable wmv video. The beta is open to Bungie Pro subscribers and ex subscribers like myself, nice of Bungie to reward the people who subscribed back in the day when Pro was new, exciting and expensive. Rather than give you a meaty meandering explanation I'll give you the info straight from the mouth of Bungie.
Q. How do I create a video?
A. When a saved film or clip is in your File Share (or someone else's) and you want to turn it into a computer-playable video file, you can click "Render Film" on Bungie.net and it will tell you the cost in "Bungie(R) Points (tm)", based on the length of the file and the resolution you want to render to. If you have enough points, you can confirm your purchase, and a little while later your video will be available for you to view and download. Simple! (Well, simple for you. We have to deal with storing 500GB/day of new content!) There are currently two resolutions you can choose from. Standard definition is 640x360 WMV at about 1Mbps. High def is 1280x720 WMV at 6Mbps. That's full 720p resolution!
Q. How do I get Bungie Points?
A. We expect to make points available in a couple different ways: for light usage (say, one short clip a month), Bungie Pro members with active subscriptions (or, currently, beta testers as described above) will get one or more points dropped into their Bungie Pro account each month at no additional charge over the current Pro plan. You can think of a point like a rollover minute on a phone plan- you can redeem it for your short clip, or save it for a longer one. For more dedicated render users, we plan to offer a pay-as-you-go model where you can buy "point packs".
Q. How do Points work during the beta?
A. We'll start off beta users with 2 points each. For now, standard-def video will be set to cost 1 point per minute, and HD will cost 5. After we make sure that things have spun up smoothly in the SD world, we'll start topping off users' accounts to 5 points so that you can try out HD. Don't worry about saving up points right now, go ahead and use them as you get them.
Q. How do I watch my rendered videos?
A. After the video render is complete, you'll see a video player appear in the web page for your saved film. You can watch the video right there, or download the WMV to your computer. Currently, all Beta users can see the videos of other Beta users, but other users cannot. We're looking into getting enough bandwidth to enable public embedding of the player in the future.
Q. How long is the Beta?
A. We expect for the beta to run until sometime in July, and we plan that real post-beta points will start to accumulate on Bungie Day (7/7). So if you're planning to buy Bungie Pro for the video feature, mark your calendars, since that's the first date that will give you a full year of video service with your subscription!
There is more information on Bungie's news page.
I for one am very very excited by this, I was a little put off at first by the points but it makes sense now. How could Bungie cope with all the millions of Halo clips being rendered at one time, it makes sense to slow it down and deal with it in bite size chunks. I can see myself buying points packs to capture the odd full game. I don't mind giving Bungie more money as they do give us, the halo player, so much.
As for the quality? Why not have a look at a standard definition clip that I got off my fileshare and uploaded to Youtube this morning. I'm very impressed with the quality...and the skills.
The only problems with the clip is the lack of reticule. All Halo addicts know you fix this with a few clicks of the right stick but as of now there is no way of getting around this on the Render to Video. The other problem is multi angle recordings, if you capture footage with a capture card then you can record it from multi angles. There is no way to fix this with your old clips but if you plan to render a clip in the future then you could save multiple replays of the clip showing different angles and edit it together.
All in all im very excited by this and its just one more lovely gift from the beautiful girls and boys at Bungie. We <3 you...most of the time.
Showing posts with label Bungie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bungie. Show all posts
Wednesday, 13 May 2009
Wednesday, 29 April 2009
Where are my Friends?
Being a currently unemployed gamer I often find myself pining for a game of Halo when my friends are all at work or in bed meaning I have to go into the scary world of matchmaking on my lonesome. As you all know annoying things can happen when you don't have good team-mates to watch your back and help you in objective games. Safe to say there is more than 5 things that annoy me but I thought I'd tell you my personal gripes.
This one is a little petty but when your used to playing with good team-mates you know where they go and what they do so when you play by yourself its like losing a limb. You have to be extra careful to watch angles that you don't usually have to. I really suffer from this in the Pit when I setup on snipe tower, I'm so used to my team-mates calling out positions and locking down rockets that I never watch my back. There's nothing worse than being jumped by 3 guys in your own spawn.
Ever been left in the middle of nowhere with no one to shoot at? Ever been driven straight through the front door of the base in Standoff in your nice shiny Gauss Hog? If yes then you've been at the victim of mindless hog drivers, even worse than bad gunners. Countless times I have been denied a big multi kill by the actions of a suicidal driver hoping to get a one in a million splatter.
There is quite a few variations of quitters and every one of them pisses me off. Either they quit out because their favourite map gets vetoed or they leave as soon as you go a flag score down usually guaranteeing your imminent defeat. I don't get why they don't just play it out? If your gonna lose then just take it like a Spartan, by quitting out your just losing Exp so surely a defeat is better than losing your hard earned Exp? Personally some of the best games I have ever played have been epic comebacks, think of all the glorious wins your missing out on, stupid...
Unfair matchmaking may be a bit of a harsh term but when you get partied up with a lieutenant and his two simple minded thumb less guests against an organised team of Brigs and generals then you do wonder if Bungie is out to get you. The above picture was a game of BTB I played a while back, one of many times it has happened on my favourite playlist.
I remember coming against a party of 8 players who were ridiculously good. I promptly submitted negative feedback for being too good (I'm a pussy, I know) and went off to get some food. I came back about 15 minutes later to be partied against them again and to make the situation worse, four of my team-mates quit out in fear of their scary ranks. This would have been fine if they had just quickly won the game of Neutral Assault on Rats Nest but nooo they proceeded to destroy us for 20 minutes rather than just score the bomb and end the game.
I tried to fight back but there is not a lot you can do when you can barely get 3 steps off the spawn. The worst thing about the whole experience was the fact that I could not even give them negative feedback for being assholes...I'm sorry to say this but Why Bungie? Why? (I love you really guys <3)
GRRAAGHHH!! Phew, got that out if my system. The above picture just invoked a wave of fury in me. Nothing worse in Halo then people betraying you for a power weapon that they were too slow to get their hands on. Is it my fault I'm faster than you? Did you ask for the weapon? No? Well piss off then! Its such a childish and immature act that completely ruins the game for the player that gets betrayed. If...sorry, when this happens to me, and it always does, I make it my number one mission to hunt the little bitch down and destroy him. I don't care about the weapon or if I get booted its purely an act of revenge. You cant beat the instant revenge of no scoping the team-mate who's trying to betray you, such a satisfying feeling.
Fell free to leave comments about your personal hates, I'm sure there are HUNDREDS I have missed!
5. No Support
This one is a little petty but when your used to playing with good team-mates you know where they go and what they do so when you play by yourself its like losing a limb. You have to be extra careful to watch angles that you don't usually have to. I really suffer from this in the Pit when I setup on snipe tower, I'm so used to my team-mates calling out positions and locking down rockets that I never watch my back. There's nothing worse than being jumped by 3 guys in your own spawn.
4.Awful Hog Drivers
Ever been left in the middle of nowhere with no one to shoot at? Ever been driven straight through the front door of the base in Standoff in your nice shiny Gauss Hog? If yes then you've been at the victim of mindless hog drivers, even worse than bad gunners. Countless times I have been denied a big multi kill by the actions of a suicidal driver hoping to get a one in a million splatter.
3. Quitters
There is quite a few variations of quitters and every one of them pisses me off. Either they quit out because their favourite map gets vetoed or they leave as soon as you go a flag score down usually guaranteeing your imminent defeat. I don't get why they don't just play it out? If your gonna lose then just take it like a Spartan, by quitting out your just losing Exp so surely a defeat is better than losing your hard earned Exp? Personally some of the best games I have ever played have been epic comebacks, think of all the glorious wins your missing out on, stupid...
2. Unfair Matchmaking
Unfair matchmaking may be a bit of a harsh term but when you get partied up with a lieutenant and his two simple minded thumb less guests against an organised team of Brigs and generals then you do wonder if Bungie is out to get you. The above picture was a game of BTB I played a while back, one of many times it has happened on my favourite playlist.
I remember coming against a party of 8 players who were ridiculously good. I promptly submitted negative feedback for being too good (I'm a pussy, I know) and went off to get some food. I came back about 15 minutes later to be partied against them again and to make the situation worse, four of my team-mates quit out in fear of their scary ranks. This would have been fine if they had just quickly won the game of Neutral Assault on Rats Nest but nooo they proceeded to destroy us for 20 minutes rather than just score the bomb and end the game.
I tried to fight back but there is not a lot you can do when you can barely get 3 steps off the spawn. The worst thing about the whole experience was the fact that I could not even give them negative feedback for being assholes...I'm sorry to say this but Why Bungie? Why? (I love you really guys <3)
1.Betrayers!!!
GRRAAGHHH!! Phew, got that out if my system. The above picture just invoked a wave of fury in me. Nothing worse in Halo then people betraying you for a power weapon that they were too slow to get their hands on. Is it my fault I'm faster than you? Did you ask for the weapon? No? Well piss off then! Its such a childish and immature act that completely ruins the game for the player that gets betrayed. If...sorry, when this happens to me, and it always does, I make it my number one mission to hunt the little bitch down and destroy him. I don't care about the weapon or if I get booted its purely an act of revenge. You cant beat the instant revenge of no scoping the team-mate who's trying to betray you, such a satisfying feeling.
Fell free to leave comments about your personal hates, I'm sure there are HUNDREDS I have missed!
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