SpongeJordan
Smash Lord
How To Upload Replays in 1080p
(or really any resolution LOL (sun)(sun)(sun))
v0.1
(or really any resolution LOL (sun)(sun)(sun))
v0.1
DISCLAIMER: LONG. AS. ****. Don't forget to wear a helmet, else this **** might just blow your mind.
Massive props to Yami (http://www.youtube.com/user/Yamahou2b), the French Peach player, because A) he made me aware that this is even possible and B) Helped me get one key piece of missing information for this to work.
I'm not giving you permission to alter this post in any form and have it posted ANYWHERE. Feel free to post it everywhere unaltered, not a big deal really. But you'll post this **** in its full, unadulterated form AND YOU WILL LIKE IT. You can get some bonus points with me if you post it with a link back to this OP on Smashboards though. Bonus points are exchangable for make-out sessions at any time. The rate at which is determined by sobriety and how into it I am. Anyways, on with the article.
I'm sure we all have hard-ons for high quality ****. No one wants their beastly *** 0-death to look like 3 pixels humping each other. Unfortunately, due to how ****ty the Wii's hardware is, Brawl is limited to the resolution of 480p, which KINDA sucks ***. Okay, that might be an exaggeration, but seriously, raging hard-on for high quality ****. Everyone's got one. No one's like "ALRIGHT! Netflix downgraded the video quality because I pay for my internet connection with food stamps!"
Thankfully, due to the emulation community mixed with the absolutely pathetic hardware used with the Wii, we can actually do the Wii emulated with our computer's hardware BETTER than the worthless thing itself can. And that is what this guide is all about.
WHAT YOU'LL NEED
*Dolphin emulator - http://dolphin-emulator.com/
*An ISO copy of Brawl - If you have a certain disc drive in your PC, you can rip it straight off the disc. Otherwise...
*A Windows computer with good enough hardware to run Brawl on Dolphin. period. - Obviously, you'll want one that can run it at 60 FPS, but we have ways around that, so don't worry if it doesn't run at the full 60 fps experience, you're just slightly less of a man because of it. You'll still get your videos.
*FRAPS or any other recording software - I paid for that **** like 7 years ago because I have down syndrome, so that's what I use, but in reality, even freeware recording software could work, possibly better because FRAPS isn't exactly optimal with its resource management, I just don't know of any other alternatives. Google it.
*More hard drive capacity than you currently have - But seriously, the raws of this **** gets intense.
*VirtualDub - http://www.virtualdub.org/
*x264 Encoder - http://www.videolan.org/developers/x264.html - Youtube prefers it... because it's the best. You CAN use other codecs, but seriously? x264 gives the best quality per megabyte BY FAR.
*LAME MP3 Encoder - http://lame.sourceforge.net/ - Again, any audio codec would work, but LAME is just my favorite. Never failed me.
*SD Card - http://www.newegg.com/
*Homebrewed Wii - google it
*SaveGameManagerGX - google it - Select the R___.dol download. Rename it to boot.dol, then in your apps folder on your SD card, make a new folder, name it anything, throw the file you just renamed into that folder.
*Time and Commitment - Like every relationship you haven't been in, you're going to need both. This is a pretty long process, and it takes exponentially longer the less super-awesome-fantastic your computer is. Only reason I can record, compress, and upload in an hour is because I'm an idiot who spends way too much on his gaming rig instead of using it for drug money like he should. Oh, and because I have the method down pat. But I digress.
HOW TO ****ING DO IT
Step 1 - Preparation
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The Computer Portion
You obviously want to make sure your emulated Brawl is running fine. Load the game up into Dolphin (Open... > Browse to the ISO file > Click it > Success!) It running? Good! If not? You're ****ed. Like, seriously, I have no idea how you screwed up this part, and you should PROBABLY be ashamed of yourself. Or maybe your computer sucks, at which point you're still ****ed. I'm not going to say "Stop reading this guide now because you are worse than Rebecca Black", so if you want to sort of tag along and try to figure out why you suck so much, be my guest. Just have this feeling that you won't be able to comprehend it. Sorry. I didn't make the rules.
*Hurray, the game runs! Now press escape, and in the main Dolphin window, go into Config (Big ****ing wrench button, if you miss it, get new eyes.)
*Then go to the Display tab. Turn that "Fullscreen Display Resolution" to 1280x720, and check the "Start Renderer in Fullscreen".
****If you don't have a screen resolution larger than that, well... if you're this far, you PROBABLY have at least a subpar video card, which can force resolutions larger than your monitor's maximum (Computer ATs!), but I'll get back to that in a bit. For the time being, let it just be your monitor's maximum to test with.****
*Next, click the "GFX Config" button, click advanced, and click "Show FPS" in the Information box. This isn't necessary, but it's incredibly helpful for right now.
*We're about to go into maximum over**** mode, so get ready, you're about to explode from the excitement.
*Deep breath.
*Start. That. *****. Up. Air it out, let it purr.
*You're probably going to want to start up a match for funsies, just to test frame rate. Get 60 fps consistently at that resolution? Good job, you spent too much on your PC too! Get at least 30 FPS? Good-ish enough, I guess. 15 FPS? Well... we can hopefully still record **** for you. It'll just take forever, but thats what you get for buying your dead grandma's Windows 95 for $10.
****Make sure to test out two things, stages with intricate backgrounds, like Frigate Orpheon, and characters with lots of flair, like Lucario. For some reason, my rig was having issues rendering these things at 60 FPS when moves like jab and nair were out, or the ANYTHING happened on FO, lol. Oh, and zoomed in on the Dreamland Wispy Willow (or whatever its called) doing its blowy thing. For some reason, that was the worst.****
*Load your video recording software, configure it, and play the game with that software actually recording. You will want to note the lowest frame-rate that you get with this running. Basically, if you can't get 60 FPS in a match while recording, you're A) In the majority and B) Use a lot more effort and time to get the same video. But you NEED to know your minimum FPS while recording, because that's what you'll be recording at.
****For the rest of this guide, it's assuming that you're FPS valley is at 30 FPS. go into Dolphin's Config (the big ****in wrench) and set that to 30. The game will run at half speed. If your valley is even lower, like 15 FPS, then set it to 15 FPS and be prepared for 1/4 speed.****
*Unmute your Stereo Mix in your Recording Control. For Windows XP, just double click on your volume icon. In your Master Volume window, go to Options > Properties, then select whatever your input is from the list in the Mixer Device box. It should be pretty obvious, as its the one that says input, but even I'll admit I have no frame of reference, so it could be way harder.
*Anyways, check the Stereo Mix thing, then click OK. Hopefully, it brought up your Recording Control window, where you can then unmute your Stereo Mix.
****Stereo Mix allows **** that you hear to be played back through your mic input without losing any quality or anything, and avoids using extra wires and what not. If you ever use your mic for **** like Ventrilo or other VoIP services... or anything, really, you'll want to remember how to mute Stereo Mix, as people will also be able to hear whatever you hear and berate your mother and what not.****
*Clear up disc space, or whatever. Make sure your video recording program is set to save to a location with a ton of disc space. Like, 100s of gigs preferably, but not everyone has that. Just know that its about 3.9 gigs per minute of gameplay at 1080p.
*Have LAME and x264 installed. Should've been obvious, but I've been wrong before. Start up VirtualDub, press Ctrl+P, make sure there's an option for x264vfw or something like that. If you don't see it, install it. If you still don't see it, lolwut.
*Click it, then press the "Configure" button. First thing, check the "VirtualDub Hack" box in the Output area. Then, in Rate control, alter your bitrate to whatever you think is best.
****Note: These are scaled on kiloBITS. Meaning 1/8th of a kilobyte. Having 3000 or more kbit/s is not unreasonable. If you think this is way too hard, change the option to "Single Pass - quantizer based" and use that. 1 is the best quality, 50 is the worst. File size will depend on that. Click Ok when you're done.****
*Exit the video compression screen, and go to Audio > Full Processing Mode, then Audio > Compression. In there should be at least LAME MP3, or else you didn't install it. Anyways, click on that, and within the realm of 48000 Hz (the frequency of the audio, this must stay the same unless you convert it, which you have no good reason to do), select the quality. Personally, I always choose 128 kbps, because that's really good enough, but if you want better quality, it means higher file size. All up to you.
*Thats it for the PC's preparation. The rest of the prep is easy.
The SD Card Portion
*This part requires the Wii. Durr.
*Go into Brawl and make sure the replays you want are on the Wii. NOT the SD card.
*Restart your Wii, and go to Homebrew Channel. Load up the sad looking app, the one with no icon or name or anything, that will be your Save Game Manager GX probably.
*In here, extract your save file of Brawl to the SD card.
*Go back to your PC, and make sure Dolphin is closed.
*Put the SD card into your PC and go into the Savegames folder, which should have a folder with a lot of numbers. Open a new window, this time navigate to Dolphin's folder. Go Dolphin's Folder > User > Wii > Title > 0001000 > 52534245 (52534250 for PAL) > data. Now, copy ALL of the data from the folder with the name with all the numbers thats on the SD card INTO THIS DIRECTORY. This is the most important part of the entire process.
*Preparation over! Yay!
Step 2 - The Recording Process
*This step is pretty simple, at least in comparison. Think of it as a lull in the storm, though, because compressing and making sure that **** doesn't suck sure is a doozy.
*Go to your replay in Dolphin. Start recording. Start the replay. Watch the entire replay. Stop the recording after the replay is COMPLETELY over. Make sure the frame rate doesn't go below what you have it at. If you have any FPS valleys below what you have, you will want to reduce your FPS even further. It'll take longer, but everything hinges on Brawl running consistently.
*Now that you have the video in the higher resolution, stop the game, go into Config and kick it up at 60 FPS, then go into the Display tab and make the resolution as low as you can. Start the game, go back and rerecord the replay in this significantly reduced resolution.
****If you can't record at 60 FPS in this signficantly reduce resolution, then you won't be able to have sound.****
*Step 2 End! Save? [No] >[Yes]
Step 3 - VirtualDub Hell
*VirtualDub is incredibly powerful. As such, the devs decided to make it hate you as much as possible with its robotic heart. It wants your human body. It WANTS to drink your blood. But we won't let that happen. Robots are our friends. And our slaves.
*Click Open File, and find the video file in the smallest resolution. This is your audio track, essentially.
*Go to the very beginning of the match. I mean the VERY beginning. Find the very first frame the match starts on, before the characters have even appeared but the stage has loaded. Once you find this perfect frame, click the "Mark Out" (looks like a shark facing the right with its fin out of the water) button, then press the Delete key. Then, go to the very end and find the very LAST frame of the match, the frame before it goes to the white / grayish background of the replay menu. Select the frame with the "Mark In" button, then go to the very end of the video file, click the "Mark Out" button, then delete that.
*This file is now the EXACT length of the match, and will be used as your audio file. Click File > Save as WAV, and save it.
*Now that you have the audio, click Open File. Open the first of your recorded replays. Since FRAPS splits up each video into many different 3.9 gig video files, you'll need to use the File > Append AVI Segment..., and select the next video file. Repeat this step till you get the entire video file. Remember to do it in the correct order.
*Like the audio portion, go to the very first frame and trim it down to the exact frame length of the match.
*Now, this part depends on what rate you recorded the video at. Figure out what multiple you need to make what you were recording at equal to 60. So if you were at 10 FPS, it would be 6. Then go to Video > Frame Rate, and click "Change frame rate to (fps):" In this box, you will multiply 60 by the multiple you just figured out, so 6 in the example, thus making it 360 being entered into the textbox.
*Go to Audio > Audio from Other File... then find your WAV you just saved, and click it. Then go to Audio > Full Processing Mode and make sure your Compression is set to LAME MP3. It removes all compressions when you exit the program, because it wants you to hate it. And you do. You do hate it.
*Do the same thing above but with Video > Compression. Make sure its selected to x264vfw. Thankfully, the configuration will remain the same, because apparently that's a pretty nice guy.
*Now you're ready! Go to File > Save as AVI... and name it whatever you want, then wait for it to compress and what not. After its done, watch it to make sure everything's cool. No reason it shouldn't be unless you really dun goofed these steps.
*VirtualDub part over! Now the finale!
Step 4 - Youtube
*Upload it to Youtube. This really isn't a step, just do it >.>
And now for something completely different : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifTIuA8Dq58
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Done for now. Will update with **** and stuff.
Revisions
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v0.1 - First edition.