Lets racing time

5pm might actually be too early for me (ironic since earlier is usually better), but if we start at 6pm then I should be game.

As for a SMB3 race tomorrow, I guess it depends on how long tonight's goes on for and what time specifically Red wants to start. Though I don't have any pressing plans tomorrow.

So basically, there will be blood. Gotcha.

As usual, don't make any plans around me. The kid might be getting sick (AGAIN), so I won't have a good feeling for whether I can race or not until the last minute. But if you wind up starting in the 9-10 PM Eastern time range and if things look OK on the home front, I could race. If you want to start it earlier, or if the race fills up with people who CAN actually commit, then I don't mind bowing out. Anyway, after my performance on the Bionic Commando race, might be that a blind race of 5 hard objectives isn't quite in my bailiwick.

I've been working on some pentathlon ideas on my side, too, if I can manage to get my list smoothed out then maybe I'll run some poor suckers through it in a week or two.

I'll try and plan for about 6 then. You're EST, right?

Jikku, do you need any help getting a recording rig set up? And is 6pm EST a good time for you?

Atlantic, which is an hour ahead of EST. So it would be 7 for me, but that should be good.

And now to ponder what those challenges might be, I got a few theories...

I might want to join for tonight if there is room, if a man with a dumb accent is ok, and if I can figure out video recording by then.
(Camstudio isn't cooperating with me and I have trouble recording FCEUX with Open Broadcaster Software)

Also, I'm might want to be done by 3-4 AM CET, which is around 9-10 PM EST, if possible(seeing a friend tomorrow so can't do an all nighter).

Have you tried Hypercam? It's what I use.

I spent most of last night getting the recording part set up. I thought I had it all set until I went to bed and realized that 20x mic gain in OBS wouldn't necessarily translate to Skype, and I'd be the only person to have my voice in their audio track.

So I'm going to deal with Skype next, I'll let you guys now ahead of time if I can't make it work.

Dadaph, I don't know what your issue is, but I couldn't get anything to record until I right-clicked on the bottom-middle box and added a software capture as a source. Global capture sources did nothing for me. It took me more than 15min to figure that out.

Thanks. That seems to work like a dream(I get no audio from the game, but that's not really needed for the races I guess?)

Question: I've had trouble with file corruptions with other recording software, once the file size reaches a certain size(magic number seems to be 4gb). Anything I should watch out for like that in Hypercam?
And what framerate should I record at?(put it to 30, and it looked quite nice)

Other than that, I'm probably ready to go(just need the correct ROMS and stuff like that), unless my mic fails on me again.

30 fps is perfect.

Make sure you're capturing only your microphone. Don't record the game audio, and don't record the Skype call. What I do on my end is use Avisynth to strip the audio from the four .avi files and mix them together.

I would suggest doing a long test recording (an hour or so) and see if any new issues crop up. Make sure you have plenty of hard drive space available.

Jikku: I'm not sure what your audio issue is, but as long as we can hear you on Skype, and you're recording your own voice on your end, everything should work out fine.

I'll use a headset and record my voice through Audacity. My .avi file won't have audio at all.
Will do a test recording now(2-3 hours should be fine), just to make sure.

I'm realdadaph on Skype.

Audacity is fine, but you'll have to splice your audio and video together before you send it to me after the race. Can you do that with Hypercam?

Well I believe I am all ready to go, and I'll be chilaxin' on Skype practicing SMB3 and waiting for festivities to start.

You can't do any avi editing through Hypercam, though Windows Movie Maker ought to handle something that simple.

However I just have Hypercam set to only pick up audio through my mic (in fact it's not really a choice, I can't get the program to combine the stero mix AND the mic at the same time, it's either one or the other, but it works for the purposes of Racing Time)

Have done that before using Windows Movie Maker, so that shouldn't be a problem. Unless the wmv codec is...

Skype seems to work just fine. That echo service is a really convenient feature.
Now all I need to do is test for desync.

Been recording both audio and video for nearly 3 hours now, and nothing has gone wrong at all. So if there is room tonight, I'm all for joining.

I'm in the same boat. Test recordings went smoothly, all the appropriate games are working fine. Sent out some friend requests on Skype to those I could find names for. Ready to go if there is a spot. ^_^

I'm ready as well, just need savestates and to know who to add on Skype.

...or I think I am. After Skype and MSN merged, I'm not sure of anything anymore.

I'll hop on in about an hour. I stupidly began processing the Bionic Commando video, and can't do any recording until it's done.

So is it still happening tonight, or is the video rendering for Bionic Commando being a total pain?

Jikku, Dadaph, kefka and Narish just ran through it.

I'm open to running some more dudes through it, if anyone wants to. I'll be here all night.

If you get multiple heats of it, there should totally be a finals round with the top 2 winners from each race next week.

Do the winners have to do the Turbo Tunnel?

Ok, looked through my files now, seems I might have had some minor audio issues near the end, but not too sure, I'll try making different splices and see which works the best. At least I wasn't the biggest talker(thankfully?)...
Video turned out great it seems, and that's the importantest part.

My mic did end up picking up my headphones. I had the game audio turned off, but I definitely have most of the conversation. In future I'm just gonna have to shout at the mic.

That's what I do, I turn my mic sensitivity down to about 30% then just speak louder. It solves a world of problems, like extra noise picked up, vibrations, and breathing.

It also seems I got 2 recordings of my own mic, as Hypercam did one too. It sounds a little worse at parts, but at least it seems like I got audio all the way to the ending there. Not sure, need to watch a little to be sure, I was pretty quiet.
Managed to sync them up 100% at least, so in worst case, I'll just need to edit a little myself.

Edit: Oh drats, I was supposed to yell "Mod!" when I died. I completely forgot about that.

Double-edit: It wasn't audio problems after all, just me being stupid. Splicing and exporting video now.

How late is 'all night', because I won't be back from magic until at least 11 PM.

I really want to run another group, and we have a surplus of dudes who want to do the challenges, so I'll try to set that up. I think my work schedule is changing this week though, so we'll see. In the meantime, last night's runners should keep the challenges a secret!

Also, the BC race should be up by tonight.

God damn it, I can't find footage of that scene that isn't from the AVGN review.

Anyway.



I'M REALLY GOING TO BRAIN YOU OUT. WE ARE GONNA PLAY A GAME THAT WE HAVE ALL, AND I MEAN ALL.

PLAYED...

BEFORE.

True story: I was gonna do an impression of that guy today.

SUPAH

MAAARIO BROTHASSSSS

THREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE