How to use the video capture function of PrBoom Plus?

Can anyone write a detailed instruction on how to set up and use the video capture function of PrBoom Plus ?
I had read the usage.txt included with the Prboom and understand that I have to download some additional files to use this function, but I still can't get it to work. So if anyone can write a detailed explanation or better yet create an instructional video, that would be really appreciated. Thanks for reading.

You need three additional programs to convert the raw video and the raw audio output by PrBoom+ into more common formats and finally multiplex them together into a single file. These programs are called directly by PrBoom+ and are set in the cap_soundcommand, cap_videocommand and cap_muxcommand variables, respectively. By default, PrBoom+ uses oggenc, x264 and mkvmerge, so you'll have to get them elsewhere for your operating system, before you can start converting. Place all three programs in a directory that's part of your PATH variable or put them directly into your PrBoom+ folder.

Once installed, you can convert demos to videos by calling "prboom-plus -timedemo demo.lmp -viddump video.mkv". Make sure to use the "-timedemo" parameter and not "-playdemo".

Hope that helps.

I know that i have to get those program, but the links provided in the usage.txt to those programs are confusing.

For the first link: http://www.rarewares.org/ogg-oggenc.php
Which version do i have to use,
libVorbis v1.3.3 or aoTuVb6.03?

For the second link: http://x264.nl/
Do i just click the big green button to download the files or do I have to download something else?
Because I had tried to download the files by clicking the big green button and I don't know what to do with the files

For the third link: http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/
I go to the download section and there's a bunch of files available for download I don't know which one do I have to download.

Hi, I don't entirely know about video encoding but it's something I've been meaning to check into. Here's what worked for me:

tito027 said:

For the first link: http://www.rarewares.org/ogg-oggenc.php
Which version do i have to use,
libVorbis v1.3.3 or aoTuVb6.03?

I think it shouldn't matter. Go with the libVorbis Generic one, it is probably the most compatible. Unzip it into your PrBoom+ folder, it's only one exe file.

For the second link: http://x264.nl/
Do i just click the big green button to download the files or do I have to download something else?
Because I had tried to download the files by clicking the big green button and I don't know what to do with the files

Click the word "binaries" under the green button. Choose either win32 or win64 depending on whether you have a 32-bit or 64-bit processor/operating system. If you don't know, choose win32. Then choose the file at the bottom of the list (x264-r2409-d6b4e63.exe as I write this). Move it into your PrBoom+ folder and rename it to x264.exe

For the third link: http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/
I go to the download section and there's a bunch of files available for download I don't know which one do I have to download.

Go here: http://www.fosshub.com/MKVToolNix.html
Download the Windows Portable version, 32 or 64 bit. Again if you don't know, pick the 32 bit one. You need 7-zip to unzip it. There's a whole bunch of files in there, the only one you need is mkvmerge.exe . Again, place it in the PrBoom+ folder.

Not done yet: the version of x264 that is available for windows doesn't support the default mp4 container that PrBoom+ wants to use. So edit prboom-plus.cfg (or glboom-plus.cfg if you prefer, or both) with notepad or another text editor, and search for "mp4". You should find these settings (trimmed for legibility):

# Video capture encoding settings
cap_soundcommand          "oggenc2 -r -R %s -q 5 - -o output.ogg"
cap_videocommand          "x264 -o output.mp4 --crf 22 --muxer mp4 --demuxer ...
cap_muxcommand            "mkvmerge -o %f output.mp4 output.ogg"
cap_tempfile1             "output.ogg"
cap_tempfile2             "output.mp4"
cap_remove_tempfiles          1

Change it to the following (changes underlined):

# Video capture encoding settings
cap_soundcommand          "oggenc2 -r -R %s -q 5 - -o output.ogg"
cap_videocommand          "x264 -o output.264 --crf 22 --muxer auto --demuxer ...
cap_muxcommand            "mkvmerge -o %f output.264 output.ogg"
cap_tempfile1             "output.ogg"
cap_tempfile2             "output.264"
cap_remove_tempfiles          1

(basically replace instances of 'mp4' with '264', except in the muxer setting, where you just set it to 'auto')

After that, you should be able to make videos using the command fabian posted above.

Doing this will also create some log files:
mux_stderr.txt
mux_stdout.txt
sound_stderr.txt
sound_stdout.txt
video_stderr.txt
video_stdout.txt

If the video didn't get created, examining these files might help you (or someone here, if you post the contents) figure out why not.

edit: Be patient though, video encoding takes a long time. You should still see PrBoom+ active in your taskbar while it's encoding.

Lastly, to get music in my video I had to use Fluidsynth or OPL2 playback for music.


(edited to not break the forum layout so badly)

Thank you for the informative answer, I'll try it out .

It works flawlessly, smooth frame rate and everything. Thanks again.
Also I have another question, is there a way to turn off the move forward,backward,and strafe function of the mouse without using mouselook in PrBoom Plus?

tito027 said:

It works flawlessly, smooth frame rate and everything. Thanks again.
Also I have another question, is there a way to turn off the move forward,backward,and strafe function of the mouse without using mouselook in PrBoom Plus?

I have the vertical sensitivity set to 0, that is my cheap way of doing it.

Thank you,man. That's a good idea.

I remember many years ago that I hacked a ball mouse to disable vertical movement when trying to play vanilla. This was before I knew anything about source ports. Still highly idiotic (but then what did you expect from me? :P).

How can I playback the demo that is recorded by the "-recordfrom" parameter of PrBoom?

I used the -playback demoname parameter but the demo is played all weird and wrong. For example, during the recording of the demo I started with a shotgun, but during the demo playback I started with a pistol.

Edit: never mind I figure out how to solve the problem