Hitman: Blood Money - Something That You Might Have Missed... "Gun Owners Hate Him!" [Discovery **Updated to Glitch]

This is actually a Personal Discovery (something I found in the game) that I have never seen before (even though it was there)** - and initially I thought that maybe it was something that was well-known and has been talked about, especially in a game over a decade old now - but after doing some searching and poking and prodding, it appears that this may in fact be an actual "discovery" - something 'unearthed' that, even though it was 'already there', it was never before seen (or at least, noticed)**

Now, I don't like Articles on the Intertubes that take a long time to 'get to the point'
[one of the reasons why I try to put a "Short Version and Long Version" in my longer articles with explanations]
so here it is:

When Agent 47 loads the W2000 Sniper Rifle, he 'flips' the clip magazine into place¹.

^1[I wanted to say 'clip' here, as a gun novice, but as I understand after some quick researching, 
the big block-y thing is called a 'magazine' and not a 'clip']

I'll say it again, just to let it sink in: When The One And Only Hitman puts a magazine into his W2000, he 'spins' it, 'kicking' the cartridge in with his hand**

I never saw this at all, or at least, never 'caught' it happening, previously. And after looking all of the above words up (putting them into different forms of phrasing in searches online), I don't think anyone has noticed this - hence, my slightly over-the-top title - I really do think I discovered something here...**

"How can I not have seen this before?", I asked myself. And Myself answered [it often does that, don't tell anyone]:
"Well, we didn't have this technology before" - at least I didn't. That seemed like the explanation. We (meaning me, I shouldn't really say "everyone has missed this for years on end") have never had the capability to turn up the graphic settings in a game as much as in recent years. Basically, I'm putting the blame on the fact that I have never been able to see such detail in this game before (I recently upgraded to a R9 Series Radeon 280 and so I was never able, in the past, to 'turn everything up' in this game and therefore, never caught it - which is why I'm terming it a 'discovery' (at least, for me) - and it was discovered by accident...

I was doing some Speedruns of A Vintage Year, trying to beat my own Personal Best [of 1:44, which I did, a video to be uploaded Soon™]. While doing so, on one run, while near a corner of a wall, setting 47 up to open his Sniper Rifle case and put his weapon together, the camera rotates to show The Hitman loading up his rifle. The camera however, got 'caught' on the nearby wall, moving along the wall and causing a 'zooming-in', which highlighted this little occurrence.

Here is a short GIF I put together showing off this little move he does:

Agent 47's "spin move" with the clip magazine, loading the W2000 sniper rifle...
(**which, upon closer inspection isn't him 'kicking it in', it is a glitch)
GIF created using Sony Vegas Movie Studio and Honeycam

I can't tell from the recording if the clip magazine gets partially inserted (and then 47 'kicks' it in with his hand, which would be the source of all the awesome), or if it is more of a 'glitch'**, and the graphical model of the magazine is getting caught/stuck on the handle of the rifle, causing a spinning motion as 47 then pushes it up and into the magazine receptacle [I don't know the name of the slot on the gun where the magazine inserts into lol]. Until I get a Final Ruling on this matter, for now, I am going to consider it a little personal 'trick' of 47's and sit in awe of his awesome hitman-ness...** Maybe I will slow it down and put it above, in a GIF for all to see, Soon™

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go do some more Speedrun attempts in Blood Money. I have to beat my previous time!

**Update (and explanation of the many instances of **): Initially, I wrote this article with the 'spinning of the clip magazine' as a really neat discovery (something I didn't see before and I didn't find anyone talking about online) - thinking that The Hitman was 'spinning the cartridge into place'... but upon further analysis, I feel it now to be more of a graphical 'Glitch' [I am changing the title to Glitch, to reflect this]. This is based on my own observations within the game and an attempt to create a 'final explanation' to myself (and to help others). The clip magazine appears to 'float' in midair on further inspection/zooming/slowmotion/etc, it seems to be getting 'stuck' on the handle of the rifle - and why would it even be 'flipped/spun' after being 'placed' in the rifle, by a person using it? It would not... Hence my own personal, final decision then: The coolness factor may still be there, but it is not a 'fully functional' coolness - it seems to be more of a graphical glitch, where the model/mesh of the magazine is getting caught on the butt of the handle... /sigh - oh well, still a little enjoyable thing nonetheless [I am changing the title, adding "Glitch", to reflect this decision]

And More: How To Stop the "Trails" and "Corruption" in Sony Vegas When Importing an Xvid Codec Recorded File (Tutorial with Example Video)

[The title sounds like a spell of some sort.. BEWARE THE TRAILS OF CORRUPTION]

As part of the 'And More' of this blog, I would like to present a Tip that will help anyone that may be experiencing the 'trails' or 'corruption' effect that appears when importing an Xvid-recorded video into the Sony Vegas line of products.

This effect can occur no matter what game recording software you are using (Dxtory, Bandicam [as an External Codec], MSI Afterburner, etc.**), if it is configured to record with the Xvid codec downloaded from the Xvid.org website. An example of the corruption (and the associated setting that can fix it) can be seen in this short video:

The first portion is an Xvid Codec recording with the Motion Search Precision setting ON (which is the default setting if you are using the "Real-time" Quality Preset to record with, for instance).
The second portion is the same Xvid Codec recording, but with the Motion Search Precision setting OFF (Set to "None" (0)).

That is all that need be changed to fix this problem with importing Xvid recordings into Vegas, all other settings can remain how you prefer. One more example of what can be fixed/corrected (a still frame from a 'corrupted' video) is shown here:

To change the required setting in the Xvid Codec interface:

• After selecting Xvid MPEG-4 Codec as your recording codec [in whatever game recording software you prefer], click on the Configure button to open the Xvid Configuration window. Then, under the More section, Quality Preset, click the "more..." button past the pull-down menubar and it will Question you with the choice to Copy the values that cannot be changed to a "User Defined" setting. Clicking "Yes" will copy the Real-time Preset settings to the pull-down selection called "User Defined" and then you can change the preset settings within.

Click to see Full Size

• In the Motion Precision category on the first tab (Motion), next to Motion Search Precision, click on the pull-down menubar and click on "0 - None", to turn off Motion Searching when recording using the Xvid Codec.

Click to see Full Size

That's it. Sony Vegas Movie Studio and Sony Vegas Pro should both now be able to import your Xvid format recordings, no matter what game recording program you are using (Dxtory, Bandicam [as an External Codec], MSI Afterburner, etc**).


** Users of Bandicam will find that a built-in/optimized version of Xvid is already included within the program codec menu and provides good capture ability/quality, it just does not have the codec-native configuration interface (to change settings) and this version will not natively import into Vegas, as of this version.
If you are using Bandicam as your game recording application and you wish to record with the built-in/optimized version of Xvid and import your recordings into Vegas, simply download the Xvid codec from the Xvid.org website. Then, Bandicam's version of the codec can be opened within the Sony Vegas line of products. The problem presented above in the article does not occur when using Bandicam's built-in/optimized version of Xvid††

†† It should be noted, that this issue of "corruption" or "trails" or "glitchy-ness" does not occur in all Video Editing Applications. While most NLE editors (Vegas, Premiere, Lightworks, etc) will experience this, many 'Pro-sumer' grade video editing programs, do not. I have personally tested editors such as Corel's VideoStudio Pro, CyberLink's PowerDirector and even Microsoft's Movie Maker - and none of these editors display the issue mentioned herein.
If a user desires to stick with Xvid as their recording codec (indeed a speedy and potentially semi-high quality codec), then perhaps utilizing one of these other editors, should be considered.



Have fun recording and See You In The Games!