Quick Tip: Planetside 2 - Medic Revive Not Working [Note]

Just a quick tip for those who have recently jumped back into playing some frantic Planetside 2 and thought there was something wrong with the medic tool, being unable to revive, thinking they can't revive, etc - there was a patch a bit back that changed the Medic Tool so that Left-Click will Heal and Right-Click will Revive. Although changing such a long running/'staple' operation is a little lip-pursing, it should have the overall positive effect of assisting with attempting to revive within a tight group of teammates (instead of your tool randomly healing someone close, it should more effectively target the face down teammate on the ground). Just a note.


See You In The Games!

Quality Test - H.264/AVC Game Recording with the x264 AVC Codec, with the goal of Quality (with "2K" HD Video Samples from Four Games)

In an earlier post about game recording with H.264/AVC (MPEG-4 Part 10) here, I went somewhat in-depth about concepts and considerations for the various settings and why you might want to use them or leave them as they are. With plans to make a "short version" of why you might want to use some settings over others (and setting recommendations geared more towards Speed of recording, reducing lag/choppiness) in the near future, for now, enjoy this short sampling of some game recordings done with H.264/AVC - this time with the goal of increased Quality in mind as well - showcased using four different games and presented in 2K Resolution (2048x1152p):

Clicking the Gear icon in YouTube's player and choosing 'Original'/1440p, while still Youtube-recompressed, is the closest to the original upload in viewing quality (You may need to click on the YT logo and watch it at YT to enable the Quality Setting)

Recorded games:

Battlefield 3 (Grand Bazaar), Planetside 2 (48+ Players Per Side in a BioLab territory, Night), Hitman: Absolution ('Run For Your Life, Shangri-La'), Grand Theft Auto 4 (Broker area, Night)

These games were selected because I felt they created a good 'obstacle course' for this codec Test, with light and dark areas, large panning/movement areas and hard edges to deal with, either from on-screen text or finely detailed textures [all Texture Filtering was turned Off in the Videocard Control Panel settings] (they were also all relatively demanding games, showing then, the low performance hit of this codec, with these settings)

Recording codec:

H.264/AVC configured with the x264 Video For Windows Unofficial (Black Logo) interface (the XiWave GNU GPL MPEG-4 Codec)

Recording settings:

CRF18, NoPartitions, Fast P-Skip, 1 Reference Frame, Diamond ME, ME Range 4, Subpixel ME 1, GOP 1 (for editing with Vegas/Premiere), NoWeightedP-Frames, No B Frames, Deblocking Filter (Strength 1), Non-Interlaced, No CABAC, DCT Decimation, No Trellis, Deadzone (11,21), Flat Matrix, MaxBitrate 50000k (Buffer 5000k), Threads 4, all other settings left as Default/Off

Recording compression:

Originally recorded @ 50000kbps, H.264/AVC format @ HD Resolution (1920x1080p)
Compressed @ 25000kbps for smaller upload to YouTube, WMV format @ 2k Resolution (2048x1152p), in attempt to keep detail/compensate for YT recompression

[The 'analog pause' effect wasn't added to accentuate any specific action going on at the time, it was more to showcase the detail maintained at that time/frame, when recording with the h.264/AVC codec] 

At a max bitrate of 50000k (a high quality Blu-Ray movie bitrate), the original recorded output takes up about 375MB per minute of recording. For an hour of gameplay, that's less than 25GB (including uncompressed audio (uncompressed to be more compatible with video editing apps and use less CPU resources while recording)). Maintaining good quality - although quality is relative, mind you - that is still about one-tenth the filesize of a FRAPS1 codec recording or a YUV or Lagarith codec recording. Chalk it all up to a powerful codec that has the ability to not only compress more where it can (without over-compression in dark/flat or low-motion areas), but also compensates for its' own compression via Deblocking and other built-in techniques.

Doing a quick test without the self-compensation capabilities found within the codec (turning off Deblocking, CABAC, etc), the output has macroblocking and other artifacts occurring, as can be seen in this screenshot:

An example of the internal filtering/compression-compensation found within the h.264/AVC codec, two frames taken directly from two h264/avc recordings, done one after another in the same area in the same online game
(Rift, recorded @ 1080p).
Click to see Full Size (cropped and zoomed source)

The two frames above are from videos shot close together in time, at the same bitrate, resolution, everything... The only difference between the two is that the left side has all filtering/compensation for compression that the codec can perform 'OFF' and the right side has CABAC, Deblocking and other compression/correction techniques 'ON' (Deblocking within the codec was set at only +2+0, as higher Deblocking settings have the effect of excessive smoothing.. [but if you don't mind that or you like the look of it, you can turn up the Deblocking to a maximum setting of +6+6, with a small hit to recording performance]).

These powerful compensators for compression come at a tradeoff however, as the more that you turn on, the longer the codec will take to scrutinize the frames and the slower the compression/output will be. This results in 'lag' both in the game and in the output video, as the resources of the system are directed more towards analysis and compression of the recording, where doing the calculations on the frames, then writing them to disk, can cause the recording to fall behind what is actually occurring on the screen. Also, turning up too many compensators/filters within the codec can result in a 'washed-out' (or at least excessively-smoothed out) video, meaning higher loss of detail.

So, are you stuck with only either crappy looking video or too-smoothed-out video output? Not at all. There are two main directions you can go with your h264/avc game recording (which one you decide on is limited somewhat by your system capabilities):

• On the one hand, you can have small filesizes, allowing you to record longer and more video. You can turn up the analysis and compensation techniques within the codec (Deblocking, Motion Estimation, CABAC calculations, Partition Analysis, etc) - as much as your system can handle, but not too much or you risk excessive smoothing, lag and other effects - and still end up with good quality game recordings.
  
• On the other hand, you will have larger filesizes, but if your system cannot handle the extra analysis and calculations of the codec, you can turn off these compression/compensation techniques and also gain more speed/performance [less 'lag' during gameplay and in the video output - this may also result in more detail being kept from the original source]. All you have to do is allow more Bitrate (setting a lower CQP or lower CRF, if you are using those) to more accurately represent what is occurring on-the-screen/in-the-frames, so that you don't get compression artifacts (as in the left portion of the screenshot above) - and still end up with good quality game recordings.

What settings to use, then? I will present the settings I settled on, after much testing; but again, these were done on my system, with the limitations that includes for me. You may have a more powerful or lesser so system, but all it will take is a few tests, changing a few settings each time, to see what kind of quality you can arrive at, with the balance/tradeoff of performance hit you are willing to tolerate.

Although JPG-compressed for posting, it can still be seen in this frame extracted directly from the H.264/AVC game recording (Hitman: Absolution @ 1080p), that decent quality can be maintained, despite the ability to record in smaller filesizes, with this codec and these suggested settings for the x264 interface.
Click to see Full size

There was only a light performance hit for my system with these upcoming settings, usually only a couple frames per second (averaging about 5fps loss, depending on the game/area being played); but it may depend on the 'overhead space' that you have running a game already. What I mean is, if a game is already chugging along for you, you may not be able to use or turn many things on with this codec (it can be much more demanding, as the different processing options get turned on). Along that same line of thought however, if you are able to run a game you want to record smoothly already, you should have no problem trying out this codec (esp. with my suggested settings). Since that was the case with many of the games I was playing with at the time [although games like GTAIV are always choppy haha], I will list the basic system specs that were used during the time of this Test:

AMD FX-6100 CPU @ 4.0GHz
AMD/ATi Radeon HD 6870 GPU (1GB VRAM) @ 950MHz
16GB Patriot "Gamer" RAM
all on a Gigabyte 990FXA Chipset Mainboard
running Windows7 64-bit
recording to two SATA III harddrives set up in RAID 0 (~233MB/s throughput, according to Dxtory)

I also managed to perform these couple of quick tests, as a comparison of the performance hit to be expected when recording with this codec and these settings on some other systems (CPU/GPU combinations listed):

Unigine Heaven Benchmark
6-core CPU / HD 6870 GPU ~1-3fps
4-core CPU / GTX 560 Ti GPU ~3-5fps
2-core CPU / GTS 250 GPU ~5fps

Rift (Online MMORPG)
6-core CPU / HD 6870 GPU ~1-3fps
4-core CPU / GTX 560 Ti GPU ~ 5fps
2-core CPU / GTS 250 GPU ~5fps

Not bad, in my opinion. These settings seem to work well, no matter what combination of hardware there was. Hopefully this will be the same for you, dear reader.


So then, just below are the settings I normally use when recording with the H.264/AVC codec. I might change things a bit for certain games that look vastly different, such as, if I wanted to keep the grain in the Left4Dead series of games or if I was recording a solid-coloured/static-area looking game like Minecraft or Web Browser games. For the most part however I use these settings, both for maintaining good quality and keeping disk space usage relatively low (at least, far lower than using the FRAPS1 codec, Lagarith, or a YUV codec).

[Note that I have chosen to use a GOP (Group of Pictures (Frames) (called "keyint" in the bottom example)) of "1". This is for editing compatibility with Vegas/Premiere and is optional if you are not using these video editing applications. Feel free to change the "1" in this setting to the Codec Default of "250", or as desired. For more information on this, especially if you plan to edit the recordings with Sony's Vegas or Adobe's Premiere lines of products, see this post earlier, here]

When using the 'Unofficial' (Black Logo) x264 Video For Windows interface to configure settings:

When using the 'Official' (Red Logo) x264 Video For Windows interface to configure settings:

For the official/redlogo interface, choosing the Ultrafast Preset configures many settings that are the same as the above prior three screen captures, seen using the unofficial/blacklogo interface. The command line area (box at the bottom) where things are typed in, change the remainder of the settings so that they end up the same as the other interface settings in the prior three screen captures above.

As you can see, these settings can be configured using the x264 interface for the codec, so no matter what game recording program you use* - be it Dxtory, Bandicam, MSI's Afterburner, etc - you will be able to choose these settings, adjusting for your own tastes as you prefer (or adjusting to be within your hardware limitations). 

[*The game recording application must be able to use 'external/third-party codecs', i.e. other codecs not included with the program itself, that you have installed on your system, in order to utilize the x264 interface for the h264/avc codec]

For more detailed coverage of the settings used when recording with h.264/AVC [in an article that focuses more on speed of recording, reducing 'lag'/choppiness], where to download the codec/interface and how to start using it in Dxtory, Bandicam and MSI's Afterburner, see this earlier post here at the blog:
http://gametipsandmore.blogspot.ca/2013/05/game-recording-with-mpeg-4-using.html

Please note dear reader, that I am not saying "This codec is the best one to record with" or "use this one only".

I am merely showing that it is possible, or how to tweak it for quality or file size, as to your own personal preference.

There are many codecs out there to choose from when game recording and although some are more apt for certain types of games than others, overall it is your own choice to use whichever one you prefer. Do some short tests and see which one works best for you and your current system - and try to have fun with it

Have Fun Recording with H.264/AVC and See You In The Games!

Planetside 2 - Video Tutorial: How To Attack and Defend a Facility - Bio Lab (Subtitled) [Short Version]

In this brief Tutorial focused on New Players to Planetside 2, I present concepts to attacking and defending a large facility with multiple objectives, such as:

• capture points
• shields
• generators
• spawn rooms
• terminals

and more...

In the video below, I am playing on the New Conglomerate FACTION. I CAPITALIZE full words that are either important structures and names to remember, or are important concepts to learn for battle.

During this battle at a large base, I show briefly how to use your HUD (Head Up Display) to locate OBJECTIVES, what some icons on the screen represent, where major structures are and important areas and aspects of the base.

Although my FACTION successfully takes over a Bio Lab, many of the concepts presented in the tutorial will carry over to battles at other large facilities, such as Amplifier Stations and Technological Plants.

[A separate tutorial for an Amp Station can be seen here:

http://gametipsandmore.blogspot.ca/2012/12/planetside-2-video-tutorial-how-to.html]

With subtitles over sections of a Bio Lab battle, playing as the NC (New Conglomerate), I go over some concepts a few times to make sure they set in for New Recruits, but for the most part, I stick to the main objectives of the base and how to quickly locate them, as well as the various ways to get inside..

Enjoy and See You In the Game!

Planetside 2 - Video Tutorial: How To Attack and Defend a Facility - Amp Station (Subtitled) [Long Version]

In this Tutorial focused on New Players to Planetside 2, I present concepts to attacking and defending a large facility with multiple objectives, such as:

• capture points
• shields
• generators
• spawn rooms
• terminals

and more...

In the video below, I am playing the Engineer CLASS, on the Terran Republic FACTION. I start out covering basic actions such as choosing your CLASS, EQUIPMENT and DEPLOYMENT into battle. I CAPITALIZE full words that are either important structures and names to remember, or are important concepts to learn for battle.

Upon arrival at a large base, I show how to use your HUD (Head Up Display) to locate OBJECTIVES, what icons on the screen represent, where things are and how to locate different areas and aspects of a shielded base.

Although I arrive at and successfully attack and defend an Amp Station, many of the concepts presented in the tutorial will carry over to battles at other large facilities, such as Biological Labs and Technological Plants.

[A separate tutorial for a Bio Lab can be found here:

http://gametipsandmore.blogspot.ca/2012/12/planetside-2-video-tutorial-how-to_27.html]

With subtitles over this 'one take' battle that stretched on 'overnight', I go over some concepts a few times, just to make sure they set in for New Recruits.
I do say less and less over time however and hopefully by the end, you will know exactly why I am looking where I am looking, going where I am going and doing what I am doing - and you will know how to do it all too...

Enjoy and See You In the Game!

Planetside 2: First Play Game Tips, Quick Edition (Text Only)

For those who don't know, Planetside 2 is a fantastic MMOFPS with a huge scope of things to do and it is out of Beta and available on Steam, Free-To-Play. A First Impressions article is on the way Someday™ with loads of info and screenshots that I have been collecting; but for now here are some quick tips for people new to the game to help you out with your first days playing.


A quick summary of the differences between the three factions is below, then some helpful tips [that aren't immediately obvious or perhaps not explained in the tutorial videos very well]:

The Vanu Sovreignity is a cultish, technology-worshipping faction of transhumanists that use ancient alien technology and look to find more and exploit it further. They use 'futuristic' alien-influenced looking armor and weapons and enjoy listening to euro-techno (it plays in menus and when you die, take a base, etc). Compared to the other factions, their weapons do middle-of-the-road damage, but are the fastest reloading and have no drop-off due to the fact they are laser-based (tank projectiles have some). Vanu don't ask for ammo, they yell "Do you have any batteries?" (which also means if you aren't Vanu and you hear this, you know where some Vanu are).

The New Congolmerate are a group of separatists and rebels that think any ruling group will be oppressive and are out fighting all other factions in the henhouse. Their weapons are somewhat 'low-tech' when compared to the others, with the slowest firing rate and longest reload time (they have the only snipers that start out with slower bolt-action rifles), but they put the 'big-block-engines' in 'em and they have the highest damage out of all the factions. In their spare time (the menu, when they die, level up, etc) they like to listen to some gut-busting home-grown rock 'n' roll.

The Terran Republic is a militaristic nation that seeks to unite the warring factions through expression of arms and authoritative rule. Their weapons do slightly lower damage when compared to the other two factions, but don't worry you can still clean out a room as a TR soldier as they have the highest firing rate and largest ammo capacity, shooting longer than anyone before they have to reload. As befitting their 'glorious nation', they go all out and hire a full orchestra to play whenever you are viewing menus, taking a base, or give your life to The Republic in battle.

• As of the time of this post, when you first load into the game, no matter what faction you choose, you will be a Light Assault soldier and be dropped directly into a heated battle zone. Be ready to fight (even though you don't know what you are doing yet - as with most things in life, just follow where other people are going for the moment). You'll probably die quickly (don't get too upset about it, it's part of the game and will happen a lot) and then when you do, you can choose your Class from the list and even if you want to move somewhere else. (Spawning at your main Warp Gate and using the terminal with the Globe on it to go to your faction's VR [Virtual Reality] room to practice moving and shooting, driving vehicles and flying is a good idea. Noone can even teamkill you there. If you need to find your main Warp Gate to spawn from, you can find it on the Map (default key 'M') or the large buttons on the bottom of the menu screen - you may have to first click REDEPLOY to be able to pick other spawn points)
• The map of each of the three continents is huge and it can take a long time to run and sometimes even drive where you want to go. Use the DEPLOY buttons to respawn closer to the action - unless you actually want to drive around, enjoy the scenery and take screenshots, of course!
• To get in and out of Vehicles and access Terminals, when you walk up to them a pop-up will remind you what key you have set to use them (Default key is 'E').
• Vehicles are accessed via Terminals that have Tanks or Aircraft on the display (a picture of one, in your faction's color) and use Resources that each empire gives out periodically, more if you control more regions and less if you lose them.
• To deploy a Sunderer (an Armored Personnel Carrier that can become a Mobile Spawn Point for you and your teammates), you have to certify your soldier with the ability (training/talent tree) using Certification points. Then, under the Abilities for the vehicles, go into the Sunderer and add it under Utility Equipment. After that, when you are the driver in one that you spawned, and have driven and arrived at where you want to deploy, press 'B' (by default). Now other Soldiers on your team can spawn from your Sundy and you get XP for it!
• Certification Points are the 'talent points' of the game, that allow you to unlock abilities and weapons and vehicles. You earn a Cert Point every 250 Experience Points (and seem to earn them slowly offline as well, one every hour or less). You earn Experience Points by doing [what I call] 'interactive actions' within the game, such as killing an enemy, healing a teammate, fixing a tank or turret, sabotaging a generator, and so on. Sitting still in an area of battle does not get you XP, so get in there and help your team!
• If you use Certification Points and purchase Suit abilities or Weapon scopes, you have to go to a Terminal and access your soldier's Loadout and click on your weapon/suit and click Change Attachments and add it to the gun/suit in there. Vehicle upgrades also have to be added to your Loadout via the menu to be warped in with your vehicle. Then, simply click Resupply and you have everything you purchased ready to go when you spawn, resupplied everytime.
• The Class Abilities (Medic AOE Healing, Heavy Assault Shield, etc) default key is 'F' [I prefer mine to be 'E']. For Light Assault, you use Jump (Space Bar) and you just hold it down to use your Jetpack.
• The guns have recoil/spread but you can still fire long bursts if you compensate by dragging the mouse down/etc slowly as you fire. Practice on a wall at different ranges to see your bullet spread hits and which way you will have to drag your mouse to counter that weapons' recoil. It should be noted here, that the game engine still 'inserts recoil', so even with compensating by dragging your mouse in the opposing direction of the recoil (which works in most games with guns as weapons), there will still be some recoil effect.
• Friendly-Fire is ALWAYS ON, which is more realistic but may take a bit to get used to at first if you haven't been playing games where you can damage your teammates. Be careful to not run in front of people shooting out doors, down hallways, etc and be careful not to shoot your teammates, as after a couple warnings, all of your weapons will be locked down for a while and you will be unable to shoot anything at all. If you are a pedestrian, keep wary of tanks and vehicles to not get your teammates penalized by accident (and also avoid having to respawn again from being run over).
• You do not have to fight in the thick of combat on the front lines all the time. Bases and Outposts that are in nearby regions can be sabotaged - generators and shields can be shut down, terminals can be hacked (by Infiltrators) to spawn vehicles for your faction instead of the enemy, all of which will make the base easier to take when your allies arrive - and of course, defenses against all of these things are needed behind the front lines of combat. If you want some breathing room for a minute after taking a base, hang back and play defense, repairing and getting ready for when the other guys respawn/regroup and come up to try take the base back.  There are tons of things you can do to help out your faction in the large scope of this game. Change it up whenever you feel like it.

I saw some of these questions being asked a lot in-game and wanted to throw out some tips as well, to help anyone who didn't know these yet, especially first-timers.  Have Fun!


By the way, the game seems to have a lot of aliasing (in my opinion), even at 1080p or higher resolutions. If you want to enable AA, you can do so by forcing it in your videocard's Control Panel. 

FXAA (NVIDIA) and MLAA (Morphological, AMD/ATi) are both versions of post-processing that should work and be visible in the game. Note that these may not be able to be captured in screenshots and game recordings (Fraps, Bandicam, Dxtory, Playclaw, etc) although they will be visible while playing the game.

Another way to enable some Anti-Aliasing, is to open the UserOptions.ini file in the Planetside 2 directory (which by default, seems to be C:\Users\Public\Sony Online Entertainment\Installed Games\PlanetSide 2 .

In the UserOptions.ini file, in the first [Display] section, there is a setting called RenderQuality. By setting this to a larger number (such as 1.200000 or 1.400000), the game renders in the background at a slightly higher resolution, then displays at whatever resolution you have set in the game. This 'downsizing' upon display is a form of SuperSampling AntiAliasing, and will help get rid of the jaggies - at a performance hit/cost. Do some tests to see if the tradeoff is worth it for your system.


See You In The Game!