Web videos rock, they really do - who wants to download a clip and then watch it, I don't - I'm about as patient as a monkey with a banana in its mouth. But the quickness of web videos (generally) comes at a price... quality. One only has to spend a few minutes watching pixels the size of a small city on YouTube and other sites to realize we still have a long way to go before web video is as refreshing as a cold beer (warm for the crazy poms) on a Friday night and as satisfying as pwning your friends.
Mod DB video quality just jumped up a notch (still a long way off perfect and NOT HD) - because we now use the H.264 codec (used to encode HD video) instead of the dated H.263 codec (used by Youtube and others). Check out the comparision below if you don't believe me (if you cannot see the second video, make sure you have upgraded to the latest Flash Player):
OLD H.263 Quality
New H.264 Quality
Same Videos Side-by-Side (H.263 & H.264)
Over the coming weeks all videos will be encoded into H.264 format and we will continue to push the quality up as bandwidth becomes more plentiful.
The next change is the removal of the karma system (because it simply didn't work) and its replacement with a new levelling system. The leveling system discussed here works much like it does in WoW and other games. Grind er stay active on the site, contribute tutorials, reviews, videos, news etc and you will gain activity points. Post crap and you will LOSE activity points. As you gain activity points your level goes up. Simple! Each level has a custom random title which has something to do with the site, mods and game development. You can view your level in your profile which you can access by clicking your username in the top left corner (see my profile). A demo image is provided below:
Oh yes. That video stuff is cool. I can't wait for the new range of higher quality movies to watch.
And who you calling crazy poms. Everyone knows a cold beer is best.
Awesome new videos :D
Like the levelling as well, very RPG.
I never got how the karma system worked anyways ... this seems to be much nicer :)
and yay for h.264
yay for scotty making the videos nicer :D
damn the videos are sooo much sexier - hopefully youtube will upgrade soon, the only issue with H.264 is that only 60% of people are running the latest flash player ATM which is needed for these videos
The video quality is definitely much better, now I don't always have to upload a trailer twice (uploading the video and downloading the high quality one). Then the leveling system, the best thing you could do was to remove the carma. It cannot be that a developer have a negative carma and a lot of activity points, so the new system is perfect.
I'm considering adding an option to "download" the video - not sure if that is a good thing or bad thing, it would definately save uploading content twice.
yeah, HD stream videos are a great asset to anyone related to modding. Kudos!
awesome job! Loving the lvling system ^_^
Yeah Great work on the new features :D
Updated the Flash Player,but h.264 still not working for me. :(
It can be confusing sometimes, make sure you open / close your browser and you are running v9.0.64 or greater Kb.adobe.com
Actually, it is imperative you should be running Adobe Flash Player version 9.0.124.0. Anything earlier than this and there are major security holes / vulnerabilities.
Awesome ****!
love the leveling system!
Hmm, y'know what's weird? Henley and Scott are ranked 1st and 2nd on the site, yet I am level 30. Aussie favoritism? I THINK SO!!!!
It's a step up but it's still not Vimeo quality.
Nice one guys! The updated video quality is great and will be really beneficial to us.
The leveling system seems like a sneaky way to make people contribute and hang out on ModDB.....but......we all want to level up no matter what the goal is, so time to start uploading (for days at a time if need be, ha ha)!!
Good work!
Nice video updates, runs way smoother and looks better too.
The videos are really good, and levelling in ModDB is like RPG
Man, sure feels spotty here. With a side of game. If you know what I mean.
Hmm, bummer, some of my older videos for AvP2Fortress now look like oil paintings (the oldest one, the sentry placement, for example). You can't realy see anything out of them. What's your opinion, should I simply upload them again?
maybe time to make your videos using the h.246 codec
i'm not sure what has happened to your vids. They must be encoded in a format not conducive to encoding. I suggest you update them.
Ok, got it.
My latest video is also corrupted for some seconds. Will check up on the older ones too.
Nope, re-uploading didn't fix it. It's a standard 640x480 WMV video so I guess that is not an ideal format.
I don't think it's the format. Per release, I usually upload 2 -3 videos, all encoded in the same way. Some of them do get the 'oil paint' job, while others (from the same release date) don't.
There is something to it, I just can't figure out a cause for it.
I have made a MPEG2 version of my corrupted video now. Will try uploading it to see if that works.
I've noticed a few videos get some weird errors, send me the link to some crazy looking videos - and I will tweak my encoding settings so that it no longer happens.
I've send you a a pm with a link to my video.
Video quality is highly noticeable, I love the new update!
woot :) good stuff!
Yeah, it looks a lot better than the earlier version. Will upload the other vids of the mod...
I got a very big screen and it would be cool if i could run the HD ModDB tv on a Widescreen (16:10 - 1680:1050) in "Full screen"
Very nice!
btw, there is support for "HQ"-Videos on Youtube already..
If the video supports it, then there is a link beneath the video (Watch in High Quality).
Nicely done guys, video quality is much better and the point system is cool too
Nice videos, and yeah... I never really understood the "Karma" thing;leveling is better, if you ask me.