No sound in Lemmings 2, Chronicles, or 3D.

Megaritz · June 13, 2007, 10:40:30 PM

I've thought of recording the movies when I get to them in the game itself, in Fraps, and putting them on Youtube. However, there are two problems:

I only have the free version of Fraps, which only records 30 seconds. I'm not a video making expert, and would have trouble putting the 30-second parts together well.

In addition to that, in the attempts I've made to record the intro with Fraps, the sound is very messed up while recording, and is also messed up while watching the recorded versions. Stuttering a lot. I guess DosBox and Fraps weren't designed for each other. The videos look good, but I'm not sure if there's a way around the sound glitches. I'll do some more experiments with it.

ccexplore · June 13, 2007, 11:29:39 PM

You could try recording the video and the sound separately, then use a video editing program to remove the audio track from the video recording and then add the separately recorded sound track into the video.

The advantage of doing this is that DOSBox has support for recording (more accurately, saving) its sound output to WAV, and there's a good chance you'll find the recorded sound from DOSBox to be stutter free, even in cases where the sound you actually hear has stuttering.

In fact, come to think of it, DOSBox starting version 0.65 already supports video recording itself, doesn't it? Do you even need Fraps?

DragonsLover · June 14, 2007, 02:35:27 AM

Fraps is reserved for recent games that support DirectX. Not for old games like 3DLemmings that uses simpler video mode. Dosbox 0.70 has a video recording feature. Press CTRL+ALT+F5 while playing the game under Dosbox. When finished, press those keys again and an AVI file will be created.

Megaritz · June 15, 2007, 08:22:13 PM

I've tried recording the intro with DosBox now, with CTRL+ALT+F5. It can only be recorded as an avi file apparently, and I'm pretty sure that's a common file type. However, I can't use any of my media players to play the file. Windows Media Player has an error message saying "Error downloading codec" and will only play the sound. When I try DivX, it says I might need a "Directshow Decoder" to play it. I don't know anything about those, so I'm not sure about downloading one. I also don't know if the videos recorded with DosBox would be unusable on Youtube. As you can probably tell, I don't know much at all about video files. :huh:

ccexplore · June 15, 2007, 09:07:53 PM

Quote from: Megaritz on June 15, 2007, 08:22:13 PMI've tried recording the intro with DosBox now, with CTRL+ALT+F5. It can only be recorded as an avi file apparently, and I'm pretty sure that's a common file type. However, I can't use any of my media players to play the file.

An AVI is just a general container format for audio and video streams; the underlying formats of the audio and video streams themselves can be anything. If I recall, I believe DOSBox's recording capabilities use a custom codec which should be either included in DOSBox or can be installed/downloaded from the DOSBox website. Check the readme in DOSBox 0.70 to see what it says about recording and playback.

Once the proper codec is installed, you should be able to find any general programs to convert the movie from the DOSBox custom codec to using a standard codec that makes the movie usable on Youtube and the like.

DragonsLover · June 16, 2007, 04:10:42 AM

There you go!

Megaritz · June 17, 2007, 02:04:41 AM

Thanks for the link, DragonsLover, the video can be played now.

Unfortunately, I've looked for a program like ccexplore mentioned to convert the videos from ZMBV to a standard codec, for Youtube, but can't find any. Do any of you know of one?

ccexplore · June 17, 2007, 08:23:25 AM

Don't search specifically for ZMBV; since you already installed that codec, I think any program that can understand AVIs should be able to load the movie, and then allow you to save/export it using a different codec installed on your computer, such as whichever one is standard for Youtube. If you have Windows XP, you can try Windows Movie Maker for example. Import the AVI, drag the imported clip into the storyboard at the bottom, then click the "Save to my computer" option under "Finish Movie".

Mindless · June 17, 2007, 02:33:46 PM

Quote from: ccexplore on June 13, 2007, 09:35:56 PMMindless is the author of the it.travisbsd.org/lemmings site, so hopefully he can determine whether it's feasible to support a 100 MB download from his site. It might not be feasible though.

Actually, my host has no limitations, so the only reason not to host it is not making them angry.

Assuming the animations are raw video or perhaps run-length encoded, the files are very compressable. (I don't actually have a 3D Lemmings CD or I'd rip it myself, so perhaps Megaritz could give me a copy.)

Megaritz · June 18, 2007, 02:10:36 AM

The files in the ANIM folder don't have extensions, so I don't have any idea what kind of files they are. I've compressed them, but it's still 86 MB. I don't know whether there's a better way to compress them. I guess I could e-mail them to you, Mindless, if you'd like them.

Mindless · June 21, 2007, 04:17:19 AM

I've put Megaritz's CD rip on my site, but I can't seem to make it work

The Lemmings Encyclopedia · June 21, 2007, 06:23:22 AM

What seems to be the problem?

It's a 7zip archive, so could you unpack it?

Megaritz · June 21, 2007, 07:19:23 AM

I could not install the game from the CD with DosBox, so I never learned whether it is possible to play the CD version without the CD. The original download version has a folder called L3D.CD that I suppose lets it play without the CD. You could put that folder in, which I guess you did with the original download version. (Unless you already put it in the second version; I haven't bothered re-downloading it.)

Or you could try putting the ANIM folder into the original download version like I mentioned earlier, and see if it works right. It did for me, but there might be some obscure reason it wouldn't work for other people. I think there should still be two versions though: one with the movies, and one for the people who don't want to download a 7X bigger game just for the movies.

If there's some confusion about what kind of file I uploaded, it's just the contents of the CD as a zip file, and not a "rip" which I don't know anything about, being rather computer-ignorant.

Mindless · June 21, 2007, 07:17:17 PM

Quote from: evaarties on June 21, 2007, 06:23:22 AMWhat seems to be the problem?

It's a 7zip archive, so could you unpack it?

I'm the one who 7zipped it.

I can't make the CD copy work in DOSBox.

Quote from: Megaritz on June 21, 2007, 07:19:23 AMI could not install the game from the CD with DosBox, so I never learned whether it is possible to play the CD version without the CD. The original download version has a folder called L3D.CD that I suppose lets it play without the CD. You could put that folder in, which I guess you did with the original download version. (Unless you already put it in the second version; I haven't bothered re-downloading it.)

It's identical, I just recompressed it.

Quote from: Megaritz on June 21, 2007, 07:19:23 AMOr you could try putting the ANIM folder into the original download version like I mentioned earlier, and see if it works right. It did for me, but there might be some obscure reason it wouldn't work for other people. I think there should still be two versions though: one with the movies, and one for the people who don't want to download a 7X bigger game just for the movies.

Don't worry, I'm leaving up both versions.

Quote from: Megaritz on June 21, 2007, 07:19:23 AMIf there's some confusion about what kind of file I uploaded, it's just the contents of the CD as a zip file, and not a "rip" which I don't know anything about, being rather computer-ignorant.

OK, it's not really a rip, since the CD-audio wasn't included, but it's close.

The Lemmings Encyclopedia · June 21, 2007, 08:08:02 PM

I could make a real CD rip if you like, will be around 450 MB in size.