Hi,
I want to practice with LOMAC and I'd like to record video during my flight. How do I do this?

LOMAC allows to record my practice in a video file that I can review later? Or do I have to use some other software?

And, can I record the video from the PC where I use LOMAC, or do I have to use more than one PC (one to fly and one to record the video with)?

On the page where you select your aircraft, press "ctrl + r". When you are done flying, you will see a save window. Name the file and click the "save" button do not press "enter" on your keyboard as it will not save (I learned from that). Now to replay the file, go to open missions and choose tracks from the drop down box on the lower right. Your list of tracks should openn and select the one you want then press "ctrl + p" and it will play.

I am going off memory as I am not near my PC as it is 1400 miles from me right now. If I am wrong, I am sure someone will correct me soon enough

Thank you very much!!!

Tomorrow I'll try with some flight!

After you have the track file Panter is referring to, go to www.fraps.com for the rest of your needs. Well, sort of... You'll need to purchase a video editing program such as Sony Vegas or Adobe Premiere to actually put all the clips together.

Ok!

Thanks again... Fraps is for video recording right?

One more question: When I play (ctrl + p) my track file, can I change view or camera during playback , to zoom or to choose a particular angle for the video?

As it says on their webstite: Fraps is "Realtime Video Capture Software".

As far as views, why don't you record a few tracks yourself and play around with the views as you're watching the tracks. Setting up your views and knowing how to operate the camera so to speak is step one out of three (or more) steps to create a video. Step two is capturing the footage (I'd recommend Fraps), and step three is editing the footage (adding sound FX, music etc.) in the video editing software of your choice. You'd better be ready to learn all these programs, and the best way is usually just playing around with them and having the manual (or .pdf's) handy whenever you get stuck somewhere.

A quick forum search (by our trusty Search Buddy) gave me this thread with a similar topic: Movie Making in FC

Check the following for more:
ED boards (Screenshots and Videos) with a tutorial thread called: Movie making tutorial #1: How to make a dogfight movie by Glowing Amraam.
Ubisoft boards old movie makers forum may also have some tips.

Great!
I'll now practice with LOMAC for some days, and recording some tracks to practice also with camera controls.
Next I've to practice looooong time with LOMAC (I'm now a total newbie in LOMAC, I remember the OF keys... and I confuse myself during the flight. T_T)...
Finally I've to read manual to know all that there is to know about the use of the F-15 (that is the flyable model for your F-16 skin), in order to train myself to read the cockpit during maneuvers.

I found some manuals here:
http://www.virtual-jabog32.de/index.php ... 35&lang=en

(Only in English, but I start with those, then I'll hope to find also some in Italian) that are a little more exhaustive than the poor paper manual contained in the box... and I have something to read now.

Thanks again for your precious tips and links!

You do realize that the Official Lock ON PDF manuals you found at JaBoG are the same ones that are in your "docs" folder after installing the game. You really need to check (and print?) those first!

Secondly, if you don't like the English manuals I'm pretty sure they have them come in Russian too!

Lawndart wrote:...
Secondly, if you don't like the English manuals I'm pretty sure they have them come in Russian too!

Argh!!

Russian??? I'll hope that some italian user can translate the english into italian... but if no one can do this, I'd like to use the english version.

Gosh! I noticed today that those manuals are in the DOC folder after the installation.

Razor-71 wrote:Gosh! I noticed today that those manuals are in the DOC folder after the installation.

Finally!!! That's what I've been trying to tell you in several posts...

Better late than never.

I'm trying my new graphic card (ATI HD4670 1Gb), and now I've played 2 flights at 1920x1200 (I use a 24" Samsung LCD monitor). Really awesome, clean graphics and good sim speed.

Now I'm trying at 1600x1200.

What is the resolution you use in VTB, to make good quality aerobatics videos?

Depends on how much better FPS you get. I am sure you would get more FPS with 1600x1200 simply because its a smaller resolution. The more the FPS, the easier LockOn will run but it you want it to look better I would stay with the 1920x1200.

I think after some tests, it's enough with 1600x1200. Very nice graphics and very well performing sim speed!

@Razor, I merged your topic with the previous topic about making videos.

For flying I use the highest resoultion and highest graphic card settings I possibly can. Luckily my hardware is good enough that I still get an average of 50-60fps with AA and AF maxed out in my video card's control panel and at the highest resolution my monitor will support, while still getting great framerates. Not everyone may have that luxury, and might have to play around with resolution and graphics settings until a happy balance is found with high framerates. There's no way to tell you exactly what will work for you on your system, but start from the high end and work your way down (assuming you have a good rig) until there's a balance between resolution, graphics settings and high framerates. You want the eye candy, but you need the fluidness (framerates)!

For video making it becomes a little trickier! The first obstacle is getting high enough framerates WITH the Fraps engine running. You'll have to experiment and see what FPS you get with Fraps capture active and lower your resolution and/or capture speed (LOMAC's playback speed) to achieve a number equal to, or higher than the frames per second you plan on rendering your video with (in your video editor). Most videos I've made thus far have been 1280x720 and I usually run Lock On at a resolution close to that for my capture (regardless of what I fly with normally). This also allows for minimal cropping of the picture afterwards and gives me the closest "true resolution" between the capture and the final render. No wasted pixels for a huge sacrifice in performance in other words, because capturing and rendering high Megapixel resolutions (anything above 720p) demand A LOT of computer power. Unless your computer can handle the extreme calculations of capturing AND rendering a 1900x1200 video with good FPS during the Fraps capture, there's no point to run your game resolution in Lock On any higher than what your final render resolution. Hence, your resolution for flying and its settings are very different from video making resolution and settings.

Tip: To view your FPS in Lock On hit Ctrl-Backspace. (When using Fraps the FPS counter shows up on screen by default).


Rules of thumb:

1. Flying: Set your graphics/resolution as high as possible to the point where you still get at least >30 FPS in the most intense areas of the map. (Sky only view should equal well above >100 FPS).
2. Capturing: Set your graphics as high as possible, but lower the resolution close to your planned render resolution.
3. Rendering: Determine this based on knowing how your computer performs steps 1 & 2, and also how powerful of a machine it is.
4. Screenshots: Not related to any of the other steps, but what you want to do here is max out (!) your graphic settings and resolution, use high or extreme AA, AF, texture filtering, trilinear optimization and mipmap settings, etc. You're not going to be flying, and your framerates don't matter since you're taking a still photo, so this is the (only) time you want to literally max out every setting possible.

As you can tell below there is a BIG difference in the number of pixels between rendering a 720p moive vs. rendering a 1080p movie. In fact, more than twice the number of pixels and as you can imagine your computer essentially has to be more than twice as good to handle a 1080p render vs. a 720p render.

720p = 1280x720 = 921600 or 1 Megapixel
1080p = 1920x1080 = 2073600 or 2.1 Megapixels
1200p = 1920x1200 = 2304000 or 2.3 Megapixels

Remember, flying the sim and the settings you use are very different from what you'll be using for capturing and making videos! Just run the Fraps engine for the first time and you'll see the first reason why.

Wow!

Thank you Lawndart, just today I experienced some configs in fly and some others (lower) to fraps recordings.

As I previously wrote, I was flying at 1600x1200, but at this res fraps captured a very bad movie, so I tried 1280x1024 and the movie goes right! Now I have to try many resolutions to the perfect config to fly. This is the primary target, then I'll study the 'record movie' config, in order to capture good enough movies from my flights!

Now I'm actually flying in 1280x1024, about 30 FPS in LOMAC near the ground, without FRAPS active. Higher resolutions make my flight slower.

Screenshot

Thanks again, have a nice weekend!

PS: Once I used LOCK ON, I reloaded for a while the 'old' Open Falcon, but it seems now to be so... so... scary!!! I'm sure that for avionics reality OF can be the best, but as best sim (gfx + simulation + reality) now I can tell that LOCK ON rules!!!