Capture with jaMME in MBII 1.4.5 (with dropped editing support)

ent

Movie Battles II Team
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Hello.

Since MBII 1.4.5 editing MBII demos with jaMME is not longer supported because that part of code used in MBII violated GPL and had to be removed.
But capturing with jaMME is still possible.

For though lucky ones who still have mmeMBII/cgamex86.dll of MBII 1.4.4(.1) or earlier, you are still able to use jaMME fully without restrictions but you won't be able to see new MBII v1.4.5 features in new demos.

For the rest.
1. Download jaMME: jaMME - JKHub
2. Extract to GameData.
3. You will have to edit start_jaMME_MBII.cmd to have the following:
Code:
@echo off
start jamme +set fs_game MBII
4. Give jamme.exe admin rights and launch start_jaMME_MBII.cmd.
5. Assuming you have your demos saved in MBII/demos/, just navigate in main menu to Play -> Play demo, and select any to play it back.


With the above setup demos from previous versions won't work.
Just use jaMME as before but change the demo player to the regular one with mme_demoConvert.

1. Select Demo Editor engine in MBII Launcher settings.
2. It will ask you to download the mod if you don't have it.
3. Copy cgamex86.dll from MBII/MBII.pk3 to mmeMBII/ and uix86.dll from mme/ to mmeMBII/
This step has to be done automatically by the launcher but just in case.
4. Put your demos into mmeMBII/demos/
5. Start jaMME (Demo Editor) as before via the launcher or via original version of start_jaMME_MBII.cmd:
Code:
@echo off
start jamme +set fs_game mmeMBII +set fs_extraGames "mme MBII"
6. Set mme_demoConvert to 0 to use the regular demo player in jaMME.
If it stays 1 then your demo will be loaded but not played back (staying on the first frame).
7. In main menu: Demos -> select your demo -> Play demo.
6. To start capturing do "cl_avidemo <FPS>" where FPS is the output video FPS.
For example: "cl_avidemo 60" will start capturing demo and make a 60fps video.
7. To stop capturing do "cl_avidemo 0".
If you are capturing with pipeline feature or AVI, you can do "capturestop" (and "capturestopstereo" for 3D capture) to be able to play just captured video without stopping the demo. Or just stop the demo and it will finish capturing work automatically.
8. Find your video in MBII/capture/.

Cvars to make things better:
mme_screenShotFormat <pipe, avi, png, jpg, tga>. I highly recommend to use pipe (see below how to set up).
mme_saveWav 2 to capture audio into pipeline file or AVI; 1 to capture audio in a separate file.
mme_blurFrames <0-256> but limited to FPS*mme_blurFrames <= 1000.
For example: to capture with 60fps you may set mme_blurFrames to 16 max because 60*16=960 and it's <= 1000.
mme_demoFileName <name> will specify the output name.
mme_pipeCommand "ffmpeg -f avi -i - -threads 0 -preset ultrafast -y -pix_fmt yuv444p -crf 23 %o.mp4 2> ffmpeglog.txt" - default.
Modify -crf value for quality (lower value - higher quality, bigger filesize),
-preset for capture speed (veryslow - to reduce filesize in 2 times),
-pix_fmt to change pixel format (yuv444p - full range, yuv420p - most compatible format with all players);
do not modify the rest in that cvar.
com_affinity 0 for pipeline, 1 for all the rest capturing (requires game restart).
Reference: Encode/H.264 – FFmpeg

Set up pipeline feature:
1. Download FFmpeg: FFmpeg
2. Put ffmpeg.exe to GameData.
3. Start the game.
4. Set mme_screenShotFormat to pipe.
5. Start any demo and try to capture as described above.
6. If something fails, find ffmpeglog.txt in GameData.

Now go make cool videos.

P.S.: please, tell if it works for you.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0
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Is that file from 1.4.4 or 1.4.4.1? I have some errors with it when playing 1.4.4.1 demos. The demos can play, but certain sounds aren't played and mb2_republiccruiser crashes.
I believe it's 1.4.4.1, it was coincidence that one of my friends actually hadn't updated his game so I managed to nab the file off of him before he did the update.
 

ent

Movie Battles II Team
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It's expected the previous version of the mod has a possibility to fail or to work incorrectly with newer demos.
 
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ent

Movie Battles II Team
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mme_screenShotFormat has to be pipe. Not avi, not png, not jpg.
And why would you change extension? Where the hell was it said?
 
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Is there a way to pause demo and rewind it/move it backward/forward in time now or do I have to play the whole demo 1000 times to get the capture right?
 
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Hello,

is there a chance that jamme is still working for the capturing part ? I tried running it with the mb2 launcher and it opens JA Multiplayer. I'm still able to read demos using JAMP but then MB2 animations aren't loaded so it's buggy.
 

Puppytine

Slayed dreamer
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is there a chance that jamme is still working for the capturing part ?
While jaMME itself is working, I doubt that any capturing featuring are, because some GPLed code that is required by jaMME was removed from MBII dlls.
To start jaMME you need to create a shortcut for jaMME and add
Code:
+set fs_game mbii
as a command-line parameters.
You also may need to copy three dlls from "Jedi Academy\GameData\MBII" to "Jedi Academy\GameData\mmeMBII".
JaMME plays demos just fine while running that way, but I doubt any jaMME-specific features will work.
I'm still able to read demos using JAMP but then MB2 animations aren't loaded so it's buggy.
You probably doing something wrong, like trying playing older demos with latest Movie Battles.
Download exactly that version of MBII that was used to record a demo from here:
Install it to separate folder, like MBIIOld, create an appropriate shortcut or .bat file to start up the game.

UPDATE:
Wait, I didn't even read the first post before sending my reply.
You probably may need to forget everything I said about jaMME, just read carefully the first message of this thread made by ent and proceed according to that.
As for JAMP part (and the whole MBII version stuff), my point is still on.
 
Last edited:
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While jaMME itself is working, I doubt that any capturing featuring are, because some GPLed code that is required by jaMME was removed from MBII dlls.
To start jaMME you need to create a shortcut for jaMME and add
Code:
+set fs_game mbii
as a command-line parameters.
You also may need to copy three dlls from "Jedi Academy\GameData\MBII" to "Jedi Academy\GameData\mmeMBII".
JaMME plays demos just fine while running that way, but I doubt any jaMME-specific features will work.

You probably doing something wrong, like trying playing older demos with latest Movie Battles.
Download exactly that version of MBII that was used to record a demo from here:
Install it to separate folder, like MBIIOld, create an appropriate shortcut or .bat file to start up the game.

UPDATE:
Wait, I didn't even read the first post before sending my reply.
You probably may need to forget everything I said about jaMME, just read carefully the first message of this thread made by ent and proceed according to that.
As for JAMP part (and the whole MBII version stuff), my point is still on.
Any idea what's going on here? Demos before 1.6.1 load up just fine...
e7c2eecb9fd67c8aa672240a995c1de4.gif
 

Bud

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??
Try the updated way to start the mod (the original one with the regular demo player).
Hey so, I'm a little late to the party, but everytime I try to load my demos with mme it says "couldn't find a team entry for Leg_GOOD" or something like that. Thanks in advance.
 
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