The making of: Unknown Reality Video 
Monday, August 27, 2012, 12:57

Introduction


13 months ago I uploaded a video of N.O.P.'s Unknown Reality megademo. There was one major problem during the recording session. The demo switches between 50 Hz and 60 Hz interrupt which causes the video to fail to synchronize audio and video all of a sudden. To prevent this I wrote a script for openMSX (the MSX emulator I used to record the megademo and the first emulator to actually run the demo correctly) which automatically starts a new recording when the VDP switches between 50 Hz and 60 Hz interrupt. I called it vblank.tcl and an extended version of it is available here.

The openMSX TCL script


vblank.tcl:
namespace eval vblank {

variable cur_wp ""
variable old_r9 0

proc check {} {
variable old_r9

if {[expr [vdpreg 9] & 2] != $old_r9} {
set old_r9 [expr [vdpreg 9] & 2]
if {[record status] == "status recording"} {
record stop
record start -doublesize
}
}
}

proc toggle_vblank {} {
variable cur_wp

if {$cur_wp == ""} {
set cur_wp [debug set_watchpoint write_io 0x99 1 { vblank::check }]
} else {
debug remove_watchpoint $cur_wp
set cur_wp ""
}
return ""
}

namespace export toggle_vblank

}; #namespace

namespace import vblank::*
To use the script copy and paste the contents of the window into a text editor and save it as vblank.tcl in your personal openMSX/share/scripts folder. In Windows this openMSX folder can be found in My Documents.

Recording the demo


Before you start recording the demo go to the openMSX console (F10 in Windows) and execute toggle_vblank. This will start the script that will automatically restart a new video file when necessary. Then start recording with the record start -doublesize command.

After recording the entire demo with all required hardware, I ended up with 16 separate AVI files. First step is to convert the frame rate of one of the interrupt frequencies to the other. I decided to convert the 50 Hz interrupt videos to 60 Hz. To do all this I used VirtualDub. It's possible to do multiple conversions in one go. I'll list the conversions you'll need to do.

All of these settings need to be exactly the same for all video fragments to allow to put all of them together in one video file!

Frame rate conversion


To convert the frame rate follow Video, Frame Rate..., Frame rate conversion, Convert to fps. In here you need to enter two values indicating the frame rate. In openMSX 50 Hz is calculated with the following values: 50158973 and 1000000. 60 Hz is calculated with 59922743 and 1000000. In VirtualDub you can read those values in hexadecimal notation (left is the hexadecimal value, right the decimal one):

000f4240 = 1000000 (divider)
02fd5d7d = 50158973
03925937 = 59922743

These values are important because you need to input those in the Convert to fps box to calculate the exact frame rate for the new video.

Video Compression


As the video codec used in openMSX doesn't have the decoder in the Windows codec you'll need to select a different codec to use. This can be done in Video, Compression... to select the codec and settings to use.

Audio Compression


For the best audio quality I recommend using Direct stream copy in the Audio menu.

Conversion time


In the File menu, start Queue batch operation, Batch wizard...
Select the files to convert and where you want to store them. Click Add To Queue and Re-save as AVI.

Next, select Job Control, Start in the File menu. The files will be converted. This may take quite some time. If all went well, the new files will be in the destination.

Put them together


In the File menu, select the converted base AVI from Open video file...
Then select Append AVI Segment with all additional converted AVI files.
In both Video and Audio menus select Direct stream copy.
Now, in the File menu, Save as AVI...

Select the location and filename for the final result file.
You may need to abort sooner (around the total size of the seperate files) and resize the result video to the correct size by opening it and saving a selection.

Final words


YouTube will reduce the frame rate to around 30 fps which did break effects in the resulting video. So compensation for that may be required. As of 14 November 2014, a re-upload is available showing the demo in all its glory on 60 fps!

The result can be viewed here:

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MSX IPS Patch Archive updated again 
Saturday, July 21, 2012, 15:52
Today I've added some patches to the archive again:
  • added Deltasoft's Sorcerian English translation
  • added Deltasoft's Feedback English translation
  • added Knightmare Gold R3 fixes patches
  • added Maze of Galious screens fixes patch
  • added King's Valley 2 editor fix patches
  • added Metal Gear 2 Solid Snake fixes patch
  • added Quarth end-of-stage fix patch
  • added Quarth title screen patch
  • added Metal Gear 2 Turbo patch to allow PANplus patch

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MSX IPS Patch Archive updates 
Wednesday, July 11, 2012, 18:25
After some time of issues regarding the means of updating I've got a way to update the archive again. To restart with some standing updates were done:
  • 2 patches regarding Montana John and the Templar's Treasure updated to version 1.1 of the game
  • the patch to get the Sega Master System version of Bomb Jack running on MSX
  • The README.TXT of Novalia Spirit's Golvellius English patch is updated
  • Metal Gear 2 Solid Snake English translation patches are updated to version 1.3
  • Metal Gear literal and modern English translation patches were replaced by the latest single version

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msxnet.org Special Interest pages update - GETROM v1.1 
Sunday, March 25, 2012, 22:36
Recently more and more people reported problems with saving system ROMS using GETROM to cassette. One person who reported found the problem and reported the fix back to me. After reviewing and testing the fix I've put this new version online for download.

Thanks go to Jemo1982 for looking into the problem and fixing the bug. For convenience also a cassette version is released in .wav format.
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GBASIC version 1.0 released 
Wednesday, December 28, 2011, 18:05
After many years of inactivity (or silent development) of G-Basic I've decided to contact its developer Koen van Hartingsveldt to restart active development. Today I released GBASIC version 1.0 as a TNI product. This is mainly a synchronization release to synchronize the manual to the binary.

Other changes are:
  • Added interlace reset to hot-key.
  • Fixed colour defaults between GPSET (foreground) and GPRESET (back-drop).
  • Fixed GSPRITE$(). A full 128-byte string for pattern 0 cleared pattern 1.
  • Added interlace support to GCOPY SCREEN.

(10 February 2012: This version is also available at the Sunrise website.)
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