Another Use for AudioSurf

[UncFester]

AudioSurf is a great game - first and foremost - something I think all of us here can agree upon.

I'd like to share another use for AudioSurf with all of you (Dylan and Lebeth too) which (to me) is quite interesting.

There's no telling how many vids of AudioSurf rides there are on YouTube -- probably thousands. If you've seen one, then you've seen 'em all (unless they're demonstrating exceptional skill).

When AudioSurf was released, a lot of you probably heard a lot of comments regarding its "psychedelic" visual features (that seizure warning is there for a reason). To me, that is one of the very things which pushes the "fun factor" of AudioSurf.

I realized that AudioSurf is a perfect "color organ." That's what they called those things you could buy years ago which you plugged into the audio outlets of your stereo and have multi-colered lights pulsing and flashing in time to whatever music you happened to be playing. They were interesting but sort of "kitch" in the eyes of most people (i.e., stuff in bad taste like velvet paintings of Elvis or pink flamingo lawn ornaments).

Okay -- getting to the point -- here are two videos I've created using a FRAPs capture of AudioSurf Free Rides which were then manipulated with Sony Vegas to create an interesting style of music video. Not that this kind of thing has never been made before, just not using a videogame like AudioSurf to do it.

1) - Apocalyptica's "Helden" cover of David Bowie's "Heroes" in German featuring Rammstein's Till Lindemann:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulYcjA8aiJk&fmt=18

2) - An obvious and blatant exploitation of Steppenwolf's "Magic Carpet Ride" psychedelic drug theme song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-xVtM_Q8J0&fmt=18

EDIT: YouTube Nazi Music Association removed the Steppenwolf video.
"This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by WMG."

The second video is more elaborate than the first, and equally as effective although the two are quite different in nature.

Let me say also that I do not advocate the use of drugs for any reason in spite of what the second video might imply. 

I hope you enjoy these as much as I enjoyed making them and playing AudioSurf!

[Pyritie]

oh god that's trippy

[Devil_Spawn]

pretty nice, cant help but feel it would have been a lot better at a higher framerate though

[LoIIo_tUnZ]

good idea 

[UncFester]

Thanks for the comments!

Devil_Spawn -- There's a reason I don't play the game with Premium Graphics turned on.
Add the hit my OLD machine takes when adding FRAPS and...well, there goes the framerate.   

I've made one using Enhanced Graphics but there's just something the Premium Mode adds that makes better, more trippy looking vids.

A neigbor of mine saw my computer while it was rendering the Steppenwolf video (the preview screen in Vegas) and asked, "What the hell is that?"

I told him that it was AudioSurf and that I was making a video based on it.

Then it was, "What the hell is AudioSurf?"

I explained the game to him and then showed it to him about an hour later when the video was finished. He was blown away, saying, "I had no idea you could play your own music in a game."

He'd heard of Guitar Hero and Rock Band before but they didn't interest him. AudioSurf was another story -- he played through a whole bunch of my music and it was hard to get him to leave. I showed and explained Steam to him and he was sold. He said he's going to buy AudioSurf this week as well as some other things on Steam that he'd always wanted.

Sorry...I went off on a tangent there. 

[Laserrobotics]

What did you do other than rotate the video and reflect it?  Because, I have a feeling that a program could be made to take videos and automatically do this to them, and then you could have a whole library of these

[UncFester]

What did you do other than rotate the video and reflect it?  Because, I have a feeling that a program could be made to take videos and automatically do this to them, and then you could have a whole library of these

I was thinking the same thing.

Maybe Dylan should add a new mode to do the things you mentioned to display a type of visualizer other than (in addition to) what Free Ride gives.

Here are the things I did -- it's a copy of a post made earlier about it in the Steam AudioSurf forum.
=-=-=-=-=
For those of you interested in how the Helden vid was made, this is what I did.


1] - Load up FRAPS
2] - Record AudioSurf Free Ride then quit.
3] - Start Sony Vegas Pro 8
4] - After importing video file into Vegas project media rotate it 90 degrees counter-clockwise and then drag it into the work area.
5] - Add plug-in "Mirror" in track effects to...mirror the left half of the screen (which was the top before rotation).
6] - Add plug-in "Cookie Cutter" in track effects chain as a circle and feather its edge.
7] - Add plug-in "Glow" in track effects and adjust intensity and the color to be effected.
8] - Add plug-in "Light Rays" in track effects and adjust intensity and angle.
9] - Render video to file.

There were probably some other, minor adjustments made as well (track motion) but I can't recall the specifics right now.

All told, it's not very difficult to do -- it just takes some of your time and patience to get things to look the way you like. I stress patience here because of the time you will spend waiting for Vegas to render the file. I always use two passes in the render process which gives better quality but the penalty is the length of time required. For example, the Helden video took about 1 hour to render while the Steppenwolf vid was about 2 1/2 hours due to the more elaborate effects.

Also, my machine is 7 years old -- a single-core rig. I'm sure a more modern multi-core machine with a much larger FSB than mine (just 400MHz) would take less time to do the same thing.

=-=-=-=-=

I missed a step:

10] - And then you upload the thing to YouTube and let them crappify it. 

[Chance]

10] - And then you upload the thing to YouTube and let them crappify it. 

Upload it to Vimeo instead.  Much better quality.

[TheNGTV]

10] - And then you upload the thing to YouTube and let them crappify it. 

Upload it to Vimeo instead.  Much better quality.

I thought Vimeo banned Game Videos?

Anyway, you just need to change some stuff in Vegas 8's encoder (output HD, constant bitrate, reference frames) to get to upload qHD (640*360) video that's stunning.

I tried using Adobe's encoder but couldn't get that.

[Chance]

I thought Vimeo banned Game Videos?

They allow certain game videos, like things that people create involving a video game.  But even so, his video isn't a video game.

[UncFester]

Anyway, you just need to change some stuff in Vegas 8's encoder (output HD, constant bitrate, reference frames) to get to upload qHD (640*360) video that's stunning.

I tried using Adobe's encoder but couldn't get that.

There are a ka-jillion ways to configure the Vegas encoder and I've tried the H.264 and MP4 settings in it but must be doing something wrong (my results have been less than stellar). I need to find a Vegas-specific page somewhere with a good tutorial on encoding with it.

I've been using WMV9 format at 720x540 resolution (yes, 540) to be compatible with some other MPEG2 formats that I need to use in other areas. I'm comfortable with WMV9 but it doesn't fair very well when it's uploaded to YouTube.

The H.264 and MP4 things I've encoded look almost like they need to be deinterlaced -- I've tried none, blend, and interpolated with no discernable difference. Even the field order makes no difference.

So my problems with it must be elsewhere. I always use CBR encoding for both audio and video -- VBR is just asking for motion-rate/scene changes to look crappy, so I never use that.

But I'm still learning this stuff and will eventually get the hang of it...I hope.

[Dylan]

Now look what you did, I stayed up playing around with your cool idea
http://www.audio-surf.com/mirrorfun/Render_IndustrialTunnel.cgr

This file makes freeride look like your videos (remember to backup your existing file before using this one).

[Chance]

Now look what you did, I stayed up playing around with your cool idea
http://www.audio-surf.com/mirrorfun/Render_IndustrialTunnel.cgr

This file makes freeride look like your videos (remember to backup your existing file before using this one).

That's Dylan for you.

[ViRUS]

Now look what you did, I stayed up playing around with your cool idea
http://www.audio-surf.com/mirrorfun/Render_IndustrialTunnel.cgr

This file makes freeride look like your videos (remember to backup your existing file before using this one).

You don't get tired of being cool, do you?

[kEn_sct]

Ahh cool thats awsome