Export Video 2.2b

05:26 PM

IHas anyone successfully exported an Alice version 2.2b world to video? I'm running XP Pro, SP-2, with 2 gig ram, 146 gig of free harddisk space. So far I have unsuccessfully tried to Export Video in two seperate alice worlds. I have made several attempts on each world but in all instances the recording processs for some unknown reason totally kicks me out of Alice and shuts the program down with no error messages.

One world has no sound and the second world does have sound. So it doesn't appear to be a sound issue which is throwing me out of Alice, as both worlds exit at approximately the same frame number.

I checked the frames folder that is created each time you record and each time Alice errors out somewhere between frame 1010 and 1012 - which is approximately 36 seconds into each world's recording.

I'll try it on the MAC in the next day or two to see if I get any success.

06-25-2008, 02:29 PM

Update:
After several attempts and numerous reboots I successfully recorded one of the Alice worlds. Other than what I just said, I did nothing different. The world I successfully recorded was originally created in Alice version 2.0, had no sound, the .A2W file was 8.9MB in size, and required 3,246 frames to record.

The ouput is fine provided you do not resize the default QuickTime window when playing.

The unsuccessful world was also developed in Alice 2.0, has sound and is approximately 14.2 MB in size. When recording to video I keep getting totally kicked out of Alice with no error message, etc. Sometimes it kickes me out around frame 1012, the next time around frame 585, the next time around frame 1743, etc., etc. Without an error msg (Stack Trace) I am unable to report this as a bug.

05:34 PM

2nd Update:
The Alice world which refuses to Export Video appears to have several problems that the Alice team warns us may cause problems when trying to create a video:

1. The file I am working with has audio throughout - the student used Audacity to record numerous seperate sounds.

2. The world uses the Opacity property numerous times, which the Alice team warns is not implemented in Alice 2.2

3. On a positive note: Alice 2.2 automatically replaced the "wait" commands in the program with the new command "delay". (This was never reported as a problem when trying to export the world to video.)

My next step is to remove all calls to audio from the world as well as replace the use of Opacity with isShowing and see if this corrects the problems.

(On a side note: If you resize the default window at the start of recording (i.e., increase the size of the window before recording), it appears that your finished product has better clarity then if you accepted the default size and later try to increase it during playback.)

**Thanks for the information -** 06-26-2008, 01:51 PM

LanceA - Thanks for the information and updates. I have now had some success exporting video from Alice 2.2b using a PC running XP.

A couple of notes to supplement LanceA's:

First, be prepared to use a lot of memory. As near as I can tell, the video is exported at (roughly) 32 frames per second and as an uncompressed 320 x 280 frame with full 32 bit color. This in itself will generate about 10 MB of data per frame of video for every second of your film. That can mount up quickly!

In addition, there may be some "stray" files generated during the export process that are also large - not totally sure about these.

But the bottom line was I didn't have any success until I saved the world (and thus exported the video) to an external hard drive with over 200 GB of free space.

Second, in Windows at least, some features don't work correctly during frame rendering and will simply crash the program. LanceA mentioned some and I have also had problems with imported bitmapped textures.

Please note that these comments are very preliminary (and I don't have a great track record regarding "first guesses" when debugging programs

) - but maybe they will be of some help.

aikmin · **Movie maker -** 01-14-2009, 05:18 PM

There is still some bugs (delay issues) in the movie maker for Alice, but you should be able to record simple stuff like move, turn and others.

01-18-2009, 08:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lanceA

IHas anyone successfully exported an Alice version 2.2b world to video? I'm running XP Pro, SP-2, with 2 gig ram, 146 gig of free harddisk space. So far I have unsuccessfully tried to Export Video in two seperate alice worlds. I have made several attempts on each world but in all instances the recording processs for some unknown reason totally kicks me out of Alice and shuts the program down with no error messages.

One world has no sound and the second world does have sound. So it doesn't appear to be a sound issue which is throwing me out of Alice, as both worlds exit at approximately the same frame number.

I checked the frames folder that is created each time you record and each time Alice errors out somewhere between frame 1010 and 1012 - which is approximately 36 seconds into each world's recording.

I'll try it on the MAC in the next day or two to see if I get any success.

Here i have attached a small coachwalk, which I have exported using the "export video" to a quicktime movie. Hope this helps. I have a Vista, 5 GB Ram lptop and could use export without any issues
Cheers

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	#1 (permalink)
lanceA Guest Status: Posts: n/a	Export Video 2.2b - 06-25-2008, 01:39 PM IHas anyone successfully exported an Alice version 2.2b world to video? I'm running XP Pro, SP-2, with 2 gig ram, 146 gig of free harddisk space. So far I have unsuccessfully tried to Export Video in two seperate alice worlds. I have made several attempts on each world but in all instances the recording processs for some unknown reason totally kicks me out of Alice and shuts the program down with no error messages. One world has no sound and the second world does have sound. So it doesn't appear to be a sound issue which is throwing me out of Alice, as both worlds exit at approximately the same frame number. I checked the frames folder that is created each time you record and each time Alice errors out somewhere between frame 1010 and 1012 - which is approximately 36 seconds into each world's recording. I'll try it on the MAC in the next day or two to see if I get any success. Last edited by lanceA; 06-25-2008 at 05:26 PM. Reason: my normal typos

	#2 (permalink)
lanceA Guest Status: Posts: n/a	06-25-2008, 02:29 PM Update: After several attempts and numerous reboots I successfully recorded one of the Alice worlds. Other than what I just said, I did nothing different. The world I successfully recorded was originally created in Alice version 2.0, had no sound, the .A2W file was 8.9MB in size, and required 3,246 frames to record. The ouput is fine provided you do not resize the default QuickTime window when playing. The unsuccessful world was also developed in Alice 2.0, has sound and is approximately 14.2 MB in size. When recording to video I keep getting totally kicked out of Alice with no error message, etc. Sometimes it kickes me out around frame 1012, the next time around frame 585, the next time around frame 1743, etc., etc. Without an error msg (Stack Trace) I am unable to report this as a bug.

	#3 (permalink)
lanceA Guest Status: Posts: n/a	06-25-2008, 05:22 PM 2nd Update: The Alice world which refuses to Export Video appears to have several problems that the Alice team warns us may cause problems when trying to create a video: 1. The file I am working with has audio throughout - the student used Audacity to record numerous seperate sounds. 2. The world uses the Opacity property numerous times, which the Alice team warns is not implemented in Alice 2.2 3. On a positive note: Alice 2.2 automatically replaced the "wait" commands in the program with the new command "delay". (This was never reported as a problem when trying to export the world to video.) My next step is to remove all calls to audio from the world as well as replace the use of Opacity with isShowing and see if this corrects the problems. (On a side note: If you resize the default window at the start of recording (i.e., increase the size of the window before recording), it appears that your finished product has better clarity then if you accepted the default size and later try to increase it during playback.) Last edited by lanceA; 06-25-2008 at 05:34 PM. Reason: My use of the Christopher Columbus method of typing, "Discover a key and land on it."

	#4 (permalink)
DrJim Guest Status: Posts: n/a	Thanks for the information - 06-26-2008, 01:51 PM LanceA - Thanks for the information and updates. I have now had some success exporting video from Alice 2.2b using a PC running XP. A couple of notes to supplement LanceA's: First, be prepared to use a lot of memory. As near as I can tell, the video is exported at (roughly) 32 frames per second and as an uncompressed 320 x 280 frame with full 32 bit color. This in itself will generate about 10 MB of data per frame of video for *every* second of your film. That can mount up quickly! In addition, there may be some "stray" files generated during the export process that are also large - not totally sure about these. But the bottom line was I didn't have any success until I saved the world (and thus exported the video) to an external hard drive with over 200 GB of free space. Second, in Windows at least, some features don't work correctly during frame rendering and will simply crash the program. LanceA mentioned some and I have also had problems with imported bitmapped textures. Please note that these comments are very preliminary (and I don't have a great track record regarding "first guesses" when debugging programs ) - but maybe they will be of some help.

	#5 (permalink)
aikmin Senior Member Status: Offline Posts: 85 Join Date: Mar 2008	Movie maker - 01-14-2009, 05:18 PM There is still some bugs (delay issues) in the movie maker for Alice, but you should be able to record simple stuff like move, turn and others.