Huge Dreamfall Project Finished
 

Hi all. I just spent probably more than a hundred hours capturing, editing, and encoding a massive movie version of Dreamfall: The Longest Journey. Running time, all chapters combined: 8 hours, 13 minutes, 14 seconds. Yes, I have far too much time on my hands, and yes, probably most people will be turned off at the idea of watching a videogame like a movie. But I had fun and needed to kill time. :)

I don't know if anyone's done this yet besides myself... I dared not research the issue, because if I did I knew I would never finish it, and I was having too much fun.

Thing is, I'd like to share it with people (who already own the game, of course). It's broken up into fifteen files, one for the prologue and the rest for the various chapters of the game. Loading screens were cut as much as possible, and I used fading effects throughout to try and make the experience less "jumpy." I tried to keep motion on the screen (other than cutscene camera movements) to a minimum so as to not cause motion sickness. I tried very hard to make sure that everything required to make good sense of the plot was included -- and more. The goal was this: capture everything that was not only needed but also worth seeing and hearing in the game.

The videos are 640x480, 23.976 frames-per-second and encoded with XviD at a bitrate of 1200. Audio is MP3 constant bitrate, 160. The video container used is Matroska (MKV). The video was captured using FRAPS, which I bought entirely for this purpose. The video skips a bit in places because my PC was having a hard time both capturing as well as running the game. Fortunately, it's not to hard to ignore. The game was captured at 800x600 with all graphics settings as high as they could go. The encoding downsize to 640x480 was for both space concerns and to help the in-game anti-aliasing smooth out edges.

I'm sorry if this is deemed inappropriate for the forums, considering that some might see it as an act of piracy. However, I'll be the first to admit that as cool as these videoes are, they're no replacement for the real thing. I made them mainly so people who already own the game don't have to play through it all again to experience parts they like, and to watch it with friends using, perhaps, a TV-out card.

Here's the problem: the videos' size, sum, it 5+ GB. I have absolutely no idea how I'd give it to people... so I'm open to ideas.

Again, I'm sorry if this is inappropriate. If it is, I'll never bring it -- or anything like it -- up again. I'm just so excited! I never thought I'd finish it! :)

One option is to split the file into smaller files with HJ-Split and then upload them to MegaUpload.

If you already have the movie in multiple files, and they are all under 500 MB each, just upload them to MegaUpload (or another similar hosting site).

You could also definitely go the route of torrents, if you know what you are doing (and you won't have to split up the file). But torrents have to have lots of seeds (and some people like me can't download them because my campus thinks all torrents are illegal :crazy: ). But it is another good option.

Maybe you should try to reduce more the resolution. And maybe you should reconsider the idea of posting those movies on youtube.com.

^ Youtube only allows 10 minute videos and they also have a file size limit. That is definitely out of the question. Like I said, either go with a free file hosting site or use torrents.

Many of the videos are in fact over 500MB, but I could split the ones that are larger. Decreasing the resolution is out of the question due to the fact that if I did so, visual quality (aside from resul would suffer horribly; it would be a re-encode of an encode and the results would be disastrous.

I want to avoid the YouTube route as much as humanly possible. I'd have to reduce the quality so much the videos would be nigh unwatchable, and I hope to God anyone to whom I give the videoes never, ever, never, ever uploads them to YouTube or any other such site -- especially since I signed these things. In fact, I may change the subtitle signature during the credits, adding a line that says, "If you watched all of this on YouTube, I feel terribly sorry for you. Seek the originals." :)

Torrents are an idea, but I have no idea how to make them. I've tried to learn, but no site I've found gives a clear guide. Plus, there are torrent-block issues. But it's still good to keep in mind...

Whether it's Google Video or YouTube or another one of those sites, I know one of them has hosted many videos much longer than ten minutes. I could have sworn I saw one once that was 40+ minutes.

If you make a Youtube Directors account you can upload movies as long as you want. But youtube is hardly great quality for watching a movie.

I recommend torrents. :)

Hats off to you Shoal! This is nothing less than impressive! Have you thought about contacting the people at speed demos archive? (http://speeddemosarchive.com) I know this technically would be a longplay movie rather than a speeddemo, but they already have lots of movies of this huge size, and I feel pretty sure that they are interested in at least giving a helping hand. I would SO love to see this one!!!!

Wow Shoal, that's awesome! I hope you find a place to put these videos, as I very much like to see them!

From the FAQ: "This isn't a cutscene or plot site. If a game allows cutscenes to be skipped, then we require runners to skip them..."

I'm not sure if that will cause a problem.

I finally figured out the total running time of all chapters combined: 8 hours, 13 minutes, 14 seconds. I don't know whether to be filled with joy or sadness at the fact that I did this, especially since just about every since shot you see in the videos took an average of four takes. Average. :crazy:

I highly doubt this would be legal in any way. You are redistributing copyrighted material, and splitting it up and combining it in new ways won't make it yours. Just saying that it is "for those only who already own the game" is alsy pretty weak.

Well, I honestly think that, in a way, Funcom could actually score a few extra sales. After all, this isn't the game itself: it's a movie of the game, and not everything that's in the game is in the video (although, to be honest, pretty much everything worthwhile is). And you miss out on the actual gameplay side of it while watching the video. And 640x480 with a bitrate of 1200 is no match for 1280x1024 crystal-clear as the game itself can offer. You do, in fact, lose a degree of the game's immersion-factor when watching it as a movie. That's why I recommend it as a nothing more than a supplement to the game. Want to relive a favorite moment? Just load up the video. But... if you want to experience the game again? I'd whole-heartedly recommend playing the actual game.

I think anyone who watches these videos and really likes it will probably buy the game, or, if you think that's being too optimistic, probably buy The Longest Journey and definitely the upcoming Dreamfall Chapters. I've already "converted" a friend of mine, and he's planning on picking up The Longest Journey later this week. He'll probably do the same when the Dreamfall Chapters come around.

I'll admit it's a bit of a moral quagmire. I certainly wouldn't fault anyone for being uncomfortable with it. And if Funcom tells me to stop distribution, I most certainly will with no argument.

Hey! hey! Ease down. This is a form of fan work you know. No different than making a picture of April and then wanting to share it with others. Its the same thing.

Here's a link to the torrent I made (4.79 GB):

<link removed>

I just put it up, so it will probably take a while to function... assuming it will at all. I've never done this before. I have a really bad feeling a hardware firewall is going to block this thing.

Hey it's nice that you've done this; i'm sure you enjoyed it and I'm sure some people will be interested in seeing it.

However I'd agree with Kuze's cautions. This is someone elses copyrighted work. While it's probably ok sharing it with your friends and other people you know 1 on 1; I think distributing it beyond that is not such a good idea. Whatever your intentions are (and I have no doubt they're good), you don't know what people will do with the files. One random example; someone could rip some of the music from scenes where there is no talking and do what they like with it - I doubt Funcom would be pleased, nor the composer of the music.

I personally don't have a problem with it, but I doubt Funcom would be happy with people doing that with their game. Even if it could be potentially good for Funcom, I think they'd want that to be their decision and for the control to remain with them. Most importantly for you however, regardless of whatever I or anyone might think, you are making yourself vulnerable to legal action etc from Funcom if they wanted to persue it - they're a company and they have to protect their commercial interests. Personally I think it's unlikely but I think you should bare this in mind as games companies are very protective of their intellectual property.

Basically just be careful; i'm sure you'll have thought this through before you make any final decision.

Hey just a quick followup; it's not the same thing. A fan picture is your creation and fairly innocuous. A video file of the entire game that you can watch as a movie, extract audio from etc is an entirely different kettle of fish.

Sorry, but it is different. Taking one (or even hundert) pictures of April and putting it on your blog (or modifying a texture and saying it's a mod, or making a video of your speedrun with the intention of proving your l33t skillz - not disclosing the full story in a lengthy movie) is something else than distributing an 8 hours video taken out of 15-20 hours of gamplay. This is pretty much sharing half of the game for free. I am not judging the morals of it, and I'm not denying that it might boost the sales (while I'm not convinced it will, just like piracy might or might not do... but let's not go there). I am just pointing out the fact that you are distributing something that doesn't belong to you.

You probably won't get into trouble for this, but it should have been noted.

EDIT: Yeah, well, what DomStLeger said.

EDIT 2: Oh, and I think it's a cool project, didn't mean to trash it to the ground, hope you didn't get the wrong idea.

This is a great idea. There are a few gamers like me that will not play Dreamfall, yet want to know how the story progresses because we liked TLJ. I would love to see it!

I have this horrible feeling that my torrent isn't working even though it's successfully connected to a tracker.

I'm currently uploading to MegaUpload as a backup.

There was a similar situation a year ago when someone took in game footage from Fahrenheit and made a movie. This is what was said then.

I know you worked very hard on this but I don't think it's legal and it's our policy here at Adventure Gamers to not allow links to illegal material. If you can show Funcom's approval, we'll bring the links back. Sorry. :frown: