I've been a bit distracted of late. A couple of interesting side projects
have taken up a lot of my time.

Project 1: Game streaming again! I started live game streaming again on an open-source technology based platform called Theta.Tv. It uses blockchain as part of the network so, even if they didn't have the money for a huge content delivery network of servers, those who watch the streams could still keep
them going. I thought this was a good choice given how Microsoft pulled the plug on Mixer.

Project 2: I've been playing around with 2 open-source AI video projects.
Dain App uses AI to create new frames of video that didn't exist before. For example, I extracted some video from the 1993 game The 7th Guest. It was encoded at 15 frames per second (FPS) at a 640 x 320 resolution. Dain app analyzed the footage and created new frames in-between the existing ones.
New frame rate is 60 FPS and it looks pretty awesome!

However, that now leaves us with a 640 x 320 video at 60 FPS. Still nothing
to write home about. That is where Video 2X comes in. Video 2X is another open-source application that contains 5 or 6 different AI-based upscale
models. Most of these are trained for cartoon and anime upscaling projects but, two of the models are designed to handle regular video. Now, granted,
you won't get perfect detail out of a 640 x 320 video when you increase its size by 4x like I am doing. However, you can see a ton more detail and you
do get a true HD image from a 640 x 320 video!

You can find Dain App on Itch.io and do a search for Video 2x as well. They
do require a modern NVIDIA/CUDA supported graphics card to work. Also, be warned that these take a VERY long time to process videos. To process a 4 minute video from The 7th Guest in DAIN it took at least 12 hours of time! Upscaling might be faster or slower depending on settings and such.

So, a bunch of things going on but, I'm still around!

-Lord Gareth

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/05/17 (Raspberry Pi/32)
* Origin: Mirrored Lands BBS (21:4/174)

On 13 Jul 2020, Lord Gareth said the following...

Project 2: I've been playing around with 2 open-source AI video
projects. Dain App uses AI to create new frames of video that didn't
exist before. For example, I extracted some video from the 1993 game
The 7th Guest. It was encoded at 15 frames per second (FPS) at a 640 x 320 resolution. Dain app analyzed the footage and created new frames in-between the existing ones. New frame rate is 60 FPS and it looks
pretty awesome!
However, that now leaves us with a 640 x 320 video at 60 FPS. Still nothing to write home about. That is where Video 2X comes in. Video 2X is another open-source application that contains 5 or 6 different
AI-based upscale models. Most of these are trained for cartoon and
anime upscaling projects but, two of the models are designed to handle regular video. Now, granted, you won't get perfect detail out of a 640
x 320 video when you increase its size by 4x like I am doing. However, you can see a ton more detail and you do get a true HD image from a 640
x 320 video!
You can find Dain App on Itch.io and do a search for Video 2x as well. They do require a modern NVIDIA/CUDA supported graphics card to work. Also, be warned that these take a VERY long time to process videos. To process a 4 minute video from The 7th Guest in DAIN it took at least 12 hours of time! Upscaling might be faster or slower depending on settings and such.

-Lord Gareth

That one sounds pretty cool, proccessing time aside and all... wish you'd of linked to the 7th Guest video, but I'm gonna go look into the softwares. Thanks...

pAULIE42o
.........

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Raspberry Pi/32)
* Origin: American Pi BBS (21:2/150)

On 07-13-20 20:08, Lord Gareth wrote to All <=-

Project 2: I've been playing around with 2 open-source AI video
projects. Dain App uses AI to create new frames of video that didn't
exist before. For example, I extracted some video from the 1993 game
The 7th Guest. It was encoded at 15 frames per second (FPS) at a 640
x 320 resolution. Dain app analyzed the footage and created new frames in-between the existing ones. New frame rate is 60 FPS and it looks
pretty awesome!

Now, this is interesting, especially with the upscaling. I'm curious how you go. :)


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I didn't send a link because I haven't uploaded it as of yet.

The 7th Guest actually has a LOT of very tiny videos. I've been working on
the opening book scene and there are at least 10 small videos. The page of
the book turning is a single video, then the videos playing inside of the
book are each their own videos.

The page turn videos are 31 frames. The longer pieces are anywhere from 300-400 frames.

I have converted them (just the book animations) all to roughly 60 frames per second, give or take. The videos themselves have a weird framerate of 14.999998 etc. They slightly vary from each other by a fraction of a frame. This means the end framerate is between 58-60 frames per second.

I've only upscaled one of those videos and then I need to add the audio back in. The original videos themselves do not have The 7th Guest's awesome MIDI tracks in them. That is added through timing in the game engine itself
during gameplay.

It doesn't look great, although you can more clearly see the poor bluscreen color spill on Rob Hirschboeck (Stauf) in the scene. It still looks like a
bit of a mess, but, at least in a higher resolution.

I'll let you know if/when I upload the final result.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/05/17 (Raspberry Pi/32)
* Origin: Mirrored Lands BBS (21:4/174)

I've been trying experiments and it has mixed results. I'm not sure if it is due to the limitations of my graphics card processor, interpolation settings, or that it is just a newer technology that can't work miracles.

It is still fun to play around with though.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/05/17 (Raspberry Pi/32)
* Origin: Mirrored Lands BBS (21:4/174)

On 07-15-20 12:53, Lord Gareth wrote to Vk3jed <=-

I've been trying experiments and it has mixed results. I'm not sure if
it is due to the limitations of my graphics card processor,
interpolation settings, or that it is just a newer technology that
can't work miracles.

On what? you left out the context. :)

It is still fun to play around with though.

Sounds a bit like my attempt to turn rpitx into a SDR transceiver. Sort of worked, but ran into a few quirks.


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Experimenting on upscaling video from a variety of sources. Everything from old MiniDV video to The 7th Guest (as mentioned).

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/05/17 (Raspberry Pi/32)
* Origin: Mirrored Lands BBS (21:4/174)

On 15 Jul 2020, Lord Gareth said the following...

I'll let you know if/when I upload the final result.

Right on, sir; and I didn't mean to rush you.. I just remember playing that game and dig your project. Anyway, that sounds like a lot of time converting! Yer a more patient man than I. :P

pAULIE42o
.........

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Raspberry Pi/32)
* Origin: American Pi BBS (21:2/150)

On 07-16-20 12:54, Lord Gareth wrote to Vk3jed <=-

Experimenting on upscaling video from a variety of sources. Everything from old MiniDV video to The 7th Guest (as mentioned).

Cool, a bit of carefully selected quoting does help maintain context. Your reader doesn't quote? And good to hear the experiments are progressing well.
)


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