Something else that I don't think has been really explained regarding Videos of the Wasteland concerns the Starlight Drive-In and something to be aware of when attempting to make film-reels for it; specifically how your content will display on the Drive-In screen, and ways to ensure that the content looks the best that it can in-game. So let me explain:
Here's some pre-prepared footage (above image) playing on the Drive-In screen; it's important to note that the screen uses a ratio that is approximately 16:9, however VotW uses a series of images arranged in a 16x16 grid (for a maximum of 256 seperate images contained in an 8k .dds texture file) Each image is 512 x 512 pixels, as shown below:
This is the same individual frame, but as it actually is in the .dds texture file. Note that when comparing this image to what is displayed on the Drive-In screen, you'll soon realize that somewhere roughly around 1/4 of the image isn't actually displayed in-game; effectively it's cropped. This happens due to the way that VotW stretches out the image/texture out to cover the 3d model (we do this with the Drive-In screen, the TV's, and the RS projector - with the last two it's less noticable as they use a ratio of 4:3)
As the texture is stretched horizontally, we also have to stretch it vertically so as not to distort the image and make it look too un-natural, but this also means that we end up with a surplus on either end which goes beyond the dimensions of the object (the Drive-In screen) So this can become an issue depending on what exactly the footage you want to use is displaying, and where things in the footage are positioned.
In the next image (3) below, you see the same 512x512 'frame' that is image (2). It's been placed in the centre of a blank background which has a resolution of 1024x1024. I've superimposed image (1) on top of it, and then aligned it to match image (2) as closely as possible (bear in mind that image (1) used a resolution of 1920x1080) Admittedly, It's not a perfect match by any means, with perhaps an error of 1-3 pixels on the vertical plane, but it's good enough to be used as a guide.
With both images superimposed, we now have a clearer idea of exactly which areas of the 512x512 'frame' won't be displayed on the Drive-In screen, and using this information we can create a form of 'overlay' that can be used to help reposition the footage, as shown in image (4) below:
You could use this overlay via image editing software like Photoshop after the grids have been created, although it's infinitely less time-consuming to be able to do this beforehand (and is what I'd encourage you to do) so as well as the 512x512 'overlay', I've also created one that is 1920x1080 for use with video editing software. This way, if your using 720p footage, the overlay will still work.
Basically, as long as your footage isn't smaller than 512 x 512 pixels, the overlays should help you reposition the footage, even if it means you have to cut it up into seperate sections so you can align each one correctly.
Please bear in mind that once you've used the overlay to reposition your footage, you'll need to remove it before you re-encode your footage. Once that's done, you can proceed to convert the video footage into the grids/audio file via the batch scripts we provide for VotW.
The overlays I've created (they're just the caution bars you see in image (4) but with a blank background) are available in the Miscellaneous section of the downloads page, or you can create your own if you want using the information in this article. Hope this helps in some form.
AGW
-TeamVotW-
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