Gameplay Videos with 2 Cameras Side by Side
Posted: 2011-07-30 20:06
This is a cool little app I wrote in May 2010 using YouTube's Javascript API. I visited it again recently and I think more people should be inspired to use it as it's pretty cool in my opinion. 
Checkout the example bellow, but before clicking MAXIMIZE YOUR BROWSER WINDOW for maximum viewer pleasure.
How does it work?
At the top right you have the percentage that was buffered for each video. It's good to have them be close together or you will get pauses during playback. You can also just let them both buffer completely to 100% so you won't have any breaks.
The videos begin paused, so you have to press Play to begin watching. If for some reason they get a little unsynched, you can press Sync to get them at the same time frame.
You can choose between different video qualities (360p, 480p and 720p), it depends on your hardware and download speed.
The audio by default is on the Left video, but you can click the Switch Audio link to switch between them. You can notice in the example above that on my view (Left) I'm talking to other Squad Leaders, but you don't hear that on Spriggan's view (Right).
After watching each part you can switch to the other Parts of the round using the links to the right.
How did we do it?
Spriggan and I recorded the full round that night. We both opened the map to show the clock and 3, 2, 1, started recording. That helped us later on during editing to know we were fully synchronized.
We both opened the first clip in VirtualDub (read more about my editing workflow here), found the exact frame the clock went from one second to the other and cut everything before that. Now we knew we were in sync and could just append the rest of the clips without problems as we recorded the full round. I think we had to interrupt recording one or two times but we just used the in-game clock trick to get in sync again.
We both watched the videos together and selected the scenes that were more interesting. We would say "start at frame 23554 and end at frame 43455". Using the exact frame numbers we made sure we had the exact same parts in sync.
With all the clips edited it was just a matter of each exporting their own videos. We had to export in 3 parts because of the 10 minutes limit on YouTube at the time. Then each uploaded their videos to YouTube and used my cool little app to put them side by side.
I think it's a pretty easy way to do that kind of view without having to upload and download the raw video from the second camera and editing them side by side in a complicated editing software, going back and forth and so on. By itself, each video is one view of the action and it's just fine to watch standalone. But if you put them together you can switch the audio from one side to the other and see each other's view of the action at the same time. Pretty cool.
How can you use it?
The app is open for anyone to use it, you just need to put a comma-separated list of the YouTube video IDs in the v parameter. It expects at least two IDs, but if you put 4, 6, 8, etc, it adds the Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 links at the top automatically.
So if you have the following 2 videos of the 2 different cameras:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm8U53cEAhI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMZ2pV8VHoc
The YouTube Side by Side URL would be:
http://realitymodfiles.com/dbzao/sidebyside/?v=Mm8U53cEAhI,XMZ2pV8VHoc
That's it!
Some ideas on what to record
Checkout the example bellow, but before clicking MAXIMIZE YOUR BROWSER WINDOW for maximum viewer pleasure.
How does it work?
At the top right you have the percentage that was buffered for each video. It's good to have them be close together or you will get pauses during playback. You can also just let them both buffer completely to 100% so you won't have any breaks.
The videos begin paused, so you have to press Play to begin watching. If for some reason they get a little unsynched, you can press Sync to get them at the same time frame.
You can choose between different video qualities (360p, 480p and 720p), it depends on your hardware and download speed.
The audio by default is on the Left video, but you can click the Switch Audio link to switch between them. You can notice in the example above that on my view (Left) I'm talking to other Squad Leaders, but you don't hear that on Spriggan's view (Right).
After watching each part you can switch to the other Parts of the round using the links to the right.
How did we do it?
Spriggan and I recorded the full round that night. We both opened the map to show the clock and 3, 2, 1, started recording. That helped us later on during editing to know we were fully synchronized.
We both opened the first clip in VirtualDub (read more about my editing workflow here), found the exact frame the clock went from one second to the other and cut everything before that. Now we knew we were in sync and could just append the rest of the clips without problems as we recorded the full round. I think we had to interrupt recording one or two times but we just used the in-game clock trick to get in sync again.
We both watched the videos together and selected the scenes that were more interesting. We would say "start at frame 23554 and end at frame 43455". Using the exact frame numbers we made sure we had the exact same parts in sync.
With all the clips edited it was just a matter of each exporting their own videos. We had to export in 3 parts because of the 10 minutes limit on YouTube at the time. Then each uploaded their videos to YouTube and used my cool little app to put them side by side.
I think it's a pretty easy way to do that kind of view without having to upload and download the raw video from the second camera and editing them side by side in a complicated editing software, going back and forth and so on. By itself, each video is one view of the action and it's just fine to watch standalone. But if you put them together you can switch the audio from one side to the other and see each other's view of the action at the same time. Pretty cool.
How can you use it?
The app is open for anyone to use it, you just need to put a comma-separated list of the YouTube video IDs in the v parameter. It expects at least two IDs, but if you put 4, 6, 8, etc, it adds the Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 links at the top automatically.
So if you have the following 2 videos of the 2 different cameras:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm8U53cEAhI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMZ2pV8VHoc
The YouTube Side by Side URL would be:
http://realitymodfiles.com/dbzao/sidebyside/?v=Mm8U53cEAhI,XMZ2pV8VHoc
That's it!
Some ideas on what to record
- Two infantry squads working together
- CAS and the Forward Observer
- Pilot and gunner on CAS
- Two armored vehicles working together
- Commander UAV and a Squad on the ground
- etc
