"Civilization IV: Warlords" Video Preview (Part 1/3)

[DanQ]

On Saturday, July 8th, Firaxis Games Designer/Programmer Jon "Trip" Schafer exclusively previewed Civilization IV expansion pack Warlords for attendees of ApolyCon '06 in Timonium, Maryland. Today, Apolyton Civilization Site begins its preview of this highly anticipated add-on by releasing the first of three segments of this presentation. Below is a screenshot from this production:

Screen capture from Civilization IV: Warlords

Published in Windows Media format, this video runs for 07m37s and is 31.0MB in size. ACS is the only authorized distributor of this media; therefore, it is requested that one use this link to point to this work.

Watch for Part 2 of 3 on July 18th and Part 3/3 on July 21st. Warlords itself is scheduled to be released on July 25th.

--------
Dan; Apolyton CS

[geneshifter]

I now have a headache - maybe a better camera would be in order. I'll even chip in on one

Seriously, thanks for bringing this to us fans. Can't wait for it to come out.

[DanQ]

Originally posted by geneshifter
I now have a headache - maybe a better camera would be in order. I'll even chip in on one

I take it you're referring more to the video than the audio then? The resolution perhaps or..?

I was able to put the audio through some post-production measures to increase volume and clarity otherwise. That all said, now having "gone through the process" next time I think getting a little closer would be beneficial . I'm certain I could do so reasonably and not be uncomfortably close for audience members and presenters alike.

As for a new digital camcorder.... hmmmm. Willing to pitch in for one that uses mini-DVDs instead of Digital Video Cassettes?  

Seriously, thanks for bringing this to us fans. Can't wait for it to come out.

You're most welcome. Glad you enjoyed it, and hope you'll enjoy parts two and three of this feature equally (if not more).

-------
Dan; Apolyton CS

[Qwertqwert]

Is the Chinese cannon another UU for China? Does it replace Cho-Ko-Nu? Or is it just a unit for everyone?

[geneshifter]

Thanks, Dan, for your response. In all honesty, I can't get enough of this. I could watch these behind the scenes things all day.

Do you ever think that Firaxis would release some footage taken during the development of Civ 4? That would be cool to see.

[Snotty]

You could have watched the behind the scenes things all day if you had come to the convention

[Metaliturtle]

You guys should've seen all the cool stuff that I found on Soren's laptop WOWEEE!!!!

They better send me that NDA quick I'm about to burst!!!

[Solver]

You got Soren's babe collection that all Civ4 testers wanted so much?

[OzzyKP]

Originally posted by geneshifter
Thanks, Dan, for your response. In all honesty, I can't get enough of this. I could watch these behind the scenes things all day.

Do you ever think that Firaxis would release some footage taken during the development of Civ 4? That would be cool to see.

Soren and the lead artist did a presentation on the Civ4 development at the conference, I assume Dan got some video of that too. So if you are real nice he may put that online too.

[Soren Johnson]

Originally posted by OzzyKP


Soren and the lead artist did a presentation on the Civ4 development at the conference, I assume Dan got some video of that too. So if you are real nice he may put that online too.

If you're interested, here is a link to the slides...

http://www.designer-notes.com/archiv...polycon_06.htm

[Nikolai]

Thanks for the link Soren. DL'ing to check out now.

[DanQ]

Originally posted by OzzyKP
[..] I assume Dan got some video of that too. So if you are real nice he may put that online too.

Yes and yes.

Thanks for the link to the slides from your presentation, Soren.

--------
Dan; Apolyton CS

P.S. For those who attended the convention, you can also find Soren/Dorian's slides on your "UltimatePak" CD.

[MrPsycho]

I agree this was a pretty bad video. I thought the expansion pack looks amazing but that was about as poor presentation as anyone could come up with.

[DanQ]

Originally posted by MrPsycho
I agree this was a pretty bad video. I thought the expansion pack looks amazing but that was about as poor presentation as anyone could come up with.

Constructive criticisms are welcome -- the problem with the criticism above, MrPsycho, is that you're largely lacking the constructive part. For example, you failed to precise. That said, I probably have a reasonable idea what you're getting at given what has already been said (and my own personal assessment for that matter).

With this in mind, I will say that the audio quality is better in the second part (in my opinion anyway) where "less" became "more" in the editing process.

--------
Dan; Apolyton CS

[MrPsycho]

Well, I'm sorry if you feel my "criticism" was unwarranted, but I think its pretty obvious.

The sound cuts in and out multiple times, and at one point it seems to slow down. The images itself flickers a lot and also rotates in color very quickly (from red to green ie. 3:30), which is not helped by the fact that the camera is always shaking. I mean, to be honest, I wouldn't recommend epileptics watch this clip.

The developer who was describing the scenario he created also didn't seem very excited about his product. The reason I mention all of this is that I own Civ 4 and didn't know any of these things were in the expansion. I was thinking to myself I probably wouldnt buy this until I heard about these cool features, so its really too bad this video is so hard to watch.

And I didn't describe the crappiness of the video in my first post out of politeness.

[Chieftess]

[SIZE=1] The developer who was describing the scenario he created also didn't seem very excited about his product.

Trip? I think he needs to take a public speaking course.

[CanuckSoldier]

Yes he's a programmer not a PR guy afterall, try and give him a little understanding :P

CS

[DaveV]

Originally posted by Soren Johnson Firaxis


If you're interested, here is a link to the slides...

http://www.designer-notes.com/archiv...polycon_06.htm

That link gave me a slide show on Half Life 2 playtesting.

[Soren Johnson]

Originally posted by DaveV

That link gave me a slide show on Half Life 2 playtesting.

fixed... sorrya bout that

[DaveV]

Thanks, Soren!

[DanQ]

Originally posted by MrPsycho
Well, I'm sorry if you feel my "criticism" was unwarranted, but I think its pretty obvious.

I did not say your criticism was unwarranted -- I only questioned the way (content/tone) it was communicated.

The sound cuts in and out multiple times, and at one point it seems to slow down. The images itself flickers a lot and also rotates in color very quickly (from red to green ie. 3:30), which is not helped by the fact that the camera is always shaking.

Yes, the sound does cut in and out and there is a temporary slowdown that was unexpected, but could not be rectified adequately in post-production. The camera was on a tripod, but yes some of the adjustments were shaky -- couldn't be helped "in the moment". The colour rotation was not evident during filming, but ultimately only temporary. I'm certain the refresh rate of the monitor -- and the fact that the image is being projected otherwise -- also contributed somewhat but time for testing was unfortunately limited. I do accept some responsibility for this.

And I didn't describe the crappiness of the video in my first post out of politeness.

Your first post above didn't come across as "polite". While it would have been nice to see at least one positive comment from you about this work, in your second post above you have described why you felt the production was sub-par. That's the primary improvement I was looking for. That content gave me the opportunity to address specific points, and to (further) learn from them should future opportunities of this nature arise. I add "(further)" because indeed, as you have implied, the points do not come as a surprise to me having seen the clip myself (several times). The only improvement to your post now could come in terms of its tone...

See now how painless the process of submitting constructive criticism here is?  

--------
Dan; Apolyton CS

[Blaupanzer]

Ignore MrPsycho. He didn't go to the convention, so he couldn't have tried what you did. We are not all professionals at this stuff and our work shouldn't be compared to such. Good that you tried at all, down with those looking at the aesthetics instead of the content.

[padillah]

Originally posted by DanQ

As for a new digital camcorder.... hmmmm. Willing to pitch in for one that uses mini-DVDs instead of Digital Video Cassettes?  

-------
Dan; Apolyton CS

No! Please don't get one of these. They do not hold a better picture and they assuridly don't hold more video.

They have an arguably worse picture than a tape due to the fact that the MPEG encoding is done in hardware in realtime. With a tape it can take as long as you need to get a decent picture from the given source.

This realtime hardware encoding is part of the reson for the color shift during the playback. The other reason is you were taking a video of a projection image and the source and destination were not genlocked.

None of which is your fault (you don't need to spend $12,000 on a genloc just for us), but which can be overcome in postproduction (given the right tools).

If you use the DVDcam you are stuck with whatever is the picture at the time.

Tom P.

[padillah]

Originally posted by MrPsycho
... The images itself flickers a lot and also rotates in color very quickly (from red to green ie. 3:30), which is not helped by the fact that the camera is always shaking.

To clarify, for any others that are going to take up this banner, the color shifting and flickering is nothing that could have been helpped.

Without propper (read: $1000+) software the image was not going to be anymore stable. Due to the video camera and projection TV working almost at complete odds with one another.

I'm not going to go into a dissertation on why it's very hard to video tape a TV image but suffice it to say: It is very hard to video tape a TV image.

Not having the source footage I have no response for the slow down.

Tom P.

[DanQ]

Originally posted by Blaupanzer
Ignore MrPsycho. He didn't go to the convention, so he couldn't have tried what you did. We are not all professionals at this stuff and our work shouldn't be compared to such. Good that you tried at all, down with those looking at the aesthetics instead of the content.

Thank you for your kind words, Blaupanzer.

And at the risk of committing a grammatical no-no by starting a sentence with "and" , thank you as well padillah for the information and further explanation. I hadn't even considered the limitations you mentioned re: digital camcorders that use mini-DVDs instead of Digital Video Cassettes. Hooray for me by going with a less expensive model (about 40% less, in fact).  

---------
Dan; Apolyton CS

[Qwertqwert]

Originally posted by CanuckSoldier
Yes he's a programmer not a PR guy afterall, try and give him a little understanding :P

CS

True but I could have done a better job, it's not really important though. If we're watching the video we're interested in the game, it's not like it's a commercial.

[Asher]

Trip was cute, though.

[Wise Ass]

Originally posted by DanQ
As for a new digital camcorder.... hmmmm. Willing to pitch in for one that uses mini-DVDs instead of Digital Video Cassettes?  


-------
Dan; Apolyton CS

Actually, you're better off, in terms of editing, using the Mini DV rather than DVD if quality is your over all goal. The DVD camcorders compress the video in order to make it fit, and when you edit and render you will again compress it further. So the problem really wasn't the camcorder.

What you did was the best way I know of to do something like that, in terms of recording. However next time, it might not be a bad idea if instead of pointing it at a projection screen, if you had a different flat pannel monitor set up for the camcorder to focus on because the density would help in quality and the screen wont flicker like a CRT.

Another option that I just though about was that your camcorder may have AV inputs depending on the model, in which case you should be able to patch it from the projector into the camcorder.

If you tell me the model camcorder, I can probably tell you if it has it or not.

[padillah]

Originally posted by Wise Ass

Another option that I just though about was that your camcorder may have AV inputs depending on the model, in which case you should be able to patch it from the projector into the camcorder.

If you tell me the model camcorder, I can probably tell you if it has it or not.

Very good point. But this would require two camcorders: one for the video demonstration and one for crowd reaction.

However, if you happen to HAVE two camcorders (it's not unheard of) that would be a much better way to do it.

It would also eliminate having to whip the POI from screen to person and back. Live events are so hard to document because you never know where the POI will be next.

Tom P.

[padillah]

Originally posted by DanQ

As for a new digital camcorder.... hmmmm. Willing to pitch in for one that uses mini-DVDs instead of Digital Video Cassettes?  

-------
Dan; Apolyton CS

Or, better yet, some tools for editing the video. Oddly enough, they cost almost the same.

Tom P.