I’m an architecture student in Norway, and would like to use this software for a small art installation. I have a fairly good grasp of 3D softwares in general, but next to no understanding of programming and are very new to projection mapping.
I’m using the Windows 10 version, and the animations are rendered in Blender with a MPEG-4 container and H.264 codec. The issue starts the moment the video loops for the first time. I can temporarily fix it by pausing/playing or reloding the video, but then it starts lagging again next time it loops.
ILooking at the elapsed time, it kind of looks like it just jumps directly from start to finnish. But if this is caused by actual jumping, or just it just going through the frames really fast is hard to say.
The issue only appears when using certain video files, but I’ve yet to identify a pattern.
The issue you describe is mostly due to the fact that Splash does not handle very well video codecs which do inter-frame compression, such as H264 and MPEG-4. To be able to get the best results when synchronizing with an external clock, choices have been made which have a bad effect with these codecs.
The best you can do for now is to convert your videos either to MJPEG (motion JPEG), or to HAP. You can find some information about all that here.
Quick question: would you find it interesting for Splash to automatically convert the videos to HAP whenever you are trying to read a H264/H265/MPEG-4 video file?
I converted the video to the HAP codec and it worked perfectly, thank you!
And yes, Splash automatically converting video files to the HAP codec would be most helpful. As mentioned, I don’t have much experience with projection mapping. But from what little I’ve gathered, it seems looping video files are something which is commonly used for various effects and graphics. Combined with the fact that that H264 is so commonly used, I think this feature, perhaps as an optional toggle, would be appreciated by many.
Additionally, converting to the HAP codec seems to be rather tricky, as it’s not supported by softwares like Blender and DaVinci (I think). I read something about ffmpeg, but installing/handling code from GIT (or something similar) without any programming experience what so ever is a bit intimidating. In the end, I only managed to convert the video file because I knew a guy with the right software and expertise.
Indeed not all software can export to HAP, and even though MJPEG is more common it is also less performant, especially with higher resolutions. And using the command line can be cumbersome for a lot of users.
I’ll think of a way to ask Splash to convert videos to HAP. I don’t want to make it fully automatic by default, as users might not want to convert all video files. For example if they are just testing how it looks. There is also the question of where to store the converted files, as HAP files are usually larger than files encoded with other codecs.
So I might go with a voluntary strategy, where Splash would indicate that the codec is not optimal. And then give the option to the user to convert it to HAP.
Thanks for your input (and to the guy with the right software ). Do not hesitate if you have other questions. Also if you are willing to share photos of your installation, I’m always happy to know what users do with Splash!
). Do not hesitate if you have other questions. Also if you are willing to share photos of your installation, I’m always happy to know what users do with Splash!