SRec 2.x on github

It's been on my to do list for a while now to rewrite SRec to be able to make use of DMA for reading from VRAM and to reduce some of the bloat that's crept in.

I started working on it just recently and I've just gotten it to the point where it can record and output as mkv using zmbv codec.

The current source code is hosted on github and I can also send a compiled alpha version to anyone who wants to help with testing (e-mail me if you are interested).

https://github.com/salass00/srec

Some features that are still to do:
- GUI interface
- Pointer rendering
- Audio recording (maybe)

One of the biggest changes from previous versions is that it now uses BltBitMapTags() to copy the frames from VRAM which means that it should be able to benefit from DMA support on those platforms that have it (Sam4x0 and X1000).

@salass00
I would like to test and i think i asked you earlier about updating Srec. It would be nice to record what i do on my amiga

@salass00

Dl'ed and compiled from github, but I can't watch the video created.
LiveForIt's mplayer doesn't recognize such codec.


#SRec.debug ram:foo.mkv
CTRL-C to stop recording.
#appdir:Mplayer ram:foo.mkv
LiveForIt-MPlayer-6.5.7 SVN-r37230-snapshot-1.1.1 (C) 2000-2014 MPlayer Team

Playing ram:foo.mkv.
libavformat version 56.36.100 (internal)
libavformat file format detected.
[lavf] stream 0: video (unknown), -vid 0
VIDEO: [ZMBV] 640x480 24bpp 1000.000 fps 0.0 kbps ( 0.0 kbyte/s)
Clip info:
encoder: libmkv 0.6.5.1
Load subtitles in ram:
VO: [comp_yuv2] Welcome man !.
gfx_nodri = 0
gfx_novsync = 0
benchmark = 0
vsync is enabled = 1
==========================================================================
Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family
libavcodec version 56.41.100 (internal)
Cannot find codec 'zmbv' in libavcodec...
VDecoder init failed :(
Requested video codec family [zmbv] (vfm=vfw) not available.
Enable it at compilation.
Cannot find codec matching selected -vo and video format 0x56424D5A.
==========================================================================
VO: Enabling blanker
gfx_ReleaseArg:443


Exiting... (End of file)
#

@jabirulo

Second, i can't watch the created data, thus i can't tell if the video is even recorded...

otoh, *if* it is created the speed is breathtaking, 15 to 20 % cpu time on an X1000, whoaaaa, so much better than the 1.26 version...then again, i can't tell if it isn't doing some idle stuff in the background (yet)

have both of you tried the emotion player demo from os4depot?
afaik this includes a more recent decoder.

regards...
michael

(Edit: Nevermind. Possibly mixing different versions of the software.)

@TSK
Quote:

In my private experimental version I found the mouse tended to feel jerky once the scaled size went above a certain point, and the solution was to Blit the data off lne by line, but still using DMA based transfers.

Slightly slower overall but smoother, which is critical when doing mouse sensitive actions like ppainting or drawing.

@salass00

That's great news... Thank you for all your hard work...

@TSK

I did, same result.

What line do you use exactly?

@jabirulo

Looks like LiveForIt didn't enable the ZMBV codec in his build of libavcodec.

MUIMPlayer should at least work although not as fast as it doesn't support composited video:
http://os4depot.net/index.php?functio ... video/play/muimplayer.lha

@broadblues

Quote:

Would be better if P96 didn't use a global lock for all bitmaps .

If I understand you right the problem is only with the VRAM to RAM copying and not with CompositeTags()? If so I will try a workaround similar to the one you suggested.

@salass00

yes only on the copy from VRAM to RAM phase.

I think I must have used the old Srec version accidentally at other attempts. Now I couldn't get the file played back with any of the video players I have.

A build of the currently latest git version is available here:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/26599983/srec-2.1r18.7z

I would like to altivec optimise the pixel format endian conversion but before I do that I would like to know that the current altivec code is working correctly and producing the same output as the non-altivec code.

Unfortunately I can't test this myself since I don't have an NG Amiga with altivec...

@salass00

Hi. Works here on X1000.

@TearsOfMe

Thanks.

Can you test this one as well?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ntwtg51cveeba5c/srec-2.1r21.7z?dl=0

It's a slightly newer version with altivec optimised endian conversion added.

@salass00

Yep. Works also :)

@salass00

On my X1000 new version is 5x faster than 1.26. Recording static WB screen (1920x1080) takes 10% of the CPU. Version 1.26, 640x480 10fps ZMBV = 53% CPU time.

@TearsOfMe

Thanks again.

@mufa

That's a pretty big speed improvement. Much bigger than I would have thought possible TBH.

What's the CPU usage like with NOALTIVEC switch?

@salass00

There is no special difference. Maybe even NOAltiVec takes slightly less CPU power.