Clara's Blog

On Black Friday last year, I got a pretty nice deal on an ultrawide HDR10 supported monitor by LG... so I bought two of them. One for my office at work, and one for home. It's definitely not a monitor used for mastering content, but it's a nice way to get into the world of HDR content creation. So, what can we do?

Well, as it turns out, there isn't a real way to record HDR at the moment via software (EDIT: Ok, maybe "Action!" can do it. I'll test that later). Content creators out there resort to using high quality capture cards to capture HDR10 gameplay. But why is there no software solution? Well, there is... sorta. But you have to get creative with it and manually do everything. For me, this is fine. I prefer being in full control in post. Let's experiment.

Extracting HDR Metadata from the monitor

Before mastering can be done on this monitor, we need to extract Colour Primaries and Display Luminance values from the monitor. Windows doesn't make this very obvious, but you can run dxdiag.exe via the command line and extract it from there. This can be done via:

Windows Batch Command

dxdiag.exe -t diagnostic.txt

Next, open up diagnostic.txt and search for "Display Luminance". If you have multiple monitors, this will appear multiple times. You can easily tell which is which by looking at nearby lines like "HDR Support", "Current Mode" (Screen Resolution), etc.

Generating HDR metadata string for FFmpeg

Now we have exactly what we need to embed HDR metadata into a final video file if gameplay is recorded onto this monitor. However, FFmpeg requires it to be in a specific format. Specifically this:

diagnostic.txt

Color Primaries: Red(0.651367,0.332031), Green(0.306641,0.630859), Blue(0.150391,0.059570), White Point(0.313477,0.329102) Display Luminance: Min Luminance = 0.010000, Max Luminance = 1499.000000, MaxFullFrameLuminance = 799.000000

will become this:

FFmpeg "master-display" string

G(15332,31543)B(7520,2978)R(32568,16602)WP(15674,16455)L(14990000,100)

Yikes!! What math is required to get those numbers? Well, don't worry about it. Instead, I wrote a nice little tool to generate the string for you with the dxdiag information. It's in my render_tools GitHub repo here. If you want to run this online (where you can put your monitor information in), here's a cpp.sh link.

Recording gameplay

We'll get back to FFmpeg in a bit. For now, we need footage to encode. I use Dxtory to record my gameplays. It is the closest a software recorder gets to capturing the original footage correctly. For video codec, I use UtVideo for "lossless" capture (more on this later). I use the default settings on it. For audio, I have a 7.1 setup, and a lot of games out there utilise all 8 channels (Modern Warfare supports up to 16). Dxtory can capture this losslessly as well via IEEE Float. Set it and you're good to go.

Here's my configuration. You don't need to understand the language. The UI is the same in English.

Now just go into a game and record some test footage. You'll get something that looks like this:

Does something look a little off to you? Maybe the footage is a little washed out? This is normal. In fact, it's the raw stream that is being sent to your monitor. The only problem is that it's lacking the HDR metadata, hence why it looks this way. Gee, don't we have that information? Yes we do. Let's embed it via FFmpeg.

Encoding via FFmpeg

Now for the fun part. Let's generate a MKV file straight from the AVI master with the HDR metadata embedded. For reference, this is all open source and available in my render_tools repo on GitHub here. If you don't want to hear an explanation, just scroll to the end of this section. I post the final command there that you can modify for your monitor.

This is not an FFmpeg tutorial. But for those who don't know how FFmpeg works, it's a command line swiss-army knife for media streams like video and audio. It supports basically every format I've thrown at it. If you need an AVI file converted to MP4, consider it done. WAV to MP3? Done. In a basic sense, it looks like this:

UNIX Command

UNIX> ffmpeg -i video.avi video.mp4

For archival of gameplay, I use the MKV container and encode videos via libx265 at CRF 16 with FLAC audio. YouTube accepts these. For that, you'll want a command that looks like this:

UNIX Command

UNIX> ffmpeg -i video.avi -c:v libx265 -pix_fmt yuv420p10le -crf 16 -c:a flac video.mkv

This command has a problem... it doesn't embed the HDR metadata. Recall that string we generated earlier? Now is the time to use it. That FFmpeg command is about to get very lengthy.

First, the HDR10 standard requires BT.2020 with a bit depth of 10. So we need to make sure the video outputs proper BT.2020 instead of BT.709. For this, we'll need the following arguments added to the ffmpeg command (put it after -pix_fmt yuv420p10le):

FFmpeg Command Line Arguments

-vf scale=out_color_matrix=bt2020:out_h_chr_pos=0:out_v_chr_pos=0,format=yuv420p10

Finally, we'll embed the HDR metadata extracted at the very beginning of this blog post. FFmpeg can pass parameters to the internal x265 encoder via -x265-params. We'll pass in the metadata there. Add this in the FFmpeg command after the previous addition that converted the colour space to BT.2020:

FFmpeg Command Line Arguments

-x265-params "colorprim=bt2020:colormatrix=bt2020nc:transfer=smpte2084:colormatrix=bt2020nc:hdr=1:info=1:repeat-headers=1:max-cll=0,0:master-display=G(15332,31543)B(7520,2978)R(32568,16602)WP(15674,16455)L(14990000,100)"

If you're lost, here is the final command:

UNIX Command

UNIX> ffmpeg -i video.avi -c:v libx265 -pix_fmt yuv420p10le -vf scale=out_color_matrix=bt2020:out_h_chr_pos=0:out_v_chr_pos=0,format=yuv420p10 -x265-params "colorprim=bt2020:colormatrix=bt2020nc:transfer=smpte2084:colormatrix=bt2020nc:hdr=1:info=1:repeat-headers=1:max-cll=0,0:master-display=G(15332,31543)B(7520,2978)R(32568,16602)WP(15674,16455)L(14990000,100)" -crf 16 -c:a flac video.mkv

Quite lengthy huh? I warned you. However, let's look at the MKV file it exported on the HDR display. Because HDR screenshots can't be displayed properly on an SDR monitor, this was converted from HDR10 back into SDR. Definitely not a perfect conversion, but you can see the difference.

Only one problem...

This method of capturing and encoding HDR10 video via Dxtory is not perfect. Far from it. Dxtory reads the screen as an 8 bit buffer. Meanwhile, the output bit depth the monitor gives is 10 bit. So we're already losing a lot of detail, going from 1024 levels of colour per channel (red, green, and blue) down to 256. For scenes in-game where there's lots of colour variety, the trained eye is going to see banding of colours. This is why I encourage recording to UtVideo over something like x264vfw. We're losing a lot of detail. No need to lose even more. For a way to visually see this, here's a diagram for 8 bit going to 4 bit and back:

Obviously, with 10 bit going to 8 bit and back won't have much of a dramatic impact unlike the one shown above. But it's still a loss of colour information. If there's a software recorder out there that can capture the screen buffer in 10 bit, that'll solve this. Until then, the only proper solution I can think of is to use a dedicated capture card that was made to capture HDR signals. But until then, it's a valid solution to recording HDR video with software and not a dedicated capture card. I'll take it.

Example Clip

Here is a test clip I recorded from when I unlocked a gold Model 680 shotgun in Modern Warfare. It was encoded with the very command shown above. YouTube accepts HDR10 videos and will generate SDR versions for people without HDR displays. It also allows surround sound (It stores a 5.1 stream that plays on TVs). If you have an iPhone X (or more recent), or a Samsung Galaxy S8/Note 8 (or more recent), those have HDR certified displays. It does make a difference.

So recently I bought a game on Steam called Puyo Puyo Tetris. It's a crossover between... well... Puyo Puyo and Tetris! I've had a few good matches here and there with some friends and the game lets you save good matches as replays. With replays, you can go and rewatch gameplay at a later time. You can also slow down or speed up the gameplay as you wish when playing them back.

Okay that's a pretty useful feature right? Well it is useful until you hit the absurd 50 replay limit. For a PC port, I would've expected something like in Quake or Half-Life where the replays are stored in a separate file (and in an unlimited quantity), but unfortunately that isn't the case here. Nope, we're stuck with 50.

Well I happened to be bored and had a really good cup of coffee, so I hacked something up to make this possible. Introducing CN_PPTRM (Clara Nguyen's Puyo Puyo Tetris Replay Manager). This is a tool that artificially removes the 50 replay limit by letting you extract the replays from your save. Nifty huh?

"How does it work?"

First, we need to understand how Puyo Puyo Tetris stores data. The replays are stored in data.bin... all 50 of them. And all 50 of those are in a fixed spot in that file. That file is constructed to never change size either. This explains why the limit is hardcoded. CN_PPTRM takes advantage of this simple format and just jumps straight to where the replay is stored to extract it. The game does not have any checksums to check if a replay is legitimate or not. So we are able to extract replays from the save, as well as import replays into it and it'll work.

"How does CN_PPTRM remove the 50 replay limit?"

Well, it "artificially" does. The save will always have the 50 replay limit. But you can choose which 50 replays you want to store in it. The others are stored on your hard drive. Makes sense?

"Your program exports 'DEM' files. What are those?"

It stands for "Demo". In games like Quake, Half-Life, and Counter-Strike, the concept of recording inputs to play back in the future is called Demo Recording. So I named this based on that. Those games actually have entire communities driven on posting these kinds of files due to their small filesize (usually Kilobytes or just a few Megabytes). Puyo Puyo Tetris replays are around 91 KB in size, and can be compressed down to 6-12 KB. My program will do that compression for you via Gzip.

"Why can't I just record and delete?"

Fair point! That is a solution (it’s what everyone is doing, including me). If you are a YouTuber that only cares to upload, this tool won’t help you. This is only for those who wish to archive in the most efficient way possible (a few KB per match as opposed to a huge video file of potentally hundreds of MB).

"Where do I get this?"

I have been a TA at University for around 3 years. From the very beginning, I made a website that serves as a 24/7 resource for students in courses I TA for. It contains lab hints, grading guides, files of code, etc that I write whenever I teach lab sections or host office hours.

However, the layout of the page has dated quite a bit since I first wrote it. Maybe it's time to give it a refresh? Sure! Why not!?

Introducing PENDUAL (In the event that this name choice isn't obvious...), a dual-theme setup consisting of a Light and (finally) a Dark theme! This isn't all I've changed though...

Version 3.0.0 Changelog:

New Features

The following are new features to the site:

All pages now have a SETTINGS button, which opens up a menu giving users the ability to change language and theme. They can also view site information such as domain and version (if anyone actually cares).

These are powered by Cookies, so you'll see a popup at the bottom of the page asking you to click "I agree" about the usage of cookies.

There is now a dark theme!

All code boxes have a label above them. These can say things such as Code (C++) or Output. This helps users to tell what exactly they are looking at if they are confused.

All code (in both Light and Dark themes) now have syntax highlighting. This is powered by highlight.js, so a massive shoutout to them!

My talks and presentations from graduate school, along with notes for them, are shown on the main page. I am treating this like a "series". Each presentation features a unique SVG logo. I look forward to giving more presentations in the future!

Changed/Improved Features

The following changes/improvements have been made to the site:

Class URLs have been changed.

Old: utk.claranguyen.me/cs102f16/

New: utk.claranguyen.me/class.php?id=cs102/fa16

Class Lab Guide URLs have been changed.

Old: utk.claranguyen.me/cs102f16/lab.php?id=cs102f16_lab4

New: utk.claranguyen.me/lab.php?id=cs102/fa16/labD

Code box borders have been adjusted to only have a border on the left rather than all over.

The navigation bar at the top of all pages now feature fully working links (finally).

All images (which are not screenshots) are now SVG rather than PNG.

For each class page, the "Lab Sections" module text has changed to list more information.

Labs now have their names displaying in class pages rather than just "Lab 1", "Lab 2", etc.

The banner at the top of each page can be changed.

Improved Multi-lingual support. All content is still originally in UK English. However, if I get a translation of a guide in another language, let me know and I'll make it available for all visitors!

My Contact E-Mails have been (finally) added to the bottom of each page.

Removed Features

The following have been removed from the site:

MySQLi/PDO Connectivity. The site now relies on local JSON files for data since there isn't really much data to look for anyways. Plus, if someone wanted to exploit it, it's now impossible.

Guide Adjustments

The following guides have been modified to account for new features:

Introduction to the Terminal (Disclaimer/Note adjustments & Updated Visuals)

PBM, PGM, and PPM files (Complete Rewrite, New URL, Updated Visuals)

Almost yearly in the winter, me, my brother, and my Dad play a series of Half Life games, which ends up being recorded and uploaded to YouTube. We call the series the "Christmas Deathmatch".

To me, I'm always up for a good game, but I'm also always up for a good media project. Christmas Deathmatch isn't popular by any means, but it is a good way to practice video editing and producing to me. So I'm going to show some behind-the-scenes stuff that went on with editing 2017's Christmas Deathmatch.

In the past years, I was very reliant on Adobe After Effects to do my work for me. As I went through 2016 and 2017, I realised there was a much more efficient and automated way to do the editing I needed without professional video editing software. I only used Adobe After Effects for parts of the video that I actually had to edit. The rest, I managed to actually automate. All rendering to x264 was automated into a few shell scripts and ffmpeg. It's going to sound complicated when you read this, but in the end, it's just simply setting up files so that the scripts can encode everything automatically.

Software List

Here's the software used for 2017's Christmas Deathmatch:

Adobe After Effects CC 2015.3

Audacity

ffmpeg

Fraps

GIMP

The Christmas Deathmatch videos are essentially 4 videos concatenated together:

loading_bar.mkv - The loading bar... literally

preview_glass.mkv - The map previews

gameplay.mkv - The actual match gameplay

ending.mkv - The ending with the links to the next/previous videos and copyright.

Step 1: Recording the Gameplay

What's a gaming video without gameplay? And more importantly (from a production perspective), how can we do it to where the video has the best framerate, compression, and colour matrices for viewing?

Fraps has always been reliable for recording gameplay. It's fast, but it chews up a shitload of HDD space. I'm sure we all knew this. The key, though, is that the footage is raw, uncompressed, 1080p 60 fps, and purely bgr24 encoded. This is very important, as it means we can do a lot of editing in post if we wanted. But, more importantly, it's also better whenever we encode it into a codec like libx264 or libx265.

The reason I mention this... in 2016, I recorded with Dxtory using libx264. Because of this, the files were already compressed prior to editing. So whenever I processed the final master, it was actually compressed twice. This resulted in poor quality. Since this time we are using true raw recording, we are ensured the maximum quality in the final master.

Of course, as mentioned prior, Fraps takes up a lot of space. 787 GB total for 14 matches of 15-20 minutes each. That's a lot! But wait... we actually had to re-record a few matches... and those took up an additional 211 GB (998 GB total). So in total, almost 1 TB of raw Fraps footage was used for this project!

Step 2: Preparing the loading screen

At the beginning of every video, a loading screen is shown for about 10 seconds. This is to give it the feel of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. It looks like this:

Now, this is where the tricks of ffmpeg come in to play. Each loading screen is simply a PNG image. Now, we could simply go into Adobe After Effects and render out 14 videos with the loading bar added to the bottom manually. Or we could take a more flexible approach to automate it via ffmpeg.

This method still, however, requires After Effects. But instead of exporting a video per loading screen, let's export only 1 video... of just the loading bar itself and everything else being transparent.

This render took seconds when exporting RAW with transparency. But the file was huge... around 4.63 GB. So I pulled out my unix tool known as "xz-utils" and losslessly compressed it. The result? The file became a mere 773 KB. I am not joking. That tiny file contained a 4.63 GB raw AVI file in it. Of course, it compressed really well because most of the pixels are transparent, and also because it's a raw file. XZ, Gzip, and Bzip2 like raw files.

Moving on, let's get to how I automated the loading bar footage. First off, I had to decide the encoding standard I was going to compress the final video in to. For the YouTube upload, I decided to stick with libx264 @ 18000k CBR, 48000 hz FLAC Stereo audio.

"But Clara! Why not just encode it in raw?"

The loading bar requires no editing. It's just generated and compressed. We can render and compress it in a single step via ffmpeg, as opposed to making a raw video and then compressing it later.

The Automation

Here's where my years of practicing ffmpeg pays off. I wrote a shell script (gen_loadingbar.sh), which you can view here: https://hastebin.com/obimiqitig.bash Here's the procedure the script does:

Decompresses loading_bar.avi (remember we compressed it earlier?)

Changes directory to the ones holding the image files

Checks if we already rendered "loading_bar.mkv" for each match yet (if so, we can skip it)

If a "loading_bar.mkv" doesn't exist, render the video via ffmpeg.

After it is done, delete "loading_bar.avi", as we can just keep the xz compressed one.

How it works

The rendering process is worth mentioning:

UNIX Command

ffmpeg \ -hide_banner \ -v quiet \ -stats \ -r 60 \ -i "loading_image.png" \ -i "../../raw/loading_bar.avi" \ -f lavfi \ -i anullsrc=channel_layout=stereo:sample_rate=48000 \ -shortest \ -filter_complex "[0:v]scale=1920:1080[bg];[bg][1:v]overlay,fps=60" \ -vcodec libx264 \ -strict -2 \ -pix_fmt yuvj420p \ -b:v 18000k \ -maxrate 18000k \ -bufsize 18000k \ -acodec flac \ "loading_bar.mkv"

The method used is simply overlaying. It uses "loading_image.png" as the background, and then overlays the raw video of the loading bar on top. Remember, that raw video has transparency. The script also creates a silent audio track (because concatenating without audio causes issues). Since I am not encoding the video in raw, whatever I use here must also be used for all other videos in the final video, because otherwise it will not concatenate.

Step 3: The Map Previews

I didn't get away with not using After Effects this time... The map previews are very simple though. Simply record previews of the map and overlay custom images and text over it. It had to be exported raw, and then processed via ffmpeg to guarantee that it was compressed with the exact same codec, at the exact same bitrate.

Step 4: The Ending

Again, I couldn't get away with just ffmpeg here. BUT, the ending is a special case. The loading bar and the map previews were prepared before the gameplay was even recorded. However, the ending is special because it requires the final frame from the gameplay footage for that flash effect. Again, this had to be exported raw, and then compressed with ffmpeg.

Putting it all together... The "Compiler" (Concatenator)

This is where all of the fun pays off... when it actually comes together and just works. So this is what each directory looks like:

Now, let's use a magical script that I wrote, called "compile.sh" (Yes, I know it isn't a real compiler). Here's the source code: https://hastebin.com/ipakiyazel.bash

compile.sh Example: When files are missing.

The script will check if the 4 required files are there for concatenating into the final YouTube master. Here's an example of what it looks like when it runs and a few files are missing...

Script success

Of course, in the end, all videos were concatenated.

And because they were concatenated, the final YouTube masters are in the "distro" directory, production ready for upload to YouTube.

The goal, accomplished

While this all seems complicated, the scripts I wrote essentailly allow me to set up the files, and then have it all render out in a single command for future years of Christmas Deathmatch. I'm glad I was able to turn this project into a learning experience and also something where I can practice my media production skills, as it is something that I can definitely use in the future to my advantage.

You can watch the final encoded videos on YouTube here:

So I'm willing to bet that a lot of Linux power-users out there use terminal multiplexers to increase their productivity.

The terminal, at first, can be quite intimidating. I like to expose my students to it whenever I am teaching them how to program in C or C++. This is because UTK Computer Science major students are forced to use it to do their lab assignments eventually (usually in their second year).

The terminal, put quite simply, is just a single session for a user to input commands. However, there are so many ways to change this that it is ridiculous. Let's look at a general terminal running zsh:

Obviously, yours might not look the same. Zsh alone provides the ability to customise the interface to look like this. But that's not the point of why I show this. Notice that there is only one spot to type text in. Not a lot of people like that since they can only do one task at a time. That's no fun, is it? :(

Introducing Terminal Multiplexer: Tmux

Tmux allows you to do some pretty crazy stuff to enhance your terminal experience, and has a lot of cool features too. I'll cover a few of them. Here's what Tmux can allow you to do:

So there's a lot going on in the screenshot above (As with all images, click the image to see its full resolution). I'll break down a lot of the features covered here to show you what the hell is going on.

Before we get started

Tmux, like a lot of linux software, is heavily customisable. Whenever you are going to input a command into Tmux, generally (unless changed) you will press "Ctrl + b". I've changed mine to "Ctrl + a" since it is a lot easier. If you want my config file, it is here.

I am probably going to get some kid complaining about this, but I will discuss commands using my configuration (Which is close to the original anyways). If you want the standard configuration, you can try looking at this cheat sheet (Which also doesn't use Ctrl+b, by the way... no one likes it).

Feature #1: Split Panes

The very first feature I am going to cover is splitting panes. In my opinion, this is also the second most useful feature of Tmux, because it allows you to have 2 terminal sessions side-by-side purely and directly in the terminal (without GUI assistance).

Controls

• "Ctrl + a", then "|" - Split a pane into 2 Horizontally • "Ctrl + a", then "-" - Split a pane into 2 Vertically • "Ctrl + a", then "Up/Down/Left/Right" - Navigate Panes • Hold "Alt", then "Up/Down/Left/Right" - Navigate Panes (Alt)

Why this is useful to me

I can have 2 terminal tasks going on side-by-size. Sometimes I could be writing a C program on the left pane with vim, and then compile it with gcc on the right pane. That way, I never have to exit vim to compile. Also, a lot of the time, I run a 2x2 terminal pane setup to do 4 things at once (with "top" probably occupying one of the slots...)

Feature #2: Windows (Tabs)

The second feature I am going to cover is windows... actually, we will call them "tabs" because it just makes better sense. I showed you how to split panes as the first feature of tmux. However, you can also have multiple tabs which have different configurations of split panes if you wanted. You can also just have a lot of single pane tabs and switch between them easily.

Controls

• "Ctrl + a", then "c" - Create a new window/tab • "Ctrl + a", then "x" - Close a window/tab • "Ctrl + a", then a number - Go to a specific page • "Ctrl + a", then "," - Give window/tab a custom name • Hold "Ctrl", then "Left/Right" - Navigate Windows/Tabs

Why this is useful to me

I like to categorise my work in tabs. I can have one tab just for developing a C program, and another for doing homework. At home, I have a single tmux session on my Raspberry Pi that has various tabs for various devices that I am SSH'd into (One tab for sshing into my server, one for UTK's computer science server, etc).

Feature #3: Remote Sessions

Here is where things get to be really fun. I mentioned earlier that I have a session on my Raspberry Pi that has multiple tabs, which are SSH'd into multiple devices. But how do I access my Raspberry Pi's tmux session without being directly on the Pi?

Turns out, you can control local tmux sessions remotely through SSH. SSH in, and then "attach" the tmux session. This means that I can run a Tmux session on my Pi locally, open vim, and start editing a file. Then I can remote into my Pi from a distant location, "attach" that same session remotely, and then have access to vim from there. This also means that all tabs and panes in that session show up on the remote end as well. To me, this is the most useful and valuable feature of tmux.

This is really simple. When starting a tmux session in the terminal, type this:

tmux new-session -s SESSION_NAME

This will create a session under the ID "SESSION_NAME" (feel free to change it to something else). This means that anyone remoted in to your device via ssh can access the same session via this command:

tmux attach -t SESSION_NAME

Controls

• "Ctrl + a", then "d" - Deattach tmux session (Keep it in background) • "Ctrl + a", then "D" - Choose a tmux session to deattach (Yes, you can force a device remotely to deattach)

Why this is useful to me

My Raspberry Pi has a constant Tmux session up that I can remote into at any time (it should be noted that this is all local). This means that I can access that tmux session from any computer that has a terminal and ssh. Furthermore, if I forwarded a port, I could access the tmux session while at university and control my Raspberry Pi from a long distance.

Conclusion

I'm a terminal power user. As such, I go out of my way to try to try to make it easier for me to do things on it. The reason for that is because a lot of my work involves remoting into different machines and sometimes (most of the time) a GUI just isn't available. Plus, I see that knowing your way around the terminal is a valuable skill in the case where a GUI isn't available (Linux Emergency Mode... *cough cough*). Anyways, I just thought I would share one of many secrets of how I make my life on the linux terminal much more enjoyable with tmux.

I hear this one a lot. You buy a shiny 32 GB SD Card for your Android (Or camera) and you find out that it has 29.8 GB free. What's going on here? Have you been fooled by the technology industry?

Short Answer: No. You just don't know how computers count or store data.

Okay, on to the long answer. It's funny that I write this now, considering how I just bought a 32 GB SD Card from Amazon (This one actually) and it came in the mail today. Let's look at the package carefully.

Notice how it lists 1 GB (Gigabyte) as 1,000,000,000 bytes (1 billion). This means that the marketted SD card has 32,000,000,000 bytes. To a computer though, how much exactly is a "Gigabyte" (Gibibyte [GiB])? Well 1,000 is not a power of 2. It is a power of 10. Computers count units of bytes in multiples of 1024, not 1000. Therefore, 1024 bytes makes a "Kilobyte". 1024 Kilobytes makes a "Megabyte". 1024 Megabytes makes a "Gigabyte".

To sum it up, 1 "Gigabyte" to a computer is 1024 * 1024 * 1024. That's 1,073,741,824 bytes. Now who is going to remember that? You probably see why they market it as 1,000,000,000 per GB now.

Let's do the math. We know that, to a computer, 1 GiB is 1,073,741,824 bytes. 32,000,000,000 / 1,073,741,824 = 29.8023224 GiB. That's why it shows 29.8. Have a nice day.

Disclaimer: If it has less than even that, take note that there are hidden files on the SD card too that tell the computer information on how it is formatted, etc. That may drop it down to 29.7 GiB.

What about my iPhone? Why did it come stock with 2-3 GiB less than advertised?

Your iPhone comes with exactly the amount of storage advertised. To understand why the storage is shortened a little, you have to understand what exactly is running and powering your phone. iOS. Your storage is separated into "Partitions". One partition is hidden from you. It contains iOS System Files that are needed to run the phone. The other partition is where you place your (potentially horrible) selfies, music, etc. I haven't had an iPhone since the iPhone 4S but I can probably guess that iOS 9's system partition is around 2 GiB (2048 MB). So if you have a 32 GB iPhone 6, you're going to only have 30 GB to use, etc. (Oh, it probably displays it as 27.93 GiB by the way, for the same reasons above)

Android Users, you obviously have this too. Don't think I'm just targeting iPhone.

I hope that clarifies some things. You aren't being tricked or anything, just computers count differently. You are still getting a lot of storage. I wouldn't complain.

Note: This is actually a pretty outdated post now. YouTube has updated their video processing and audio support tramendously. Not only do they support higher quality audio, but they also support surround sound! I'll keep the original post here for archival's sake. Do I now support downloading from YouTube? No. But I'm not going to hide the fact that they've improved in the past three years.

tl;dr - It's a terrible idea.

A frequent question I see on YouTube music videos is "How can I download this song?". A common answer to that question is to use a "YouTube to MP3" converter which will take the video and extract its audio stream (AAC), convert it to MP3, and then let you download it. Yes, you get the song, but let's be honest... The quality of that file is pretty shitty.

I know, I know, a lot of people do not care about the quality of their MP3s... and shame on them. The file you get from these sites are 128kbps MP3 files. I suppose that is average, but the bitrate doesn't matter as much as YouTube's process of literally destroying the audio to make it streamable on the internet. There are frequencies that are tampered, the sample rate is forced to 44,100hz (Which isn't really a problem most of the time), and due to the low bitrate, you can barely hear bass and everything sounds garbled. You really think that is a pleasurable listening experience?

Example

I make music. Great! I can use an example I know I won't get sued for. Here's a song I made.

Yes I know, you want to download it (No, you don't). If you downloaded this video, you would get a 128kbps MP3 file at 44,100hz. Want to know what the original audio file was for this video before I uploaded it? 320kbps AAC at 48,000hz. That is more than 2.72x the detail lost in the YouTube encoded audio file.

Here is the waveform for the song in the original audio file:

Here is the waveform for the song downloaded from YouTube:

Here's the fun part. we can use inversion to cancel out the waveforms and see what is different in them. This is how much audio was lost by encoding to YouTube:

I don't know about you, but that is a lot of sound data lost. You want to hear what that sounds like? Here you go (And for you Lossless Audiophiles like me, here's a FLAC).

That was the simple explanation. To sum it up, YouTube will down-sample your music, and then lower the bitrate, as well as remove certain frequencies that presumably the human ear can't hear (MP3 does this too). So next time someone asks for a download of a song, don't suggest a YouTube downloader for them. Give them the original MP3 or FLAC because YouTube destroys the quality of the audio.

bp_img_str = { en: { home : "http://i.imgur.com/0qSYwEo.png", friend : "http://i.imgur.com/bEOCuKR.png", store : "http://i.imgur.com/ikwhYfx.png", games1 : "http://i.imgur.com/eAZ2J0n.png", games2 : "http://i.imgur.com/bgiV78h.png", games3 : "http://i.imgur.com/P5R4nvC.png", playgam: "http://i.imgur.com/Skx9alV.png", setting: "http://i.imgur.com/EBf3aI4.png", contro1: "http://i.imgur.com/GhOe5Av.png", contro2: "http://i.imgur.com/r0sdd87.png", librar1: "http://i.imgur.com/88ERkTc.png", librar2: "http://i.imgur.com/MA3HeXj.png", downloa: "http://i.imgur.com/rYG40mL.png", profile: "http://i.imgur.com/CEqCJsI.png" }, jp: { home : "http://i.imgur.com/LMzdtEv.png", friend : "http://i.imgur.com/WSoE2HA.png", store : "http://i.imgur.com/WbsNOzi.png", games1 : "http://i.imgur.com/7LLnb3N.png", games2 : "http://i.imgur.com/zlLPnTv.png", games3 : "http://i.imgur.com/LR9uppo.png", playgam: "http://i.imgur.com/Y7yGgOU.png", setting: "http://i.imgur.com/LcLyGdl.png", contro1: "http://i.imgur.com/sXxHoQU.png", contro2: "http://i.imgur.com/kaFqTgd.png", librar1: "http://i.imgur.com/AUdHhKt.png", librar2: "http://i.imgur.com/H0EQpmM.png", downloa: "http://i.imgur.com/EcVNhR2.png", profile: "http://i.imgur.com/CEqCJsI.png" } };

I feel like I am late to the party! With a busy semester ongoing and barely any time to try to enjoy off, Steam decided to update their "Big Picture" feature. Let's take a tour of this. Press the "EN" and "日本語" buttons to switch language of the screenshots to English and Japanese respectively. Furthermore, you can click the images to see their full resolution (1920x1080).

Screenshot Language:

EN

日本語

Home Screen

I was welcomed to the "Big Picture" with this screen. It has changed since the last time I used it. Sadly, I don't have screenshots (that I took myself) of the older Steam Big Picture mode.

implement_img("bp_home_img", "home", bp_img_str);

The feel of the interface is pretty nice. There are ambient sound effects that play (Which can be muted in settings, by the way) and you can control it with the Keyboard, Mouse, and Controller. Speaking of which, it detected my reliable Afterglow PS3 controller and worked flawlessly. I read up on the internet that a lot of people have a hard time getting PS3 controllers to work... guess I was fortunate.

Game Menu/Game Library

The big thing about Steam is obviously games, and God I have a lot of them, yet I never played 75% of them. Whatever... At least I didn't pay as much as I would have if I played on console. The interface feels like I am playing on a console (Again, everything works on a controller). I think it reminds me though of the PS4's interface honestly. Though I never actually used a PS4 myself.

Home Recent Game Page (Borderlands 2) Downloading implement_img("bp_librar1_img", "librar1", bp_img_str); implement_img("bp_librar2_img", "librar2", bp_img_str); implement_img("bp_playgam_img", "playgam", bp_img_str); implement_img("bp_downloa_img", "downloa", bp_img_str);

Everything is accessable here. You can access screenshots, reviews, videos, broadcasts, DLC, etc. Also notice at the bottom of the screenshots where it shows the buttons (Oddly, showing XBox controls for a PS3 controller, hmm). The menu gives full control to the controller and even tells you what button does what. Lovely.

Store

So right now, it is sale time on Steam. Things like the Black Ops II Season Pass are on sale for 50% off... Black Mesa is 52% off (For some reason...). You get the idea, it is that time of the year to buy games. I have yet to test a purchase with the Big Picture mode but the Steam store is accessable and I can see what kind of games I want to get, and their prices. :)

Store Home DLC Pack Game Already Owned Game Not Owned implement_img("bp_store1_img", "store", bp_img_str); implement_img("bp_games1_img", "games1", bp_img_str); implement_img("bp_games2_img", "games2", bp_img_str); implement_img("bp_games3_img", "games3", bp_img_str);

Again, I have not tried to buy anything using Big Picture (yet), but I suspect that it will work.

Friends/Profile

There really isn't much to say about this...

Settings Home Profile Page (JP Only) implement_img("bp_friend_img", "friend", bp_img_str); implement_img("bp_profile_img", "profile", bp_img_str);

I honestly don't like being on Steam and being shown as "Online" (Or 「オンライン」, in my case) so usually I set myself as Offline. The chat experience isn't exactly the best in my eyes, but that is because I didn't want to pull out my keyboard and type. Also, I was never a fan of using the controller to type. Therefore, I just stayed away. But put simply, "Friends" menu is functional and looks great. I have not tried group management, chatting, etc with this interface yet though I might look into that sometime later. This menu is very important to Steam apparently, because you can access it at any time via pressing the RB button on the controller, regardless of wherever you are at. Pretty useful for those who do want to chat with friends with the acursed Controller Keyboard. >.>

The profile is also accessable by going to home and pressing up (Or just clicking it...). It looks like a better version of Steam Community's page generated for each player. It shows all of your general info such as your badge, profile description, achievements, friends, games. Pretty much everything you can expect. Also, depending on your Steam level, extra modules appear.

Settings

Ignoring the fact that the machine used to run Steam's Big Picture mode is a Windows 7 PC, settings are available to configure your "Steam Machine".

Settings Home Controller List Controller Configuration implement_img("bp_setting_img", "setting", bp_img_str); implement_img("bp_contro1_img", "contro1", bp_img_str); implement_img("bp_contro2_img", "contro2", bp_img_str);

Of course, there is a LOT more than the controller options in here (I may add those later). You can configure the language, the audio (Such as the ambient noise playing in the background that I mentioned earlier), and even delete games off of your system. It also can show a summary of your system specs, including how many cores your CPU has, your VRAM, RAM, Disk Space, etc. It is fully configurable. Though I have not found an option to save a lossless screenshot yet (It is in the desktop version).

Wrap Up

There are a few things I did not talk about in this entry. One, notably, is the web browser. All I can say is that it works and loaded DERPG's homepage perfectly (If it can load DERPG up, it is a pretty modern browser...) and was functional with controls. Though I did not like the zoom-in/out controls. Bleh.

Another honourable mention is the Steam in-game overlay. The overlay is different if you are in Big Picture Mode. So far, games I have played have integrated well with it. You press the home button on your controller and the overlay opens (Pressing Home + R2 takes a screenshot). Oddly, you can take screenshots while in Steam's in-game overlay mode and it will capture it... I mean it:

Overall, I guess I like trying new things. But this layout looks like a great start to the Steam Machine platform. Would I hook this up to my TV to play? Well I already did that. Take a look. :3 It was also nice playing Borderlands 2 on the big screen in 1080p (Unlike on PS3). Managed to actually beat it too.

Oh my, look how Windows 10 grew! With Windows 10 already available for about 190 countries, I felt like it was time for me to show a few screenshots of what Microsoft went through in the past few Technical Previews of Windows 10.

I must admit, I enjoyed being part of the preview. I got to see how Windows 10 grew and how it changed based on people’s input/opinions. It was fun even though I never got to actually develop software like applications for the OS myself (yet).

I will go on ahead and apologize in the fact that more than half of these screenshots are in Japanese, not English. The reason is because I participated in the Japanese Windows Preview only. The purpose of this post, though, is to show what changed. If text matters that much, find an ISO of an early build in English and see it yourself… unless it expired by now (Which is likely).

Let’s break down changes over the time via screenshots. You can see how graphical instances have changed, etc.

Installing

Windows 10 was pretty fun to install. It was free and all Microsoft Developers got the ISO pretty much at the start of the program if they opted for the Windows Insider Program.

English Build 9841 日本語 Build 9926 Build 10162 (All Languages) 日本語 Build 10163

Signing In

Amongst another things though, the things that a user sees when they first boot Windows 10 is obviously the log-in screen. That has gotten a revamp in the recent builds. The changes are polished very well and honestly I like the change done to it.

Windows 8 - Windows 10 Build 9926 Build 10130 Build 10162 & Build 10240

Start Menu

Back in the early builds, you had the choice of the Windows 8 Start Menu or a Windows 7 styled start menu with Windows 8 App Tiles. It was nice and worked. Here are four screenshots that show the general history of how Windows 10’s Start Menu changed over the past year or so…

Build 9841 Build 9926 Build 10130 Build 10162 & Build 10240

As you may have noticed, from Build 10130 and beyond, the start menu had the “Aero Blur” effect from Windows 7! This was a well requested feature from many Windows 7 fans. I am happy that it was added to Windows 10. However, Aero Blur was only enabled for roughly half the users in the Windows Insider Program. Luckily, you could force it on via a registry hack.

The Start Menu from Build 9926 and forward allowed a user to change it to a “Full Screen” mode. This mode was pretty buggy at first. You could change the colours of it and etc. However, when it was transparent, it would only show the user’s desktop background rather than fancy blur effects I expected. That was kind of a downer.

Build 10130 Build 10162

Oh and also if you clicked the top-left of the screen, your start options would appear:

Build 10130 Build 10162

Notification Center (Renamed to “Action Center”)

If there was one thing about Windows 8 that REALLY annoyed me, it was the lack of a Notification Center. The reason is because a notification would only appear for a few seconds and then disappear forever. Thankfully, Microsoft finally added this in. It was very buggy in early builds but I am happy about how it progressed over time. Also in Build 10162, it got the Aero Blur effect which made it look beautiful. Sometime in-between Build 9926 and Build 10162, “Notifications” was changed to “ACTION CENTER” (In my case, 「アクション センター」).

Build 9926 Build 10162 & Build 10240

Settings App

Windows 7 nailed settings and other configurations with the Control Panel. Microsoft was smart and kept it in Windows 8, but they also had their own Settings App. There were a few kinks where things crashed and also I couldn’t configure everything. Thankfully the Control Panel is still in Windows 10, but I have a few screenshots on how the settings app in Windows 10 changed.

Build 9841 Pretty much every build after that Build 10162 & Build 10240

In early builds, such as 9841, the Settings App was the exact same as the Windows 8 Settings App, with the addition of checking for a newer preview. Beyond that, They modified the interface of the entire app completely. Here is what it looked like (And still looks like):

English Build 9926 日本語 Build 9926 Build 10162 & Build 10240

Modern Apps

A pretty cool twist of things was when Windows 10’s early builds featured the ability to run Windows 8 apps in windows of their own rather than full screen apps. In builds such as 9841, where all of the apps included were strictly from Windows 8, I personally felt comfortable with it. As builds went by, they remade the apps (and completely destroying the People app). However, they are now more polished and functional than the Windows 8 ones ever were. The OneDrive app was completely obliterated in the newer builds, by the way. Now it behaves like the Windows 7 (aka Desktop) version.

Build 9841 Build 10162 Build 10240 天気 (Weather) App in Build 10240

Closure

Chances are that this post will be subject to edits when I find more screenshots that I took. :)

Experiencing a new operating system is something that I had an interest in for a while now. I have installed Operating Systems like Debian, Ubuntu, Windows, etc. However, the last time I did something with Windows was the Windows Developer and Consumer Previews for Windows 8. They were not that exciting to me (nor stable enough) compared to Windows 10’s Technical Preview (The final product, Windows 8, wasn’t bad though). I look forward to using an Operating System like this for future development or just casual tasks.

So as some readers may know, I own a Japanese Keyboard. The layout is slightly different on Japanese keyboards compared to US keyboards. I would have expected Windows 10 to adjust to this automatically, as Windows 8.1 was able to, but unfortunately, it hasn't. I was able to fix this via registry edits (Same as what I did in Windows 7...). Let's break down how to fix the issue:

Step 1: Open up Registry Editor

Deep into the heart of the operating system is the registry. If you mess the wrong value up, it could result in your computer's functionality being terminated! Ah whatever, let's proceed.

To open: Press the Windows Key and R at the same time. It will open a text box asking what program to open. Type "regedit.exe" (Just "regedit" will do too) and press Enter. It will open up the Registry Editor.

Welcome to the Registry. You should see a few folders to the left such as "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE", etc. When you expand these folders (via the arrow to the left of them), it shows even more folders. Each of these contain keys of values.

Step 2: Navigate to the values needing to be changed

Navigate to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\i8042prt\Parameters". Here is a screenshot of what it should look like:

Step 3: Change the values...

According to Microsoft's site, change the following values accordingly by clicking on them and editing the values:

Name Value LayerDriver JPN kbd106.dll OverrideKeyboardIdentifier PCAT_106KEY OverrideKeyboardSubtype 2 OberrideKeyboardType 7

When done changing values, it should look like this: (Use for verification)

Step 4: Sign out and back in

Finally, sign out and sign back into your profile. You will notice that the keyboard layout has changed to work with your keyboard!

Wow! I have not used Windows 10 Technical Preview in a while, but apparently a lot has changed in it since I last used it. To me, the recent updates actually (finally) make me feel like this is a new operating system. The previous builds made it feel as if it was just Windows 8.1 modified. The changes are beginning to become more apparent, etc. Oh and finally there is language support!

Let's break this down, shall we?

Setup and Sign In

Pretty much this portion of the Operating System borrows from Windows 8 in its entirety.

Setup Sign in

Lock Screen

The lockscreen... is the same.

English 日本語

No change there, except I do not like how the colours are almost the same near the white text. I will have to pick a new background for that later. =/

Settings App

The settings app got a revamp for the better. It reminds me of Windows 7's Control Panel, yet with the design of Windows 8 that makes it look just slick.

English 日本語

Desktop

The first thing you will probably notice (Feature-wise... not the wallpaper), is the taskbar having a bar saying "Ask Me Anything" ("Search the web and Windows" in the Japanese one, awkwardly), which is Cortana. I found the search really useful compared to previous Windows versions (Especially with how pathetically slow Windows 7's search is).

English 日本語

Start Menu

This is one thing I am both for, and kind of against. I got used to Windows 8's Metro Start Menu and have come to love it. I liked that Windows 10 Technical Preview's first version had the same one, but now we have a blend of the two. In my opinion though, I really like what is going on with the metro menu, I just have to get used to it. Also note that there is a notification center present too.

English 日本語

Not a lot has been translated just yet except for what was in previous Windows versions. This is expected as it is not complete. :)

Multi-Monitor Support

Seemless as in previous Windows distributions. I did have a video card crash though while taking screenshots which resulted in 2 of my 3 monitors going out. Didn't stop me from taking them though. :P

日本語

The application itself for managing displays looks nice as well, similar to the Windows 8 app.

English

Overall, it is nice that it has the perfect multi-monitor experience even in early stages (Unlike Debian Jessie).

Chances are that I am going to edit this post sometime later and add more in (I am just getting started...) but for now, these high quality screenshots will do. :)

I am really loving how the progress with Windows 10 is going. I will be sure to put my apps on the Windows Store later on when I have time. I wonder how a DERPG app would do on there. ;)

It's been a while since I got my hands on Visual Studio 2013 Ultimate, but I have not used it yet to make Windows 8 Metro-style applications yet... until now.

I haven't really used this software for much except for C++ Development of my mid2chart application. However, after some I decided (With some persuasion...) to develop with WPF and Metro and I regret not doing this earlier honestly. It is very simple to work with. The interface is nice, I see how everything works. It uses a language (Well multiple actually) that I have known for years. I am comfortable in the working environment this software gives me.

Anyways enough about me praising it. The application you see above is a rather simple one that many people made for the Windows Store already. The purpose wasn't really to put it in the Windows Store (Even though I will do that soon) but to see if I could even make a Windows 8 app to start off. I absolutely loved making it! :)

Here is a full screen screenshot of the application:

The functionality of the Hashes are built straight into the .NET Framework so the code that I used was extremely minimal. Can you believe people actually charge money in the Windows Store for apps like this? It took under 100 lines of code to make.

Aside from that Windows 8 Application, here is a WPF Application which calculates MD5 Hashes that I made with Visual Studio 2013 as well. :)

Notice the nice border around the window. These make Windows Forms applications, despite being useful, look plain. I love how WPF allows me to express a sense of art (Well I must have a dark sense of art then) because of the applications I wrote so far... These all include the same background with blurred effects and look extremely nice, being dark themed too.

Oh and for your information, the WPF Application for MD5Enc is actually on Githib right now. Get the source while you can. :)

To summarize this up. I think this is a step forward from the applications I have been writing in the past. To be honest, I look back at the applications I wrote before and now want to remake them with WPF because I know I can make them look and function better than before. That moment will come later on. :)

I personally liked making my current Avatar. I figured it was time to actually show how I did it... excluding all of the effects. Please be aware that this is NOT a tutorial. It merely shows how I made my avatar using GIMP 2.8.

Original Image (1350x1080)

You can already tell where I got the basis of the Avatar already. Miku's face is already drawn (And I wasn't the one who drew it...)! I went into GIMP and cut out the background. The size I cropped it to was 400x400. Afterwards, I resized it using the XBR Algorithm... making it 4x as large with it maintaining some nice detail.

Miku w/o background + XBR Resize 4x (1600x1600)

I figured I should add in a background, so I did. I used a texture that I usually use for game resources or editing of videos... The Circuit Texture.

Seamless Aqua Blue Circuit Texture (1024x1024)

After doing 3D editing, I managed to add perspective to the Circuit Texture. I put some masks on it along with radial blur to give it a "Pop-out" effect.

Circuit with editing and 3D Depth (1600x1600)

That, itself, is transparent. I added in plasma and colourized it to be completely Blue and Black.

Plasma Stilz (1600x1600)

Let's merge all of that together.

Previous layers merged (1600x1600)

It looks pretty dull doesn't it? Miku's hair is way too desaturated. How did I fix that? By increasing the saturation! I also made her hair glow a bit. Afterwards, I made her glow a soft white aura.

Miku saturated image with glow (1600x1600)

Finally, merge all of that together and add text and the final result is my avatar! :)

Final Result 「テイラー来良蘭」 (1600x1600)

When I make a new avatar, I will put up the project file for this one. :P

I decided to wrap the project up since I was a bit bored of it.

This application is extremely simple. Throw in a Rock Band 3 MIDI into the converter and it will spit out a chart file. You can also specify the output file's name.

Usages:

mid2chart.exe <midi filename>

mid2chart.exe <midi filename> <chart filename>

Links:

Compiled Binary: mid2chart.exe (44 KB)

GitHub Repo: https://github.com/iDestyKK/mid2chart_cpp

Note: Compiled in Visual Studio 2013 Ultimate. May need additional Windows Update DLLs to run.

Why did I write this application?

Feedback Chart Editor only reads notes from PART GUITAR, PART BASS, and PART DRUMS. It does not read from PART KEYS. Because of this, importing a MIDI file into Feedback that has a PART KEYS will lose data on Keyboard Notes. Since that chart editor is greatly outdated, I took the opportunity to make a converter to convert, not just keys... but ANYTHING the end user wants converted. All he/she has to do is edit the source code's const variables and they can tell the converter to convert whatever they want from the MIDI file. Be aware that this application does "not" support SysEx markers yet. I have not worked on that yet, nor do I know how to implement it at all.

Links are at the bottom of the page, if you do not want to hear me talking.

I posted this on my old blog yesterday and spammed my Twitter about it because I had a request to go into the game's data and extract the MOGG files.

Before:

After:

Ignore Audacity in the above screenshots, as they are 2 different songs I was listening to. Anywho, the files were originally named by an unknown numerical sequence. I had to open each and every one of them up and literally guess which song was which... which took quite some goddamn time. However, it is done. It helped that this game borrows music from some of the previous Project DIVA games. I know quite a few of the classic Vocaloid songs so when I heard some of them... I named it instantly and moved on. I am sure there is a better way to rename these files... especially since there is probably a data file that labels each and every one of them.

Well anyways, here are the links:

DKKBlog: 初音ミク -Project DIVA- F 2nd Game Rip (DKKRIP - MOGG) List of MOGGs (You can download them all at once here) on MEGA

I had fun doing this rip and honestly I found some cool songs in there that I will listen to (Like "Erase or Zero"). I mainly did the rip because we all love the Off Vocal + Acapella at DVD/Blu-Ray quality. Yup, all of these multitracks are at 48,000hz DVD/Blu-Ray quality... a PS3 standard.