Joined: 3/9/2004
Posts: 4588
Location: In his lab studying psychology to find new ways to torture TASers and forumers
Xkeeper wrote:
Nach wrote:
Xkeeper wrote:
prefixing the system name is stupid, especially given that it's, you know, at the end of the file anyway
No, it isn't. And, no, it isn't.
fm2 nes
gmv genesis
vbm gameboy/gba
smv snes
so yes, it is, just in a slightly more obscure but easily identifiable format if you've been watching a tas movie for more than, you know, one time
Thanks for not reading the thread.
Warning: Opinions expressed by Nach or others in this post do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or position of Nach himself on the matter(s) being discussed therein.
While it's somewhat unlikely that someone would keep a collection of runs, preserving even obsoleted versions of the run, if someone does then the file names (for runs of the same game) would sort nicely by category rather than being randomly interspersed.
OTOH, this case is rather unusual, so I suppose it's not extremely important.
However, one could also make a cosmetic argument: It makes sense that the game name is succeeded by the category of the run because they are more or less related to each other. But as said, this is just cosmetic and there's no right or wrong opinion.
we've only had this discussion about 27 times, I figured reading the same thread with all the same ideas that'll never actually get implemented would be a bit redundant
Since when? People have been talking about both the recording and the video files.
What, are you suggesting we use a different naming scheme for them? Wouldn't that be confusing?
Emulator Coder, Site Developer, Site Owner, Expert player
(3573)
Joined: 11/3/2004
Posts: 4754
Location: Tennessee
Whatever naming scheme we adopt, it will be the same for input files as well as video files (and probably screenshots as well). Thus, system ID is a good choice.
And, input file extension do NOT tell you the system.
GMV could be Genesis, 32X, or SegaCD
MCM could be PCE, PCECD, PC-FX, Lynx, NGP, or WSWAN
etc.
Joined: 3/9/2004
Posts: 4588
Location: In his lab studying psychology to find new ways to torture TASers and forumers
Warp wrote:
adelikat wrote:
I don't see why categories should precede the ID
While it's somewhat unlikely that someone would keep a collection of runs
I do.
Older runs many times take alternate routes which are interesting to see. It's sometimes nice to see the progression of runs. Many older runs are also more entertaining in certain ways.
For me at least, it'd be nice to have them organized.
Warp wrote:
How about avi, mkv and mp4? What systems do they correspond to?-)
In addition to that, here is another (rather stupid) point: Some OSs hide extensions, and if all you see is some generic text file icon, but the movie opens up and plays, it'd be nice to see nes-lemmings-whatever and snes-lemmings-whatever, instead of wondering which is which, and forcing you to change your OS settings (albeit, I'd personally drag out back and shoot any user who leaves file extensions hidden).
Warning: Opinions expressed by Nach or others in this post do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or position of Nach himself on the matter(s) being discussed therein.
then why not put it at the end to minimize amount of redundand typing someone has to do every time they decide to watch a movie
I think the main priority in the order of the different fields in the name is not how laborious it is to type, but how they will sort when listed alphabetically.
One could argue that sorting primarily by system is not a good idea, but that's a different (although valid) point.
It's also the point I make. I'm trying to think like a user. If I want to watch the Bionic Commando run, for example, I'll go to "b" for "bioniccommando" That would be my first instinct. Now say I wanted to watch Prince of Persia. I go to "p" for "princeofpersia". Wait, there are multiple systems for that run. Well, I'm watching the Genesis one, so "princeofpersia-genesis". There it is.
(I should note that I do see system-first as viable and understand the logic behind that too)
Anyways, Warp and Nach seem to agree on system-game-category-movienumber-authors.fileextension. I don't really have too many problems with it either. Does adelikat have any protests? Can we move on to some of the other issues?
Well... I still think game name should be first. (This is also what you said in your first post on the subject, arki.) The game name is by far the thing you are most likely to sort by/search for. When looking for that Battletoads movie, I don't want to see all movies starting with "NES-".
Therefore I think that this would be better:
game-system-category-movienumber-authors.fileextension
Otherwise, it looks very good!
Emulator Coder, Site Developer, Site Owner, Expert player
(3573)
Joined: 11/3/2004
Posts: 4754
Location: Tennessee
Conceptually I much prefer system first but I can understand that people would want to be able to get to a game quickly by typing the name of the game.
Therefore I find Truncated's example an acceptable compromise.
Some examples under his approach:
batman-gens-818-arkiandruski.gmv
batman-nes-1049-aglar.fcm
batman-nes-350-jecy.fcm
bokudraculakun-gb-1008-sirvg.vbm
bokudraculakun-nes-1337-adelikat,randil,darkkobold,arukado.fm2
bokudraculakun-nes-89-phil,genisto.fcm
supermetroid-snes-100-817-jxq.smv
supermetroid-snes-100-1195-cpadolf.smv
supermetroid-snes-any-793-herooftheday.smv
supermetroid-snes-any-1073-herooftheday.smv
supermetroid-snes-any-1368-taco,kriole.smv
supermetroid-snes-anyingame-1075-cpadolf.smv
supermetroid-snes-glitchedany-1270-cpadolf.smv
If every movie file (including obsoletions) were in the same folder this would keep the mess sorted well I think. It wouldn't be hard to see what the latest version of a movie/category was. I vote yes.
EDIT:
As suggested by arukado, removing the author names would look like this:
batman-gens-818.gmv
batman-nes-1049.fcm
batman-nes-350.fcm
bokudraculakun-gb-1008.vbm
bokudraculakun-nes-1337.fm2
bokudraculakun-nes-89.fcm
supermetroid-snes-100-817.smv
supermetroid-snes-100-1195.smv
supermetroid-snes-any-793.smv
supermetroid-snes-any-1073.smv
supermetroid-snes-any-1368.smv
supermetroid-snes-anyingame-1075.smv
supermetroid-snes-glitchedany-1270.smv
I personally think using the movie ID is a good thing, but i dont see the use of putting authors names, sure its not like we are trying to gain space or such, but more tinny filename mean also clearer listing.
Beside, when you open the movie replay dialog box, there is generaly displayed the "author comment", that should be fair enought for credits.
Joined: 10/28/2007
Posts: 1360
Location: The dark horror in the back of your mind
arukAdo wrote:
I personally think using the movie ID is a good thing, but i dont see the use of putting authors names, sure its not like we are trying to gain space or such, but more tinny filename mean also clearer listing.
Beside, when you open the movie replay dialog box, there is generaly displayed the "author comment", that should be fair enought for credits.
People don't remember, say, 1368M as 1368M. They remember it as Taco and Kriole's (Super Metroid) run, especially in comparison to older runs in the same category. This means that people looking for a specific instance of a run will want to be able to see the author at a glance, so it must be in the file name.
EDIT: We've just brought up on IRC that it's probably a good idea to zero-pad the movie numbers, to wit:
batman-gens-0818-arkiandruski.gmv
batman-nes-0350-jecy.fcm
batman-nes-1049-aglar.fcm
bokudraculakun-gb-1008-sirvg.vbm
bokudraculakun-nes-0089-phil,genisto.fcm
bokudraculakun-nes-1337-adelikat,randil,darkkobold,arukado.fm2
supermetroid-snes-100-0817-jxq.smv
supermetroid-snes-100-1195-cpadolf.smv
supermetroid-snes-any-0793-herooftheday.smv
supermetroid-snes-any-1073-herooftheday.smv
supermetroid-snes-any-1368-taco,kriole.smv
supermetroid-snes-anyingame-1075-cpadolf.smv
supermetroid-snes-glitchedany-1270-cpadolf.smv
I think "100" is a bad category name (to be used in the file names) because it's easily confused with the movie id number, especially since the "default" run doesn't have a category name at all. So I suggest that either:
1) Use a word instead of "100" (even if it looks a bit clumsy), or
2) always include a category field, even for the "default" run.
I also think the author name should stay. It's more distinctive and memorable than a cold abstract movie id number (in cases where the same game&category has been obsoleted many times and hence the only differentiating thing between them would be the movie id number).
Joined: 3/9/2004
Posts: 4588
Location: In his lab studying psychology to find new ways to torture TASers and forumers
I don't really see the value in zero padding. However if we do zero pad, is 4 digits enough? Sure in all the years we've been around we're put out almost 1500 movies. But the amount of TASers we have is growing, we support new systems inviting new games to be played, our judges and encoders now move pretty quickly, and thanks to recent changes, our site is now getting better exposure and growing each month. This year so far we actually didn't have as many movies as we usually do, but I can see down the line the possibility for us to be pumping out movies on a large scale. I'd prefer not having to worry about adding another zero 5 years from now (or less), and needing to rename everything again. If we're going to zero pad, we should be thinking about 5 digits right now, which should keep us covered for another decade or two.
Warning: Opinions expressed by Nach or others in this post do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or position of Nach himself on the matter(s) being discussed therein.
