Celestia 1.6.1 on Linux has no codec options

[Thailandian]

I just managed to get Celestia installed in OpenSuse - I have previously, been using the Windows version in a VirtualBox.

However, when I went to record a video, there were no codec or container options - only Theora in an .ogg container. I'm using Celestia to make backgrounds for a video, so I really need to use a lossless codec so that the final video will be as high a quality as possible, after adding foreground from Blender.

I have ffmpeg and mplayer/mencoder installed on my system, so have plenty of codecs available in other apps such as Kdenlive, Avidemux and Blender.

Do I need anything else so that I can select different codecs?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[John Van Vliet]

there were no codec or container options

why would there be ?

the celesiia in the suse repos is old
then there is my git page ( currently uses qt4 )
there is no sound in space ( as in "no one can hear you scream " )

and i did not put sound in it

[Thailandian]

Sorry, I should have stated video codecs. I need a lossless video codec to avoid artefacts after adding foreground with Blender.

Thanks, I'll have a go at compiling your source. I'd certainly prefer a modern qt version than KDE3!

Any recommendations re: compiling? I have a feeling I tried compiling the source from the Celestia Downloads page, but gave up at the first hurdle and returned to VirtualBox as the path of least resistance.

[Janus]

Sorry, I should have stated video codecs. I need a lossless video codec to avoid artefacts after adding foreground with Blender.

When recording videos, which I do on windows for things like my solar system tour, I have used 264 set for lossless in the popup.
Not sure if it was X or H or whatever, outside of MPC-HC I try to avoid dealing with codecs.
The actual key is to select lossless, which runs stabler for me than nearly lossless for some reason.

What you do need to be aware of however, is that celestia only produces AVI files.
Which have size limitations, you may need custom tools to read one >2GB, and definitely will for any >4GB, which I learned the hard way.

I have been tinkering with making a module to create mkv files, but as I have said many times, I am not a real C/C++ programmer.
Simply getting the VS2010 branch from github compiling with VS2010/12/13 & QT5.4.2 with them was enough of a pain.
Though a couple of projects customers are working on have pointed me in promising directions.


Janus.

[John Van Vliet]

for video the default is ogv
a gpl'ed format that is supported by basically every linux distro

use handbreak to compress it using MKV for upload

for now their is and has really been no need for anything other than ogv support

are YOU planning on paying the mpeg group a licensing fee ???? to put the code in
the code on my git page will be updated soon with the QT5 qmake build
just debugging it right now

[Janus]

or video the default is ogv
a gpl'ed format that is supported by basically every linux distro

use handbreak to compress it using MKV for upload

for now their is and has really been no need for anything other than ogv support

are YOU planning on paying the mpeg group a licensing fee ???? to put the code in
the code on my git page will be updated soon with the QT5 qmake build
just debugging it right now

Not familiar with ogv, I will research it.
Only partly familiar with mkv, which is I believe just a container.

The codecs used to hold frames of video or audio are separate I believe.
I have been looking at maybe making a module that would take frame captures, run them into webm, then put that into an mkv container.
That is for later however.

As for licensing to the mpeg group, I do not understand.
I simply used a codec out of ffdshow, not part of the program at all.
If I really wanted to integrate a codec, I would probably adapt logareth(sp?), an open source lossless video codec.

Getting QT5 to work with the vs2010 branch was a lot of work.
Got QT5.4.2 w/VS2010/12/13 yesterday.
Managed 5.6.3 this afternoon, and just finished a 5.8 w/VS2013

Trying to decide between updating glew & eigen, or going for 64-bit next.


Janus.

[Thailandian]

I've been using Lagarith which came bundled in a codec pack. I did a bit of research, and, according to one technical review, it was the only one of those tested that was genuinely lossless. Filesize has not been a problem yet, and if necessary, I can stitch videos together with Avidemux.

I think I'm beginning to understand the situation - the QT version comes with ogg/theora as its video codec/container; the Windows version uses whatever codecs are on the system, but only avi container?

John Van Vliet: I searched for your Git page last night but couldn't find it. Would you mind posting a link?

Many thanks to you both for the advice.

[John Van Vliet]

- qmake-qt4 and autotools
https://github.com/JohnVV/MyCelestiaBuild

this will be updated in a few days to a qmake-qt5 only
-- removing autotools for the qt5 only GUI

Added after 5 hours 41 minutes:
it is updated to qt5 and qmake-qt5 code

updated to use eigen 3.4
qmake-qt5
png 16

still lua 5.1

[Thailandian]

I just got Celestia-SPICE installed on my Leap 42.2 system!

As well as SPICE, I had to install qmake from the Build Service, but after that, compilation and installation of Celestia went without a hitch.

Everything is so much crisper and snappier, even though I was devoting about 80% of RAM to VirtualBox before.

I suppose video codec selection must be specific to the Windows version, but I just realised this is not a problem - I can use ogg videos during development, then`make a lagarith lossless video in Windows for the final product.

Once again, thank you. I'll let you know if I find any bugs.

[John Van Vliet]

you will still need to go over to the celesialmatters forum and run through the sipce thread to install the needed kernels

also cspice needs to be installed before you build the code

[Thailandian]

Thanks again - all seems to be working well now.

A quick question - now that I've built it, do I need to keep the files from the "build" directory (other than the celestia executable itself of course)?