Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
video assets without
dropping
frames, so do make sure to optimize low-bit rate video
assets if you are going to target older or less expensive consumer electronics devices.
Digital Video Data Footprint Optimization: Using Co-
decs and Their Settings
As mentioned earlier, your digital video asset will be compressed, using software utilit-
ies called codecs. There are two “sides” to the video codec: one that encodes the video
data stream and another that decodes it. The video decoder will be part of the OS, plat-
form (JavaFX), or browser that uses it. The decoder is primarily optimized for speed,
as smoothness of playback is a key issue, whereas the encoder is optimized to reduce
the data footprint for the digital video asset it is generating. For this reason, the encod-
ing process can take a long time, depending on how many processing cores a worksta-
tion contains. Most digital video content production workstations should support eight
processor cores, like my 64-bit AMD octacore workstation.
Codecs (the encoder side) are like plug-ins, in that they can be installed into differ-
ent digital video-editing software packages to enable them to encode different digital
video asset file formats. Because Java and JavaFX 8 support the MPEG-4 H.264 AVC
format, you need to make sure that you are using one of the digital video software
packages that supports encoding digital video data using (or into) this digital video file
format. More than one software manufacturer makes MPEG-4 encoding software, so
there will be different MPEG-4 AVC codecs that will yield different (better or worse)
results, in terms of encoding speed and file size. The professional solution, which I
highly recommend that you secure if you want to produce digital video professionally,
is called Sorenson Squeeze Pro.
There is also an open-source solution called EditShare LightWorks 12, which is
scheduled to support output to the MPEG4 codec natively by 2014. When optimizing
(setting compression settings) for digital video data file size, there are many variables
that directly affect the digital video data footprint. I will discuss these in their order of
importance, in in terms of effect on video file size, from the most important to the least,
so that you will know which parameters to tweak to obtain the result you are looking
for.
Like with digital image compression, the resolution, or number of pixels, in each
frame of video is the optimal place to start the optimization process. If your user is us-
ing 800 × 480 or
1,280 × 720
smartphones, e-readers, or tablets, then you do not need
to use true HD 1,920 × 1,080 resolution to get good visual results for your digital video
assets. With superfine density (small dot pitch) displays out there, you can scale a
