Me?  Write a FAQ?  You're asking for trouble... and serious confusion.
  Well there isn't really all that much to CMpeg, at least if you just want the
default encoding.  The Win CMpeg4 front-end to CMpeg is easier still to use.
  On the DOS command-line it might look like this:

 cmpeg -v0t0d0m0f2 ipb.ctl input%03d.tga output.mpg

  "input" being the rendered frames file name prefix (name less number) and
"output" the animation name you give it.
  The "%03" part is the number of digits that are in the rendered output of
POV-Ray, in this case anywhere from 100 to 999 frames.  The zero is the left
padding, i.e. 000 has a leftmost zero (instead of 100 or 200, etc.).  For some
reason this isn't mentioned in the documentation and it's the only way I ever
got it to work right.
  Instead of doing it this way there's the file list method which is what
Sanders utility offers to do.  It simply includes all the files to be encoded
into a text file which circumvents the need for -t0 (zero starting frame,
input000.tga in this case) and %##d parameters and allows for any set of mixed
frames without need to figure what's what.
  The -v is for setting verbose output, I use -v0 so it's turned off completely
to speed things up.  You just don't know the progress is the only drawback.  All
the switches can be separate or combined as I show here.
  -d is cost function and -m is block-matching, neither of which I know anything
about except that defaults of 0 is fastest and 1 is slower but without much gain
at all in quality or file size.  So it's an easy choice to just use 0 for both.
  -f is the frame rate chosen as a single number for each setting: 2 is 24 fps,
5 is 30 fps and there are several more.
  ipb.ctl is the control file (default you might say) and there are two other
choices, one to get a Xing compatible encoding (-x switch has to be used also
[not avail in Sanders CMpeg4 front-end]) and the other pvrg.ctl is PVRG decoder
specific (no switch needed), but the ipb.ctl file would be the wisest choice for
generality.  Another aspect is that the you can make your own control file by
editing ipb.ctl and save it as another *.ctl.  The cmpeg.doc tells what the
contents mean (if you can understand it okay, not all that difficult to at least
play with).

  Now, far as Sanders CMpeg front-end...
Nothing to it.  Set each field up with a file name, gather up the rendered
frames in the file list box by browsing to the input frames folder.  Add them
in, remove any strays, click on the step by step buttons, and you'll get a mpeg
animation in the end that can even be played right after it's made (if you have
Media Player installed) without leaving so you can do another set of files if
you want.
  Some things can't be done though.  Like compile a variation of frames.  Only
one set at a time in one order.  In other words you can't make the animation go
from end to beginning, or beginning/end/beginning again.  Although you could
just edit the list outside of the utility after it's creation step.  And the
same goes for the batch file and control file too, no editing within the
utility.  Not that you'd ever need to anyway (maybe).
  The only thing you need to know to use it is in the [Help] button and it does
just fine for straightforward mpeg making.  I should have said this first  :-)
  If you wonder about the cost function and block matching, the choices 1 and 1
for these is slower with potential loss in quality I think, and doesn't reduce
file size enough to matter; 1% to 2% smaller file as the Doc puts it and I've
seen that result myself (imperceptible visually?).

Bob

"Ken" <tyl### [at] pacbellnet> wrote in message
news:388ED7B9.5CAEF213@pacbell.net...
|
|
| Remco de Korte wrote:
|
| > I was hoping Sanders utility would help me out. It looks very
| > impressive, in fact a bit too impressive to me ;) As I mentioned above I
| > don't really know what all the options stand for and can do.
|
| Bob seems to understand the settings of CMPEG very well. Maybe we can
| get Bob to write an FAQ on the subject.
|
| --
| Ken Tyler -  1300+ Povray, Graphics, 3D Rendering, and Raytracing Links:
| http://home.pacbell.net/tylereng/index.html http://www.povray.org/links/

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