Yes. We could utilize a user’s position/distance and viewing angle to determine the necessary video settings. There’s several ways this could be measured and solved - we could even load a thumbnail rather than instantiate a codec to save memory if far enough away.
You can do this today via setting the AssetId of a VideoFrame to an empty string. In the future Video API, subject to change, this will likely be a built-in method.
You have control over the aspect ratio via what you upload and the size of the part you place it on. However, at such a point ( even irl) you reach the point where increasing the resolution of a super large single video screen is impractical.
All of the above concerns mentioned can be solved via not increasing the resolution or giving additional controls. We want to offer controls where it makes sense, but giving all the levers, dials, and buttons is something we’d need to ensure is done in an intuitive manner. Otherwise, we risk accidental misuse or over-complicating the system.
Right, but do these video settings also modify the actual memory footprint of the video? The video itself has to be loaded somewhere in its original state no? From what you’re saying, im not sure how it would be possible to modify the video settings to reduce its quality without having to keep constantly requesting the original from disk in case the video needs to be brought back to higher quality no? What im specifically asking is IF i load the video from disk at a reduced quality by default and always have it sit at that low quality level (since the player cant approach it any further than a specific amount).
Loading a thumbnail is not a bad idea actually though i have to ask if this thumbnail will be loaded at like 500 studs out or 5000 studs out. Roblox has an issue with creating good enough baselines to not generate ugly, low quality and sometimes even distorted distant lod’s, shadows and whatever else at super close distances. I can also provide examples of this to you if you wish!
Good stuff then. Nothing to say here.
I know i have control over the actual file itself. Its… a file on my computer. What im asking is if said aspect ratios will get clamped down due to one of the axis being too high for roblox.
Also, the images below provide examples of real digital signage displays with suuuuuuuper long aspect ratios! These things are pretty common so im not sure how impractical they could be.
Sure. Thing is, most can actually be solved by providing more control. Yes i know some properties may need actual functionality (since directly modifying them wont do anything without some sort of update) but ultimately a lot of issues can entirely be fixed by lifting all restrictions and giving us the levers and buttons. I agree, it should be done in an intuitive manner, after all i dont think anyone would like having the resolution property be called something like “Vid_current_Resolution_active” and further provide a third magical axis no one has any clue what it does. I believe offering high degrees of control CAN be achieved in a proper and intuitive manner. What is not intuitive is adding new instances and functionality with like 2-4 half useful properties Doing this does fix the issue of over complication, but it also generates the issue of being too damn simple! Simple to such a degree that you can’t do much with them outside of what roblox originally intended.
One “complex” feature that you guys have added were the DragDetector instances! Those have quite a lot of properties and are undeniably complex to anyone less experienced. Why can those things have tons of control while actually meaningful things cannot?
Yes. In a nutshell, we stream in video via chunked segments. We can change the request while playing in order to get differing settings at different times depending on what a user’s device can handle. This means the video could change the quality + memory/perf impact if necessary and as needed. We aim to do this in a way that it is not super noticeable and ideally does not switch super often.
No. We support up to 4000x4000 for uploaded videos. No matter what you give us, the aspect ratio should be preserved.
Does encoding the video affect its final memory usage in-game? I assume there’s no point in going to extremes with low-bitrate encoding, placebo settings, or two-pass encoding to get the best quality at the smallest size since Roblox re-encodes the video upon upload anyway, right?
Oh, I had no idea there was an ingame video feature nowadays. I thought this had something to do with Youtube videos as thumbnails and was gonna ask if there’s any plans to respect browser settings (or whatever I changed in both Chrome and Firefox years ago, might be extensions idk) regarding autoplay - I haven’t actually used youtube outside of private browsing in nearly a decade and random Roblox clips messing up my recommendations are a big part of that.
Does Roblox manually review and approve each and every video that is uploaded, or is there strict censorship in place?
I mean, in a large community like Roblox, the possibility of NSFW films is always there.
i doubt this could happen - but if roblox had rights to some films, and they made videos 3-5 hours max. Just imagine a roblox cinema that players have to pay robux to watch or if they had premium they could watch it for free
Cool, but i’ll stick to the bitmap gif unofficial thingy method that isn’t very optimized but it works out for me
(since I wouldn’t necessarily spend 2000 robux to upload a short dumb video of a cat bobbing its head while music plays and rainbow lights flicker in the background, especially when I’m not in the need of uploading long and actually useful videos and I definitely do not have that kind of budget for my little projects… that nobody plays… uhm… oh well…)
But it’s an overall good update for all developers! Looking forward to the upload fee adjustments!
Will this or has it already, made it’s way to video thumbnails for your experience description that were hosted on youtube? Currently, is it still 30 seconds on the limit for those types of videos.
Is it possible for Video Highlights on your experience details page to be extended to 60 seconds as well? It would be really great if we could show some more footage for our game trailers!
Correct. We transcode the video and handle the performance for you. Generally speaking, you should aim for FHD with similar settings to a platform like YouTube.
You can find more specific setting recommendations in the FAQ on the original beta announcement:
Could you please work towards increasing the amount of videos being able to play from 2, to 20? Even if it’s at slow intervals, it would be greatly appreciated.
Doing this does fix the issue of over complication, but it also generates the issue of being too damn simple! Simple to such a degree that you can’t do much with them outside of what roblox originally intended.
