SOLVED: Help with Cesaro Entrance

[CuddlyCorey]

Hi all! 

Okay, so I have the "new" mod of Cesaro by JoeMashups (Cesaro By Joe Mashups) and it works great. 
I also downloaded the "ported entrance and victory motions" by BlindedByGrace (https://smacktalks.org/forums/topic/72037-ported-entrance-victory-motions-and-move-animations-from-2k20-and-previous-games-ported-entrances-update-added-14th-may/) as well as the updates and new moves. 

All of the above work fine in the game. I then downloaded Cesaro's GFX from multiple sources including this one from 2KM by Franzineo Cesaro GFX on 2KM

My problem is that whenever Cesaro comes out with entrance on, it totally slows down (once it crashed) my game. But, when it's done loading or whatever, the entrance works but is super laggy. At least a minute load time. 

I made sure his moveset file was correct, injected with CCT. Regen. Same issue. I even checked the video/tron sizes and they are all the standard sizes. I made sure the entrance trons went into the correct places. I injected the mini, wall, ramp, apron bk2 files with cct. Regen. Same issues. 

What I did find that is when I went into the game, and took off the ramp video, the lagging/loading went away. So, again...I tried with new videos and all of the above, and again...game freezes up or is super long. 

I'm thinking there is some kind of glitch somewhere, but not sure where to look. I know it's not the ch files, because I tested out the entrances with only titantron set up, and it works fine. 

Is there something I'm missing? 

Edited May 19, 2021 by CuddlyCorey
Solved

[Cave Waverider]

It sounds like it's a problem with the video you're using for that particular tron. It might be that the video is too large,  has been created in a Codec that is too hard for your computer to handle while rendering graphics, has the wrong and/or variable framerate or something else.

Although you said you had the same problem with other videos. You can try to install the titantron as your ramp video as well and check  if you still have the bad framerate. If it does, perhaps your computer can't handle multiple trons. What are your system specs?

[CuddlyCorey]

2 hours ago, Cave Waverider said:

It sounds like it's a problem with the video you're using for that particular tron. It might be that the video is too large,  has been created in a Codec that is too hard for your computer to handle while rendering graphics, has the wrong and/or variable framerate or something else.

Although you said you had the same problem with other videos. You can try to install the titantron as your ramp video as well and check  if you still have the bad framerate. If it does, perhaps your computer can't handle multiple trons. What are your system specs?

My comp specs are pretty decent. It's a gaming computer. I play on max settings, no issues. 

I think I found the problem. I looked in my 2k19 folders and in my mods folder I have CCT/Movies/Pac/mov/ and in that folder I have ss_apron, ss_mini, etc...

I have no idea how that folder was created (LOL), but I looked in the pac files and I had duplicate trons for Cesaro and in my 2k19/pac/mov folders. 

I guess that's the problem? I dunno 

Side note: I really have to stop posting on this forum. I'm seeing my stupid face all over the place. LMAO 

[BlindedByTheGrace]

38 minutes ago, CuddlyCorey said:

My comp specs are pretty decent. It's a gaming computer. I play on max settings, no issues. 

I think I found the problem. I looked in my 2k19 folders and in my mods folder I have CCT/Movies/Pac/mov/ and in that folder I have ss_apron, ss_mini, etc...

I have no idea how that folder was created (LOL), but I looked in the pac files and I had duplicate trons for Cesaro and in my 2k19/pac/mov folders. 

I guess that's the problem? I dunno 

Side note: I really have to stop posting on this forum. I'm seeing my stupid face all over the place. LMAO 

Hi,

The mov folder and subfolders under CCT are created when you install gfx in CCT. This is the location where CCT places the gfx pac files, not the default 2k19\pac\mov folder where the gfx files which come with the game are kept.

These are not duplicates but pac files of the same name ID . The mov\ss_mini ,ss_ramp, ss-wall and ss-apron folders will have files of the same ID as the name but they aren't the same content as the game reads data in each file which tells it which type of tron it is.

had a look at the trons you downloaded and they are indeed large filesizes as @Cave Waverider mentioned in his response.

All the gfx files play for a minimum of 50 seconds without looping which is the main problem here, even with a high spec PC, especially if you are playing a multiman match against a character(s) with modded gfx files.

One way of dealing with this will be compresssing each bk2 file to a percentage of its size using Rad Video Tools. 

 

 

Edited May 18, 2021 by BlindedByTheGrace

[Mach3]

is the file format is .bk2 or .biki

bro if the modded file size is more than the default then clear ur arc

check that does ur modded file size have alignment probs.if yes it can be fixed by injecting a compressed file into ur SHDC/PACH FILE

 

[Cave Waverider]

15 hours ago, CuddlyCorey said:

My comp specs are pretty decent. It's a gaming computer. I play on max settings, no issues. 

"Pretty decent" doesn't really say much. My hunch is you don't have enough RAM and/or VRAM or not a fast enough CPU/GPU to process such large videos while the game is being rendered, but I can't really tell if you don't post your system specs. 🤷‍♂️
It could also be that your videos are using a codec that your PC doesn't support decoding in Hardware, which may be the case on some older generation GPUs/CPUs with certain video codecs.

In any case, you can try to recompile the videos (either the originals using any good video editing tool and/or the .bk2 files using RAD Video Tools) with a different codec/settings and/or decrease to make them a smaller size.

 

[Mach3]

52 minutes ago, Cave Waverider said:

"Pretty decent" doesn't really say much. My hunch is you don't have enough RAM and/or VRAM or not a fast enough CPU/GPU to process such large videos while the game is being rendered, but I can't really tell if you don't post your system specs. 🤷‍♂️
It could also be that your videos are using a codec that your PC doesn't support decoding in Hardware, which may be the case on some older generation GPUs/CPUs with certain video codecs.

In any case, you can try to recompile the videos with a different codec/settings and/or decrease to make them a smaller size.

 

maybe thats also a reason behind the game crash

[CuddlyCorey]

"One way of dealing with this will be compresssing each bk2 file to a percentage of its size using Rad Video Tools. "

Is there a specific percentage I'm aiming for? What is the "max" size of a video? 

I'm not sure how to post my specs in a forum like this, never done it before. The game never crashes/freezes like this for me with any other superstar/entrance combo. Just this Cesaro one. 

I've never compressed a video before, so I'll try it out. I was just following the Tron sizes part on this page https://smacktalks.org/wiki/index.php/Tron_Modding#Converting_Videos_to_.bk2_format 

Thanks for all the replies people! I'm really understanding more and more each day. 

Also from what Blinded said about my mods folder: 
"

The mov folder and subfolders under CCT are created when you install gfx in CCT. This is the location where CCT places the gfx pac files, not the default 2k19\pac\mov folder where the gfx files which come with the game are kept.

These are not duplicates but pac files of the same name ID . The mov\ss_mini ,ss_ramp, ss-wall and ss-apron folders will have files of the same ID as the name but they aren't the same content as the game reads data in each file which tells it which type of tron it is." 

 

Does that mean I have duplicate video files for Cesaro? One in main game files and one in my mods folder? Which one does the game read? Does on override the other? 

[CuddlyCorey]

5 hours ago, xdwin_10 said:

is the file format is .bk2 or .biki

bro if the modded file size is more than the default then clear ur arc

check that does ur modded file size have alignment probs.if yes it can be fixed by injecting a compressed file into ur SHDC/PACH FILE

 

What is the default? 

All the videos I use are in bk2

[CuddlyCorey]

I figured it out and now my Cesaro entrance works! WOO HOO!!!

Thank you everyone for your help and time and understanding. It was my titantron and wall and ramp files were super large! 

I used Rad tools, some online stuff and got them down to like over half of their file sizes. I even trimmed them down to like 20 seconds. 

Such a difference! 

WOO #CesaroSection 

[CuddlyCorey]

As an added side note to this....

Karrion Kross's GFX from 2KM Karrion Kross GFX/Call Names by Kotaproductions are extremly large as well. 

I had to edit, trim, decompress them too. Had the same issue as above with Cesaro. 

Everything works now. THanks for the tips! 

[BlindedByTheGrace]

5 hours ago, CuddlyCorey said:

As an added side note to this....

Karrion Kross's GFX from 2KM Karrion Kross GFX/Call Names by Kotaproductions are extremly large as well. 

I had to edit, trim, decompress them too. Had the same issue as above with Cesaro. 

Everything works now. THanks for the tips! 

You will have to do the same for quite a few custom gfx since a lot are not optimised properly. 

Edited May 20, 2021 by BlindedByTheGrace

[Cave Waverider]

38 minutes ago, BlindedByTheGrace said:

You will have to do the same for quite a few custom gfx since a lot are not optimised properly. 

Indeed. Or one can brute force it by adding more RAM and VRAM (the latter would actually require a different video card) to your PC.

[CuddlyCorey]

57 minutes ago, Cave Waverider said:

Indeed. Or one can brute force it by adding more RAM and VRAM (the latter would actually require a different video card) to your PC.

I honestly wish I were brave enough to update my own computer. I bought this machine on sale (LOL) and it was/is a "gaming" PC only because of the graphics card, I think. It's the best comp I've had, but then again...I've usually only had laptops. 

If I could share my specs (If I knew how) I would. hahah