Video Preview 1

[Jonathan Kaplan]

I have put up a first preview of video support for OpenWonderland. This requires changes to add native libraries to the core source of Wonderland, and has a number of known issues listed below. Here are the instructions for installation:

1. start with the OWL source code. I recommend the latest version, rev 4508, although older versions will probably work.

2. download the core changes from here: http://openwonderland.org/modules/module-warehouse/doc_download/257-videopreview1-core

3. unzip the resulting xuggler-core.zip file in the wonderland/ source directory. Note this will overwrite several files.

4. start the OWL server as usual.

5. install the video player module from here: https://sites.google.com/site/openwonderland/owl-docs/videoplayer.jar

You should now be able to add the video player using the insert object menu. Once you add a video player, you can take control and use the folder icon on the toolbar to open a video file. Right now, it is best to open a video file (.mov and .avi at least are known to work) that is accessible with an http:// URL.

This work was contributed by Nigel Simpson, who tried numerous video players before finally settling on xuggler (http://www.xuggle.com/xuggler/), a native wrapper around the FFMPEG libraries. For an idea of what formats this should support, see the FFMPEG pages or here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FFmpeg#Formats. This is the first working code, so has a number of rough edges that need polishing. If you try it, please report back on how it works for you.

Here are some of the issues and quirks I have seen:

- you only hear audio if you have control of the movie

- video pauses and audio skips due to garbage collection

- video files do not work with drag and drop

- native libraries are not supported on 64-bit Windows using the 64-bit JVM (can someone try this and verify that it breaks?)

- dragging the slider does not work to change the video playback

- on Windows, the audio buffer can get corrupted, leading to repeated sounds after the video ends or is stopped

- new videos don't load at the beginning

- loading a new video causes audio to drop

- there is no progress indicator for large video downloads

[Neil Rerup]

Thanks, Jonathan / Nigel. This looks interesting. I'll try this out
next week ...

Neil

[Nicole Yankelovich]

It would be great if people could share links to videos that we can
use to demonstrate this app. To get things started, here are a few I've
found on the internet that work pretty well:

The Big Biodiversity Butterfly count on the BBC
http://www.bigbiodiversitycount.org.uk/Opalapplication/BBBC%20on%20the%20BBC.mov

British Columbia Nature Trust
http://www.naturetrust.bc.ca/movies/ColdfishQT-best_Bband.mov

Luigi Colani: Translating Nature / Design Museum London
http://a37.video2.blip.tv/5910001843975/Henrichy0205blip-Colani2783.mp4

RNA Interference (long load time, but interesting educational content)
http://www.nature.com/focus/rnai/animations/rnai_revised_500x280.mov

One more quirk to mention that Jon didn't include in his list. After you
enter the URL of a video, you will see a "Loading" message in the upper
right corner of the screen. Once this message goes away, the video
window will resize to accommodate the aspect ratio of the video you have
just downloaded. Most of the times that I've tried it, the video window
stays black, giving you no feedback that the video is ready to play. You
have to click on the play button to see the video. This should be fixed
to show the first frame of the video (which it did do for me a few
times, but I haven't found a pattern yet).

Nicole.

[Neil Rerup]

Nice to see you looked to BC for some videos, Nicole! ;-)

I have a couple of customers that are looking for video in their
environments and I was planning on testing out the video player this
week. I'll let you know how it goes and post the links ...

Neil (born and raised in Vancouver) Rerup

[Nicole Yankelovich]

I've spent some time this weekend testing the video module, and I
learned some things that will hopefully make the testing process easier
for others. While Jon is working on getting drag and drop to work,
here's an alternate way to upload videos to OWL for testing:

* Select "Content Browser" from the Tools menu
* Navigate to your User directory
* Click on the Up arrow to get a file chooser dialog and select a video
file from your hard drive
* Add a video player to the world using the Insert Object dialog
* Take control of the video player
* Click on the folder icon
* Enter the content repository URL of your video (see below)
* WAIT until the Loading Video message goes away before clicking "Play"

When you add video to the content repository, the URL needs to be in
this form:

http://[your server address]:8080/webdav/content/users/[your user
name]/[video file name]

For example, if I uploaded a video called "MyTestVideo.mov" on the
community server, my URL would look like this:

http://owf1.virtualnorthstar.org:8080/webdav/content/users/Nicole/MyTestVideo.mov

If you want a nice video from the Internet, here's one from National
Geographic that I found:

http://l3-hl1.videos02.myspacecdn.com/videos02/14/8c9f6d6048984c948a1fb3ef9d805422/vid.mp4

To find this URL, I downloaded some video grabber software for my
Windows machine:

http://www.e2esoft.cn/flvcapture/

This application makes the media URLs from video sites visible when you
play the video inside the application window. Not all the URLs it
exposed worked, however. Before trying them in Wonderland, first try
them in a web browser window. I wasn't able to get any YouTube URLs that
worked, but I was able to get ones from Vimeo, MySpace, and MetaCafe
that did work. If someone has a YouTube URL that works in a browser
window, please test it inside OWL and let us know the results.

You can also use this software to download the videos to your computer
and then upload them to the content repository using the instructions above.

Nicole.

[Dan]

Looks good guys.

With regard to the Windows audio buffer corruption issue, I've found
that doing an unsynch and resync (the gears icon) will stop the sound
from repeating in your ears. Will be great once the pause/skipping
issue is fixed - pretty smooth apart from that. Keep up the good work
guys (especially Nigel!)

On Sep 6, 11:18 am, Nicole Yankelovich <nic...@yankelovich.ws> wrote:
>   I've spent some time this weekend testing the video module, and I
> learned some things that will hopefully make the testing process easier
> for others. While Jon is working on getting drag and drop to work,
> here's an alternate way to upload videos to OWL for testing:
>
> * Select "Content Browser" from the Tools menu
> * Navigate to your User directory
> * Click on the Up arrow to get a file chooser dialog and select a video
> file from your hard drive
> * Add a video player to the world using the Insert Object dialog
> * Take control of the video player
> * Click on the folder icon
> * Enter the content repository URL of your video (see below)
> * WAIT until the Loading Video message goes away before clicking "Play"
>
> When you add video to the content repository, the URL needs to be in
> this form:
>

> http://[yourserver address]:8080/webdav/content/users/[your user

> name]/[video file name]
>
> For example, if I uploaded a video called "MyTestVideo.mov" on the
> community server, my URL would look like this:
>

> http://owf1.virtualnorthstar.org:8080/webdav/content/users/Nicole/MyT...

>
> If you want a nice video from the Internet, here's one from National
> Geographic that I found:
>

> http://l3-hl1.videos02.myspacecdn.com/videos02/14/8c9f6d6048984c948a1...

[micheldenis]

Jonathan,

On Oct. 6 you made a major video update.

In order to use it, guess we still need also to apply the Xuggler
changes in core Wonderland ?

Thanks,
-michel

On Sep 4, 12:18 am, Jonathan Kaplan <jonathan...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I have put up a first preview of video support for OpenWonderland. This
> requires changes to add native libraries to the core source of Wonderland,
> and has a number of known issues listed below. Here are the instructions for
> installation:
>
> 1. start with the OWL source code. I recommend the latest version, rev 4508,
> although older versions will probably work.

> 2. download the core changes from here:http://openwonderland.org/modules/module-warehouse/doc_download/257-v...

[Jonathan Kaplan]

Michel,

The video updates do still require the core changes. An updated version of the core xuggler changes is available here:

http://openwonderland.org/modules/module-warehouse/doc_download/266-videopreview2-core

This version significantly improves performance and synchronization. I plan to integrate the changes into the Wonderland core before the preview 5 release -- I just need to do a little tuning.

[janine]

hey all - where EXACTLY do you place the files from the xuggler-core
zip? in the .wonderland folder? presently i have a folder named 'null'
in there.

thanks

Janine

[Josmas Flores]

Janine, you will have to use a copy of the source code to use the videoplayer.

There you will see the core folder and the others that you see in the xuggler-core zip file.

Once unzziped and in place you will have to build from source and then use the Wonderland.jar that is created at the end of the process.

more info here: http://code.google.com/p/openwonderland/wiki/DownloadBuildSource05

cheers,

Jos

[janine]

ooookayyy!

that kinda made sense! I have questions!
Do i compile all this in a new directory? and will it affect the
current world on that server?
I am very nervous to do this- if i start the process and get stuck can
i put it 'on hold' while i get help or will everything fall apart??

Can some one help me with this process? I'm very much a newbie!!
I have downloaded the xuggler zip, I have netbeans (never used it
before), umm i have the lastest nightly build (? If i need it?)
NO IDEA what to do now - I'm looking at the link Jos sent but I dont
get the download the trunk bit! - do i do that in PuTTY?? <
embarrassed face>

Janine

On Nov 1, 3:08 pm, Josmas Flores <josmasflo...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Janine, you will have to use a copy of the source code to use the
> videoplayer.
> There you will see the core folder and the others that you see in the
> xuggler-core zip file.
>
> Once unzziped and in place you will have to build from source and then use
> the Wonderland.jar that is created at the end of the process.
>
> more info here:http://code.google.com/p/openwonderland/wiki/DownloadBuildSource05
>
> cheers,
> Jos
>

[Nathan Labhart]

Hi Janine

download the source into a new directory called "wonderland" using
SVN, as described in the Google Doc Josmas mentioned (you don't need
PuTTY, but an SVN tool, also mentioned on that document). Then place
the xuggler-core.zip file into that same "wonderland" directory and
unzip it, letting it replace any files it may encounter. Finally,
follow the Google Doc again for building and then running Open
Wonderland (using the "ant" tool).

Good luck :-)


Nathan

[Josmas Flores]

You should also be careful if you want to run from source(after
building) in the same computer that you are running your current
server.You will need to bring one down before starting the other one.

cheers,
Jos

[Matthew Schmidt]

Was planning on installing and testing the video player today but I'm
getting a 404 on the following URL (the zip with the changes to core
for xuggler):

http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=http://openwonderland.org/modules/module-warehouse/doc_download/266-videopreview2-core&usg=AFQjCNF2MVaEtgznlMytJM44WTF3ldgQxA

On Nov 22, 6:33 pm, Josmas Flores <josmasflo...@gmail.com> wrote:
> You should also be careful if you want to run from source(after
> building) in the same computer that you are running your current
> server.You will need to bring one down before starting the other one.
>
> cheers,
> Jos
>

[Josmas Flores]

Just checked and 404 here too!

Jos

[Jonathan Kaplan]

Thanks for catching that -- we made a configuration change in Joomla that broke these links. I added a redirect, so now the link should work:

http://openwonderland.org/modules/module-warehouse/doc_download/266-videopreview2-core

[Matthew Schmidt]

The link works. Thanks Jonathan!

On Nov 24, 11:05 am, Jonathan Kaplan <jonathan...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Thanks for catching that -- we made a configuration change in Joomla that
> broke these links. I added a redirect, so now the link should work:
>

> http://openwonderland.org/modules/module-warehouse/doc_download/266-v...

>
> On Wed, Nov 24, 2010 at 7:25 AM, Josmas Flores <josmasflo...@gmail.com>wrote:
>
> > Just checked and 404 here too!
>
> > Jos
>

> > On 24 November 2010 14:54, Matthew Schmidt <matthew.schm...@gmail.com>

> > wrote:
> > > Was planning on installing and testing the video player today but I'm
> > > getting a 404 on the following URL (the zip with the changes to core
> > > for xuggler):
>

> >http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=http://openwonderland.org/modules/mo...

[Jonathan Kaplan]

So the redirect I put in really messed things up.  I guess joomla uses the path modules/ internally, which is why the link was broken to begin with. For video, the proper URL is now:

http://openwonderland.org/module-warehouse/module-warehouse/doc_download/266-videopreview2-core

[janine]

ok ... so I'm struggling. I have never used netbeans or an SVN before
and am finding this difficult.
I have been tasked with getting the video player in our WL.
I have netbeans, SVN (although it's directory folder is listed as
csvn) and JDK installed, i'm following the tour of subversion -
http://netbeans.org/kb/docs/ide/subversion.html
Is this right???

The download binary instructions mentions a wonderland workspace -
where is this, do i get it by following the subversion tut?
Jos mentioned bringing down one source before starting another - what
do you mean exactly?

thanks

On Nov 24, 8:44 pm, Jonathan Kaplan <jonathan...@gmail.com> wrote:
> So the redirect I put in really messed things up.  I guess joomla uses the
> path modules/ internally, which is why the link was broken to begin with.
> For video, the proper URL is now:
>

> http://openwonderland.org/module-warehouse/module-warehouse/doc_downl...

>
> On Wed, Nov 24, 2010 at 9:54 AM, Matthew Schmidt

> <matthew.schm...@gmail.com>wrote:

[janine]

a youtube vid on how to do this would be great for COMPLETE newbs like
myself!!
any takers??!! :D

On Dec 9, 4:57 pm, janine <janine.dant...@gmail.com> wrote:
> ok ... so I'm struggling. I have never used netbeans or an SVN before
> and am finding this difficult.
> I have been tasked with getting the video player in our WL.
> I have netbeans, SVN (although it's directory folder is listed as

> csvn) and JDK installed, i'm following the tour of subversion -http://netbeans.org/kb/docs/ide/subversion.html

> > > > > >> > thexuggler-core.zip file into that same "wonderland" directory

> > > and
> > > > > >> > unzip it, letting it replace any files it may encounter. Finally,
> > > > > >> > follow the Google Doc again for building and then running Open
> > > > > >> > Wonderland (using the "ant" tool).
>
> > > > > >> > Good luck :-)
>
> > > > > >> > Nathan
>
> > > > > >> > On Nov 22, 5:47 pm, janine <janine.dant...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > > > >> >> ooookayyy!
>
> > > > > >> >> that kinda made sense! I have questions!
> > > > > >> >> Do i compile all this in a new directory? and will it affect the
> > > > > >> >> current world on that server?
> > > > > >> >> I am very nervous to do this- if i start the process and get
> > > stuck
> > > > > can
> > > > > >> >> i put it 'on hold' while i get help or will everything fall
> > > apart??
>
> > > > > >> >> Can some one help me with this process? I'm very much a newbie!!

> > > > > >> >> I have downloaded thexugglerzip, I have netbeans (never used it

[Josmas Flores]

Janine, just a quick note... the video module is being considered to
include in the next preview... could you wait until then? there is no
scheduled date that I'm aware of, but shouldn't be too long now.

cheers,
Jos

[Jonathan Kaplan]

Janine,

Another option is to find a volunteer who has the workspace built with
the video patches applied. In that case, they could send you
dist/wonderland.jar, which is the same as a nightly build.

[mygroup]

Hello Jonathan,
Just like a janine i am using the latest night build of wonderland and in that i want the support of video player.
But as the thread said i need to make the changes in the core source.
But i have no knowledge about net beans and ant or subversion.
So i am worried about how to get its support.
As per your said that support is getting included very soon in the latest night build..So please u let me know whats its status..
Or will u help me in this regards?

Thanks for your continuous support..

Regards,
Monal