Elite: Dangerous PvE - Mobius

Hope this isn't out of place, but I can't think of a better place to ask for advice.

New to Elite. New to making video content. I've started a channel for recording lets plays, etc. And my main focus is currently on Elite Dangerous in VR.

The channel is at Fail Forward, and the content is laughable at the moment (literally the test videos while I figured out how to get recording, voice, webcam, oculus, and Elite all playing together).

While I've still got a learning curve to beat just getting content made, I would be thrilled if I could get some advice on what might make a compelling ED series. Something you might actually watch, or, even better, might get new players interested in the game and possibly ease some of the initial road blocks involved in getting comfortable in Elite.

Also, does anyone have any tips for actually producing decent narration? I don't mean recording audio, but I'm not good at all at talking to myself while a camera is recording, and I'd like to actually produce some narration that isn't painful to listen to.

Thanks in advance.

CMDR Hobbit By Habit of the Fail Forward.

Fail Forward wrote:..Thanks in advance...

Sounds like fun.

Watching Elite: Dangerous on Youtube I do have som personal preferences:

1. Clips no longer than 15 minutes.*yawn*

2. Strong narrative; A to B stuff. What are you trying to convey with each episode within the larger story line? An example could be: The Struggles of Cmdr Noob; How I earned my first 10.000 credits.

3. Find the right communication platform for you; some talk, some use text, music, anime and what not. Make it unique.

TL; DR: Get all of the aspects of your concept down, making your product distinct and recognisable from all the other stuff out there. Don't try to be like the others, do it your way.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Thanks. I like your suggestions. I definitely agree on the length. Right now the tests I've uploaded are all over the map timewise, and I've got the basics of actually recording the game, webcam, and voiceover in VR (which was considerably more complicated than I was expecting) figured out.

Just doing that, encoding the results, and uploading is time consuming, so if I were going to actually put some real production effort into (gathering clips, editing, a script) it'd have to be shorter for both your enjoyment and my sanity...

I need to figure out some things, like how to keymap/button bind the free camera. But I really like the idea of a narrative arc.

To be continued...

Always great to see a new YouTube series out there. The above comments are all completely correct and will see any series you create find success so long as it's engaging and unique. I think your comments are actually really interesting though! I for one, am really interested in the whole setup of VR. That's probably because I'm a PS4 player myself and would love to have a VR setup. That would be a great series in itself... your journey from starting out in the game, setting up VR and ultimately creating a vlog series. What works and better still... what doesnt. The lessons you learn along the way and the improvements you make to your game setup and your vlog setup as a whole. For wannabe vloggers and series creators - there is not a lot out there to assist them in getting started. Maybe you could be the first??

Also - if it's not a series about the game (akin to AbsidianAnt or TheYamiks - I assume you follow these chaps on Youtube) and it's more of a story arch series akin to a drama/film... have you checked out CaptainSkoomer? A very interesting, different take on the ED video diary. Great stuff and wonderfully made.

Fail Forward wrote:Thanks in advance.

CMDR Hobbit By Habit of the Fail Forward.

If it's going to be story driven (rather than reports on the game and it's features), then you can't go wrong with starting by doing a bit of research on Joseph Campbell's "Hero's journey", which gives a template or structure for story telling.

Fail Forward wrote:Just doing that, encoding the results, and uploading is time consuming, so if I were going to actually put some real production effort into (gathering clips, editing, a script) it'd have to be shorter for both your enjoyment and my sanity..

Yes that does take a hell of a lot of time.......

I once (when I could be arsed to do ED vids) edited 70 hours of video down to about 1/2 hour.......

Never again.........

You also have the problem of VR.

What is recorded when playing in vr is the duplicated desktop window.
Setting a normal resolution there can help.
But the problem is it is a cropped 16:9 (or whatever aspect you set resolution too) capture from the rift or vive's left image, starting from the bottom.

The actual render for the left eye in these are in portrait configuration, 1080x1200 if you set window to 1080p, what is displayer is like half of what you see in vr. After closing your right eye.

basically put. I look straight ahead in game.
video captures my main sensor screen and feet...

There is a hidden second screen you can enable. But this costs considerable resources.
I have a i7 4790k 16gb 2400mhz RAM and a 1080ti And I don't have ANY headroom to spare.
Also this second window might still work, but hasn't been maintained by FD since the release of 1.2 or something.

This and all the other problems around recording means most streamers or youtubers go 2d when recording.

Yeah. had run into that myself. As this idea slowly shapes, I'm thinking of possibly taking VR out of the equation (for recording) and possibly trying something like the Tobii 4C eye tracker for a similar effect.

Fail Forward wrote:Yeah. had run into that myself. As this idea slowly shapes, I'm thinking of possibly taking VR out of the equation (for recording) and possibly trying something like the Tobii 4C eye tracker for a similar effect.

Or a headtracker? I can vouch for EDTracker:
http://www.edtracker.co.uk/products/compare