Bungie Render-to-Video Beta Starts Soon
May 14, 2009 by srfto
Bungie have just begun the beta testing phase of their new video-to-render system. This machine coined the “Hydra” because of its huge number of capables and low “growling” allows Halo 3 users an option to save their videos for a small cost.
Videos in Halo 3 are very light on file size, the reason for this is the fact the video isn’t an actual media clip. It’s actual game data that renders in real time within the game when you watch it.If you want to show you local friends your clips this is excellent because it saves you space, it isn’t so good for sharing with the rest of the world though. For obvious reasons, the internet will not take raw game data and ruin it within an internet movie clip!
Bungies solution – the render to video service was first mentioned last October, it works by converting the game data into a downloadable video clip. Bungie have wired this dedicated “Hydra” system together for the Halo 3 users with a Bungie Pro service to use.
People that wish to use and access the video service will have two “fees” to pay. The first, as previously mentioned is the Bungie Pro Storage Service, once that’s been covered they’ll be able to access their files by paying Bungie Points. The actual costs of these Bungie Points hasn’t been decided yet but it’s looking likely that Pro Storage users will be given a fixed number of points to use each month. Of course, the quality of the clip will alter the points cost, so a high definition video will end up costing more than a regular one. If a user runs out of points he’ll have the option of buying additional “point packs”.
The bigwigs at Bungie have also revealed that they’re considering the possibility of providing enough bandwidth for video embedding on public websites, for the time being however, the Hydra system will remain a download only option.
The beta test is only accessible for the people that had a Bungie Pro subscriber as of 11th May so the people that want to get into the beta now have little chance. I wouldn’t worry too much though, it’s an incredibly short beta, Bungie have reported that it’s going to run up to July before general release.
Read the official Bungie announcement here.
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