The Matrix Awakens upscaled to 8K & frame rate converted to 60FPS using DaVinci Resolve & M1 Max Mac

Channel:

David “DEVO” Harry

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Published on December 22, 2021 1:49:14 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eLP9hFQBZc

Game:

The Matrix Awakens (2021)

Duration: 7:47

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The Matrix Awakens upscaled to 8K & frame rate converted to 60FPS using DaVinci Resolve & M1 Max MacBook Pro.

This video was done as an exercise to test the video processing ability between the M1 Max MacBook Pro and DaVinci Resolve.

The Matrix Awakens demo and gameplay was captured from my Xbox Series X at 4K 60FPS, or to be more precise, 4K UHD 3840x2160 at 59.94FPS. Although captured at 59.94 because this is the frame rate of the HDMI output if the Xbox, the frame rate of the demo is maximum 30FPS. So basically there are a lot of repeated frames in the gameplay and capture, it’s basically 30FPS within 59.94FPS but there are drops to about 25FPS during the demo, so it’s not even a consistent 30FPS.

I ran through different processes and projects for each stage of the processing, using Resolve’s functions for reframing, re-timing using various methods including optical flow and then the upscaling using super scaling to create my intermediates and final master.

The original capture uses a mixture of 2.4:1 within 16:9 and also full frame 16:9. So the first process was to make a project to create an intermediate that was 4K UHD 2.4:1 which 1:1 pixel matched the 2.4:1 live content area of the 16:9 capture and the full frame 16:9 elements where centre cropped/re-framed to 2.4:1 Creating a 2.4:1 master also helped for further processing time and file sizes by getting rid of the redundant black data (letterbox bars).

The second stage was to create a 30FPS project to create a 30FPS intermediate. Because the original capture didn’t have a consistent frame rate, using nearest neighbour was all that was needed. This created another intermediate that was technically 30FPS but not temporally. There were still repeated frames, or frames that didn’t have any temporal changes. This was unavoidable as the original didn’t have a consistent frame rate and Resolve can’t synthesise new temporal frames in this instance due to concurrent static/repeated frames every now and then of up to three frames. For the best part, though, it was mostly temporally 30FPS.

The third stage was to create a 60FPS intermediate master. This was done with a 60FPS project and using speed warp to synthesise the temporal frames between each original frame of the 30FPS intermediate. Again, though, due to the inconsistent temporal data of the 30FPS intermediate due to the succession of up to three static/repeated frames every now and then from the original capture, there was still some instances of repeated frames. Although, once again, for the best part, a new intermediate was generated that was temporally 60FPS.

The final stage was to upscale to 8K. This was done with an 8K UHD project that was 2.4.1 7680x3200 This was done using super scaling which helped a little to sharpen and to dampen some of the noise. Although, the game’s look does rely on added noise for its artistic look but the processing did help to smooth out some aliasing within the original game render as although the game is 4K, most of the internal assets are upscales from various lower resolutions.

The final YouTube master was a 400Mb/s H.265 encode/export from the final 8K 60FPS project.

The end result does suffer a lot from localised temporal distortion issues due the processing of constant fast action assets but for the best part, the end result does have the typical temporal characteristics of 60FPS content and gameplay.

During the heavier processing of the various intermediates, the frame rate was anywhere between 7 to 16FPS. While this may sound slow, I was actually very surprised at just how fast and productive the M1 Max was with Resolve were. I’ve tried similar on a Windows machine based on Intel 11th Gen and an RTX 3070 and the M1 Max was appreciably faster, especially and obviously when generating and processing the intermediates which were all ProRes 4444 XQ.

I’m still testing and learning Resolve but I’ve already made my decision to move to it as my NLE.

For anyone who’s interested. I’ve been working in audio and video post on Windows for over 30 years and used a number of NLE’s during that time and built many Windows PCs. I’d never have thought that after all that time that I’d ever go Mac and move away from X86. I’ve never had anything against Mac, the main reason for not using it seriously was because my previous NLE was Windows only. But having now experienced just how productive Apple Silicon is with optimised software, I doubt I’ll ever go back to Windows and X86. I’m not saying that Apple Silicon with the M1 Max and Resolve are perfect but with my past experiences of studio and production headaches, fault finding, hardware and software incompatibilities and the inevitable down time. I can truly say that this Apple and Blackmagic combination are a great move forward for my video post workflow.

For anyone who’s OS/platform agnostic, new to post or just wants a solid working tool set, I’d totally recommend looking into Mac and Resolve.

Cheers,
Dave.

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