SEA questions

[cogman]

So I have seen brief mentions on SEA and that it is much better then ESA, but haven't seen any specific threads relating to it. So how does SEA work exactly? I've read that it is the mathematic equivalent to ESA but much faster, what makes it so.

Also, What svn revision is it included in? And are there any special options needed to enable it. Or can we just use ESA and get the SEA motion searching? Also, where should I look in x264's source to see what it looks like?

[Manao]

Have a look around encoder/me.c:469. The comment - sum(abs(diff)) >= abs(diff(sum)) - is especially helpful for you to understand the principle of SEA.

As you will also see, ESA is completely disabled (since it gives exactly the same results as SEA, it's only slower)