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A program to record game footage?

1072 Views 17 Replies 15 Participants Last post by  T3hFurious1, 
F
I tried recording using FRAPS, but the framedrop is just terrible and the video files take massive space when recording.
I want a program that doesn't eat the framerate alive and is easy to use, just want to record some normal quality videos(no HD) to upload to youtube.
Also how do you add text to the video like most people in youtube do?
Thanks in advance
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TUDJ
Alot of people use Windows Movie Maker for adding text and basic effects. Can't comment on a recorder, I've only ever used Fraps.
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Ross_uk
get fraps to record to your other HD (other than the OS and it should work fine)

then once thats done save the clips as wmv's or avi's with windows movie maker
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F
Quote:


Originally Posted by Ross_uk
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get fraps to record to your other HD (other than the OS and it should work fine)

then once thats done save the clips as wmv's or avi's with windows movie maker

So if i do this there will be NO framerate drops?
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C
FRAPS is best in my opinion, all the other recorders usually record at an extremely low FPS and just makes the video look horrible. I agree with you that FRAPS is a resource hog, but I guess that's normal due to the strain it takes.

EDIT:

Quote:


Originally Posted by Fox_Smash
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So if i do this there will be NO framerate drops?

You can't really expect there to be no strain on the system when you're playing a game and recording it at 60 FPS. :/
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R
Fraps is not even that cpu intensive when recording movies, I dont understand why it drops frames.
I mean I can use fraps on my netbook recording at 30fps steady with the occasional drops
though I've only tried it on GTA SA.
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INFAMYBLADE
fraps records that way, it takes up a lot of space on any video, I suggest using Virtual Dub MOD for saving the video as avi with that under a good codec. FFDshow is what I use.

There just isn't that many atlernatives at current time though off the top of my head you may could try hypercam 2 though i'm unsure on how good it's be for anything other than older emulated games which is what I used to use it for. Fraps is just the best for what it does at the price. If the framerate is terrible when using it, that would seem to be more a hardware limitation problem. Maybe try another stick of ram and go from there. Sorry I couldn't be much help.
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Conley
The only thing I've found that works good is the Source Recorder. It's only in Source engine based games, though.

FRAPS slows down because it's writing huge files to the hard disk. The only way around it would be RAID or recording to a separate hard drive.
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P
I use FRAPS, but save it to a external, so there isn't too much of a drop. Maybe try XFire Recording - I haven't tried it yet, but I've heard it records video.
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Anth0789
Try this:
http://www.gamecamportal.com/
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T
Stop and think for a minute here. What exactly are you asking your machine to do?

1. Render a game at a playable FPS. This is hard enough as it is.
2. Render each frame twice.
3. Store those frames in memory.
4. Write those frames to disk while encoding it(Albiet in an easy to encode format).
5. Continue #1 through the entire process.

You need one hell of a machine to record game footage and not notice an FPS drop. Doesn't matter what program you record it with.

It is true that Source Recorder exists, but personally, I think it's a load of crap. Such a pain in the rear to use. SOOOO much easier to just press F10 and go, FRAPS does all the hard work in the background.

O, and by the way: I use FRAPS on Boot to the Head. If my rig can do it, so can yours. Fiddle and tweak with FRAPS until it records at a satisfactory FPS.

I use Windows Movie Maker to edit, cut and re-encode my YT vids. For what I do, it's perfectly capable, and it's already on my machine anyways.
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Coma
Why render each frame twice? Sense, you make none.

And as for keeping them in memory... it's only one at a time - it's a realtime process, and the FRAPS format is composed of I frames only so the encoder doesn't use a buffer (none of the frames rely on the others). They're only temporarily in memory while being encoded - copied directly from the graphics front buffer.

OP, you say you don't want HD, so try recording at half-size. Although I personally prefer to do full size and resize later, since FRAPS literally just discards half the lines when you capture at half-size, and this sometimes manifests as ugly aliasing.

Make sure you use the latest version, too.

P.S. Don't record at 60 fps - YouTube will make it 30 fps anyway. The only benefit is the game will play at 60 FPS instead of 30, but I can't do 60 FPS, so I "suffer". You get used to it once the FPS is locked to something and it doesn't bother you anymore after like 30 sec.
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MAD_J
You should use FRAPS or Xfire and hit the "record at half size" option and 30 FPS. That is the smallest performance hit for recording other than external recorders.
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F
Quote:


Originally Posted by TestECull
View Post

1. Render a game at a playable FPS. This is hard enough as it is.
2. Render each frame twice.
3. Store those frames in memory.
4. Write those frames to disk while encoding it(Albiet in an easy to encode format).
5. Continue #1 through the entire process.


I'm pretty sure fraps doesn't render the frame again until it's encoded. If I have guessed correctly, FRAPs saves the frames and does what you said ^.

either way, it's still requires a monster computer.
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Ryan747
So far from everything i have tested i still find fraps to be the best. Its Easy and records well.
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F
Now when i choose half size and 30 fps, my game drops to 30fps and i'm sure it's because fraps locks the game.
Is there a way to record at 30 and play at 60?
Thanks to all, you have been repped.

EDIT: no matter what setting i use the game's FPS drops to 15.
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C
Quote:


Originally Posted by Fox_Smash
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Now when i choose half size and 30 fps, my game drops to 30fps and i'm sure it's because fraps locks the game.
Is there a way to record at 30 and play at 60?
Thanks to all, you have been repped.

EDIT: no matter what setting i use the game's FPS drops to 15.

Not with FRAPS I'm afraid. If you need to play at 60 you will have to record FRAPS at 60.
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T
WeGame, I use it and don't have a noticeable performance hit, mind you I'm not recording in Crysis or anything. It records at good quality as well.
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