Game Video Recording - Anyone have any experience/tips?

RyanB

Legacy of Elijah Guild Leader
After years of frustrating hardware issues on my old laptop, I've finally been able to order its replacement. I'm interested in recording footage and tutorials for WvW, dungeons, class-specific stuff, etc.

For software, free is better, of course, but wouldn't mind paying a little if something is worth the money.
  • Software for snagging gameplay footage
  • Software for doing light editing, if need be
  • Anything I might have missed

Any tips appreciated!
 
you def want a full version of Fraps. I am not sure any competitor has passed them. They are the standard and the best.

Light editing can be done in Windows Movie Maker.
 
Was looking into Fraps yesterday because I'm also interested in recording gameplay stuff. :eek: Definitely seems the best way to go. Unfortunately, running at 1080p in GW2, I don't think I was getting above 30fps. Urgh. Might have to lower my res.

Oops. Threadjacking.

Fraps is solid. I've used the trial before to record this. I put the video together with the Windows Movie Maker. Honestly, WMM is hardly a pro studio app, but it handily got the job done for me at no cost. For light editing, it'll probably work for you, too.


Edit: Just gave Fraps another go at 1080p without bunches of extra apps open, and it recorded at a level I consider satisfactory on my machine. Not perfect, but good enough. Hooray! :D
 
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Yep. You're gonna want FRAPS.

I used VirtualDub and x264wfv codecs to crop and encode my PC gameplay videos. Here's an example of a gameplay video of a custom Left 4 Dead 2 campaign. If the frame rate bogs down, don't blame FRAPS; blame my aging laptop hardware.

EDIT: Here's a better example video, this time of UT3 gameplay.
 
Thanks very much for the responses. FRAPS/WMM sounds like they'll fit my needs well. I'm not looking to do anything beyond voice overs/text overs/cutting if I did anything at all.

I'm curious as to how well the new "laptop" (10 pound desktop replacement) will hold up at 1080p. Kendrik, would you mind sharing your hardware specs, or comparing to what I'll be running? I know these are pretty up to date for a laptop, but that these specs would be pretty easy to hit with a desktop. I'll be on:
* Intel Core_i7_3610QM Processor
* NVIDIA GTX675M video card
* Intel SSD primary drive for Windows/Guild wars/software, 8GB read/write...big fat secondary drive for storage
* 24gb/1600 mhz RAM
 
You have me beat well. My FPS issue is definitely a result of my hardware. I forgot to note that sometimes my FPS is less than ideal even without Fraps running, too. Oops.

I'm running an Athlon II x4 @ 3GHz/core, GT440 (DDR3), and 8GB 1333 RAM on a 7200RPM (I think) SATA HDD. Not exactly a power machine I'm runnin' here. You should be more than fine. :D

I just recorded some stuff with Fraps trial earlier for the lulz, then dropped it into WMM which, I was pleased to find in the current version, had a button right in the app for adding a voiceover track.

Edit: I just did a brief combat recording. Gonna run it through WMM real quick and upload to YouTube just cuz. :)
 
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I use PlayClaw. I liked it for when I captured for game reviews, less clunky than FRAPS methinks.
 
Here ya be!


[video=youtube;GBwlHTpiQoY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBwlHTpiQoY[/video]


I'll have to check out PlayClaw, too, but I rather like Fraps mahself. Then again, that virtual webcam option offered by PlayClaw could be pretty nice if I wanted to plug it into Adobe Live Encoder for streaming, too. :O
 
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