Setting up fraps, msi afterburner..

[BotoloLover]

Didn't want to open another thread, so I'll just ask there. I've got an i5-760 and ATI 6870. What's the less demanding recording software? I don't want anything uber, 720p @ 30fps would be awesome.
And how big are the files in general? For, let's say, an hour of footage? Because my external HD died, and I'm running out of space.

[dek0y]

I use dxtory and have found it to be quite good. I'm pretty sure it is more efficient than fraps in terms of resources used. I'm not sure if you can record in a compressed format using dxtory (probably can but I don't), but compressing while recording uses A LOT more resources, so you'll take a much bigger FPS hit. Uncompressed AVI's seem to take up about 1GB per minute of video at 720p.

[BotoloLover]

Well, another reason to buy another External HD, 'cause I got like 30 GB left right now. Thanks for the advice, I'll try it to see if my pc can handle it.

[haruky]

I like Afterburner (Primarily b/c it's free). But the audio on Afterburner is a little wonky for me. My TS records other people's voices but not my own. Is there a way around this?

[BotoloLover]

Going from 85% quality to 100% quality in MSI Afterburner increased by nearly 3 times file size, with no visible increase in video quality. 15sec of footage is 85mb at 85% quality, 720p@30fps, so it'd be 20GB per hour of recording, if it remains constant. Fps drop is about 10/15 on my pretty crappy pc, despite all BF3 settings on low. If I manage to reduce the fps loss I might start recording battledays, having a GC video archive'd be really awesome.
I'll probably try to lower the video quality until there's a noticeable difference, I will post the results when I'm done.

[expandas]

I'll just say right off the bat that I think Dxtory is the best tool for recording your gameplay videos because of its versatility and customization options.

What program do you use and what settings?

I use Dxtory to recording my gameplay and a separate, dedicated hard drive to store the recordings. BF3 and Windows is installed on a primary 5400 RPM HDD via SATA2. The secondary drive has the same specifications as the first and is also connected via SATA2. My PC has 4 logical cores to work with and an HD5870 1GB. My BF3 in-game settings are set to low quality with the exception of mesh settings which are set to ultra. The in-game resolution is 1400x900 but the capture resolution and frame rate is 1280x720 and 29.97 FPS (the footage is cropped).

I personally use Fraps on the default setting, but I dont lock my framerate because my graphics cards can handle it (two 560's in SLI). A 580 can probably handle the same, so Im not sure what's wrong with it.

The bottleneck is most likely your recording medium, especially if you are playing and recording off the same drive.

I've been considering doing this myself. From what I believe, FRAPS is best when you're recording onto a seperate harddrive?

Both Fraps and Dxtory perform better when recording to separate storage mediums. The difference is that while Fraps only has one codec to choose from, Dxtory has many options that can alter your recording quality, compression, etc., which in turn affect your actual recording frame rate.

does it also record game sound (without TS sound)?

Not very easily. The only option that comes in mind is to use another piece of software to configure BF3's audio output as its own virtual device. Once that's accomplished all you have to do is to configure the proper audio streams in Dxtory's "Audio" tab.

What programs do you use to compress them? I have about 600gb left on my storage drive. That fills up quickly with fraps.

I use Sony Vegas 12 because of its support for GPU acceleration in rendering videos. This cuts my render times in roughly half, letting me render in higher quality. My audio and video bandwidth is set to 384,000 bps and 10,000,000 bps respectively. My source footage and output videos are all captured and rendered at 1280x720 resolution and 29.97 FPS.

What do you guys think of the quality? Any experienced gameplay recorders have any other tips?

Recording at half-size then stretching the video out to standard resolutions like 720p make it look like crap. What's worse is that Fraps doesn't let you play at a separate frame rate than you record at. Fraps is outdated, move on to Dxtory.

If I try to record my gameplay with fraps.. 30 fps is just fine, but it affects my gameplay.. 30fps is not enough. 60 fps crashes my Graphics card. Even though it is 580 gtx.

One of the best things about Dxtory is that your recording frame rate does not have to be tied down to the rendering frame rate. In other words, you can record at 30 FPS but play at 60. Just go to the "Movie" tab in Dxtory and select your frame rate in the upper right. Then disable "Synchronize Video FPS" under the "Options" box in the same tab.

I've got an i5-760 and ATI 6870. What's the less demanding recording software? I don't want anything uber, 720p @ 30fps would be awesome. And how big are the files in general? For, let's say, an hour of footage? Because my external HD died, and I'm running out of space.

You could try MSI Afterburner or Playclaw if quality doesn't matter to you. Otherwise, toy with Dxtory and some of the lower quality settings/codecs. My recordings at 1280x720 using the Dxtory YUV410 low quality codec, non-compressed, take up around 1.76 GB/min (~30MBps) with a solid 30 FPS using a dedicated 5400 RPM HDD that has an average sequential write-speed of 40 MBps.

I like Afterburner (Primarily b/c it's free). But the audio on Afterburner is a little wonky for me. My TS records other people's voices but not my own. Is there a way around this?

The reason why you aren't hearing your own voice is because the recording input is considered a separate audio stream than the sound coming through your speakers, the playback. I'm don't know about Afterburner but an easy way to solve this in Dxtory is to go to the "Audio" tab and add an audio stream (green plus button) under "Audio Settings". Then select your microphone in the "Audio Device" box. Enable Push-to-Talk by checking the appropriate box and configure its hotkey by going to the "HotKey" tab.

[Fields]

Video encoding:

[LongBowNL]

If you want to record your mic too, go to your Sound Setting (right click speaker bottom right and then select Recording Devices). Right click that window and check "Show disabled devices." It will show you "Stereo Mix." Enable this and make sure that MSI Afterburner records from this audio source.

If you don't see Stereo Mix, you may not have a Realtek sound chip/card. Then it won't work.

If you want to invest some money (around $200) into recording. BarbaricMustard uses this recording card. It won't affect your FPS at all, because it does not rely on your CPU. http://www.avermedia-usa.com/AVerTV/Pro ... spx?Id=513

[Bock]

My BF3 in-game settings are set to low quality with the exception of mesh settings which are set to ultra.

Why low? You should be able to get 60+ fps with your setup on high.

My recordings at 1280x720 using the Dxtory YUV410 low quality codec, non-compressed, take up around 1.76 GB/min (~30MBps) with a solid 30 FPS using a dedicated 5400 RPM HDD that has an average sequential write-speed of 40 MBps.

I was playing around with Dxtory yesterday. Recording 1280 x 720, 30 FPS, with the medium quality codec compressed takes up about 1.5 GB/min. Obviously this piles up really quickly. What do you do with your raw gameplay files to save space?

[o1oo1]

render and delete ?

[BotoloLover]

My BF3 in-game settings are set to low quality with the exception of mesh settings which are set to ultra.

Why low? You should be able to get 60+ fps with your setup on high.

As I said, I've got an i5-760 and a 6870, and with my settings on high the game doesnt' run costantly at 60fps (Which I set as a limit), but sometimes go down to as much as 45 in hectic situations. Now, the 5870 has more raw power than my 6870, but not enough for +15 constant fps. I use low settings too, I prefer to keep a constant 60fps so the game is more fluid, and I'm not really caring about how beatiful that tree is while people is shooting at me. I think his mesh are to ultra because it increases draw distance, and he's a pilot, if I recall correctly, so it's pretty useful for that.
Also, recording drains your fps even more, so you can't keep high or ultra settings unless you have a very powerful pc.

[expandas]

Why low? You should be able to get 60+ fps with your setup on high.

On maps like Gulf of Oman my in game FPS can be halved under certain situations. Setting everything to low just ensures that I get a smooth experience. Setting mesh settings to ultra helps with spotting, especially in air vehicles. If I'm not recording I can usually pump everything up to high or ultra.

I was playing around with Dxtory yesterday. Recording 1280 x 720, 30 FPS, with the medium quality codec compressed takes up about 1.5 GB/min. Obviously this piles up really quickly. What do you do with your raw gameplay files to save space?

Hy hard drive really only has enough room for one day's worth of matches on Vanilla/B2K maps. Currently I'm forced to render and delete everything.

[daskro]

Here's my setup:
2x Geforce Gtx 670 in sli
i7-2600k
bunch of ram
Played at 1920x1080 120hz, basically all ultra settings including post processing stuff.

dxtory: recording at 1920x1080 at 30 fps uncompressed, can do 60 fps, but rather not take up the additional hd space.
Typically each 15 minute round takes up 75-80gb of hd space. I'll normally edit/encode the footage then compress to h264 making the file size closer to 2-3gbs.

I have an avermedia card live gamer hd but have reservations in using it. The fact of the matter is if I want to use the avermedia card I have to clone my main monitor to the hdmi out then plug the hdmi into the avermedia card. The reason why I must do this is I play with 120hz which requires a dual dvi port. HDMI cannot support 120hz and thus the monitor must be cloned at 60hz on a separate port to be recorded.

I've played a little with this and frankly the difference between using the avermedia card vs dxtory is negligible given the extra fps hit from cloning the monitor. I actually prefer using the dxtory in this respect because it allows for greater customization and I can record mulitple audio channels separately.

[TheYonderGod]

Has anyone ever had any problems recording audio with Dxtory?
Other games work fine and it records everything else on my computer like TS or anything else, but no bf3. Obviously Bf3 is outputting to the same device as everything else or I wouldn't be able to hear it, but I tried recording other devices too anyways and they didn't work either. I think it might be because of or related to the fact the Bf3 also doesn't show up on my volume mixer.
This problem has persisted through at least 1 complete OS reinstall. I have an Asus Xonar DS sound card, could it be because of those drivers or something?

[Hgx]

EDIT: Somehow, after re-installing EVERYTHING 2 times and restarting my pc a couple of times, looks like it's working fine again. DON'T ASK PLS.

Guys, since we are talking about Fraps.
Since this last friday my recording programs are working like crap and doing stupid crap, for example

My fraps won't record at 16:9 anymore, don't know why.
My Windows Movie Maker 2.6 adds a terrible background noise.
Not even my Sony Vegas will change the aspect ratio of the video.

I recorded exactly 99 videos using the same programs, in the same HDD, without changing anything and without having any problems till this friday night.

Any thougts or ideas?