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Redeemed
11-23-08, 11:28 PM
Okay, being the geek that I am, I'd like to make a movie of several games (play through them, recording the entire time). Now, I've been using FRAPs for the recording, but I've run into a problem.

The first game I'm recording is Quake 4. Now, I was playing through it just fine, with FRAPs recording, and FPS never dropped below 30. But, I got to a point and died, and it just getting complicated to synce previous saves where I was alive to the recordings, so I opted to restart the campaign. But, for some reason with my second run through FPS is horrible. It dips down to below 5 fps at times.

I've tried a million differing in-game + driver control panel settings. I've tried adjusting the affinity and priority of FRAPs... nothing seems to help, and the "hitching" seems completely random.

One thing I have noticed, is my HDD is ultra active. Now, this is normal (thanks to superfetch), but I went ahead and disabled a bunch of processes I'm not using just trying to free up resources. Nothing I do seems to help.

So, I'm wanting to know from the more experienced here... might there be a simple setting I'm overlooking? Maybe a setting the the driver control panel? A setting within FRAPs? A software setting elsewhere? Or maybe even a BIOS setting I'm over looking?

My goal it to play through the game, recording only the game play, piece it together as a full-length movie, and the burn it to DVD for playback on the living room theater setup. But, I don't want it to look like a jaggy mess, low-texture resolution mess, or the sorts. My first run through (when FPS was never below 30) I had all in-games maxed, 4xAA, 16xAF, GCAA, MSTAA, v-sync and triple buffering enabled, at a resolution of 1280x720. As I said before, it played perfectly the first time through, but now, all of a sudden it's a choppy mess. And I've tried all softs of IQ settings, I've even upgraded my video card drivers... and I'm at a loss.

Is FRAPs the only application for recording gameplay? Are there other alternatives?

Redeemed
11-23-08, 11:32 PM
Well, it turns out I forgot SLi after updating drivers last night. I'm gonna' fire the game up again and see if it works any better now. :o

Redeemed
11-23-08, 11:34 PM
Well, it's still slow, even just during the opening credits. I don't get it... it played perfectly fine before! :(

shilk
11-24-08, 01:16 AM
If you're using the latest FRAPS, check the tray to make sure "Monitor Desktop Window Manager" is still listed. It should be right under "Only update overlay once a second" on the FPS Tab. If it's missing when you alt-tab or when you start up, restart FRAPS and try again.

Redeemed
11-24-08, 01:32 AM
If you're using the latest FRAPS, check the tray to make sure "Monitor Desktop Window Manager" is still listed. It should be right under "Only update overlay once a second" on the FPS Tab. If it's missing when you alt-tab or when you start up, restart FRAPS and try again.

Those show up, but neither are checked. Never have been. Should they be?

Redeemed
11-24-08, 01:38 AM
If you're using the latest FRAPS, check the tray to make sure "Monitor Desktop Window Manager" is still listed. It should be right under "Only update overlay once a second" on the FPS Tab. If it's missing when you alt-tab or when you start up, restart FRAPS and try again.

For the heck of it, I went ahead and enabled "Monitor Desktop Window Manager"... didn't do a thing to help my framerate. Even the credits before the main menu ran 15> FPS.

evox
11-24-08, 02:00 AM
Were you previously using a higher FPS option in Fraps? Higher FPS takes more space but offers better performance. It can be set in the Movie tab.

BTW, unless they are competitive demo files, playing back game runs through is sad. Just sayin' :p

Redeemed
11-24-08, 02:07 AM
Were you previously using a higher FPS option in Fraps? Higher FPS takes more space but offers better performance. It can be set in the Movie tab.

BTW, unless they are competitive demo files, playing back game runs through is sad. Just sayin' :p

Well, before it was set to 30... for my first attempt through. But on my second attempt I left it there at first, then when it started dropping in FPS I thought to up it to 60fps. Still didn't change anything.

And as to the last part of your post... LEAVE ME ALONE!!! :cry:





:lol:

Redeemed
11-24-08, 02:20 AM
Well, it's doing the same thing in HL2... :(

Redeemed
11-24-08, 02:21 AM
How do game devs record their run-though for playback? Aren't they using FRAPs?

Redeemed
11-24-08, 02:29 AM
I give up. This is too frustrating to keep messing with.

Maybe whenever I have a 64-core at 128GHz with 2TB of L64 cache, and 100-way GTX1million SLi will it work. :lol:

Good God, didn't think it would be this much of a headache to do something so simple. :facepalm:

Redeemed
11-24-08, 02:40 AM
Playing through without recording, just FRAPs counting the FPS, I'm pegged at 60fps almost 100%... at in-game settings of 16xQAA, 16xAF, GCAA, SSTAA, v-sync + triple buffer, 1680x1050, all in-game options maxed. :rolleyes:

evox
11-24-08, 03:07 AM
How do game devs record their run-though for playback? Aren't they using FRAPs?
Well nowadays, they just release console footage recorded by hooking up consoles to a TV Tuner Card.

Crytek rendered every frame individually for Crysis via CE Editor, hence the gameplay videos were so smooth and the final game was not. ;)

Others just FRAP the demo I guess. Though I'm sure there are some enterprise screen capturing software available that does a better job at recording footage than Fraps? Who knows.

Sucks that you can't get it working, though. :(

Still lame, BTW. :D

Redeemed
11-24-08, 03:14 AM
Well nowadays, they just release console footage recorded by hooking up consoles to a TV Tuner Card.

Crytek rendered every frame individually for Crysis via CE Editor, hence the gameplay videos were so smooth and the final game was not. ;)

Others just FRAP the demo I guess. Though I'm sure there are some enterprise screen capturing software available that does a better job at recording footage than Fraps? Who knows.

Sucks that you can't get it working, though. :(

Still lame, BTW. :D

lol... geeky... and lame. :lol:

I wonder what "enterprise" software might be available. Anything from Sonic Foundry (Sony), maybe? And I'm curious how much it'd cost... $1k? :lol:

bob saget
11-24-08, 07:08 AM
alotta people talk about a program called Vegas to make movies...
Personaly COD4 movies are pretty easy to make but i gave up because lost interest.....

nekrosoft13
11-24-08, 09:50 AM
vegas can't capture what is currently on screen.

a while ago I used a simple trick, use TV-out send the cable to TV tuner card (same PC) and record TV tuner signal with something windows movie editor. That was before Fraps got popular.

Redeemed
11-24-08, 01:01 PM
vegas can't capture what is currently on screen.

a while ago I used a simple trick, use TV-out send the cable to TV tuner card (same PC) and record TV tuner signal with something windows movie editor. That was before Fraps got popular.

Well, I've thought about doing that only my video cards don't have a TV out, just DVI. Maybe if I used HDMI, but then the tuner would have to support HDMI input...

Hmm...

nekrosoft13
11-24-08, 01:11 PM
a bit expensive, but I really want to get this

http://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/intensity/

this is even better
http://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/hd/

but the cost is to much for me.