- Goal: Capture game Video PLUS Sound, as fluently as possible.
So. You just downloaded ton of screen capturing tools, convinced that recording your FPSC game is the simplest thing in the world.
Wrong!
Most likely, you will spend a night installing crappy programs, which are demos anyway. Or in best case half baked not working betas.
But first things first:
- If some software producer claims his program can capture fullscreen without lag, it is LIE.
- Most screen capturing tools are suited for desktop capture, not for games.
- Fraps is not best solution. Maybe with other engines, not in FPSC.
- Choosing codec is important. Mostly THE reason your video is looking like a crap.
- The higher the resolution, the less FPS (frames per second)
Note: Feel free to comment about the subject! All insights and your tips are always welcome!
Solution:
I personally have best results with D3dGear , for a quick fix. (720x480 /25fps, into WMV), with almost perfect audio.
Check your record settings in windows, if you have some strange sound artifacts. Disable any channel you don't need for the recording (microphone in most cases). There seems to be some strange color shift in reds in some produced files, may be a codec issue though.
FPS number is showing even if it is checked out in fpsc menu system. The free version is leaving text watermark at the top of screen. If you can't live with it, buy full version. It seems to have no other limitations. Price for full version $25.
Runners Up?
Free CamStudio. seemed promising, but I was unable to run it on fpsc with (any) notable results. Could be good for desktop capture though...
Gregion looks very very promising feature like, however it is not working with fpsc... This mysterious program just captures nothing. (feel free to correct me in comments). I am not posting direct link because I do not know what to think about the developer. Maybe the program is under construction?
Fraps was rather slow and overall not above average performance like... ($37). Considering buying decent codec (+ ($20) DivxPro ) its not very cheap alternative. It puts tolerable watermark in free version.
Playclaw was easy to use, has quite impressive performance, however it puts annoying moving watermark in videos, so its inusable in free version. It has problem with sync audio and video in fpsc menu system. ($30) Also, you cannot choose codec, and avi file it produces is not suitable for youtube upload (so you have more work recoding this in some other program). Resume - best performance, but with problems.
With Zdsoft I was, for some reason, unable to capture any fpsc video, not even in test game mode. Same as with Gregion above.Shareware, full version ($39).
Tests were performed on built fpsc game. Tested on nvidia 8500 GT system.
Microsoft Encoder in free version seems to be an interesting solution too. The Pro version is quite expensive ($199), as it is a professional tool for live webcasts more then just screen recorder. You may read more about it in discussion below this article.
(to be continued...?)
