How to properly record gameplay ?

[Jan Mikuž]

Give me some advice, please. What software do you use/is good enough and how to set it up in order for the recording to be smooth ? What settings eat up the fps the most ?

I'm currently using Bandicam and can't get the recordings to be smooth even on low/normal graphics preset /2xAF/4xAA. I have VSync turned on at 1440x900/75Hz.

Thanks

 

[vee10]

If you a Nvidia card 600 series and up you can use shadowplay which is really resource friendly and its free, my preferred choice. The other one i use from time to time is Fraps which can be found free if you do a bit of googling.

 

[xnorb]

Shadowplay, MSI Afterburner (is it still called that?) and Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) are free programs to record, with varying quality and CPU impact.

Fraps is most likely the most known recording software due to it's ... "availability".
It's only 20€ or something, so just buy it if you like it.

I - and quite a few big gaming youTubers - use and recommend DxTory.
It gives you full control over the recording process, it let's you even select the codec you want to use.
Costs about the same as Fraps.
It has issues with some Unity games (only happened to me in indie games, so might only be a problem when recording badly optimized games) and hence the name only records DirectX games.

When using the DxTory codec the impact on the CPU and therefore framerate is minimal.

 

[Fabio Rodrigues]

I use OBS to record, since it's free and works quite well, even with my old 560ti. Here are my settings for recording to the computer:

And then in the video tab you select resolution and frame rate. With these settings I'm usually able to achieve 30FPS without much trouble - except in first laps with a lot of cars, but for those I just stay in cockpit view, which ensures 30FPS, and switch to TV cams after the field has spaced out a bit and there's less smoke and dirt around. If you have a newer card you probably won't have that issue, and might be able to record at 60FPS too.

I usually don't have to change anything in-game, but remember that shadows tend to be the main culprit when it comes to dropping frame rate.

 

[Jan Mikuž]

Thx for the tips, guys. Will check it out.

 

[xnorb]

If you have a newer card you probably won't have that issue, and might be able to record at 60FPS too.

As we're talking about realtime video encoding here the CPU plays a huge role here.

For example: I can easily run BF4 with a nice framerate no problems, but if i start streaming with OBS, my framerate dunks and the game gets unplayable (not that's it's a good game to start with *g*) because the x264 encoding takes up CPU power needed by the game.

If you get 60+ FPS without recording, your graphics card isn't the bottleneck.

 

[Jan Mikuž]

I can play the game on Ultra/4xAF/4xAA/VSynced 75Hz on 1440x900, but I can't make a smooth full size recording at even the basic graphics preset . It's choppy and has massive fps drops. Vsync on/off doesn't make a difference.

CPU too weak then ?
I do have what you would call a budget Cpu - G1610 (2,6ghz).

 

[xnorb]

Open taskmanager in the background and let it run - if CPU usage boosts up to 100%, there's little doubt about the CPU's involvement in your choppy performance while recording.

 

[Jan Mikuž]

Just tried Fraps and it recorded with surprisingly good results: Full size video set to record at 60fps on Ultra/8xAF/4xAA and it recorded at 37-40fps. CPU0: 80 % CPU1: 30% while recording.

The video size is outrageous, though. 1GB for 1 min video, lol ?!

 

[Wedsley Dias]

Hello, I also use Fraps and I think very good, the problem (file size) is because there is no coding in the generated file. To publish videos (YT, Vimeo) you must use another program to edit or convert them in a reduced format (MP4 for example), programs like Sony Vegas, Adobe Premiere Pro or Windows Movie Maker (this Free).

For FullHD / 60fps video, the larger the size of the generated file. One way to minimize is to set the fixed FPS 30 and record with half the resolution (smaller files).

Cheers.

 

[DaVeX↯]

I use OBS to record, since it's free and works quite well, even with my old 560ti. Here are my settings for recording to the computer:

And then in the video tab you select resolution and frame rate. With these settings I'm usually able to achieve 30FPS without much trouble - except in first laps with a lot of cars, but for those I just stay in cockpit view, which ensures 30FPS, and switch to TV cams after the field has spaced out a bit and there's less smoke and dirt around. If you have a newer card you probably won't have that issue, and might be able to record at 60FPS too.

I usually don't have to change anything in-game, but remember that shadows tend to be the main culprit when it comes to dropping frame rate.

I know is an old thread but...why not?
Can you please share your OBS setup for SCE? I try to record some gameplay or replay but I have only sound. Especially replay doesn't work.