Campaign Creations

Do you guys know of any cool video capture software? I have ZDSoft but it really takes a lot of resources and slows down the gameplay.

I also downloaded Fraps, but it seems kinda buggy on my end. First, the video does not show up that you actually have to decode it first with virtualdub. Virtual Dub converts the file into Gigabyte size and you may need another video conversion tool to reduce it to uploadable size. Another problem I have with this software is that the video sometimes freezes. I dunno if this is related to my system and configurations, but it definitely screws up on my end. I have a low-end video card btw.

I hope there are other softwares out there that can support not so powerful computers like mine. Any ideas?

Fraps is basically the only viable recording tool in existence right now.

Ricky told me about some program (Gameclaw was it?) that might be able to compete. But I haven't tried it yet.

Judging by your post there's already a ton of things wrong other than fraps. First of all, what player are you using to watch the videos? Second of all, your hard drive/cpu may not be up to the task of recording video - the GPU has little bearing on this.

Thirdly, Virtualdub can encode to x264 if you have the proper codecs installed - you may be converting to uncompressed or something equally ineffective for compression. While virtualdub isn't my first choice for converting, it's definitely capable of doing it.

I've had some success with CamStudio + its lossless codec, then compressing for upload in VirtualDub (had to use the 32-bit build because the 64-bit one can't use 32-bit codecs???).

I've never tried it with high framerate 3D stuff etc though, so if Mesk has deliberately left it out of his post he probably knows what he's talking about.

Camstudio/camtasia and the numerous clones of this software caused me shittons of issues across so many different versions. From performance to desyncing to just flat out breaking videos, I could never depend on them to do stuff properly and reliably.

Unfortunately Fraps can only capture aero desktop, so if you need desktop recording you'll end up needing an alternative for many situations anyway.

It's PlayClaw that I spoke about.

Personally for recording with Fraps, I record to a different drive (in my case, an external drive that is fast enough). In general, if the game even use somewhat a hard drive (such as SC1 usually loading data in mid-game), using the same drive to record is often enough to cripple your recording speed dramatically.

Then I compress with VirtualDub with a x264 codec specific to VirtualDub. The majority of codecs you would download are NOT specific to VirtualDub but usable with video players, MeGUI, etc. For sound, a LAME MP3 codec (yes, it's named "LAME"). Again, a downloadable codec specific to vdub.

By default, VirtualDub will "compress" an uncompressed video to an uncompressed video and not compress the sound at all. You NEED to pick the wanted codecs in VirtualDub (for video and sound) before compressing.

EDIT : In addition, it's strongly recommended that you have at least a dual-core computer if only to have a single core dedicated to play the game and the other core to record. I didn't have much good experiences with a single core computer unless it's an extremely low cpu demanding game.

is there an x264 custom made exclusively for VirtualDub or do you just mean the VFW encoder (which VirtualDub can use)

First of all, what player are you using to watch the videos? Second of all, your hard drive/cpu may not be up to the task of recording video - the GPU has little bearing on this.

I'm using Windows Media Player with K-Lite codecs on. I am using an Athlon II X2 260 CPU. I think it's already a dual core because I can see two CPU usage history in Windows Task Manager under Performance.

Thirdly, Virtualdub can encode to x264 if you have the proper codecs installed

I have already installed Lagarinth codec as the Fraps tech told on their forum. But I guess, it's not properly configured.

I've had some success with CamStudio + its lossless codec

Thanks Taeradun, I'll look at it...

The majority of codecs you would download are NOT specific to VirtualDub but usable with video players, MeGUI, etc. For sound, a LAME MP3 codec (yes, it's named "LAME"). Again, a downloadable codec specific to vdub.

I may be missing some codecs... thanks for the input...

phantommaelstrom wrote:

First of all, what player are you using to watch the videos? Second of all, your hard drive/cpu may not be up to the task of recording video - the GPU has little bearing on this.

I'm using Windows Media Player with K-Lite codecs on. I am using an Athlon II X2 260 CPU. I think it's already a dual core because I can see two CPU usage history in Windows Task Manager under Performance.

Okay, well, there's a big problem right there. Windows Media Player is basically terrible. I'm using Media Player Classic and I believe the only "codec" I've ever installed is LAV Filter and haali media splitter. ffdshow is awful and ever since I ran into problems with all of that junk I just stopped using codec packs and stopped recommending codec packs to people. Unfortunately, I think short of a windows reinstall you're stuck. Try out VLC or MPC.

Thirdly, Virtualdub can encode to x264 if you have the proper codecs installed

I have already installed Lagarinth codec as the Fraps tech told on their forum. But I guess, it's not properly configured.

Lagarith is a lossless codec and is one of the reasons I am having so many problems with videos I recorded and encoded with it from Brood War. It's not meant for distribution, it's even larger than fraps files. I don't think I can play lagarith files very well myself, because they are so massive and the hard drives I had the files on weren't fast enough. So, no, lagarith is best considered a "crosswalk" codec before you put something into x264.

Thanks I'll try your suggestions. I have downloaded CamStudio too... well, try them out later...

Taeradun wrote:is there an x264 custom made exclusively for VirtualDub or do you just mean the VFW encoder (which VirtualDub can use)

Personally, I am using one that is compatible with VirtualDub ... although I got to check the "VirtualDub hack" checkbox in the video codec settings to make it fully work with VirtualDub.

As for a VFW encoder, it's more than possible that I do have a VFW encoder for x264. When checking my vdub compatible codecs, it says "x264vfw - H.264/MPEG-4 AVC codec". Although, I do remember seeing "x264" without "vfw" part in my older x264 codecs for vdub.