Question The best screen recorder?

[george7378]

I'm having a bit of a problem finding a good screen recorder for making Orbiter movies. I tried Fraps, but the FPS is terrible. I tried Hypercam, but it won't let me record any higher than 10FPS - anything else, and it tells me it's too high. So, what, in your opinion, is the best way to go? Ideally it would be free, but I wouldn't mind spending a bit of money. By the way, here are my system specs (maybe someone can see why I am getting poor FPS?):

1.8Ghz quad-core AMD processor
Dual AMD radeon video cards with 1GB dedicated memory
6GB RAM

Thanks a lot!

 

[SolarLiner]

Fraps is the best screen video capture software. But it can't makes your FPS better. If you play Orbiter at 20 FPS, Fraps cptures at around 16-18 FPS. So you can try D3D9 Client witch allows me to play at 1000 FPS and capture at 60 FPS constantly (with the framerate blocker on).

 

[george7378]

Hmm, OK - thanks. I'm going to confess that I have no idea what the D3D9 client is, but I'd love to try it. I've downloaded RC-44 (http://www.orbiter-forum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=9469&d=1331544056), which is supposed to be for Orbiter 2010-P1. How do I go about getting it installed, and how do I use it? I suppose there's a tutorial around here somewhere, but I can't find one!

Thanks!

---------- Post added at 11:50 ---------- Previous post was at 11:23 ----------

OK, I should have done this first, but after experimenting, I've got it working. I have run into a few problems though:

- It crashes when I start a DG-IV scenario. On further research, it doesn't seem to support the DG-IV. Is this right?
- When I record using fraps at half-size, the framerate is great. When I try full-size though, the framerate drops rapidly! Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks a lot.

 

[SolarLiner]

Extract D3D9 like another Orbiter add-on: In the Orbiter root. Then run "orbiter_NG.exe", and in the Modules tab, activates the modules you want + "D3D9Client". A new tab appear, it is called "Video". Go into it, and configure it like the "regular" orbiter. Then you can select a scenario and use D3D9 ! Note that Spacecraft3 is failling with D3D9, and some add-ons (like UMmu, UCGO, XR Fleet, DGIV and some others) doesn't work with an external graphic client.
TIP: To make Orbiter Sound functionning with Orbiter NG, you have to run it in administrator mode (in Vista and Seven), go to Video tab, click "Advanced", and then "Create Symbolic links". Then restart Orbiter NG and enjoy the sounds !

 

[blixel]

I do a lot of screen recording for Orbiter so I can put videos up on my youtube channel. I definitely recommend D3D9Client to help ensure that you get a good frame rate in Orbiter to begin with. While recording your screen, you're going to take some kind of performance hit, so if you're using the inline graphics client, you're already off to a bad start.

As far as the screen recording software goes, fraps is meh ... I don't like it mainly for the fact that it requires an insane amount of hard-drive space when recording at 1920x1080. (Though, if you have a really slow CPU, then fraps may be your only option.)

If you have a decent CPU, you can use programs that record AND compress the video at the same time. This allows you to record at 1920x1080 and get really high quality mp4 at a small fraction of the hard-drive space. This also eliminates the need to render your video after you record. Though, if you plan to do a lot of post-recording editing anyway, then that point is moot.

I record my videos and upload the completed video without any editing, so I really like not having to spend the time rendering the video after I'm done making it.

Personally, I use a program called xsplit. But I don't necessarily recommend it if you just want to record Orbiter movies. One of xsplit's main features is its ability to allow you to stream your games live to the Internet. It's pretty much the de facto standard on twitch.tv

Even though I don't care too much about the streaming aspect, I still like other things about xsplit well enough to use it myself.

Other programs you may want to consider instead of fraps:

Bandicam - Not free, but has a free demo. Unlike fraps, Bandicam can compress video while recording. If I didn't already have xsplit set up how I like, I think Bandicam is what I'd look into.

Dxtory - Not free either. Its main feature seems to be its ability to record video to multiple hard-drives at the same time. If you have the right hardware, this could be a nice advantage.

If you really want free (and are willing to put in the extra effort to make it work), there's a program called Taksi. I have checked it out myself (briefly) and couldn't really get it to work. (But I didn't put in a lot of effort.) Since Taksi is free, there are license issues. They can't include proprietary codec software with the distribution. So you have to download a codec separately. (Whereas with programs like xsplit, bandicam, etc... since you are paying for the software, they can include everything you need "out of the box.") If you want to use Taksi, you can download the x264 codec here.

 

[Spacethingy]

Camstudio? On my ancient laptop it's the only one that could get FPS>10 (other than Fraps), when using its own codec. It's free (OS if I remember rightly).

 

[asbjos]

First, spacecraft3.dll works in D3D9 client. I had the same problem myself, but got help, and now it works (see the conversation that I had here).

Second, it's true that DG-IV is incompatible with D3D9, but UMmu, UCGO and XR-fleet all work for me, but the only problem is that the on-screen text doesn't work on these add-ons, like the help-screen on UMmu, altitude and vertical acceleration in XR-2 and XR-5 (XR-1 works, strangely) and on many of the French add-ons which use much on-screen text and help.

Finally, I want to remind you of that D3D9 client RC-45 released. It can be downloaded at the bottom of this post

 

[RisingFury]

Bad FPS is not a function of recorder itself. It's a function of recording options.

I had the same problems when making OBSP videos on a bad computer. All except the last one (new computer) were low FPS.

Here's what I've learned...

While a better computer helps, there are several things you can do to increase the FPS.

The processing power and the speed of the hard drive limit the the speed of recording, as well as the size of the frames.

If you have lots of processing power but slower disk, find a codec that can slightly compress the frame before saving it to the hard drive. That way the hard drive won't be the bottleneck.

If you have low processing power but a fast drive, you can try recording uncompressed. Almost no CPU will be wasted, but the hard drive will be the bottleneck.

The trick is to find the balance - a codec that can compress the frame a bit, but not keep your CPU / GPU busy enough to impede performance. You'll need to find the optimum performance for your computer.

 

[Mojave]

Blueberry Flashback Express. Free version requires registration to use it longer than the 30 day trial.

There is also a payware version, but both programs do practically the same stuff.

I use this program personally, so I can vouch for it.

Their website: http://www.bbsoftware.co.uk/BBFlashBack_FreePlayer.aspx



SE

 

[Unstung]

You can alternatively run Orbiter in .5x time acceleration, or half the speed you plan to play the video at, and double the speed in post. It's a pretty simple solution that I've been using it for over a year with various programs and provides high-quality results. It also gives you additional slow-mo footage if you can achieve a high frame rate.

 

[george7378]

Thanks a lot for all these suggestions - Unstung - that's genius! I will give that a go in the next video, for sure! Also RisingFury - that sounds like an idea, but I don't know how to install a new codec with Fraps.

 

[Spacethingy]

You can alternatively run Orbiter in .5x time acceleration, or half the speed you plan to play the video at, and double the speed in post. It's a pretty simple solution that I've been using it for over a year with various programs and provides high-quality results. It also gives you additional slow-mo footage if you can achieve a high frame rate.

Now that is clever. I'll give that a try! Orbiter goes down to x0.1...

Sounds like that Minecraft mod that slows stuff down hugely so you can film it with super-dooper shader stuff. Can't think what it was called now.

 

[RisingFury]

Thanks a lot for all these suggestions - Unstung - that's genius! I will give that a go in the next video, for sure! Also RisingFury - that sounds like an idea, but I don't know how to install a new codec with Fraps.

IIRC Fraps will give you a list of all the available codecs already installed on your computer. You can install other encoders and they'll show up in Fraps.

 

[Yiliaaaa]

Usually, I will utilize screen recorder on Windows to make recordings for myself. I have recorded vivid tutorial, streaming movie, online music, on-screen gameplay, Skype calls, etc.

 

[kkmin]

Try Joyoshare Screen Recorder. See if it can meet your need. I use it to record how I drawing on PS.