[HELP] Alpha video creation!

Alpha Protocol · Dec 19, 2013

I'm trying to make an alpha video for two reasons. I'm bored and I want to grab some still for wall papers.

I downloaded Camtasia after reading somewhere it worked well for this purpose.

1) I can't figure out how to get Camtasia on top unless I go windowed instead of fullscreen.

2) My FPS are 70-100 FPS with Camtasia running and 90-110 without. Both are in 2560x1600, all settings to high, and MLAAx4.

3) The video turns out really laggy looking even with the game having good frame rates and Camtasia set at 30FPS.

Is there an easier, or better program to use? Should I just go windowed at 1920x1080 (I won't get any good screens)? Is there a different setting I should try?

Also if anyone has been getting just screenshots, what are you using to get them?

Thanks, I would appreciate any help

Kawboy · Dec 19, 2013

Fraps is usually pretty good, and the free version will let you do snapshots and 30 secs of video. If your video cards are Nvidia based, you might try shadowplay. It's part of the Geforce experience, downloadable from Geforce.com

Alien · Dec 19, 2013

I'm sorry I can't help you with Camtasia, as I made an investment and paid for Fraps, so I have the fully registered version.

Alpha Protocol · Dec 19, 2013

Kawboy said:
Fraps is usually pretty good, and the free version will let you do snapshots and 30 secs of video. If your video cards are Nvidia based, you might try shadowplay. It's part of the Geforce experience, downloadable from Geforce.com

Alien said:
I'm sorry I can't help you with Camtasia, as I made an investment and paid for Fraps, so I have the fully registered version.

Thanks guys they are Nvidia so I'll try shadowplay first!

Cheers!

Dr Wookie · Dec 19, 2013

I also bought FRAPS

. Apparently, you can get screenshots natively in the alpha by pressing F10, though I've not tried it

Alpha Protocol · Dec 19, 2013

Dr Wookie said:
I also bought FRAPS . Apparently, you can get screenshots natively in the alpha by pressing F10, though I've not tried it

I ended up buying Fraps too. Nividia ShadowPlay was terribly buggy. Fraps worked great! Thanks

Riandor · Dec 19, 2013

Alpha Protocol said:
I ended up buying Fraps too. Nividia ShadowPlay was terribly buggy. Fraps worked great! Thanks

Shame it was buggy for you, works a treat for me, all my videos are done with Shadowplay. Still, FRAPS obviously gives you more...

deMangler · Dec 20, 2013

Riandor said:
Shame it was buggy for you, works a treat for me, all my videos are done with Shadowplay. Still, FRAPS obviously gives you more...

I have not been able to get Shadowplay to work with E:⁠D - (GTX 680 Win7) Any particular trick to it or does it "Just work" for you?

Zieman · Dec 20, 2013

I just wish nVidia would release a standalone version of the Shadowplay, I don't want that BloatForced Experience on my PC (tried it, hated it).

Bought FRAPS years ago, now I'm experimenting with VirtualDub to compress the files without losing too much quality... So far I've recorded 1920x1080@30FPS, resized it in VirtualDub to 1280x720@30FPS and compressed (in VirtualDub) with XVid codec (Profile @ Level XVid HD 720 and Target Quantizer 2.00) - source file size 3,01 GB dropped to destination file size 149 MB. Will have to do a test upload in the morning, to see what happens to the quality with YouTube & how long it will take with my not-so-great Internet connection.

Kawboy · Dec 20, 2013

you have to make sure it's 'turned on'. After you go through the settings, and click the 'main' power button, you still have to hit Alt F9 to start it. I found that setting it to manual, and setting the storage disk to one different than the one the game is running on, makes a big difference as well

Jack Booted Thug · Dec 20, 2013

I use Bandicam.

It is worth ever penny because it is very easy to use and does not hammer your cpu.

Alpha Protocol · Dec 20, 2013

Kawboy said:
you have to make sure it's 'turned on'. After you go through the settings, and click the 'main' power button, you still have to hit Alt F9 to start it. I found that setting it to manual, and setting the storage disk to one different than the one the game is running on, makes a big difference as well

Yep I had it working, but it caused a problem in-game with my mouse and it wouldn't let me set a resolution above 1280x720. Fraps had no issues whatsoever and let me capture in 2560x1600.

FS3DPete · Dec 20, 2013

Alpha Protocol said:
Yep I had it working, but it caused a problem in-game with my mouse and it wouldn't let me set a resolution above 1280x720. Fraps had no issues whatsoever and let me capture in 2560x1600.

That's an in-built limitation of Shadowplay from the reports I've read online. It only captures and compresses to 1280x720 resolution.

The only reason to use it over something else is because it can use the GPU hardware to do all the encoding and capturing... Whereas FRAPS etc use the CPU to do it (in most cases, unless there is GPU code in FRAPS now).

Hellhawk666 · Dec 20, 2013

I've had no problems with Shadowplay, I'm running at a lower resolution (1920x1080), although I don't see that that should make any difference.

Worth noting that the most recent Shadowplay update includes streaming to Twitch. I've not tried it yet, but it bodes well for nVidia's commitment to these apps.

Voyager_NL · Dec 20, 2013

You can aslo take a look at OBS. Its fee and open source.
It easily integrates with TwitchTV as well for if you would want to broadcast your video's live and there is a nice tutorial on twitch to set it up for them.