Recording and editing software along with gameplay editting

Hey everyone, it's Milanor here and while I have posted in another topic (The Shadow Genesis topic on page 7) regarding recording gameplay, I've decided to start a topic that will focus on it specifically because I have a two-pronged problem. Before I start, I will give the specifications of my laptop.

OS: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
RAM: 4GB
Processor: Intel Core i5 CPU at 2.5GHz
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
System: Dell Latitude E6410
Graphics card: NVIDIA NVS 3100M
Display mode: 1280 x 800 (32bit) (60Hz)

(If there are more specs that are needed let me know).

So far, I've thought about not including commentary, but that may change. If it does, then I also need to look into audio editing, having a good microphone, and that's more of a hassle. So far, I'm still struggling to find a good recording software (without having to pay hundreds of dollars for it). FRAPS, Bandicam, OBS comes to mind but so far I haven't been able to get it to work well.. Then I would need a reliable video editing software to edit the footage. The crappy WMM won't do for serious editing, but I also don't have the money for Sony Vegas Pro or other fancy video editing software.

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Next is the gameplay recording part (yes Mario has responded to this but I thought I elaborate a bit further).
So in short, when I play wolf3d mods, I often save very oftenly as I play blind (sometimes even when I know the level well enough, there are too many factors that could screw me over or become unfavorable quickly) through it most of the time and on the highest difficulty, Death Incarnate.

Mario has mentioned good ways to record a long level, in segments, or levels that give a lot of trouble, which for the most part I've already had that in mind. However, here are some ideas that I have but I don't know how feasible they are in terms of recording.

A) Record the level and since I save oftenly, pause the video recording as I save, then resume recording once I'm back to where I am, so that way the audience would not notice save save save (oops died), then reload reload, save, etc.

B) Record the level many times and have "cute" transitions in between trouble areas. Like during parts of a level where I know I'll abuse the save file to get the right result, then have a picture up in between the video segments to make it seamless or comedic. (Thinking of level 31 during the island hopping teleport where the random spawns of enemies) The problem with doing this is that it will be very time consuming to draw all the pictures and then edit it all together.

C) Do what Mario suggests about re-recording. I could do that but also this seems to be very time consuming too.

So right now, I'm just focusing on getting all the right software and technical side of things sorted before worrying about how to record. Once I have things sorted then I will start worrying about how to record the level, transitions, and all.

Heya,

I'm looking forward to see what you can come up with.

Regarding your system specs, I think you won't have any problem rendering videos with a video-editing software. Mario and me used to render videos with our previous PC, which wasn't that much different from your laptop. Of course, it sometimes takes hours for the render to be complete, specially when you use filters and video FX, which seem to greatly increase the time needed to render.

About pausing when you're saving, I'm not sure that FRAPS does that, but Bandicam does. Bandicam has more options for recording than FRAPS, but FRAPS seems to record with better video quality, specially when you want higher frame rates. For the teaser videos we uploaded, we recorded using FRAPS.

I also agree that WMM isn't really a good option for this case. There seem to be some free alternatives to Sony Vegas, but I can't really say much about them, since I've never used any.

And about the recording, you could also worry about the save-load thing during editing, instead of doing it while you're recording. I mean, you could record the whole level, including all the parts where you keep saving and loading, and simply cut it out when you edit the video. Removing specific pieces of the video is something really straightforward and fast, so it might not take that much time to do.

Also, what happened when you tried to record? I don't know which of the softwares you listed you tried to use, but FRAPS is usually quite temperamental, and sometimes "locks" its focus on the wrong application, or things like that. It's not always easy to get it to record what you want it to.

I think I tried to use FRAPS but it ended up in a disaster. First, the program did not lock onto the application that I plan to record (in this case, it was Shadow Genesis), then on top of that, when it did start recording (on the wrong application of course), it crashed and somehow produced an unplayable corrupted file that was about 4GB in size or something.

I don't know if I'm missing something or I'm not doing something right, but these technical issues along with gameplay and video editing stuff (which I haven't even got there yet, but will have to worry after I sort out the technical issues) is just overwhelming. I'm just hoping to solve the former before I move on to try to solve the latter.

Sorry for the late response, I had a busy weekend and also just had a bit of time atm.

Milanor wrote:I think I tried to use FRAPS but it ended up in a disaster. First, the program did not lock onto the application that I plan to record (in this case, it was Shadow Genesis), then on top of that, when it did start recording (on the wrong application of course), it crashed and somehow produced an unplayable corrupted file that was about 4GB in size or something.

I don't know if I'm missing something or I'm not doing something right, but these technical issues along with gameplay and video editing stuff (which I haven't even got there yet, but will have to worry after I sort out the technical issues) is just overwhelming. I'm just hoping to solve the former before I move on to try to solve the latter.

Sorry for the late response, I had a busy weekend and also just had a bit of time atm.

I have used FRAPS to record my videos without problems.
To make it work with SDL however you need to run the game in windowed mode or otherwise you won't get focus.

As the video files are raw data, you can expect just an half hour of a recorded video to be over 100GB at size so that is why you need to mux it.
I have personally used MeGUI in case the video needs no complex editing to do so but I also suggest that you take a look on FlashIntegros VSDC free video editor.

Hmm, I'm still having problems, I ran the game in windowed mode but the same problem still persists. FRAPS did not even record at all. I feel like I want to just use CamStudio to record my desktop to show exactly what I'm doing with FRAPS and maybe there is just something that I'm not getting correctly. I've tried it on Totenkopf SDL, vanilla wolf3d, Green Arrow, and a few other mods just to test it out, but all to no avail..

Edit: Well, I did get FRAPS to work (after selecting an Aero theme on my desktop), however, there are quite a few problems with that. First off, having to switch windows themes means that something else is wrong (on my default theme/custom theme, FRAPS will NOT work at all. Basically, it is just an non-functional program). Then when I tried to play full-screen just by running the game itself (without windowed), FRAPS will record but it's just audio no video, black screen/video freezes. So instead, I went into windowed mode, but now FRAPS records the whole desktop rather than just a window itself (ugh as if things aren't bad enough yet... ), somehow I just can't get FRAPS to hook onto Wolf4SDL.exe or w/e game it is. Oh and then when I'm running the game, it is laggy at times, and finally, the file size is *cough* ridiculously large just for less than 2 minutes of gameplay *cough* (think over 2.8GB).

All in all, I feel like FRAPS just won't cut it for me, all the cons out-weigh the pros. Maybe there are many others there that haven't had as much problems and this is just such a headache to get through. Once I sort out all the technical issues and problems (if I am even able to...), then there is gameplay issues which I haven't touched yet because I'm more focused on solving this problem before tackling the next problem. (You have to learn how to walk before you can learn how to run. It's cliche, but it applies strongly here). Anyways, maybe OBS, Bandicam, or some other screen recording software would be better.

FRAPS is known for outputting ridiculously large files, yeah. I don't think there's much you can do about that. It happens because of the poorly compressed files it saves. Personally, I use FRAPS when I want my recordings to be at the best quality possible. That might not be needed/wanted in your case. And yeah, it's a really heavy load when it's recoding. I've experienced many slowdowns because of it, too. Interesting that you had to change your theme, I never had to do anything like that.

Bandicam surely is easier to work with. You can specify a region on your screen to be recorded, for example, without the need to focus on some application (although you can also do that). Maybe you should also give it a try, then. It's could end up being exactly what you needed with much less effort involved.

I will look into Bandicam then and I'll let you know if it suits my recording needs.