Question about PC Recording

2014-07-17 11:28:09 pm

Hi all,

It's my first time recording. I'm trying to record a PC game (Steamworld Dig) that doesn't work with fraps. I got what looks like a high quality video (to my naked eye) using OBS to record it, but it's really small compared to when I've captured other stuff with fraps. A test video yielded 508mb for a 17 minute clip.

I used Yua to create hq/mq/lq files, and hq looks alright but lq is really really bad (worse than other lq videos that I saw posted in this forum).

I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas on things to do, or if someone can look at these to see if they're good enough. I tried the aero desktop record thing but it made my FPS drop really badly.

The files are in this dropbox link. It seems like dropbox kills quality when you use the online player, so download them if you want to look. The source video is "swd (02).mp4." It is only 7.7mb.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give. Also, OBS gives an mp4 file, so I can't use the other recommended program to convert (can't remember the name off the top of my head).

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/kktn970v9cysiv6/AABSaCoklH8xd88OaAgnEG6ya#/

Thread title:

Hi all,

It's my first time recording.  I'm trying to record a PC game (Steamworld Dig) that doesn't work with fraps.  I got what looks like a high quality video (to my naked eye) using OBS to record it, but it's really small compared to when I've captured other stuff with fraps.  A test video yielded 508mb for a 17 minute clip.

I used Yua to create hq/mq/lq files, and hq looks alright but lq is really really bad (worse than other lq videos that I saw posted in this forum).

I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas on things to do, or if someone can look at these to see if they're good enough.  I tried the aero desktop record thing but it made my FPS drop really badly.

The files are in this dropbox link.  It seems like dropbox kills quality when you use the online player, so download them if you want to look.  The source video is "swd (02).mp4."  It is only 7.7mb.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give.  Also, OBS gives an mp4 file, so I can't use the other recommended program to convert (can't remember the name off the top of my head).

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/kktn970v9cysiv6/AABSaCoklH8xd88OaAgnEG6ya#/

Mystery

2014-07-18 05:12:36 pm

You shouldn't be using OBS to record game footage as it's usually meant for streaming which means heavy compression. That said, "doesn't work" does not give us much details. What does "does not work" mean exactly? The devil is in the details.
Letting us know your computer specs might also help.

jimmypoopins

Edit history:

jimmypoopins: 2014-07-18 10:58:07 pm

2014-07-18 10:53:55 pm

Okay, thanks for the info about OBS.

As for "doesn't work," FRAPS simply does nothing when I press the record button. The game doesn't use any of the graphics engines that are mentioned here https://kb.speeddemosarchive.com/Digital_Capture (DirectX, OpenGL, DirectDraw) and the record button does absolutely nothing. I've tried it with other applications and it does work.

As for my specs, here you go:

Windows 7 64 Bit

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3350P CPU @ 3.10GHz (4 CPUs), ~3.1GHz
RAM: 8gb DDR3
Video: NVIDIA GeForce GTX460 (1gb memory)

2 hard drives, 1 is SSD (doesn't have much room), other is older HDD, which can fit video data

Anything else?

edit: I mentioned already in the original post that Monitor Aero Desktop gives me major fps loss. Any suggestions for alternatives are welcome.

Warepire

Edit history:

Warepire: 2014-07-19 01:34:15 am

2014-07-19 01:30:47 am

Heavy Metal Powered

As far as I know Fraps doesn't capture games using GDI really well. Don't know if Steamworld Dig uses GDI, but that could explain it. GDI is ancient, it predates DirectDraw, but is still included with Windows.
(EDIT: Seeing how new the game is, I don't see it using GDI)

OBS has been used before to capture source, though not from a PC game as far as I know. The recommendation in the past if I remember correctly is to crank the target bitrate of the output file as high as you possibly can (around 15000 seems to work for console footage), crank the audio bitrate as high as possible.

Yua can take mp4 source files so that is no problem.

UraniumAnchor

2014-07-19 05:02:48 am

Not a walrus

OBS was used to capture Onin's Nox run, so just pump up the bitrate (it's looking noticeably blurry) and the framerate and it might be workable. You might also try Dxtory, it's very fraps-like and you might have better luck with it.

Mystery

2014-07-19 06:17:03 am

15000 should be good for anything below 1080. Just match the resolution and framerate.

Cauptain

2014-07-19 07:23:14 am

Try Mirillis Action! Its capture virtually all. AVI or MP4 using Intel tech or AMD tech.

Trial: https://mirillis.com/en/downloads/downloads_action.html

Claudio

jimmypoopins

2014-07-19 03:31:53 pm

Thank you all very much for the help. I will try all of these suggestions and post the best sample that I can get.