Let's Play questions

[Edrondol]

I've noticed a few people talking about making "Let's Play" videos. My question is, what would make the best recording software for PC? I have FRAPS, but it takes an unGODLY amount of memory to record anything.

What do you guys/gals suggest?

[Fnord]

I've noticed a few people talking about making "Let's Play" videos. My question is, what would make the best recording software for PC? I have FRAPS, but it takes an unGODLY amount of memory to record anything.

What do you guys/gals suggest?

It depends a lot on the game itself, I've found. FRAPS is generally considered to be one of the best for recording 3D games (like Grimrock), but as you said, the files gets huge. Also, there is a very short time limit on the free version of FRAPS.
Some free alternatives worth trying are:
CamStudio
HyperCam 2

Also, for recording your own voice Audacity is quite good.

You will still end up with very large files, that needs compression, no matter what software you chose to use for recording.

[Mameluk]

Yeah, FRAPS is heavyweight. Not memory, actually, but file sizes. However, it all comes down to how big videos do you want to record, as in how big resolution do you need. The file sizes change dramatically if you change the FRAPS settings to half-size and fiddle around with the fps (lower is better I find). You can also lower your own monitor or in-game resolution to help.

If you want to make genuine let's play videos, and lots of them, I'd recommend buying a few terabytes of additional storage...

[Mameluk]

No... Fraps is good. It's reliable and I've been using it for years without any problems. Don't say it's bad just because you tried it once or twice and your computer couldn't handle it - you're giving away false information based on assumptions. What Fraps needs is a decent setup and lots of free storage space.

[Fnord]

FRAPS is a lot less system demanding than many of the alternatives, which is one of the reasons for why it is as popular as it is. And don't think you can get away with any form of LP-recording unless you have a lot of disc space. I just did an LP/Walkthrough for Majesty: the fantasy kingdom sim, and even though I was recording at a 800*600 resolution, the files still got huge (and I did not use FRAPS).

[eharper256]

Personally, I used Screen Movie Studio. But then, I've only recorded 800x600 windows with 2d games (specifically, for preview videos of my RPG Maker Game).

Creates somewhat lighter-weight files, but instead is a bit of a memory hog.

I assume FRAPS makes uncompressed video, hence the size. It's the same if you rip DVD footage or suchlike; make sure you have 20 gigs or so free. But you can immediately convert it (with something like avidemux or virtualdubmod) to xvid, and then delete the original.

[maskedhobo]

I know some people who do LPs use HyperCam. I am not sure how it is as software. The best thing to do is test multiple pieces of software and see which one works best.

[Edrondol]

Thanks for the replies! Anyone familiar with WeGame?

edit: Never mind. WeGame is game specific. Which is just weird.

[Ice]

FRAPS records by hooking the DirectX output, which makes it more efficient than standard screen recording software which just record the regular screen output. If you record ~20 minute chunks, they shouldn't take too many gigabytes (they're generally recorded as raw AVI). You can just re-encode them using H.264 codec in the MP4 container to save room afterwards. WinFF is a great video converter that uses ffmpeg which is the best free encoder.

[Rensje]

I use FRAPS to record my game as well as my voice. I then string together and encode the videos using VirtualDub. What makes VirtualDub so amazing is how extremely light-weight it is. Before I found out about it I used Windows Live Movie Maker, but that kept crashing on me every time I added too many AVI clips.

To get the best results with VirtualDub, you will have to have the proper codec: x264vfw. Once you have installed both that and VirtualDub, here's a nice little video tutorial that will get you started on encoding your videos.

Furthermore, if you don't feel like adding all the seperate video files in VD one after the other, I recommend getting a little script called FrapsJoin. This brilliant little script will automatically number videos sequentially so that you can load them up in VD all at once, which saves you a LOT of time.

I hope this helps.. if you want to get a feel for the results VirtualDub can produce, check out a video I did today using these very tools: link.