recording dolphin movies with fraps

[NaturalViolence]

If you're recording at a high resolution and a high framerate then you do need a powerful cpu, a lot of ram, a fast HDD/SSD to output to, preferable not the same drive that the game is on. However this is assuming that the application you're using is demanding on the cpu. Games were rarely multi-threaded until about 2007 so back then you could get away with a dual core.

[Clusta]

It can be a pain figuring out what your PC can handle with fraps. Issues aren't always obvious as fraps can bring down fps for almost no reason at all. My PC can chug somethings when starting to write the next 4GB segment. I can do the same thing again with completely different results. I'm new to recording so that baffles me.

[tuanming]

(02-01-2011, 05:16 AM)andyo70 Wrote:

(01-09-2011, 11:25 PM)tuanming Wrote: Fraps required a 4 core CPU to capture videos without lost of fps.

I call BS on that. Fraps has been around far before Quad Core CPU's came along. So how do you explain that theory?

NaturalViolence's explanations pretty much summed it up. Back then, games were mostly programmed or optimized for single core, such as the Pentium 4 processor. These days, however, games are now using dualcore as the standards, but there are some games that utilize more than 2 cores i.e. GTA IV for the pc. So to capture games at full speed with fraps required some beefy hardware: multicore CPU, fast hdd, and 2gb of ram or more is preferred.

[andyo70]

I gotta ya. And it makes sense. Depends on the game too, even in Dolphins case. Like last night I made a video of gameplay for All-Star Baseball 2002 using Camtasia Recorder. I just set the Emulator to use single core mode, freeing up a core for Camtasia. Played fullspeed through the entire recording process. Tried to do the same thing with NFL 2K3 and it got bogged down without Dolphin using both cores and even still didn't play fullspeed while I was recording.

I was eyeing up those Hexa-Core CPUs AMD has out. Fairly cheap for 6 cores. Intel has them too but want to charge you $899 for one where as AMD will charge you at the least $179.

Or I could get a Athlon X2 5000+ for dirt cheap and the appropriate Mobo and unlock the other 2 cores and 6MB L3 cache.

Even a Tri-Core should work in theory right? I definitely need 2 cores for the emu and at least one for the capture software.

[andyo70]

Ya know all this talk about recordings had me thinking. Does not Dolphin have a "Record" feature? I see it in the menu. Can the format in which Dolphin records gameplay be coverted to another format for posting on youtube or what not?

[NaturalViolence]

It's experimental and if I recall it doesn't record audio. Just use fraps.

[Emude]

Some other programs that are good to use might include - GROWLER GUNCAM, ZD SOFT SCREEN RECORDER- latest version, SnagIt, ACA Capture Pro, but I would suggest Growler Guncam before any of the others. Though the latest version of fraps works fine for me.

[Dario ff]

(02-03-2011, 08:15 AM)andyo70 Wrote: Ya know all this talk about recordings had me thinking. Does not Dolphin have a "Record" feature? I see it in the menu. Can the format in which Dolphin records gameplay be coverted to another format for posting on youtube or what not?

Kind of buggy, and as someone else said, it doesn't record audio properly. It also sets the framerate to 60fps, even if the game's set at 30. It'd be one hell of a useful option if it works later though, since you'd be able to get gameplay videos at perfect speeds, which will be very useful for TAS encoders.

My recommendation for another free software to try is CamStudio if you want to give it a shot.

[andyo70]

CamStudio as most other free video capture software absolutely hates any kind of on-board High Definition audio. In fact the only software I've found that will properly capture audio from systems with integrated sound on newer systems are FRAPS and Camtasia.