[casual_games] Recording videos from my game

[Matthew Ford]

(Answering to the list in case it helps others but feel free to answer
offline if this gets too specific)

Thanks for that, those are good pointers!

BTW Stephane reminded me-- Camtasia was the app that I used to capture
Flash. As Matthew pointed out, Fraps does not capture Flash because it's not
on a DX surface. However, even though I tried Camtasia on a good machine
(about 2 GHz, 1 GB RAM) it still did not smoothly capture at 30 FPS my Flash
app as it showed a couple 200*440 flv streams alpha'd against a 800*600
background. The swf ran at 30 FPS but the capture caught less than that. 

I really want to get a solid 30 FPS capture because the flvs are at 30 FPS
and I hate to waste any of those luscious frames. :) I'm a bit religious
about how much frame rate improves the overall impression...

In case it helps, I'm trying to get a playback of near-DVD quality, albeit
lower res. The result is a huge file but I mail the DVD, containing a .avi
or .wmv file, to prospective clients. I did that with the file I got by
pointing the camera at my LCD screen. The FPS on that was fine but it was a
bit blurry (did not have a pixel-for-pixel match so it aliased the pixels)
and had poor dynamic range, as you'd expect with a camera pointed at a
screen. Plus, I can't help but wave my hands as I demo, and it sometimes
gets on screen! Nothing that handcuffs can't fix, but still.

I'll check out that card Matthew mentions-- that's a lot less than I thought
that sort of thing cost. So do I have this right: you play the game on a PC
with a S-video-out card, route the S-video into the capture device, the
capture device plugged into the USB port of a second PC, and that second PC
writes it to the hard drive?

I'm not sure-- is the S-video an analog link in the chain which results in
some blur, or does it remain digital all the way through, and pixel-sharp?

Matthew Ford
matthew at fordfam dot com

-----Original Message-----
From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org [mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org]
On Behalf Of Matthew Wegner
Sent: Wednesday, 4 April 2007 1:49 PM
To: 'IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [casual_games] Recording videos from my game

Hey All,

I've captured 50+ videos of various games for my physics game site.  Fraps
works extremely well if you have a modern system; I haven't had any problems
with audio or frame rates.  If you have an onboard sound card you may get
audio issues.  GameCam is Fraps' main competitor, if you want something else
to try because Fraps is giving you trouble.

Fraps can only capture DirectX/OpenGL surfaces, though.  If a game is 100%
software or doing something funny to be more compatible Fraps may be out of
the question.  Next, I try to use Camtasia.  Camtasia is designed to capture
business apps for things like narrated tutorials, but you *can* jack up the
framerate/color settings to get realtime capture.  It's an expensive
product, but I already had it lying around from teaching online courses.

I've had to resort to hardware capture for a few oddities (desktop toys and
other bizarre applications that render in strange ways).  You can get a
cheap Plextor ConvertX USB capture device for $10 to $40 if you wait for
deals.  Check http://dealnews.com/search.html?search=convertx&x=0&y=0 --
some going on now.  As mentioned, consumer hardware capture isn't suited for
broadcast or high-res demo reels, but it's more than enough for
Flash-encoded video.

Hope this help!

Best Regards,

Matthew Wegner
Founder and CEO, Flashbang Studios
 
6507 S Hardy Drive Suite #214 Tempe, AZ 85283
AIM:  matthewfbs | MSN: 	.com
(480) 329-2566, Mobile | (480) 393-0885, Office | (480) 626-5992, Fax

www.flashbangstudios.com
www.fun-motion.com




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