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-   -   FRAPS How to Guide(Performance and video capturing) *Please Read* (https://www.mmorpgforum.net/showthread.php?t=331)

kiahann 11-06-2006 09:29 PM

FRAPS How to Guide(Performance and video capturing) *Please Read*
 
Okay with the growing number of people wondering why Fraps is lagging Or why they can't run it im going to make a guide for everyone to look at and post into so we can sort it all out in one post instead of answering the same question in many post.

Will also explain how fraps works and how to use it

if you are new to fraps as well as movie makeing check out this lovely guide made by Unska! http://www.warcraftmovies.com/articleview.php?id=25

Ill tell you the simple questions.

Problems with Fraps.


UPDATE:
What's Better FRAPS or Gamecam?



Fraps is definatly the best. There are way more options then gamecam. Yes i have tried them both.

Results(In testing which is better thanks goes to Valamir) Fraps has better quality, gamecam used 50% more CPU power. Fraps could record at 30 FPS, Gamecam recorded at 2.

If you want a program worth the money get Fraps..you'll like it better.

FRAPS requires a really good computer to run it very smoothly if you don't have a good computer upgrade it a good thing to get is RAM get some of that to improve performance



"Im geting lag while recording FRAPS" commonly asked question this is some steps to try and not get lag

If you want know lag While recording try Improveing your computer.. Anything is good 50$ investment could get your Computer smooth with fraps.

If you can't do this "REMOVE UI" if you have it..it can Lag your computer up.

Sometimes especially in windows movie maker the footage itself can be abit laggy after you render it the lag will get better. (To render in windows movie maker use "save movie file" under the file tab save it to your computer and put .wmv after your movie) (that's for windows movie viewer codec)


if this doesnt work try puting Fraps in "Half Screen" that will be less quality but improves smoothness by a ton.

You can set Fraps to record at "Half size" which would result in an output recording of 576x432, giving you a nice final video, providing you encode it with decent quality settings

OR

Leave Fraps set to "Full size" and set your ingame resolution to something lower, like 800x600.


Still laggy and can't figure it out? Change your resolution read below.


The maximum resolution size for "Half Size" recording is 2560x1600.

For "Full size" recording the maximum resolution size is 1152x864

1280x800 (widescreen) For "WIDESCREEN" computers.

If you record with more resolution then fraps can handle it will lag you up.

UPDATE: If fraps isn't coming up letting you record ect....There "might" be somthing wrong in the installation process i would try Uninstalling it completely that means going into the fraps file and geting rid of ALL files and go back to Fraps www.fraps.com and get it again
Restart your computer as well it could help.

If all this doesn't work and your still haveing lag it could be your computer invest in geting some new hardware to get FRAPS working properly.

Achieving good quality

One thing that is good to get to improve performance and quality is to get a second hardrive it doesn't have to be somthing real big but it will put less stress on the computer therefor helping in both quality of the movie and performance.



Guide to Video Capture and misc with FRAPS.


So people don't get confused with the title I will make a guide on how to use fraps for all those new people and for the ones who are confused with some features.


First Go to FPS tab. and there will be a button called "Overlay Display Hotkey" that lets you assign a button that will toggle the frame rate counter between the four corners and off i just have it set to F12 that button won't be used much atleast i don't.



Then below it there is somthing called "Benchmarking Hotkey" that lets you assign a button that can be used to determine the average frame rate between any two points in a game. To change the Hotkey, click in the box and type a new key to be assigned this function. Clicking Disable will stop the Hotkey from having any effect.

In the right hand corner if Fraps ( We are still in the FPS Tab) there is a black box that has "Overlay Corner" with that click which ever corner you want it to display your framrate If you don't want that to show up when recording click disable which is on the bottom of the box.

After that there is a box that says "Only Update overlay once a second" That's pretty much self Explanatory it updates your framerate

The "Stop benchmarking every 60 seconds" it should already be default as 60seconds but with a open box(not checked) beside it if you check the box it will only record whatever you have it set to imagine like the trial. another words it will stop recording after 60 seconds( Or whatever you have it set for)

And the last part is 'Save detailed Benchmark statistics" There basically diffrent files you can save them in.
You can choose these
FPS - Contains the frame rate value for each second of the benchmark
frametimes - Contains the time (in milliseconds) of every frame that was rendered in the benchmark
minmaxavg - Contains the total frame count, benchmark duration, minimum, maximum, and average frame rate values.
I just stick with default FPS it's what i like.



Recording your movie and saveing it.

Now we are on to the Movies part head over to the "Movies" Tab first thing you need to change is "Video capture hotkey" you can either keep it default or change it to whatever hotkey you want that enables you to start recording your movie mine is set to F9.

Now on the bottom of the Video capture hotkey option is a option called "Record sound" it's a box

If you want to record sound click it on then keep it on "Detect best sound input"

But if you want to have music in the background i suggest you keep it unchecked.

After that there is one of the most valuble tools the FPS! it looks like this....
25fps
30fps
50fps
60fps

After that there is a blank box where you can "CHOOSE" what FPS you want Max is 100.

Fps is basically your framrate and it will be displayed on whatever corner you have set if you have it on the "fps" tab

I would Recommend Not going any higher then 30 fps (if your comp can hand it) beacause the file will be huge if it's to high.

Useing higher FPS DOES NOT increase the quality it just makes the file bigger.

If it's still laggy at 100 there is a option on the side of that, That says..."Half size" "Full-size" if it's stil laggy click half-size once again the quality will be worse but it helps with the lag that people get

The last part is in the lower right corner and it has "No Cursor" "No sync"

I would recommend Checking No cursor that way when your movie is done you don't see a cursor running around in your movie.
and Sync i would recommend checking that as well.

Okay actually the last thing is this. When your done recording your file is going to be in the FRAPS file. to get to the movies directly go to your taskbar and right click on Fraps and click on "View Movies" from there you can go into your Video editing program and put it in! and to get back into FRAPS just right click on "Settings" it will take you right back into fraps.

UPDATE: How you check if your computer is lagging is if you have FPS enabled in the corner check it if it's 30 FPS and below you might want to fix some options

If it is 40 fps and up you should be fine with video capture..


And that is it if anyone else is formilliar with fraps and would like to post any other info that might help somone get FRAPS working post here and I will update my post

Goodluck!

Amoras 11-06-2006 11:10 PM

Nice guide!

kiahann 11-06-2006 11:34 PM

Thanks a bunch!

The Bum 11-07-2006 02:22 PM

That was really nice indeed :)

Zaoris 11-07-2006 07:12 PM

A box of cookies for this one,kiahann,nice job!

kiahann 11-08-2006 03:24 PM

Thanks everyone for the replies:D hope it helps..:top:

also updated topic.

Quazimodo 11-08-2006 04:49 PM

I think the title is missleading of the post, I was expecting this to be a guide of how to make movies with Fraps, but it's just a guide to get less lag out of it...

Great post tho.

kiahann 11-08-2006 04:52 PM

Valamir fixed it...thanks valamir:D

Quazimodo 11-08-2006 05:01 PM

This is weird, it only says it in the headline of your post but the thread title is still the same.

kiahann 11-08-2006 11:12 PM

Yeah it does that...

Valamir 11-09-2006 12:11 AM

Sadly, all I can say is, "This is our new forum."

Ragnorok161 11-09-2006 05:45 PM

Fraps > Gamecam

Thats why I use fraps

Quazimodo 11-09-2006 06:05 PM

lol, that was a good reason to use fraps...

kiahann 11-09-2006 06:40 PM

lol....Yeah fraps beats gamecam by a mile.

Quazimodo 11-09-2006 11:02 PM

Never even heard of gamecam, and fraps is as good as it could get, the downside with it is that you have to convert it to get a less big file... but it's not possible to bypass that as it has to save the data so fast...

kiahann 11-09-2006 11:06 PM

Gamecam is the same way...gamecam is similiar to fraps but fraps has more options.

Quazimodo 11-09-2006 11:09 PM

Oh ok, Fraps FTW than. :P

kiahann 11-10-2006 04:41 PM

I have UPDATED my first post for all of you who are confused about the title i now have a full guide on how to record with fraps.

My fingers are tired now.

Quazimodo 11-10-2006 05:15 PM

Good job! :P


*Needs to spread more reputation before giving it to kiahann again*

damn!

kiahann 11-11-2006 01:50 AM

:redface: :redface: :redface: lol.....thanks:top:

kiahann 11-11-2006 04:27 PM

First Post Updated!:top:

The Bum 11-11-2006 06:41 PM

Nice updates :D

kiahann 11-11-2006 11:32 PM

Thank guys Hope it helps... and if anyone has any questions about any part feel free to post:top:

Quazimodo 11-12-2006 12:56 PM

I think that pretty much coveres everything, except technical issues :P

Andehx 11-12-2006 02:59 PM

Theres a few things I would like to point out in your guide.
While very informative, your guide is a little innaccurate in some places.
Let me highlight a few...

Quote:

If you want no lag try puting your FPS higher the higher the FPS the smoother it is but if it's Too high you risk your movie coming out with poor quality
This is actually not true at all. If your computer lags too much when you record, setting fraps to record at a higher fps will certinly not make the recording any less laggy. Also the quality of the recording is not affected at all by the fps setting in Fraps.

Quote:

If this doesnt work try fiddiling with your resolution set for the game if your in-game resolution is diffrent then your fraps resolution it can cause some lag
Ok I may have read this wrong, but Fraps has no resolution settings apart from the "Full size" "Half size" settings. Heres an example of a typical scenario where you get too much lag and you would like to improve it :-

You are playing the game at a resolution of 1152x864 (highest resolution Fraps will record) and you have Fraps set to record at "Full size"
When you hit the record button, you notice that your fps has dropped to around 12 fps. Now this is really not an acceptable fps by anyone standard really, but there are 2 options to rectify this problem.
1. You can set Fraps to record at "Half size" which would result in an output recording of 576x432, giving you a nice final video, providing you encode it with decent quality settings.
2. Leave Fraps set to "Full size" and set your ingame resolution to something lower, like 800x600.

Both options would definitly increase your fraps fps, but for lower spec computers, I would recommend option 1.

Quote:

If this doesnt work try puting Fraps in "Windowed mode" that will be less quality but improves smoothness by a ton
This I really have no idea what it means, theres no windowed mode option in Fraps, so I really cant comment on it.

Quote:

If you have a really really good computer use the LOWEST fps that it can stand but make sure it's as smooth as it can get to
Again this is not very accurate at all. If your computer is very good, then setting the fps in fraps to something low like 20 - 30 fps is just going to limit the computers potential. Granted I probably wouldn't want to record at anything higher than 30fps, and if my computer could record at 30fps (which mine can) I would be happy.

Quote:

If you have a bad computer use the HIGHEST fps you can stand to make it "Lag free" the only problem is it makes the file bigger and the quality is horrible
And again, this simply is not the case. If your computer isnt very good, and you are having problems getting 30fps recordings, then setting fraps to something higher, like 60fps for instance, most certinly will not increase the performance of the recording. True, recording at a higher fps does indeed make the file size bigger, but it certinly does not affect the image quality at all.

Please don't take my critisizm as if I am having a go at you or anything, because I certinly am not, but I feel people who do not know much about Fraps and video recording will become somewhat confused if they follow your guide and don't see any results.

Again, my intention is to point out some mistakes, in the hopes that you can mend your guide, and if you believe that I am wrong, then I encourage you to test out some of my theories youself :top:

kiahann 11-12-2006 06:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andehx (Post 3833)
Theres a few things I would like to point out in your guide.
While very informative, your guide is a little innaccurate in some places.
Let me highlight a few...



This is actually not true at all. If your computer lags too much when you record, setting fraps to record at a higher fps will certinly not make the recording any less laggy. Also the quality of the recording is not affected at all by the fps setting in Fraps.



Ok I may have read this wrong, but Fraps has no resolution settings apart from the "Full size" "Half size" settings. Heres an example of a typical scenario where you get too much lag and you would like to improve it :-

You are playing the game at a resolution of 1152x864 (highest resolution Fraps will record) and you have Fraps set to record at "Full size"
When you hit the record button, you notice that your fps has dropped to around 12 fps. Now this is really not an acceptable fps by anyone standard really, but there are 2 options to rectify this problem.
1. You can set Fraps to record at "Half size" which would result in an output recording of 576x432, giving you a nice final video, providing you encode it with decent quality settings.
2. Leave Fraps set to "Full size" and set your ingame resolution to something lower, like 800x600.

Both options would definitly increase your fraps fps, but for lower spec computers, I would recommend option 1.



This I really have no idea what it means, theres no windowed mode option in Fraps, so I really cant comment on it.



Again this is not very accurate at all. If your computer is very good, then setting the fps in fraps to something low like 20 - 30 fps is just going to limit the computers potential. Granted I probably wouldn't want to record at anything higher than 30fps, and if my computer could record at 30fps (which mine can) I would be happy.



And again, this simply is not the case. If your computer isnt very good, and you are having problems getting 30fps recordings, then setting fraps to something higher, like 60fps for instance, most certinly will not increase the performance of the recording. True, recording at a higher fps does indeed make the file size bigger, but it certinly does not affect the image quality at all.

Please don't take my critisizm as if I am having a go at you or anything, because I certinly am not, but I feel people who do not know much about Fraps and video recording will become somewhat confused if they follow your guide and don't see any results.

Again, my intention is to point out some mistakes, in the hopes that you can mend your guide, and if you believe that I am wrong, then I encourage you to test out some of my theories youself :top:

"Windowed Mode" meant to say Half Screen will fix that. and for the resolution thing I meant Change your "In-game Resolution"

And for the rest ill add some of your advice in

And no problem man im glad you pointed some stuff out i was tired and messed up a few things

Rep++:D im glad you helped any Critizisim is fine by me I don't know "Everything about fraps" so any help is great.

UPDATE: I fixed everything you said thanks for the help!

Andehx 11-12-2006 10:14 PM

no problem at all mate, glad I could help :)

kiahann 11-16-2006 04:32 PM

Yeah it was like 3:00 am so i messed up alot and my fingers hurt from typeing so much so i made alot of mistakes:cry:

Quazimodo 11-16-2006 08:01 PM

Everyone makes mistakes!

kiahann 11-17-2006 05:01 AM

Found out how to fix my main title its hard but found out

Skeletal 12-06-2006 11:07 AM

nice one.

Hentai 01-09-2007 09:24 AM

awsome guide :)

kiahann 02-03-2007 09:26 PM

:) Thanks thought it would help

poundd 03-29-2007 04:55 AM

no sync
 
when i check no sync in the movie spot, i record my movies, but when i watch them, they are all fastforwarded by like 2x, so i uncheck my no sync button, should i keep it that way?

Valamir 03-29-2007 05:00 AM

No sync is exactly what it says, no synchronized playback. If you want to have something that will play in a movie leave it unchecked.

kiahann 04-26-2007 05:28 PM

First post updated toward the end of the post for resolution help.

Ayden 07-27-2007 06:25 AM

Just upgrade my pc to a dualcore 2.13 ghz, 7950 GT nvidia, and 1 GB ddr 3 ram.
Having probs frapsing mostly in BGs. The fps is fine, when I play its just a few FPS loss as well. (at least what it feels like). However the issue is the lags. Its killing me and my movies. Been trying to fiddle around with different FRAPS and wow video settings and no luck :(

Thiras 07-27-2007 07:39 PM

I don't understand what you mean there.

You're saying the FPS is fine, but its lagging?

Ayden 07-28-2007 12:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thiras (Post 10482)
I don't understand what you mean there.

You're saying the FPS is fine, but its lagging?

Ya kinda weird. Hmm will try to explain. Lets say I run at an average of 60 fps ingame. If I set fraps to record at 30 fps the game runs at 30 fps, same with 50,60 etc. Anyway the FPS INGAME is pretty steady without jumping up and down too much. But still it feels a bit laggy. Kinda like if the computer halts a split sec now and then..

Fex. I start frapsing, in AB just before I near goldmine, since thats where the action starts. Then stealth, then open with cheapshot <lag> mutilate, kidneyshot, mutilate <lag>, etc.

Thiras 07-28-2007 09:51 AM

Ah, fps drops, right.

First of all you should look at the footage after you record something where you feel the fps drops, its entirely possible that its only visible ingame.

I would overclock that cpu a load if I were you btw :)


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