I need suggestions for the best free game recording software

[Gaebryel Quintyne]

Hello everyone.

I am getting really fed up with Mirillis Action and how it keeps being unresponsive while recording. I just had 2 videos that were 10 minute long each that I cannot open at all. It is really extremely frustrating! It said that it was recording while in-game but once I stop recording, it still keeps going and then hangs up and then the window itself gets unresponsive when I manually try to stop the recording. I have to close the program and restart it.

I need suggestions from you guys who do not have any problems with the recording software that you use. Hopefully free ones since I just spend like 43 dollars on the commercial version of Mirillis Action and have lost 2 videos already. I can't re-record the gameplay so those 20 minutes are completely lost to me now, unfortunately.

Anyway, thanks in advance for any help you guys can give me.

[Deleted]

If you use an Nvidia GPU, shadowplay.
Otherwise probably OBS (Open Broadcaster Software)

[vipers]

shadowplay on nvidia geforce experience

[Lovemetal]

MSI Afterburner has video recording feature built-in, it's free, you can give it a try.

[Gaebryel Quintyne]

I don't have a Nvidia card so Shadowplay is out, unfortunately... Even though I have heard very good things about it.

I have tried OBS but I feel like it's mainly for streaming and not for like just recording gameplay videos to upload to YouTube. If you guys have tried OBS and recorded your gaming videos (not streaming), then would you tell me how to set it up? The settings throw me for a loop since it's like Greek to me, lol. I chose Mirillis Action because of the simplicity of it but its crashes has made it unredeemable in my eyes now.

Also, for MSI Afterburner, can you suggest the settings used to upload gaming videos to YouTube? I want to do 10 minute videos at 1080p, 30 FPS with high quality and bit rate, with audio/commentary. I don't care about the file size but I do care about the recording software bogging down my computer. I don't want it to slow down my computer while recording. I have Handbrake to compress large files so file size is not a big deal for me at the moment.

[Lovemetal]

If I remember correctly, it was default MJPG compression, with 90% quality, but I guess you should experiment with quality slider and see what works better for you pc.
I was using Vegas to encode videos for youtube, and final video was pretty good.

[Gaebryel Quintyne]

If I remember correctly, it was default MJPG compression, with 90% quality, but I guess you should experiment with quality slider and see what works better for you pc.
I was using Vegas to encode videos for youtube, and final video was pretty good.

I just tried MSI Afterburner... I am getting like huge files with that settings. I got like 1 gig for just 2 minutes, which is a lot. And my FPS goes down severely... It goes down to 30 FPS constantly and sometimes goes up to 60 but stays near 30 FPS most of the time. What am I doing wrong? I am checking the bit rates of the files and the average bit rates and the ranges are like 90k o.O. Is there a slider for putting a specifc bit rate so it can go down to manageable bit rates like maybe 9k or even 8k?
I could try OBS and see if that works better. I also wish there was a setting in MSI Afterburner to balance out the audio with the system sounds so I can put the mic up high.

[Remilia]

I have tried OBS but I feel like it's mainly for streaming and not for like just recording gameplay videos to upload to YouTube. If you guys have tried OBS and recorded your gaming videos (not streaming), then would you tell me how to set it up? The settings throw me for a loop since it's like Greek to me, lol. I chose Mirillis Action because of the simplicity of it but its crashes has made it unredeemable in my eyes now.

Go to broadcast change to file output
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/35156/SS/obs1.png
Go to encoding/video/audio for bitrate / window size / whatever.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/35156/SS/obs2.png
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/35156/SS/obs3.png

[Judai]

Go to broadcast change to file output
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/35156/SS/obs1.png
Go to encoding/video/audio for bitrate / window size / whatever.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/35156/SS/obs2.png
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/35156/SS/obs3.png

^This

Also found this vid helpful when I set mine up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgFB31cN9XU

[Gaebryel Quintyne]

Go to broadcast change to file output
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/35156/SS/obs1.png
Go to encoding/video/audio for bitrate / window size / whatever.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/35156/SS/obs2.png
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/35156/SS/obs3.png

Thank you so much!
I will go try those settings now

- - - Updated - - -

I need to know how to set up the scene and source thing. I will be playing multiple games... Well, actually 2 for now, WoW and D3 and just recording these games. How do I go about labelling and setting up the whole scenes and source stuff? It's very confusing to me.
Also, is there a way to record both my desktop and the game that I am playing at the same time?
And should I use x264 encoding or Quick Sync? Which one is better in OBS?
Also, the setting profile... What should I name that?
Oh another thing... Is there a way to know when I am in-game that I am actually recording like some kind fps counter thing or something in a corner to give me a clue that my video is currently recording? I am used to Mirillis Action and it has that in it.

- - - Updated - - -

The file path thing... It does not let me direct to a directory... It tells me to name the file instead. Is there any way to not name a file and just tell OBS to just put the recorded videos into the folder that I specify?

[Remilia]

I'd use x264.

Scene and Sources.
Scene is just a container for sources really. The sources displayed are from top to bottom where the bottom will be the last layer to be displayed if nothing else is there.
Right click > add > pick the type of source. Generally it'd be either game capture or window capture for games.

File path, just put a file name. blahblah.mp4 or something. It'd appear in blahblah(01).mp4 blahblah(02).mp4 blahblah(03).mp4 and so on.

If you have two monitors it's easy if you just look at OBS and see if it's running and has an image of whatever you're doing. I don't think there is something that shows you it on the window of the game you're playing itself.

Settings profile I used untitled. >.>

I don't mess with it too much though so I may have overlooked some stuff.

[Gaebryel Quintyne]

I'd use x264.

Scene and Sources.
Scene is just a container for sources really. The sources displayed are from top to bottom where the bottom will be the last layer to be displayed if nothing else is there.
Right click > add > pick the type of source. Generally it'd be either game capture or window capture for games.

File path, just put a file name. blahblah.mp4 or something. It'd appear in blahblah(01).mp4 blahblah(02).mp4 blahblah(03).mp4 and so on.

If you have two monitors it's easy if you just look at OBS and see if it's running and has an image of whatever you're doing. I don't think there is something that shows you it on the window of the game you're playing itself.

Settings profile I used untitled. >.>

I don't mess with it too much though so I may have overlooked some stuff.

Ah cool thanks.

I have tried recording a few videos with those settings... The problem I am having is that I get at least a 10-20 FPS drop in-game while recording. One slight good thing is that I know when I am recording when I see that FPS drop, lol.
I tried to reduce the bit rate from 10000 to lower but the quality suffers and I still FPS drops, which is unfortunate.
I have e-mailed Mirillis Action! support team about the issue I was having with their software. I sent them my dxdiag file. I hope they respond soon with a solution that works so I can start using Action again. I get no FPS drop with using Action and I get the OSD to show that I am actually recording in-game.

[youtubegamer]

I tried ezvid, but I'm now using the free version of Smartpixel create a few game videos, thinking of pay 15 dollars to get rid of the restrictions, seems now I have more options to try.

[Gaebryel Quintyne]

I tried ezvid, but I'm now using the free version of Smartpixel create a few game videos, thinking of pay 15 dollars to get rid of the restrictions, seems now I have more options to try.

I am now still using Mirillis Action since I found another settings in the software that works wonderfully. I am using MP4 (AMD APP) as the settings to record instead of MP4 with Intel QuickSync. I also got that extra monitor thingy for Intel QuickSync removed so I don't have to worry about my mouse cursor disappearing on the side of the screen, lol.
The videos are coming out superb. Also, I encode and compress with Handbrake and my file sizes are all over the place but still less than 1 gig (sometimes)... or around 1 gigs, heh. Some turned out to be like 500 MB for a 10 minute video o.O. The settings I use for Handbrake is the normal settings with web optimized checked, same as source for FPS, constant frame rate, and 20 RF.

[lloose]

I love the hell out of Shadowplay. The quality is great, and it causes almost no fps drop on my system. A lot of people don't take this into consideration when they choose a video card. know you don't have an Nvidia card, but its food for thought when you buy your next upgrade.

[Sheltleth]

I always used nvidia video cards before as they just seemed to be the better performer for my systems. Then they introduced Shadowplay and they have me for life now. Such a wonderful feature. And it integrates VERY WELL with nvidia's SHIELD. Hell I can play wow on it now lol. Granted it's VERY difficult to do.

So Id recommend maybe getting an nVIDIA video card that supports Shadowplay or else maybe OBS like another has stated.

[Deleted]

Everything is free if you know where to look matey!
Do people still use fraps?

[Sheltleth]

Everything is free if you know where to look matey!
Do people still use fraps?

Fraps is shit.

[IreneJoy]

Everything is free if you know where to look matey!
Do people still use fraps?

Nope, Fraps is not free and the video it generates is a little bit large. And I am now using this Fraps alternative to do the game recording. This tool also allows me to upload video to YouTube for sharing my game tricks.

[Gaebryel Quintyne]

Nope, Fraps is not free and the video it generates is a little bit large. And I am now using this Fraps alternative to do the game recording. This tool also allows me to upload video to YouTube for sharing my game tricks.

Oh wow. You necroed my old thread, lol. I still suggest Mirillis Action since I don't lag at all while recording and the recordings are moderately sized and pristine looking (about 100-200 MB/minute).