Taking screenshots every few seconds of game recording to safe-proof against crashes

[Gaebryel Quintyne]

Does anyone know of any software that I can download that will basically take a screenshot of my games every few seconds, like every 5 seconds or something, without bogging down or slowing my computer? I want to have some kind of backup plan while I am recording my games with Mirillis Action so if any of my recorded videos crash on me or don't open, I can still have screenshots that I can put together into a slideshow of some kind so I have some kind of footage? I don't want to keep pressing a button to take a screenshot but if there is a button to basically "activate" it so it will keep taking screenshots every few seconds until I press a button again so it stops taking screenshots... Any help is greatly appreciated =).

[DeltrusDisc]

You really don't trust your computer do you?

I don't know of anything that can do this, but what I can tel you, is that will fill up hard drive space insanely fast, especially since you'll be recording video with what... Fraps? I hope you have many a Terabyte, this will add up quickly, depending on how regularly you render your videos/delete footage.

[Gaebryel Quintyne]

You really don't trust your computer do you?

I don't know of anything that can do this, but what I can tel you, is that will fill up hard drive space insanely fast, especially since you'll be recording video with what... Fraps? I hope you have many a Terabyte, this will add up quickly, depending on how regularly you render your videos/delete footage.

I am guessing you did not read my OP, heh. I record with Mirillis Action and sometimes, but now rarely, the record footage gets lost or I can't open it because it gets corrupted or doesn't write to disk and Action crashes so I have to end task it from task manager to close it since it stops responding. I don't want to have one of my 10 minute long recordings to get lost randomly since it kind of destroys the continuity of my videos that I upload to YouTube.

[chazus]

I have to kinda go with Deltrus on this. video loss happens sometimes. And 99% of the time it can be prevented. If every other professional (or at least decent) person on twitch/yt/etc (the hundreds of thousands of them) can do without it.. I think it would be easier for you to figure that part out as well.

Basically, you're going to spend more time and effort sorting out this picture thing, than you would spending on just dealing with losing a few minutes of video once a month.

Or just figure out what's causing your stuff to go corrupt.

[apepi]

I think this is a bad idea because nobody wants to watch slide shows of video games.

Well...isn't a video just a fast slideshow? >.>

[FlawlessSoul]

@OP - you seem to be trying to work around an issue rather than correct it. If you want reduncancy, you simply need a discrete recording box sitting between your PC and monitor. A series of screenshots really won't make up for the loss of video, and the performance hit will be severe (when combined with the data from existing recording, a frame dump every few seconds to a HDD is going to have a noticeable performance impact).

Well...isn't a video just a fast slideshow? >.>

No, a slideshow is clearly distinct from a video. In very basic terms; A movie/video and a slideshow are both sequences of images but a video creates the illusion of motion through optical illusion, whereas a slideshow is a presentation of each image separately from the ones before and after it.

[Gaebryel Quintyne]

I just realized after reading your guys' responses and pondering on this issue a bit that it would be a bad idea to do this whole screenshot thing, lol.

What is this video capture thing you guys' are talking about? Where can I learn more about it?
I always play my games in full-screen mode because windowed mode makes the graphics look a bit run down and I like to see my graphics all crisp-like, heh.

[DeltrusDisc]

I am guessing you did not read my OP, heh. I record with Mirillis Action and sometimes, but now rarely, the record footage gets lost or I can't open it because it gets corrupted or doesn't write to disk and Action crashes so I have to end task it from task manager to close it since it stops responding. I don't want to have one of my 10 minute long recordings to get lost randomly since it kind of destroys the continuity of my videos that I upload to YouTube.

I read it, but that piece of software kind of went in one ear and out the other, so to speak, 'heh.'

Maybe you should try using a piece of video recording software that doesn't "disappear randomly" or get "corrupted." Fraps is a good one, if you have NVidia, then Shadowplay with GeForce Experience also works.

And for the record, I record for hours at a time with Fraps, if your software/computer can barely handle 10 minutes, that's a big issue. You should try to figure out the problem, maybe your hard drive is dying? What are the specs in your computer? How old is it?

As for the software side of this: pay the $37 for Fraps and be set for life with the highest quality recordings, allowing you to render and compress to whatever amount your heart desires.

For an example of something I've recorded nonstop (granted I have to cut the recordings down to size otherwise Windows Media Player/YouTube don't like them because of their sheer size) here's some Skyrim footage, I guess:



And here's an older WoW video from a few years back, way back in Cata (oh boyyyy) of my 25 man raid guild. I would record for the entirety of the 3 hours+ of our raid nights then deal with the footage. (Granted this video was recorded on a 1680x1050 (16:10) monitor as opposed to 16:9, that's why it is a box. :P



Hopefully you can get your computer sorted out and maybe see the value in a well-known and respected piece of video recording software like Fraps. I see the benefits to something like Shadowplay, but those people will lose quality, considering the bitrate for the video footage gets murdered... which is why it can look pixelated and thus why I continue to use Fraps. $37 as a one time payment forever is really very cheap compared to most other software packages, for different uses obviously, but it is more than worth it!